Chapter 6
Kathryn’s brain reeled. She fought to find her voice and managed to say, “Don’t be fools. This was the work of someone else!”
“And who might that be?” one of the guards demanded.
Kathryn faltered in spite of herself. “I-I don’t know.”
“Are you sure about that, your highness?” The cold, harsh voice came from the doorway. Glancing over, Kathryn started as she saw Prince Gregory standing there with two Vipers at his side. His lips twisted into a malevolent smile.
He did this. The room spun around her, and she had to grab the edge of the dressing table to keep from falling.
Gregory continued, “You were the only one here. It can only have been you. I am afraid we will have to detain you for interrogation. And your bodyguard as well, naturally. I suggest you surrender now.”
Ren snapped, “I won’t surrender! Not until you bring Prince Illian here. He’ll straighten this out!”
“I’m afraid there isn’t time for that,” Gregory replied smoothly.
Ren crouched, his eyes darting between his opponents. “You don’t seem terribly surprised about your dear brother’s death yourself, Prince Gregory. You know this is a setup!”
Kathryn put a hand on his arm. There were two Vipers, four guards, and the Death Mage himself. Their chances of surviving an all-out fight were slim.
Gregory said smoothly, “Of course it is.”
The words hit Kathryn like a physical blow. If he was willing to admit it so easily, he could have no intention of letting either of them live long enough to be interrogated.
We’ll never leave this room!
“Ren!” she said.
That was all that was necessary. Ren lunged, grabbing one of the guards and using him as a shield when Gregory blasted a bolt of Azura directly at him. The blue bolt exploded and shattered as the guard howled in pain. Ren drop-kicked another guard in the chest and twisted the Azura dagger out of one of the Viper’s hands before throwing it directly at Gregory.
The mage easily batted it aside, and his eyes glowed as he raised both hands for a renewed attack. Kathryn shouted, “Ren, look out!”
Instead of turning to fight Gregory, Ren sheathed his sword and snatched Kathryn up in his arms before dashing to the nearby window and launching them both out.
She didn’t even have time to scream. The wind rushed past her face and a terrible image of falling two stories to the flagstones below assailed her.
Was it really going to end this way?
Kathryn underestimated the power of Ren’s leap. The young general managed to reach the tree that spread its branches just close enough to the window. He grabbed onto a branch with one hand, struggling to hold Kathryn with the other. But his relief was short-lived. The branch broke, and they both hurtled towards the ground.
The other branches broke their fall, and Ren wrapped himself around her, taking the brunt of the impact when they landed. Still, it knocked the wind out of him and he staggered to his feet, dizzy with pain.
Kathryn grabbed his hand and pulled him in the direction of the stables, crying, “Don’t stop! Run!”
He stumbled after her, panting. He saw another guard by the stables and drew his sword. “Get the horses!” he ordered, pushing her forward before leaping towards the guard with his sword upraised.
The guard was totally unprepared for the powerful downward slash. He could only howl in fear. But instead of cleaving him in two, the sword buried itself deep in the plank near his head.
Ren put his face close to the guard’s, and the young general’s blue eyes narrowed with barely suppressed rage as he said coldly, “Run.”
The guard obeyed.
A voice behind Ren said, “General.”
Whirling, Ren saw General Xian standing there with a grim face and his sword in his hand. Soldiers and guards ran out of the castle towards the stables, but for whatever reason, they stopped when they saw Xian.
Xian held up his sword and bowed. “I challenge you,” he said. “I challenge you to a duel in the name of Navinor.”
Ren frowned.
What’s his game? He’s got me outnumbered.
The other soldiers drew back. Either they were scared of him, or they simply trusted that General Xian would be able to deal with him. He had a nasty feeling that the second option was the correct one.
Ren raised his sword. “I’ve always wanted to take down a general. Let’s fight,” he said.
Xian dashed forward and slashed his sword downward toward the young warrior’s head. Ren tried to deflect the blow.
Xian seemed to anticipate the move. He had already changed the trajectory of the attack to thrust instead.
The sword stabbed deep into Ren’s upper right arm. “AARGH!” Ren shouted in pain and jumped back. Hot blood coursed down from the wound, and he knew it was bad.
He struggled to push away a sudden, paralyzing sense of fear. He hadn’t even seen the thrust coming.
“Do you wish to surrender?” Xian began.
Ren lunged. He delivered a flurry of blows with his left hand, pulling a dagger free with his right.
I can’t lose! The words pounded over and over in his head. Kathryn was counting on him.
Xian blocked every strike with apparent ease. In fact, he looked almost graceful.
“Let me tell you something, Xian,” Ren snarled. “I won’t surrender. So don’t bother to ask!”
Xian thrust again, and his blade narrowly missed Ren’s throat.
Ren ducked and slashed his arm with his dagger. Xian fell back a step, then a slash from the side would have taken Ren’s head off if he hadn’t blocked with his sword just in time. It nearly knocked him off his feet with the force.
Ren swore, trying to regain his balance. Xian charged, crashing into him and sending him flying backwards. The young bodyguard hit the ground, but rolled to his feet and deflected the next thrust. “You’re a tricky one,” he grunted as he blocked another attack.
Xian said nothing.
Then they both heard a loud pounding sound behind them and turned to look.
Kathryn sat astride her white horse, galloping towards them at incredible speed. She also held the reins of Ren’s horse.
Ren grinned broadly and gave Xian a cheeky salute as the horses thundered towards them. When the animals reached him, he grabbed his horse’s mane and pulled himself into the saddle while it was at a full gallop.
Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that Xian wasn’t even trying to pursue him. He simply stood glaring after him, looking both angry and disappointed.
The Vipers, on the other hand, rushed to their own horses and raced after the fugitives.
Ren called to Kathryn, “Kat! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said tersely. Her utterly white face said otherwise, but Ren was too busy glancing behind them anxiously to press the issue. Several of the Vipers were getting closer, and they had throwing daggers in hand.
“Princess. I’m going to thin out our pursuers. Keep going, and don’t stop for anything. I’ll follow shortly,” Ren shouted. He sheathed his sword as he spoke.
She only nodded, and he pulled his horse around and rode directly towards the Vipers. Adrenaline coursed through him. This was what he was made for.
His big-boned battle horse crashed directly into the speedy, lighter mount of the head Viper. Several of the Vipers went down in a chaotic pile of horseflesh and humanity. Ren launched himself off of his horse at the exact moment of the impact and knocked two more Vipers to the ground. He choked one until the Viper was unconscious, and he kicked the other in the face. Then he drew his sword and pulled himself onto his horse once again.
Ren raised his sword into the air and shouted at the Vipers, who were still struggling to collect themselves and their horses, “Come and get me, you useless pieces of trash!”
Several daggers flew through the air towards him, and he scattered them with his sword and yanked his horse back. “Cowards,” he muttered before dashing off into the night.
The stab wound in his arm was starting to really hurt. Up to this point, the adrenaline had numbed it somewhat. But now, that was wearing off. He cursed under his breath.
In a couple moments, he caught up with Kathryn. He glanced over and saw that she was riding mechanically, with eyes that didn’t see anything in front of her. He reached over, grabbing the reins of her horse, and pulled the animal to a halt. “Princess. I think we can stop for a moment,” he said gently.
He got down from his horse and lifted her down.
She stood there, shivering in her torn and ragged wedding dress with a face that was white and numb with horror.
Ren quickly pulled off his fancy coat and put it around her shoulders. “Princess,” he tried again. “Kat. It’ll be okay. We’ll figure something out; I’m sure we can-”
“We have to go back.”
Kathryn looked up at him, her lips trembling and her green eyes wide and filled with fear.
Ren shook his head. “We can’t go back right now, Kat.”
“They’ll think I’m guilty if I don’t! And Dena…Dena will-”
The words reminded him to be ashamed. He hadn’t even thought of Dena until now. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do for the young lady-in-waiting.
“Kat.” He gently took her by the shoulders, trying to calm her. It was a new experience for him to realize she wasn’t thinking clearly. For once in his life, he had to do the thinking for both of them. “It was all planned. I’m sure they set up fake evidence against you, and by the time we get back, there will be even more against us. I’m sure they won’t kill Dena. Let’s just wait and-”
“And what? This isn’t going to go away in the morning, Ren!” Kathryn raised haunted eyes to his face. “If I don’t go back now…we’ll be branded as criminals. We’ll be on the run!”
“Then we’ll go back home,” Ren said firmly. “I’m not going to let you get killed here on some false charges before your father even knows what happened. We’ll return to Iridalys.”
“Ren, I’m ordering you to take me back to the castle!” Kathryn was frantic, and her fear unnerved him.
But he didn’t have the luxury of giving in. He said very slowly and deliberately, “I can’t allow you to go back, your highness. In the morning, we’ll talk about our plans more. In the meantime, we’re going to put some more distance between us and the castle.”
“Don’t do this to me, Ren!”
“I’m not doing anything ‘to’ you. I’m going to keep you safe.” Ren lifted her onto her horse, keeping a firm hand on the reins, and then mounted his own animal. “Hang on. It’s going to be a little rough for the next few hours.”
The faint sound of birds twittering was the first thing Kathryn heard. She lay shivering, not wanting to open her eyes and acknowledge that she was in the middle of the forest on the run from soldiers and the royal family of Navinor.
But inevitably, she had to.
Kathryn lay on a pile of leaves in a small clearing, wearing her torn wedding dress and Ren’s coat. But the young guard was nowhere to be seen. She noticed that her horse was tied to a tree nearby, but his horse was gone.
Kathryn stood, staggering a little as the stress and fear from the last night hit her body harder than she expected. She waited a moment to steady herself before tottering over to the horse. A note was pinned to its saddle, written in Ren’s nearly unreadable scrawl.
“Kat, I’m going into town to get you some clothes and food. I’ll be right back. If you leave without me, I’ll be angry, so stay put.” He’d drawn a crude grumpy face at the end to indicate the seriousness of the threat. Normally, Kathryn would have laughed, but she was too numb to even smile.
She sat down to wait for him, pulling the coat around her and flinching at every snapping twig. An image of a summary execution in which Prince Gregory stood by watching with a smirk as she was deprived of her head overshadowed her scattered thoughts, no matter how hard she tried to push it away.
Hoofbeats approached, and she pulled the coat a little tighter to brace herself for whatever was coming. Thankfully, it was Ren who trotted into the clearing.
“Kat!” he said cheerfully. “You’re awake!”
He looked terrible. There was a rough, bloody bandage around his shoulder, and blood soaked his clothes as well. The sight made her feel nauseated, and she looked away. “You’re wounded,” she said dully.
“Eh. It’ll heal. Bled out great, which helps prevent infection.” Ren dismounted and handed her a pile of warm, durable clothes. “Here. Courtesy of a Navinorian shop owner, who I’m sure would have been happy to help had he known your predicament.”
“So they can charge us with stealing too now,” Kathryn muttered.
Ren cocked his head. “I’m so worried about that when we’re on the run for our lives,” he said sarcastically.
Kathryn chose not to respond. She went behind a particularly large tree to change. Ren started to make cold jerky sandwiches for them both.
The princess soon emerged, now properly clothed and feeling somewhat better for the fact. She said, “Did you happen to bring a comb?”
Ren grinned at her. “Sure did.” He tossed it to her and finished making the sandwiches. Kathryn fixed her wild hair as well as she could, and Ren gave her the ribbon from his own hair to tie it up. She stood staring at it blankly for a long moment.
At last she said, “You should have let me go back.”
“You would have died,” Ren told her.
“I know. It would have been better that way.” Kathryn tied up her hair as she said in a strangely calm voice, “My usefulness to Iridalys ended the moment the Navinorian prince dropped dead. Of course, it was planned. Prince Gregory planned it all…he likely planted the fire opal or convinced Lorrin to do it so it would appear I had a reason to poison him. And now that Lorrin is dead, Gregory planned that I would be the scapegoat. You would try to defend me, undoubtedly killing many of their people in the process, and solidifying the charges. And then they would have me executed before my father had any chance to take action.”
“Huh. I didn’t think of the fire opal being part of it,” Ren remarked. He poked at the hard jerky thoughtfully. “But where does Illian fit into all of it? Didn’t Gregory think Illian might try to stop him from killing you?”
“Either he has some intelligence that Illian and I are not exactly allies, or he has a direct agreement with Illian, or he felt that he could use it as an excuse to kill Illian. On the other hand, he might have just figured the best Illian could do would be to protest, since he wouldn’t have enough troops to resist effectively.”
“Got it. So, we don’t know. What’s next for us?”
Kathryn stood still, staring at nothing in particular, trying to think of how to answer. Ren put a hand on her arm. “Princess. What do you want me to do?”
His blue eyes showed absolute faith in her. He seemed to feel she was definitely going to figure out an answer for everything.
But I don’t have one for him.
If she returned to Iridalys, Navinor could start a war yet again. If she returned to Gregory, it would be over long before Iridalys had a chance to protest.
“Kat…I made sure not to kill any of those guys. The only thing they can say is that we left without killing anyone except the prince, which would look a bit weird for them. If we go back to Iridalys, they can protect you while everyone tries to figure out what’s going on, right?” Ren prodded.
“Oh…you didn’t kill any of them?” Kathryn asked blankly.
“I thought it might make things worse for you,” he replied with a shrug.
Kathryn was stunned. He was wounded and had been fighting for his life, and somehow he had restrained himself for her sake. She probably would have cried, only she was too dehydrated to manage a single tear. She only said, “Thank you.”
“It’s my job. Now, tell me what you want me to do and I’ll do it, princess. Now that you’ve got your head on right, that is.”
Kathryn tried to slow down her whirling thoughts. “Well…I…I…” Her breath came faster as she tried to consider her options.
Ren quickly sat her down. “Let’s eat first. We’ll talk after,” he said.
She ate mechanically, not even tasting the food. At one point, she nearly choked and started coughing, and Ren hastily gave her a cup of water. “Sorry…I almost forgot. Drink some water too; you’ll need it.”
She did as she was told, but her mind was full of other things. She knew that Navinor would be coming after them soon. And so would the man who wounded Ren.
What if he can’t beat him? What if he dies protecting me? She couldn’t think of a worse outcome.
Kathryn finished her food, but it didn’t sit well in her stomach. Nonetheless, she tried to stir herself out of her lethargy. She said, “Ren, let me look at your shoulder.”
“Ah…I don’t think that’s a good idea right after eating, princess,” he told her. “It’s pretty deep, and doesn’t look all that great.”
Without replying, she started unbandaging his shoulder. He caught her hand. “Really, Kat; I’m fine,” he began.
“Let me do it. I have to do something useful.”
He looked away, clearly embarrassed.
Kathryn finished unbandaging the wound. He hadn’t cleaned it properly, so it looked horrible. Blood caked over the wound and stained his arm. Her stomach revolted at the sight, but she picked up a canteen and started washing away the blood.
Ren sat still, only wincing every so often.
He’d been stabbed straight through his shoulder. “I should have noticed you were wounded last night,” she murmured regretfully. “Can you still fight?”
“Of course I can. I fought with it already. It’s a little stiff this morning though,” Ren admitted. He tried moving it, and more blood welled up.
“Hold still until I’ve bandaged it properly,” she ordered.
A couple minutes later, the arm was carefully bound with the linen bandages Ren had also brought from town. As she finished tying them, Kathryn asked, “This is the first time you’ve been wounded, isn’t it?”
“I mean, I’ve had plenty of bumps and bruises. But it’s the first time I’ve had a deep one like this,” he said.
“Can you beat General Xian?”
Ren winced visibly at her question, but he dismissed it with a laugh. “Of course I can! He’s an old man. Speaking of old men, I wonder how Brenin is doing. He’ll have heard what happened; I’m surprised he didn’t come right after us.”
Kathryn noticed the change in subject, but she decided not to pursue the topic. “I’m sure he’s fine, Ren.”
“Sure he is! I’m not worried about him,” Ren protested hastily. “I just…thought maybe he’d be around to help.” Kathryn had to agree. It would have been nice to have another ally.
Another thought occurred to her, and before she knew it, she said it aloud: “I’m glad Lenore wasn’t there.”
At least her sacrifice had some value.
Ren gave her a pitying look and put a hand on her arm. “We’d better get moving so we can keep ahead of the Vipers. Just one thing, though. Where do you want to get moving to, Kat? I wish I could give you more time, but we have to make a plan here.”
Kathryn flinched and pushed his hand away. “Do you think I’m not trying? I need more time to think!”
“Sorry, I just…You’re right. Let’s just go that way for now.” He pointed south. “Towards home. Wherever you decide to go, that’s the safest direction at the moment. All right?”
Kathryn nodded, and he helped her mount her horse. She noticed that his arm hung stiffly at his side and he had some trouble mounting. The fear welling up inside her grew even stronger. Since childhood, she’d always thought of Ren as being invincible. Now, she realized that he was very human after all. And somehow, that was terrifying.
Just then a voice said, “You should watch your back a little better.” Ren whirled, drawing his sword and aiming it at the newcomer who sat astride his horse just a few feet away, shrouded in a dark cloak. Kathryn recognized the voice and her eyes widened.
At the same time, Ren lowered his sword, exclaiming, “Brenin?!”
Loyalty Fallen Hub 