Kae’s heart skipped a beat. She smiled down at Loren, not even sure if she could hear her. “I will. I’ll go wherever you want me to.”
An hour later, Seraphis found the two of them huddled together by the wall, the flicking light of the flames casting dancing shadows on their faces. Kae had a slight smile on her face as she slept, and though Loren’s face was bowed and hidden, a peek of their two hands clasped together showed from under the pile of Loren’s furs. Seraphis smiled and chuckled to herself as she watched them, their breaths slow and in sync. She sadly rubbed the markings on her wrist and turned away.
“That’s how it starts.”
The next morning, Loren woke to Cassendir shaking her. His face was so closed to her’s, brows knitted in concern. “Loren! Loren, wake up.” He said, over and over.
“Cassendir? What is it? What’s wrong?” Loren said groggily, alarm rapidly waking up. She straightened up, eyes darting around the room. It was much colder than the night before, with all but a couple of the copper braziers out. Kaiten was rummaging through a rucksack, but Seraphis and Duro were gone.
“Seraphis left without a word.”
“What? Where did she go?”
“There’s only one place she would go at this point, Loren.” Kaiten said from the table. He looked up from the rucksack and sighed. “Back to Sagna. At least she left the rest of the deer for us.”
“And we’re all alive, remember that.” Cassendir chimed in. “She could have slit all out throats and have been done with it. What do we do now?”
“I say let her run off to tell her master all about us, and let’s go home.” Kaiten huffed. “Haedria might send a whole army up to finish me off after she finds out Seraphis didn’t kill me like planned. And she knows you’re here too, Loren. If we’re overrun now, that’s two heirs put to death at once. This side of the Kilrough Mountains would be easy conquest.”
“No,” Loren said, disentangling herself from the pile of furs and standing. “I trust Seraphis. I know it sounds strange, you don’t have to look at me like that Kaiten. But she waited here for a week, with you alive, to ask for help.”
“Yes, and what if she was saying things like that to appeal to your good nature, Loren? What if all this is a trap? She killed my father! She took me away and let my kingdom fall into the hands of a traitorous bull! I have not had even a second to grieve for him!” Katien shot back, baring his teeth.
Loren approached Kaiten and stood her ground. “I understand that Kaiten. My mother is dying, and the Red Sisters are to blame. That’s why I’m all the way out here. There’s nothing left to do but hope and try, Kaiten. Please.”
“Hope?” Kaiten spat the word, but Loren didn’t flinch. The edges of her irises were tinged with gold. “Those two want blood on the sands and you want me to hope? To keep faith in, what, the goodness of humanity?”
“Yes. I do. At the very least I want you to be mature as if fitting for a king.” Loren said steadily. More of her eyes took on the glittering gold. “Remember, Kaiten. You’re the king now. If you want to wage war, then by all means. But you know the power of Sagna, you’ve seen it firsthand. You know they plan to destabilize the region, possibly even shake the two of us as allies. We must band together on this in order to defeat the Red Sisters.”
“And what do you plan to do? You, without an army?” Kaiten growled. “If you walk in there, into the heart of Sagna with all their soldiers and hounds, and Haedria’s own magic, what will you do then?”
Loren’s eyes glittered in the flickering firelight from the braziers. The air seemed to grow hotter. “I will do what I must, when the need and opportunity arises. We cannot afford to waste time on reinforcements.”
Kaiten was silent. He glared long and hard at his friend, a growl rising in his throat. His sharp amber eyes remained locked on Loren’s dragon gold ones while behind her, Kae rose and stretched. The huntress yawned loudly, seemingly oblivious to the tension in the air.
“Good morning, Kae.” Cassendir muttered dryly. His eyes darted between the two young royals. Violence between them could erupt at any moment and here was Kae, yawning.
“Morning Cassendir.” Kae said, running a hand through her hair. She stooped and scooped up the furs she and Loren were wearing and went to get her pack. “I don’t know what you two are arguing about. Seems all the same to me.”
“Kae…” Loren started, breaking eye contact with Kaiten.
“I know, I know, you’re going to say this isn’t the right time.” Kae chuckled as she wrapped some furs around herself and slung her pack over her shoulder. Ma’trii took up position beside her, head tilted and confused. “But like I said, its all the same and pretty simple.”
“What are you on about?” Kaiten demanded.
“We can’t get anything done while we’re up here in the middle of nowhere, freezing our asses off.” Kae explained. She busied herself with putting on her knife belt and checking the arrows in her quiver. “Loren, if Kaiten doesn’t want to cooperate, lets just go.”
“Just go?” Loren repeated. Kae handed her some furs which she hesitantly wrapped around herself.
“Sure. If he doesn’t want to come with us, he can go back to Rhodia by himself.” The huntress glanced at Kaiten and smirked. “The fastest path is through the Plaguelands, just so you know.”
Loren caught on, nodding. She picked
