Alexandre held out a letter to him. “This has my official seal to recall the Kaulish Navy. I wish I could say that my admirals will follow it, but I do not know.”
Matteo took the letter and pocketed it in his cloak. Nora held out her hand to Alexandre, but he pulled her into a hug.
“Be safe,” he whispered.
Nora kissed his cheek. “You too.”
She took Matteo’s hand and he led her out of the reception room, through the gilded halls, to the front of the palace. Matteo’s black stallion was already saddled and beside it a beautiful dark brown Andalusian horse.
Captain Ibanez held out a scabbard with a sword and a pair of knives to Nora. She secured the scabbard around her waist, underneath her cloak, and then stuck the knives in her boots. Matteo lifted her up into the saddle; something that she typically didn’t need assistance with, but she was grateful for it today. With one fluid movement, he hopped onto his horse and his soldiers cheered. Matteo was a king worthy of the name. Powerful. Intelligent. Talented.
A warrior.
He held out his hand to Nora and she took it. Riding that close was not an easy skill, but it was worth it to feel his skin against hers. His strength.
Once they were out of sight of the palace, he released her hand with a smile that sent tingles down her spine.
“We should go faster,” Nora said.
Matteo shook his head. “We need to cross an entire country in less than two days. If we are to do that, we are going to need to keep a steady pace and trade horses every few hours.”
He was right. She could barely sit in the saddle as they were. They continued to ride in silence for a few miles. Nora wanted to say something about Xavier, but she did not know what or how to.
The words she finally found were woefully inadequate. “I am so sorry for the loss of your friend.”
“Xavier was no friend of mine,” he said, a sadness in his tone. “If he were, he would not have betrayed me or you to Kaul . . . to our enemies.”
Nora angled her horse so that she was close enough to touch Matteo. She rubbed her hand on his back.
“That doesn’t mean that his betrayal doesn’t hurt.”
“Abominably.”
She leaned over and kissed his shoulder before placing both of her hands on the reins of her horse. “I hope you know that I love you more than the earth and the three realms of the Eternal Kingdom.”
“What about the seven purgatories?” he asked with his devastating smile.
Nora laughed. Matteo didn’t believe in her heavens or purgatories or her goddess, but he was still here, with her. Because he believed in Nora. Because he loved her. It was a love as strong as the celestial Queen Eleanora’s for the human man Brendan.
“And, of course, the seven purgatories.”
32
ELEA
Elea had grown up at the end of the Great Stone Road; the last stones were in the courtyard of Bhailmore Castle. She’d taken for granted how magnificent it was. The perfectly even row of stones, four feet wide and six feet high, shaped in rectangles, on both sides of the road. Mirroring each other for endless miles. How the ancient Yakurans mined, moved, and measured the stones was still a mystery. Or technology lost in time.
As she urged her tired horse between two stones. She could feel the hairs on the back of her arms rise. Her horse neighed and stomped. Elea leaned forward against his head and patted her mane soothingly.
“There, there,” she whispered. “We’re supposed to be here.”
“It feels like a graveyard,” Gerard said, struggling to keep control of his own horse.
“Most Urkans believe that the stones are cursed,” Elea said. “A hundred years ago, some villagers removed a few of the stones and used them in their own buildings. What followed was a rash of plagues, famines, and pestilence until the villagers returned the stones to their rightful places, and then the bad things stopped.”
“I’ve seen the stones once before in the capital city,” he said, urging his horse forward so that they were side by side for the first time on their journey. “There were several bridges that went over them.”
Sighing, she nodded. Her body was so weary. “It is believed by most Urkans to be bad luck to even walk between the stones and yet they are the path that we must follow. The path of our ancestors.”