“The damn thing is illegal. Not to mention ugly. Youdon’tneed it, and you’re not taking it with us. Message Luc Dimitri and tell him to go to your room and get his own damn coat.”
“That’s just rude. I’m the one who borrowed it.”
“Yes. To wear it to a conference where it could only insult King Davos and all the Tygerians here. A brilliant plan, Taran. Really stellar.”
“I didn’t think about that. I wasn’t trying to insult anybody. I just like the way it looks.”
“I decided I’d rather walk across the bridge,” said Janos from right behind me, startling me a little.When in the four hells had he gotten down off the cart?
This was like herding those damn fat, furry little creatures with the sharp claws and squashed-in faces that the Consort Blake kept in his private quarters. He called them “cats,” or “Persians,” and he’d purchased two of the things from one of the Nilanium traders that brought him his food supplies. Those two cats had quickly fornicated and turned into seven, and then the female had become pregnant again, not long after those babies were born. But that was when King Davos had finally put his foot down. The cat things were all neutered, and all the babies were distributed among the king’s ministers with strict orders to neuter them, too, when they got old enough and to not to allow them to reproduce again, else the kingdom would eventually be overrun with the alien species. Only the original two were allowed to remain in the palace—along with one “kitten” that Blake had insisted on keeping. All of them were getting fatter and lazier every day, it seemed, and they strolled around like they owned the place. They had to be constantly removed from sunning themselves in the windows of the throne room, not to mention the king’s office, and they had the nerve to look aggrieved about it as they were being carried out.
I took Taran’s upper arm in one hand and Janos’s in the other, sternly reminding myself not to grip them as hard as I wanted to. “Come along then. I’ll walk with you across the bridge, since you don’t trust riding on the cart and it can follow us across.”
“Once we’re safely on the other side…” the consort said.
“Yes, yes,” I said, unable to keep all the impatience I felt with this assignment out of my voice. Perhaps I’d made a mistake taking this position with Prince Mikos. I was an Imperialwarrior, damn it, not a babysitter for the fractious and unruly child and consort of a rebellious prince.
I soon found out that they both made mincing little steps compared to my stride, and I had to keep slowing down and continuing on more slowly. It was extremely irritating and taking way too long. We’d gone hardly a quarter of the way across the bridge when we heard a loud, ominous cracking sound. I stopped going forward immediately and Janos gasped loudly. A section of the bridge ahead of us had begun to sway slightly in the strong wind blowing across the chasm.
Dropping Taran’s hand, I grabbed for the railing and looked over the edge. Far below, I could see the muddy-looking ribbon that was the river hurtling through the canyon. It was a fast, brown, churning froth of mud and debris from the recent storms, and it was battering the rocks below. I looked around frantically, realizing we were no longer over solid rock but suspended now over a terrible drop on this sagging, swaying bridge. The damn thing shuddered, and I could see the far side beginning to pull away from its moorings.
“Run!” I yelled and turned to do just that, tugging both of them behind me. The consort wasn’t moving nearly fast enough, so I tucked him under my arm and began to race for the side we’d just come from. Thank the gods, Taran was running beside me, trying to keep pace with me, but he was injured and soon he began to fall behind.
“We have to move faster!” I shouted at Taran as he began losing ground, unable to quite keep up with my longer stride. I shifted Janos to my shoulder, grabbed Taran’s arm and began to haul him and drag him along beside me back the way we’d come. I could literally hear the shrieking of the lumber on the bridge as it splintered and gave way behind us, and the boards beneath our feet began to ripple. We were close enough now that I could see the frightened, alarmed faces of my men on the edgeof the bridge, their hands reaching out for us. I heard another ominous cracking sound and thought I felt the slats of the bridge trying to give way under my feet. I stopped and plucked Janos off my shoulder and threw him with all my might toward one of my men, who bravely risked his life to lean out and catch him in midair and pull him back to safety with the help of the other men who were holding onto his waist. Taran, who had continued to run, was by this time a few steps ahead of me, so I grabbed him up in my arms as I passed him and we lumbered forward together, as the bridge literally began to disintegrate beneath my feet. At the last possible second, I picked him up and jumped for the rocky ledge where the bridge had once been firmly attached, as strong, eager hands reached out to catch us and haul us up onto firmer ground.
I felt like falling to my knees and kissing it. Heaving in one breath after another, I managed sit up and pull Taran over on his back to peer down into his pale, scared face. “Taran, speak to me! Are you hurt?”
“N-no…I-I think I’m okay.”
I pulled him into my arms frantically and just held on, running my hands over his body to make sure he was all in one piece. We had very nearly died, and all I could think about was that this was the second time I’d almost failed in my duty and lost him forever. I vowed that this time would be the fucking last.
Chapter Eleven
Taran
We were alive, but I could hardly believe it. When we had been on the bridge and it had started to collapse literally under our feet, I’d thought that we were dead for sure. I knew one thing—we wouldn’t have made it back to safety without the general, because I couldn’t have carried Janos the way he had and still managed to run across that bridge fast enough. There were people gathered all around me, asking if I was all right, but I still wanted to just cling to the general and never let go, because I knew he was my safety. I had taken one frantic glance down at the chasm that had looked as if it were a mile beneath us, and I had seen the muddy river raging below, and the greedy, jagged rocks reaching up for us, just waiting for the chance to kill us. I had almost passed out.
And now I could feel the cold rain starting to fall down on my head, and the wind starting to pick up ominously—the storm was coming back with a vengeance. Having missed one good chance to kill us, it seemed that the elements were conspiring to make another attempt. So much for the pilot having a window between storms for the shuttle to leave this place. He’d never be able to land now.
People were running out of the palace toward us, and all around us, people were shouting in alarm. I saw Janos a few feet away, still trying to stagger away from the muddy edge of the cliff with, of all things, a huge Tygerian Imperial, who had his arm around him, helping him walk. He must have been the soldier who had caught him when General Vargarra had hurled him toward safety as the bridge was collapsing.
I couldn’t seem to move but just kept sitting in the grass in the arms of the general, holding onto him for dear life. I wondered vaguely if I were in shock because I was trembling so hard and I couldn’t seem to let go of him. A part of me knew that we had only seconds before someone came to separate us, and that thought made me clutch him even tighter to me, unable to stand not being able to keep holding onto him.
He started getting to his feet, pulling me along with him, and still I clung to him, wrapping both arms around his waist. Off to the side of us, I could see Prince Larz running toward Majesty and sweeping him up into his arms, as he looked around frantically for me. I waved a hand at him weakly, trying to tell him I was okay, and then I closed my eyes. The closeness of the call we’d just had was sinking in, and I sagged against the general, determined to hang onto him. His arms tightened around me, which was a comfort as I thought I could still feel the ground moving and shaking beneath my feet like the bridge had done. At that moment, he and he alone represented safety to me, and he also smelled wonderful, like something spicy and musky and sweet all at the same time.
I couldn’t help glancing back over at Majesty, though. I’d thought for a few seconds there that we were going to die together on that bridge, with no time to say goodbye to him or tell him what a difference he’d made in my life—all the slightly embarrassing, sentimental things we never think about saying until it’s too late.
He was hugging Larz, who had him wrapped up in his arms, like he was never letting him go. There was a large group around them, consisting of King Davos and his consort, and even his brothers, Mikos and Vannos and their mates. As a matter of fact, the entire small courtyard between the steps and the bridge was crowded with people, some of them peering down into the chasm and exclaiming loudly at the wreckage of the bridgefar below. I closed my eyes again and snaggled down into the general’s warm embrace. The exhaustion I felt was bone deep, and I didn’t think I was going to be able to move for a while. After all, I’d just gotten out of the infirmary and had lost a lot of blood during the attack, so my resources must have been running low.
The general noticed, because he noticed everything, and he held me away from him and peered down at me. “What’s wrong, Taran? Can you speak to me?”
“Too tired,” I said, or tried to say, but the words came out sounding slurry and then he was standing up and carrying me somewhere again. It seemed like he was always hauling me around some place, and it probably needed to stop. One of these days…but probably not today.
****
General Kirstos Vargarra
When Taran sagged against me, slurring his words, I had an idea that I’d take him back to the infirmary. I was on my feet but struggling, as I was stopped after walking only a few steps by Prince Mikos.