“I don’t know what to think about this talk of magic,” she said frankly, her eyes resting on Lucy. “But I trust your intentions, and I don’t want to take any chances, not if you think Giles is in danger.”
“He is,” said Lucy earnestly. “I just hope we’re not already too late.”
“What can I do?” asked the dowager queen, her face pale.
“We need fresh horses,” interjected Cody curtly. “Immediately.”
She nodded, turning away, but Lucy stopped her with a hand on her arm. “And an army really is marching for Nohl, Aunt Mariska,” she said earnestly. “I don’t know if it’s in your power, but do whatever you can to prepare the city.”
The older woman looked anxious, but she nodded again. “The horses will be brought to the castle courtyard immediately. And I’ll send a page ahead of you to the river gate, to make sure they let you through.”
She was as good as her word, and within minutes, the four of them were once again swinging themselves into the saddle.
“Do you think we have any hope of catching him before it’s too late?” Lucy asked Cody anxiously as they urged their horses through the streets.
“Some hope,” said Cody unemotionally. “They may have said he was called away urgently, but a king traveling with a squadron of his royal guard won’t move as quickly as we will. It helps that we know exactly where we’re going.”
“Why would Rasad want the king to go to the logging camp?” Lucy asked. “Why is it so much worse for his horse to throw him there than anywhere else along the river?”
“Rapids,” Cody grunted, and Lucy drew in a sharp breath, belatedly remembering some of her parents’ stories.
“Could he survive them? If he’s a strong swimmer?”
Cody shrugged. “No one ever has, as far as I know.”
Lucy asked no more questions, setting her face southward as she steered her mount through the cobbled streets.
As quickly as they traveled, the dowager queen’s page had reached the gate ahead of them, and they passed through without hindrance. Once out of the city, they gave their horses their heads, galloping along the broad road with total disregard for the protests of the various pedestrians making their way to or from Nohl’s southern gate.
Cody led them along the road for some time before he drew his horse up. They were a fair way from the city now, and there wasn’t much foot traffic to be seen.
“What is it?” Lucy asked urgently. “Why have we stopped?”
“I think we should cut through the jungle from here,” he said, casting his eyes over the group. “Prince Eamon, Lord Yosef—which of you wants to stay with the horses?”
Lord Yosef looked taken aback, but Eamon just shot Lucy a rueful look, apparently not offended that, in Cody’s eyes, the competition for least useful was between him and the Thoranian nobleman.
Of course, offended or not, he wasn’t going accept Cody’s assessment. “There’s no way I’m staying with the horses, Cody.”
“Neither am I,” said Lord Yosef quickly.
Cody gave the two of them a measuring look, but Lucy jumped in. “There’s no time to argue about it, Cody. We’ll tie them loosely to that tree right there. If we’re unable to come back for them, someone from King Giles’s group will surely recognize them as royal horses and take them back to Nohl.”
Cody didn’t look impressed, but he didn’t push the point. As she tied her horse up, Lucy heard Lord Yosef mutter to Eamon, “I don’t see why no one suggested Luciana could stay behind.”
Eamon’s cheerful answer wasn’t nearly as quiet. “I imagine Cody didn’t think he could do without her. I mean, she did best you in a fight, didn’t she?”
Lucy ruthlessly suppressed a smile as she turned away, pretending not to see the flush rising up Lord Yosef’s neck.
She was once again glad not to be in a gown as they dove into the jungle. Cody gave no reprieve—his proficiency in the terrain apparently not dulled by the years that had passed since it had been his home—and just keeping up took all of Lucy’s focus. She was still aching from her time in Rasad’s cart, but she pushed herself mercilessly, knowing they couldn’t afford to slow down. To be fair to Lord Yosef, the Thoranian nobleman didn’t seem to struggle. He must be more experienced in the jungle than either Lucy or Eamon, after all.
Even with Cody’s rapid pace, the time still felt far too long to Lucy. As the afternoon shadows lengthened, she kept picturing King Giles, sucked under the thrashing torrent of the rapids, unable to escape. War between the South Lands kingdoms would be inevitable if he died, and with how unprepared Balenol was, she had no doubt Rasad would be one step closer to his empire within a week.
And while she was alarmed by the threat that would pose to Kyona—even without Eamon removed from the picture—it was more than that. For all its past crimes, she didn’t want to see Balenol fall. King Giles was a good man, as well as being her kin, and she had no doubt that under his leadership the kingdom had a real chance of coming out from under the cloud that had darkened it for so long. A people who produced her mother couldn’t be all bad.
Distracted by her thoughts, Lucy barely noticed the growing sound of rushing water, or the steady rise in the ground. But suddenly, Cody came to a stop, holding up a hand in a silent command for the others to do the same. The four of them crept forward, and suddenly they were looking down from a ridge.
The thick foliage of the jungle thinned out in front of them. The trees here were younger, more sparse, and moss-covered stumps protruded here and there as testimony that the space had once been fully cleared. Even in the dim light of early evening, Lucy could clearly see the river racing past at the bottom of the slope, and squinting across it, she could make out what must be the logging camp. A series of huts was scattered throughout a large cleared area, and the river’s edge was lined with piles of enormous lengths of cut timber, ready to be transported by water to the city.
“Huh.” Cody’s voice was dry. “I guess they don’t need to fence it in, now the workers aren’t prisoners.”
Lucy raised a questioning eyebrow, but Cody just shrugged. She could only guess that the former slave camp looked a little different from how it was when he’d last seen it.
“Look!” Eamon’s sharp voice brought Lucy’s attention back to the reason they had come. Following the direction of his gaze, she saw a group of mounted men, their horses fidgeting in place in the center of the camp.
“It must be the king’s guards!” she said, hurrying forward. The others followed, picking their way between saplings. They paused near the water, still partially concealed by the young trees. Lucy strained her eyes, relief coursing through her as she made out the commanding figure at the front of the group. “We’re not too late!”
“We might be,” Lord Yosef said uneasily. “What’s his horse doing?”
Looking again, Lucy drew in a breath. The creature was stamping its feet, its movements quickly escalating beyond the normal shuffling of the other horses in the group. She cast an eye across the group of guards. Was one of them a traitor, perhaps Rasad’s “herald”? She had no idea how Rasad had managed to coordinate the timing of the enchantment, but it didn’t matter.
As Lucy wondered how to intervene, the horse began to rear. King Giles was clearly a good horseman, holding his seat as he tried to calm the creature. But the horse’s panic was too strong. Before their horrified eyes, the pair broke from the rest of the group, the horse plunging and kicking as it lurched toward the river.
“What do we do?” Lucy cried, as the king’s guards also began to shout. Some of them attempted to bring their mounts alongside their sovereign’s, but the horse’s flailing legs kept them out of reach. She turned to Cody and saw that he was watching the scene with slightly narrowed eyes, his expression calculating rather than alarmed.
“It’s going to throw him in,” he said matter-of-factly. “I don’t think we can stop it.”
“But—”
He pushed on, cutti
ng off Lucy’s protest. “I’m going into the river. You three stay behind the tree line, and meet me downstream.”
“You can’t,” said Lucy sharply. “You said no one can survive the rapids.”
“I won’t have to,” said Cody, kicking off his shoes and handing them to her. “Take these.”
“But what are you going to—”
“There’s no time to explain.” Cody’s voice was as calm as ever, but his movements were efficient. “Meet me on the other side of that rocky mound.” He gestured with his head. “And stay out of sight, just in case.”
Lucy had no opportunity to argue further. A collective shout from across the river drew her attention back toward the king’s predicament, and with a thrill of horror she saw the moment they had been trying to prevent. King Giles’s horse broke free of all attempts to restrain him, plunging wildly as it ran straight into the surging river.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Lucy heard Eamon’s sharp intake of breath beside her, but her throat seemed to have closed over. She looked to Cody, and suddenly realized he was gone. Her eyes searched the water frantically, straining in the dying light. She could just make him out, striking out from the near bank, toward the center of the river, and the powerful current.
The members of the royal guard didn’t seem to have noticed Cody, many of them throwing themselves from the saddle and racing toward the water’s edge. But they seemed to be having as much trouble as Lucy locating the king in the torrent. She saw the horse’s head emerge for a moment, its hooves still flailing, and knew a moment of pity for the poor creature. But her eyes quickly moved on, scanning the foaming mass for any sign of either King Giles or Cody.
It was useless. The light was too low now, and they were too far away. She turned to Eamon, anxiety written all over her face. After getting Cody miraculously back from the dead once, it would be all the more devastating to lose him now.
“Do you see either of them?”
Eamon shook his head, his expression tight. “No, but I think we need to trust him. Let’s get downstream.”
Lucy swallowed, hating being powerless but knowing that plunging into the water after her mentor would achieve nothing.
The three of them picked their way carefully through the undergrowth, keeping out of sight as Cody had instructed. Not that anyone seemed to be looking for threats on the far side of the bank. Everything was still pandemonium, the guards searching frantically for their king, and the bystanders from the logging camp milling around uselessly.
Cody’s directions about where to meet had been vague, but they stopped on the other side of the mound, preparing to wait. As time passed, the light faded further, then disappeared altogether. Lucy’s anxiety mounted with each passing minute, cold chills running over her in spite of the humid air.
“Hey.” Eamon’s soft voice made her jump. She hadn’t realized he’d approached so close in the darkness, but he had to in order to be heard over the sound of the nearby rapids. He took her hand, and she returned his grip tightly, glad of the solidarity. “It’s going to be all right. Cody knows what he’s doing.”
“But where are they?” she whispered back, her voice strained. “If they’d avoided the rapids, wouldn’t they have been out of the water by now?”
“And how long do we wait?” Lord Yosef asked grimly. Lucy was surprised he’d even been able to hear their conversation over the water’s roar. “If the king is dead, we need to get back to Nohl if we have any hope of preventing war.”
“If the king is dead,” Eamon replied heavily, “I don’t think anything we do will prevent war. Besides,” he glanced around, “what can we do but wait? Without Cody, I don’t see us finding our way back to Nohl through the jungle.”
“Maybe we can find a way across the river,” said Lord Yosef doubtfully. “Then we can take the road back to the city.”
Lucy glanced across the river. She could barely see in the darkness, and the rushing water made it hard to hear much either. But it seemed the commotion had died down, and most if not all of the guards seemed to have left. Perhaps they had ridden for the city to call for help, or—she suddenly realized—more likely they were searching for a body downstream from the rapids. She shuddered at the thought of not only King Giles, but Cody being found.
A soft whistle made her whip her head around, her eyes searching the darkness hopefully. She knew that call.
“Cody?”
“Yes.” The familiar voice, calm as ever, had never sounded sweeter. Cody’s form rose up from the riverbank, dripping and solid and alive. “We’re here.”
“We?” she said eagerly. “You were able to stop King Giles from being pulled into the rapids?”
“He was,” came another voice, not sounding quite so calm. “For which I am eternally grateful.”
“Your Majesty!” Lucy gasped, as the king appeared behind Cody, unmistakable even in the moonlight. “You’re all right!” She bobbed a curtsy, but King Giles waved an impatient hand.
“Let’s not worry about formalities. What in the kingdom is going on?” His eyes passed over the group, his forehead creasing in confusion as he recognized Eamon, and presumably didn’t recognize Lord Yosef. He turned to Cody. “Gratitude aside, you owe me an explanation. Why did you keep me in that cave?”
“What cave?” Eamon asked, confused, but Lucy was suddenly remembering another of her parents’ tales.
“There’s a hidden cave behind a breakwater,” she exclaimed. “If you know where to aim for, you can swim under the rock shelf and escape the current.”
“That’s right,” said Cody. “It was used as a resistance hideout a number of times.”
King Giles shook his head slowly, water dripping from his hair. “It’s quite a phenomenon. I certainly had no idea of its existence.” He gave Cody a rueful look. “If you’ll excuse me for saying so, when you started pulling me under the water, I thought you were trying to drown me.”
“I don’t blame you, Your Majesty,” said Cody, with a smile. “But if I’d wanted you to drown, I could have just let the rapids do their work. I hope you’ll take my intervention as evidence that we really are friends to Balenol.”
The king frowned, his gaze passing thoughtfully to Lucy. “I would certainly like to believe that. But if you mean me and the kingdom no harm, why did you prevent me from coming back out of the cave immediately?”
“I thought it would be best to wait until your guards had given up searching for you,” said Cody cheerfully, taking his shoes from Lucy and putting them back on.
The king looked at him suspiciously. “And why would you want me not to rejoin my guards?”
Cody shrugged. “I think it will do your court a great deal of good to believe that you’ve died in a sudden, suspicious accident Your Majesty.”
Lucy caught Cody’s gaze, a confused question in her eyes. He raised his eyebrows meaningfully.
“We tried telling them directly, and it did no good whatsoever. Maybe showing them will be more effective.”
For a moment Lucy blinked, then understanding hit her. “When those advisors get word that the king died in a tragic accident at the logging camp, as we predicted—”
“And when they then discover that it’s not Kyona, but Thorania, who has an army conveniently ready to attack the moment the king is gone…” Eamon cut in.
Lucy nodded. “They’ll see we were telling the truth. They’ll have to see.”
“What?” King Giles asked sharply. “Thorania? Attack? What are you talking about?”
Lucy took a step toward him. “Your Majesty, that wasn’t an accident, what happened with your horse.”
The king’s forehead creased as he met her look. “It must have been an accident. I will admit, I’ve never been more astonished…that horse has been one of my favorite mounts for years, and I’ve never once…” He trailed off, glancing between them. “But how could it have been an intentional attack? Even if it were possible, you expect me to believe that Thorania, after centu
ries of peace, is suddenly seeking to attack us?”
“No, Your Majesty,” jumped in Lord Yosef hastily, but Lucy forestalled him.
“Not exactly,” she said, directing her words to King Giles. “Your Majesty, Cody spoke the truth when he said we’re friends to your kingdom. You’re my kin. And although Kyona will always be my home, I have no wish to deny the claim Balenol also has on me. I want to see your kingdom thrive. I want to save it from the disaster that’s hanging over it.” She took a deep breath. “I can explain everything. It’s going to sound unbelievable, but I swear I will tell you only what I know to be true.” She held the king’s gaze steadily. “Do you trust me?”
For a long moment he stared silently back at her, his expression difficult to read. “Yes,” he said at last. “I trust you.”
Lucy nodded, a weight lifting from her shoulders. “Good. We have a lot to tell you. It’s going to take time, and this isn’t the place.” She turned to Cody. “What’s your plan? Where are we going?”
Cody shot her a grin. “Where else? Back to the base tree.”
Lucy woke feeling anything but rested. The trip through the jungle in the black of night had been tortuous and exhausting, and hadn’t left nearly enough time for sleep. King Giles’s astonishment at the discovery of the secret hideout located so close to his city had been entertaining to watch. But all too soon his thoughts had returned to the present matter, and Lucy had been called upon to give the promised explanation.
That had proved even more exhausting, and she still wasn’t sure the king believed half of what the group had told him. She suspected that if he had been confident of finding his way, he wouldn’t have gone along with their plan to keep him out of sight until the morning. But she couldn’t blame him for his impatience. She felt guilty herself at the thought of what the dowager queen, and all the rest of the king’s family, must be feeling.
But if they prevented a crushing invasion through the deception, it would be worth it. And it was clear that King Giles, as much as his court, needed to see for himself that Thorania was ready and waiting to attack the moment the king was gone in order to believe that the neighboring kingdom was behind the accident.
Downfall of the Curse Page 39
