Deny (The Blades of Acktar Book 2)

by Tricia Mingerink

  Renna flung the blanket around herself and gripped the corners. The warm wool settled around her shoulders. Brandi wrapped herself in her blanket, grinning.

  Leith cracked the window open and peeked out. Climbing out, he hunched below the window in the shadows.

  After a moment, he popped up and waved at Brandi. She knelt on the windowseat. Gripping her around the waist, Leith swung her out of the window and onto the ground. He placed a hand on her back and pressed her into the shadows. Renna spotted a guard walking the perimeter of the garden.

  When the guard had moved past their position, Leith eased to his feet once again. Renna knelt on the windowseat. Leith’s strong hands closed around her waist. Her breath caught. She held her breath as Leith swung her out of the window. As her feet landed on the ground, she crouched in the shadows next to Brandi.

  After the next guard had passed, Leith led them around the flower beds and past the decorative fountain. They crept along the thick hedge.

  Renna’s heart remained in her throat as she padded barefoot behind Leith and Brandi. What would happen if a guard discovered them?

  Reaching the back hedgerow, Leith halted them. He peered through a gap in the hedge. When the guard had passed them and neared the far corner, Leith motioned Brandi through. Brandi eased through the hedge, dashed across the cleared space, and disappeared in the darkness of the trees beyond.

  Renna waited next to Leith. She held her breath as a guard rounded the corner and started towards them. Leith placed a hand on her back. She tensed, struggling to stay still, until the guard passed a few feet away from them on the other side of the hedge.

  When he was fifty yards away, Leith motioned for her to slip through. Renna shoved her way into the tangle. Twigs scratched her face and tugged at her braid. Sticks jabbed her bare feet. Breaking through the hedge, she nearly fell onto her knees. Had the guard heard all her noise? Staggering, she flung herself across the open grass and into the trees.

  Brandi popped out of the darkness. She grabbed Renna’s arm and steered her behind a large tree. “You’d make a lousy Blade. Even I managed to be quieter than that.”

  No argument there. Renna crouched next to her sister, shivering. Cold laced through her fingers. Her feet stung with the dew she’d picked up in her dash through the long grass.

  A dark shape joined them. Renna stifled her shriek. It was only Leith. He led them through the trees and into a dense stand of scrub brush. In the darkness, the trees screened them from the guards.

  Jamie stood waiting with two horses, a small buckskin and Blizzard. Brandi tromped to them and rubbed each horse’s neck in turn.

  Renna gripped the wool blanket and tugged it tighter around her shoulders. “What happens now?”

  Leith glanced toward the east, and Renna followed his gaze. A faint tinge of gray spread into the sky in that direction. He touched the animal skin tied to his belt. “Now we bluff our way past the guards.”

  19

  Leith pulled out the animal skin bottle filled with goat blood and grimaced. They weren’t going to like the next step. “If people look too closely, the two of you don’t look dead. We need to make you so bloody no one will notice.”

  Renna’s face paled to the same color as her nightdress. Brandi eyed the animal skin bag. Leith wasn’t about to tell them that even with the goat blood he was going to pour over them, it’d be less blood than would’ve spurted from their wounds if he’d really killed them.

  Leith approached Brandi. “Hold still.”

  Brandi squinched her face up. Leith gripped her chin and tipped it up. Starting under her chin, he poured a stream of the blood from the animal skin. The blood ran down her neck and rippled onto her white nightdress.

  Leith took the blanket from Brandi’s shoulders. “Put your arms down by your side.”

  Brandi pressed her hands to her sides and stood straight like a guard lined up for drill. Leith wrapped the blanket around her. To anyone watching, it’d look like Leith had bundled Brandi’s body in a blanket to make it easier to carry out of the manor.

  Jamie swung onto his horse and nudged it next to Leith and Brandi. Picking Brandi up, Leith placed her across Jamie’s knees with her head and feet hanging down.

  Brandi giggled as she tried to squirm into a better position. “This feels funny.”

  Leith knelt next to Brandi’s head. “Sorry. It’s going to get worse. Take a breath and close your eyes.”

  Brandi squeezed her eyes shut. Her cheeks puffed as she held her breath. Leith pinched her nose and poured the blood under her chin. It flowed over her face and into her hair. Her body convulsed in suppressed giggles.

  Taking his hand from her nose, he stood up and stepped back. “Try to pretend you’re dead.”

  Brandi’s mouth twisted with a smirk. Leith grinned back even though she couldn’t see him. He met Jamie’s eyes. Jamie placed a hand on Brandi’s back. His mouth flattened into a firm line.

  Leith turned to Renna. She clutched the blanket tighter, her eyes fixed on Brandi. She trembled. “It looks so real. She looks dead.”

  He couldn’t let her panic now. Stepping into her line of sight, he gripped Renna’s shoulders. “She’s a rather lively, giggling corpse.”

  Renna drew in a breath and nodded. Her gaze strayed past him and her shoulders relaxed. She pointed. “You’re right. I don’t think most corpses do that.”

  He glanced over his shoulder in time to catch Brandi sticking out her tongue. Leith shook his head. Brandi would regret that when she got blood all over her tongue. She wouldn’t be able to rinse her mouth until they were safely away from Walden.

  Leith turned back to Renna and held up the animal skin. “Your turn.”

  Renna wrinkled her nose, but she held still. Tipping up her chin, he poured a stream of blood down her neck. It spread over her white nightdress, stark in the dawn’s growing light.

  Leith swallowed a rush of memories. A moonlit room. The look of terror in a teenage boy’s eyes. His choking death.

  “Is everything all right?” Renna’s voice tugged him from his memories.

  He drew the cold wall around the memories. He wasn’t about to tell Renna he’d been thinking about the night he’d killed her cousin. “I’m fine.”

  Somewhere in the trees, the first bird twittered the world into wakefulness. The goat’s blood worked its way down the front of Renna’s nightdress. If God hadn’t touched his heart, it could’ve been Renna’s blood Leith spilled.

  He shook himself. He didn’t have time to waste on the lives he’d taken. Right now he needed to concentrate on the lives he could save.

  Taking the blanket from her, he wrapped it around her while she held her hands down at her sides. He picked her up. Huffing, he slung her as gently as possible over the front of his saddle. She made a sound in the back of her throat and squirmed. Leith walked around Blizzard and knelt next to her head. “Sorry. That can’t be comfortable.”

  Renna grimaced, a strange expression with her head hanging upside down. “If I were dead, I wouldn’t care, would I?”

  “Nor would you care about this either.” Leith uncapped the animal skin. “Take a deep breath and close your eyes.”

  Like Brandi, Renna scrunched her eyes closed and sucked in a breath. Leith pinched her nose and poured the blood over her chin and face. The dark red, almost black liquid gurgled from the skin bottle and globbed over her cheeks and into her hair.

  Renna’s throat constricted, like she was fighting the reflex to gag. At the edges of the layer of blood, her skin took on a gray-green cast.

  Leith’s own stomach churned, but he shoved the sensation away. Now was not the time to develop a revulsion to blood.

  When the blood had stopped running, Leith let go of her nose and stood. He scowled at the blood, both dried and wet, that coated his hands. But he resisted the urge to wash them. The blood would convince his audience he was the cold-blooded killer he portrayed.

  Swinging into the saddle, he adjusted Renna ac
ross his knees. He tried to touch her as little as possible, but there just didn’t seem any way that wasn’t awkward. She squirmed like a hooked worm.

  When she was finally settled across his saddle and knees, he pulled a black cloak from his saddlebag. Clasping it beneath his chin, he flipped the hood over his head so the cloth covered his eyes and half his face. Turning his head, he spotted Jamie doing the same with his own cloak.

  They were as ready as they could be. Too much later, and the sunlight on Blizzard’s fur would turn him a recognizable gray instead of black.

  Leith nudged Blizzard and swung his head towards the pink and purple bands stretching across the eastern horizon. Jamie’s horse fell into step behind him.

  Renna’s body was warm and soft against his thighs and knees. He yanked his mind away from its wandering. He needed to concentrate. He was a Blade. Renna was a dead body draped over his saddle. Nothing more.

  They broke out of the treeline a few yards away from the mound and ditch that circled Walden Manor. A gap had been left in the mound of dirt for workers to easily go in and out.

  Two guards strode in opposite directions on either side of the ditch. Both of them froze and raised their weapons.

  Leith kept Blizzard walking forward and flipped the corners of his cloak over his shoulder so his knives were clearly visible.

  The guards’ eyes widened and flicked between Leith, his knives, Jamie, and the bodies slung across the front of their saddles. Leith eased Blizzard to the side to make sure both guards could see Renna’s bloodstained face and long, blond braid. Stricken lines tore across the guards’ faces.

  Leith had to deny any emotion besides cold. He pitched his voice into a low growl. “I am the First Blade. The ladies Rennelda and Brandiline are dead.”

  One of the guards stepped forward. His face twisted, as if Leith had yanked the man’s heart from his chest. Perhaps he had. Renna and Brandi were the heart of Acktar. As long as they lived, there was hope that King Respen’s reign would end.

  The guard’s sword wavered between raised in attack and lowered in defeat. The other guard had already lowered the tip of his sword to the ground. With a glance at his companion, the first guard lowered his sword as well, his shoulders slumping. “Please, at least leave us the bodies.”

  Blizzard shifted. Across Leith’s knees, Renna stiffened and whimpered. He risked a glance down. Blizzard had stepped on the end of her braid. Squeezing with his knees, Leith managed to get Blizzard to step forward again.

  “And have you turn their graves into a memorial?” Leith’s scornful tone was so cold he gave himself shivers. “They’ll be buried deep in the Hills where you’ll never find them. Don’t try to follow us. If you do, I won’t give them even that much courtesy.”

  They’d talked long enough. Any longer, and the next set of guards would step into sight. Leith pressed his left hand against Renna’s back, flicked the reins, and dug his heels into Blizzard’s sides. His horse lunged into a gallop. Gathering his powerful hindquarters, Blizzard leapt the ditch. Leith ducked his head to keep the hood in place.

  Renna flopped against the saddle. Leith felt more than heard her gasp. He kept an eye on her braid. If Blizzard stepped on her braid at this speed, it wouldn’t be good.

  Another set of hoofbeats pounded behind them. Leith glanced over his shoulder as Jamie on his buckskin sailed over the ditch. Brandi bounced. Her head bopped against the buckskin’s leg.

  When they crested the hill overlooking Walden, Leith halted Blizzard, grabbed Renna’s braid, and tucked it under the blanket. Then he urged Blizzard into a steady lope. He and Jamie needed to gain distance from Walden.

  Leith kept to his easterly course for a mile before he angled north. By the time they reached the foothills, Renna’s stomach pressed against his knees every time she panted a breath.

  Blizzard lunged up a grassy slope. Leith slowed him to a canter, then a trot as they wound around outcroppings of rock and stands of pines and cedars.

  At a sheltered warren of rocks, Leith halted Blizzard. The horse’s nostrils flared, but his sides weren’t heaving even after the exertion of loping the distance with the weight of two riders on his back.

  As Jamie halted a few yards away, Leith swung from the saddle. He rested a hand on Renna’s back. “Stay dead for a while longer. I’m going to scout for other Blades. Jamie, keep watch in case we were followed.”

  Leith slipped from the rocks and climbed up a promontory. Lying on his stomach, he studied the land spread before him. To the southwest, the hills fell away into the rolling prairie only broken by the buildings of Walden. A cluster of black dots rode towards the Hills, though they veered towards the east.

  From here, Leith didn’t see any signs of a campfire or other shapes moving amongst the Hills. Still, he hiked a wide circle down and around until he was sure the area remained clear of Blades.

  He returned to the cluster of boulders. The horses remained nearly as he’d left them, Brandi and Renna draped across the saddles, the reins trailing on the ground. Both had their heads raised, ears pricked towards him. With a snort, Blizzard returned to cropping at the sprigs of grass and weeds that grew in the boulder’s damp shadows.

  Jamie slid down a boulder and landed on his feet a few yards away. “The guards from Walden are still looking in the wrong direction.”

  “Good. No Blades around either.” Leith strode towards Blizzard. “You help Brandi. I got Renna. They’ll be dizzy after hanging upside down for so long.”

  Reaching Blizzard and Renna, he tapped Renna’s shoulder. “I’m going to help you slide off.”

  She nodded the best she could. Her braid came loose from the blanket again, and its end flopped onto the ground.

  Leith straightened and frowned. He didn’t have a lot of options that weren’t awkward. At this point, neither of them had a choice. She couldn’t ride the whole day draped across his saddle.

  He gripped her around the waist. Her arms, still held to her sides by the blanket, tensed beneath his fingers. He lifted and pulled her towards him, curling her body to swing her head upright. As he took a step back, her legs and feet slid up and over the saddle. She fell against him, her legs buckling.

  She formed a warm, blanket-wrapped bundle in his arms, and he found he wasn’t in any hurry to let her go. He could come to enjoy this. Who was he kidding? He enjoyed holding her now.

  What if he didn’t return to Walden? If he continued on to Eagle Heights with Renna and Brandi? Would he dare court Renna as Shad had suggested? Would he have more moments like this?

  He drew in a deep breath and choked on the musty, sour stench of blood coating Renna’s hair. Here she was covered in blood, unable to see or open her mouth, dizzy, and he was taking advantage of it. She was probably wondering why he stood there with his arms around her far, far longer than necessary.

  He took a step back but kept a grip on her shoulders as she swayed. The blanket came loose, and Renna tugged her hands free. He guided her hands to the saddlehorn. “Hold on for a moment while I fetch water to clean the blood from your face.”

  She nodded, wrapped her fingers around the saddlehorn, and rested her head against the saddle. Blizzard planted his hooves and leaned in her direction to compensate for her weight against him.

  Leith pulled his canteen and a cloth from his pack. Wetting the cloth, he scrubbed her face as gently as he could.

  “Eww! That’s so disgusting.” Brandi’s voice sputtered somewhere behind him. “Blood tastes awful. Ow! My side hurts. Your saddlehorn dug into my ribs the whole way.”

  Something tight eased in Leith’s chest like the release of a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Their limp, silent bodies had nearly been enough to play tricks with his mind.

  Renna scrunched her face and pried her mouth open. She patted the air, her eyes still caked shut. “Let me.”

  He poured water on the cloth again and handed it to her. She scraped the dried blood from her eyelids until she could peel them open.<
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  “Here, try this.” Leith poured half the canteen over her head.

  She scrubbed at her face until only a few brown flakes peppered her nose and crusted in the lines around her eyes. Blood still matted her hair and coated the front of her nightdress.

  Leith took the bloody cloth from her. “I’m sorry. That’s the best we can do for now.”

  Renna’s nose wrinkled as she picked at the blood in her hair. “Thanks. At least I can see.”

  “And talk.” Brandi’s tone left no doubt that she considered that the worst torture of all.

  Renna laughed, grimaced, and pressed a hand to her side. “That was the most uncomfortable ride ever. We’ll be sitting upright for the rest of the way, won’t we?”

  “Yes.” A risk, but the girls couldn’t ride the whole distance slung over the saddle like that. As long as they stuck to the east and the Blades stayed to the west as Leith had ordered, they’d be fine. Leith waved at the saddlebags tied behind his saddle. Her saddlebags, not his. “You and Brandi can change behind those rocks over there. Try to be quick. We need to keep moving.”

  He folded the blanket that had wrapped around Renna while she fished in a saddlebag and hurried toward the rocks.

  After adjusting the saddlebags and placing the folded blanket across the space he’d made behind his saddle, he drew one of his knives and chopped a small hole into the ground. Jamie collected several good-sized rocks and set them next to the hole.

  “All right. We’re set.”

  Leith turned around. Renna now wore a light blue shirt and what looked like wide, buckskin trousers. She held out a bundle of white cloth and red-brown blood. “What do you want us to do with these?”

  “We’re burying them.” Leith pointed at the hole he’d dug. Renna dropped her and Brandi’s nightdresses into it, and Leith shoved the dirt and sod over them with his foot. He piled the rocks Jamie had fetched to prevent animals from digging them up.

  Brandi bounded to Jamie’s horse and swung herself into the saddle. “Are we in a hurry, or not?”