Cal only began to slow as the turquoise sea slipped into view, bright against the sunny sky.
“The gods,” he gasped, and then glanced at her, biting the next curse about to spill from his lips. “Sorry, Princess.”
Leena shook her head, unconcerned, and followed his line of sight, confused. “Wha—” And then she gasped too. Because she finally saw what he saw, why the horns were blowing.
The horizon glittered with gold.
At first, Leena had thought it was just the sun reflecting on the water, but now she saw the difference. Saw the distant outline of ships, of Ourthuri ships. The gold. The battering rams. The constantly churning oars manned by the unmarked.
“My father,” she said, tone laced with terror.
And with those two words, Leena broke.
“My father,” she whispered, barely more than a frightened breath, but it said it all. Gripping the stone wall until her nail beds turned white, her eyes remained glued to the gold line growing larger by the second. Her vision tunneled as her breath came quick and her heart began to race.
For some reason, Leena truly believed Whylkin would find a way. That they would stop her father in the Straits, that this city would protect her and keep her safe.
Fate.
Luck.
Both had been leading her here, Leena was sure of it. But suddenly, that faith waned, weakened.
My baby, Leena whimpered, legs beginning to give out beneath her, our baby. Had she doomed her own child to death? Why hadn’t she run? Why had she chosen to believe? Hope was for fools. Like Whyllem had said, hope was a luxury royals couldn’t afford to have.
“Princess?” Cal murmured by her side, arm coming around her waist as her strength failed and she slipped. Turning to him with wide eyes, Leena grabbed the front of his vest, holding herself upright.
“Please, take me to the water,” she blurted, knowing how odd it would sound and hating the weak tone of her voice, a tone too reminiscent of the naïve princess she thought she had left behind.
I’m no longer that girl, she thought, cocooning herself in calm despite the turmoil racing through her body, the panic, the anxiety. All the fears she never let herself see were suddenly pushing to the front of her mind, overwhelming her. But she wouldn’t let them win. She was stronger than any doubts ever could be.
Breathing deeply, brought back to reality, Leena regained her balance, releasing Cal as he looked on with concern.
“The water?” he asked.
“Please,” she said, much more composed. “I know you don’t understand, I know it sounds absurd, but I need to swim.”
His expression was still perplexed, but though he opened his mouth to ask a further question, he shut it without making a sound. Turning his gaze back to the sea, he pursed his lips, gazing intently at the horizon, letting the seconds stretch by. Finally, he turned to her. “I know a short cut to the White Stone Sea. Rhen and I discovered it as boys, but I’m not sure if it’s the best thing to take you there.”
“Why?” she asked, leaning forward.
“Because an army of enemy ships approaches, and they’ll be here sooner than you might think. Despite what you’ve come to know about me, I am normally the one trying to deter my friends from making reckless decisions. I’m not often the one participating in them.”
“Please, Cal,” she whispered, placing her hand over his, squeezing slightly. And even though she didn’t want to slip back into her old habits of flirting to get her way, Leena couldn’t help but widen her eyes just a little and bat her lush eyelashes.
He visibly weakened, narrowing his gaze, weighing the options.
Leena leaned a little closer. Her heart had returned to normal, the momentary panic attack had subsided, though the dread still waited just below her skin. But it wasn’t just the calmness the water brought, the ability to think, to revive her hope. It was something more—the knowledge that it might be her last time in the sea. The Ourthuri were here. The attack would begin in earnest tomorrow. They would likely win, and they would likely kill her. And if all of that happened, Leena would like to know she at least had a few more minutes of joy, a few more minutes in the only place that had ever made her feel safe—beneath a cool blue surface, shut off from the rest of the world. The memory would provide solace during the battle to come.
And just as she was about to give up, to sit back and tell Cal she could always find her own way back to the docks, he visibly relented, dropping his shoulders with a sigh.
“Follow me.”
She did, without uttering a word, too afraid that anything she might say would change his mind.
Cal led her back down the wall, around the side of the castle to a garden she couldn’t recall seeing before. Bright flowers painted the lush green, almost too beautiful to be real. And yet, the area was vacant, not another person in sight. For a moment, Leena wished her people were here to see this, to see a garden be treated as something normal, as something so common it was nothing special, nothing to admire with utter astonishment. In Da’astiku, a rosebud might cost as much as a new silk dress. In her home, an unmarked might lose his hand for letting her father’s private garden grow brown. Or he might lose something worse, his life.
“Leena?” Cal asked.
She hadn’t even realized she had stopped moving, pausing instead to brush her fingertips across a soft, peachy petal, marveling at its beauty. Leena turned with a sad smile—even Cal had no idea what a luxury this was, what a luxury the soil beneath his feet was. But now was not the time to explain it.
“I’m sorry,” she murmured, letting her hand fall away, turning to continue following him.
Cal waited a second, eyes intense, but then let it go and led her forward. At the back edge of the garden rested an unusual tree Leena had never seen before. The branches were soft and billowy, swaying with the breeze as they hung toward the ground, almost like a curtain of pale sage leaves. Cal brushed them aside, letting Leena enter the alcove first, and then he followed, letting the curtain fall back, hiding them from the world.
“It’s a willow tree,” he said, smiling at her awe. “You don’t have these back home?”
Leena just shook her head, whispering, “No.”
“Come on.”
Cal ran his hands along the white stone wall hiding behind the branches, searching for something Leena didn’t see. And then suddenly she did. A door swung open, a dark hole against the white.
“How?”
Cal raised his brows, teasing, and then showed her the lever he pulled to open it. “Rhen and I found it as boys when we were trying to hide from the Master Knights. He’d convinced me to help him prank the other squires and dump bird feed in their sleeping quarters.” Cal paused, grinning. “We were in such trouble.” He shook his head. “We were hiding beneath the willow, when we both noticed this lever. We were going to get punished either way, so we figured we might as well go on an adventure first. Well, Rhen figured, and I was too nervous to stay and get caught all by myself.”
“Where does it lead?” Leena asked, peering through the shadows but unable to see anything.
Cal shrugged, eyes dancing. “Do you want to find out?”
She grinned, nodding.
Cal entered first, reaching to the wall for a torch Leena hadn’t seen. Then he patted the floor, sighing when he found whatever he was searching for. A moment later, flames burst to life before her eyes, illuminating the corridor. With one more glance in her direction, perhaps to reassure himself that he was doing the right thing, Cal disappeared into the passage, and Leena hurried to catch up. Every so often, they would make a turn in the dark. But all of the stones looked the same, all of the halls were a maze to Leena, who was so confused she could hardly tell her right from her left, let alone the direction they were going.
“How do you know your way?” she asked after ten minutes of silence.
Cal didn’t respond, and for a moment she thought he was ignoring her, but as they approached the next divi
de, he stopped.
“Do you see these white markings?” Cal asked, holding the torch close to the wall. And sure enough, Leena saw the arrow marker, smiling just slightly. “Rhen and I put them there so we would know where to go. After getting lost so many times, we decided to take action.”
And for the rest of the way, Leena kept her gaze glued to the stones, searching for the markers with Cal, excited to be doing something other than sitting in her room and waiting for fate to lead her forward. And then they reached a dead end.
Leena frowned.
“Where now?” she murmured.
But she saw the answer a second before Cal’s hand reached forward—another lever. A moment later, bright sun invaded her vision. But more than that, vibrant blue.
Leena jumped forward, breathing in the fresh air.
They were beyond the city. Beyond the last defensive wall.
Leena slipped off her shoes, letting her toes sink into the sand beneath her feet, spinning around to look at the white wall towering overhead. They were on a beach just outside of Rayfort, drenched in privacy where no one could find them. To one side the wall, to one side the water, to one side a long stretch of loose sand, and behind a tall cliff of rough stone.
“That path is the only way to reach this beach from the city, unless one is crazy enough to attempt to climb down the cliff,” Cal said, shrugging. Leena couldn’t help but notice that he hadn’t followed her. He was still standing just inside the door, watching from a distance. “The only other way is to row a boat from the docks, which are on the opposite end of Rayfort.”
“It’s amazing.” Leena sighed, unable to contain the sense of freedom bubbling through her. On a whim, she raised her arms to either side, spinning, letting the wind wash over her, letting the sun warm her skin. And then she stopped, turning back to Cal. “Aren’t you coming?”
He shook his head.
Leena couldn’t wait any longer. She took off at a run, splashing through the gentle waves, not caring as her dress soaked through, as the salt stung her skin. Within moments, she was diving below the surface, reveling in the smooth liquid caressing her body, relishing the soft purr life took on beneath the water. She wanted to stay forever, to just sink to the sand and never return to the world above. If only she could. But Leena knew better. Taking a few more seconds to herself, to hug her stomach, to let the calmness rush over her, Leena burst to the surface. As soon as her eyes adjusted, she gasped.
He looked so much like Mikza, just for an instant while the world was blurred. Standing at the edge of the surf, watching over her protectively. So many times, Leena had broken through the surface of her private pool to see Mikza doing the same, just regarding her warmly, safely. No matter how many times she asked him to join her in the water, he wouldn’t. Too suspicious. Too dangerous. Too hard to explain should someone find them.
But Cal wasn’t Mikza. Mikza was gone. And this was a different world.
“Come in!” Leena shouted, voice barely carrying over the rumble of the waves. He shook his head. But she wasn’t going to accept a no, not this time. If they were both going to be dead in a matter of days, he deserved to have a little fun first. They both did.
Dipping below the surface, Leena swam and swam, sneaking up on Cal, using her magic to stay out of sight. And just when the depth got too shallow, she jumped up, using all of her strength to send the water soaring in his direction.
Cal tried to run, but it was no use. The splash landed true, soaking his shirt. Leena kept going, not stopping until he was completely drenched.
“That’s it,” he murmured.
Leena tried to escape before he could retaliate, but she was giggling mercilessly and couldn’t compose herself fast enough to get away. He wrapped an arm around her waist, much stronger than she realized, and tossed her easily into the water. When she rose again, huffing and ready for vengeance, Leena heard something so beautiful it stopped her in her tracks—a deep baritone laugh that drowned out the horns still booming overhead.
Outside, the Ourthuri were creeping closer, on the brink of attack. Inside, the people of Whylkin were readying their defense. But on this little stretch of private beach, secluded from the rest of the world, time stopped for a little while—just long enough for two outcasts to forget their troubles, to forget their fears, and find a brief moment of belonging to hold onto.
SIX
Leena didn’t see Cal after that.
After the beach, Cal had dropped her off at her rooms, unable to say the word they were both afraid to hear. Goodbye. Yet Leena hadn’t seen him since that brief understanding gaze they shared. And the next morning she woke to the boom of stones being ripped apart. For three days, she sat here by the window, watching the city around her fall to pieces.
The siege had begun.
Leena couldn’t see the Ourthuri ships from her rooms. Her view pointed in the opposite direction, toward grassy fields overrun with bloodied battle. Bodies littered the ground. Angry flames spewed smoke. Arrows flew constantly, darkening the blue sky. Giant machines threw boulders that tore through the stone houses of Rayfort, exploding once sturdy homes into clouds of dust that settled into nothing. And if she really listened, Leena heard the screams of those living in the rubble, dying in it. Those people with nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. And they made her feel ashamed. Because she was hiding in this castle, watching the enemy creep ever closer, unable to do anything to stop them.
The ground shook, rattling the glasses on the tray by her feet. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. And then a pause. She waited for the next volley—she didn’t have to wait long. Another thundering rumble that made the walls around her quake. The attacks were happening closer together. And the effects seemed to be strengthening. Glancing at the shattered city below, Leena knew in her heart the end was near.
Which is why it was no surprise when a few minutes later, a gentle knock sounded. The summons she had been waiting for.
When she opened the door, Leena stepped back in surprise, chest tightening, and then she smiled. Maybe this wasn’t what she expected. “Cal?”
“Princess,” he said, bronze eyes warm. But the rest of him was stone. “I’m here to take you to the king.”
Leena released a slow, shaky breath, nodding slightly. It was exactly what she had expected—a summons to the king. An invitation to wait gracefully for the end to come, and to welcome their defeat with courage rather than cowardice. Placing her hand gently to her stomach, Leena closed her eyes as her heart slowly began to fall to pieces.
“How is the battle?” she whispered, desperate for at least a little information.
Cal sighed. “I’ve been on the wall since we last parted, fighting beside the men and the other knights. We’re doing our best, but there are just so many of them. Every time one man dies, he is replaced by two more.” He shook his head, swallowing, unable to say more. Weariness hung in the air around him, a sense that he had aged years in a matter of only days. And Leena couldn’t help but wonder what horrors he had witnessed on the wall. But then he coughed, drawing her attention and sadly finding her eyes. “I brought these for you.”
Cal unclasped his hands from behind his back, producing a small bouquet of rosy blooms. Leena gasped, taking them from him, bringing the petals to her nose and breathing in the sweet scent. They were the same ones from the other day, the same ones from the garden. Just as beautiful, just as bright. Something the siege hadn’t destroyed.
Leena looked up from the flowers to find a small smile now graced Cal’s lips, and his eyes were as bright as the golden center of the blossoms in her hand. For a moment, she wished she could give him what he wanted. A kiss. A promise. Something more. Especially now, when there might never be another chance. But she couldn’t.
Instead, she brought the bouquet to her nose once more, covering her frown, and murmured, “How?”
“I remembered you looking at them the other day,” Cal said, shrugging, eyes retreating with self-consciousness. “I
just thought they might provide comfort.”
“Thank you,” she said, voice throaty and deep. And she hoped that he understood the real meaning behind the words—not just for the flowers, but for the friendship too.
Cal offered his arm and she took it, letting him lead her through the halls to the throne room. Both of them tried to ignore the stones shaking beneath their feet and the booms echoing across the silent corridors. They stopped before the closed door, waiting for a guard to open it.
“Leena?”
She turned to find Cal watching her, lips closed tight, brows furrowed as his gleaming eyes hardened. And for the first time, they really did look like metal, sharp enough to cut.
“It’s over, isn’t it,” she whispered.
His expression only darkened.
Unable to stop herself, Leena lifted her palm, placing it gently against his cheek. Cal softened into her fingers, body bending to her touch. She didn’t move any closer. He didn’t try to step away.
Cal wasn’t Mikza. He never would be. No one would be. But all the same, in the short amount of time they had known each other, he had become dear to her. A little sliver of home in a place where she never thought she would belong.
The door behind them opened, breaking the moment.
Leena dropped her hand, drinking in his affectionate gaze, knowing it would be the last time someone looked at her so kindly.
“Please, try to live,” she murmured, and then unable to bear another second of goodbye, Leena turned and entered the throne room.
Maybe he would live.
Maybe his father would pardon him.
Maybe he would find another woman who could give him everything he needed, not stuck with this broken person she had become.
“Princess,” a voice called.
Earlier that day, Leena had donned a dress from her homeland, the one she had been wearing when she jumped off that ship to save Jinji from the water, a moment that seemed a lifetime ago. But now she was happy she had worn it. She was born an Ourthuri. She was proud to be Ourthuri. And she would die Ourthuri, elegant tattoos out for the entire world to see.
Leena's Story - The Complete Novellas (A Dance of Dragons Book 4) Page 15
