The Shadow Throne (Ascendance 3)

“No.”

“Are you being hunted?” I squinted at him. “Or are you the bait?”

“We were marching but I was terribly thirsty. So when I heard a stream, I snuck away to get a drink. When I ran to catch up to the others, faster than I knew it, I became caught in this trap. By then, everyone was too far to hear me calling for help. I’m not even sure anyone knows I’m missing.”

Tobias removed his knife and went to cut him down, but I pressed him back with my hand. “Where was your group going?”

“North. Apparently, the armies of Gelyn were stopped at the border by a small group of Carthyans. I heard that Gelyn would’ve won, but Bymar arrived at the last moment and sealed Gelyn’s doom.”

So Bymar had come? That was excellent news on two fronts. It meant that Roden had achieved a victory at the border, and also that Fink had gotten through safely. But since Mavis still assumed we were from Avenia, I only shook my head and said, “Carthyans are horrid people, aren’t they? What right do they have to defend themselves in this war?”

Mavis nodded, then frowned as if confused. He finally gave up and simply asked, “I’m really hurting. Can you help me down?”

With my permission, Mott strode forward and used his sword to cut the rope on the boy’s leg. He tumbled to the ground, but we immediately noticed the blood around his ankle where the rope had sliced into his flesh.

Tobias darted toward him and began examining it. “How’d this happen?”

Mavis took a look at it and his eyes rolled in his head, forcing him to lie back again. “I tried for hours to wiggle my way free. It hurt, but I had no idea it was so bad.”

Tobias pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, one I recognized as belonging to Amarinda, and I wondered why he should have it. He ran toward the sound of water and reappeared moments later with it dripping wet. He wrung it out, then knelt before Mavis to wash his leg.

“We should go,” Mott whispered as he leaned over to me. “We’ve freed him, and there’s nothing more required of us.”

“What if your roles were reversed? Wouldn’t you hope for more from him?”

“Of course.” Frustrated, Mott kicked his boot against the ground. “It’s just that I don’t like the feeling of being on this trail, so exposed.”

I didn’t like it either, but Tobias looked up at me and shook his head. Now that he had washed the blood from Mavis’s ankle, it became apparent how bad the injury was. The rope had cut deeply into the flesh and probably would become incredibly painful once full feeling returned to his leg. Even now, Mavis was beginning to show signs of strain and held on to his thigh, as if that would help.

Tobias stood and then pulled me aside. “If we do nothing, it’ll become infected. He’ll lose the leg, and since he won’t be able to walk on it, he’ll possibly lose his life too.”

“There’s nothing we can do about that,” I said. “Cutting him down is one thing, but we’re not physicians. We have no provisions to help him.”

“I’ve been studying medicine.” Tobias smiled meekly, almost as if he was embarrassed to admit it. “I figured with you as our king, knowing how to heal injuries would be a good idea. Please, Jaron, let me help him.”

I nodded and Tobias immediately set to work, asking Mott to return to our horses for a clean rag and a waterskin. Turning to me, he described a plant with thick, pointed leaves that would need to be cut free and gathered. He said it had a gel inside that Mavis needed.

“Where do I find it?”

“Near water, and in full sun.”

I nodded at him and hurried toward the stream. After Mott and Tobias had kept such a careful watch over me these past few days, it was disconcerting to be alone and my senses were heightened. We were so close to Avenia. Surely others in his group would eventually notice Mavis’s absence and come back to look for him.

I scanned the ground, looking for any plant that fit Tobias’s description, and questioning my decision to spend so much precious time here. It was the right thing to do. I knew that, and yet Mott’s suggestion that I was strengthening an enemy also lingered in my mind. Mavis might not be any sort of warrior, but that didn’t mean he was incapable of doing us damage.

Finally, I had wandered far enough downstream that I saw Tobias’s plant. I pulled out my knife to collect some of the leaves, but from this angle, something caught my eye, a sparkle of ruby, cut in the shape of a diamond. That was odd.

When I turned to look at it, I immediately recognized the object the ruby was attached to. It was a shoe, but not just any ordinary shoe. With nothing better to do while riding in Tobias’s escape carriage so many days ago, I had stared at that same ruby for some time, and I knew it now. This shoe belonged to Amarinda. The princess had at some point been in this exact place.

I grabbed the shoe and leapt to my feet, hoping for any sign of her, or at least some clue as to where she might be now. Nothing indicated how long the shoe had been here or what direction she had traveled. Was it possible she had passed through as a captive of Mavis’s army?

I cut the leaves, then ran back to Tobias. Mott was already there with him and stood vigil, listening and watching for anyone’s approach while Tobias continued washing Mavis’s ankle. I pushed past him and thrust the shoe in Mavis’s face. “Do you know where this came from?”

Mavis’s eyes widened, though it wasn’t clear whether he recognized the shoe, or because he was surprised to see a woman’s shoe of that quality in a place like this.

“I asked you a question!” I yelled. “Now answer me!”

“You’re not Avenian,” he replied coolly. “That was easy enough to figure out. You lost your accent just now and these two others with you have the accent of Carthya. You are the youngest of them all. Why do you give the orders?” His eyes brushed over me, resting briefly on my forearm with the mark of the pirates, the bruises that were still visible on my face, and the sword in my hand. “I know who you are . . . Jaron.”