Echoes of Silence (26 page)

The tea turned cold in my stomach as I remembered that Gibson actually had been killed. I recoiled from the word. And what had I done to Bo? How did an electric shock render someone blind and dumb? My hands shook at my crimes.

“Please don’t worry about what happened,” he said gently. “You saved our lives.”

“What of our guards?” I needed to steer the conversation into safer topics.

“I’ve asked Matu and Solis to stand as Prince’s guards.” He released my hands and settled himself into the chair next to my bed. “Castillo has already taken over as acting Lord here.”

I fought against the desire to tell Cris of our bond, that I needed Castillo nearby to truly protect us.

“We’re going to Nyth by an alternate route to avoid detection and a possibly hostile situation with Heona.”

“When do we leave?”

“Now that you’re awake, we can depart at dawn when the convoy leaves, though my father doesn’t expect us until I send word.”

“So we’re leaving at dawn, and going . . . ”

Cris folded his hands. “Through the outer villages. I’d like to gain some support there.”

I froze. “The outer villages?”

“Yes. My thought is that if it comes to a conflict with Heona, we’ll need the support of the villages. I believe you might be able to secure that support. We’ll travel inconspicuously.”

“What, with only four servants instead of eight?” I swore I heard Lucia cough, but Cris didn’t find anything amusing.

“Just you and I,” he said. “With Matu, Solis, and Lucia.”

#

That night, with only hours until my departure, I arrived outside Castillo’s door with my heart pounding in my throat. I knocked softly, and the door opened immediately, as if he’d been waiting on the other side, his hand already on the knob.

“Echo.” He ushered me in and cast a glance into the hall. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to say good-bye.” I’d known this day would arrive. Still, actually doing it caused me to swallow hard as I lingered near his basin, a healthy distance away from him. “And I’d like to discuss our plan before I go.”

“Our plan?” His right eyebrow quirked up.

“We need a plan for what I’ll do in Nyth, and what you’ll do here.”

“Princess, I already have a plan. Many, in fact.”

Annoyance shot through me. “Care to enlighten me, the person whose magic you will likely need to carry out your well-laid plans?”

“I thought Cris had told you.” He sank onto his bed. “You’re traveling to the outer villages to gain support. We’re building our defenses, our armies. That’s what I’ll be doing here.”

“And once I arrive in Nyth?”

“I’m sure the High King has plans for you.” He looked at me meaningfully.

“I’m to gain favor with him,” I mused. “Do what he asks; yet somehow find a way to manipulate the situation so that I’m also building our allies—from inside the castle.”

Castillo smiled. “Smart.”

I refrained from rolling my eyes. “What else do I need to know?”

“Need to know?” he asked. “Nothing, Princess. You’re as informed as you need to be.”

Which meant he had schemes he did not wish to share with me. I contemplated singing my way into his mind, until I remembered I had secrets about how I might spend my time in Nyth. And Cris seemed willing to tell me anything; I could simply ask him. Castillo and I watched each other, each waiting for the other to crack first.

It wouldn’t be me. I sensed the fight leave him as I squared my shoulders and crossed the room to the bed. I settled next to him and folded my hands in my lap.

“I haven’t had time to see you over the past few days.” His voice came out raw and wounded.

I trained my eyes on the carpet, too weak to look at him and see the pain in his face. “I know.”

“I’ve worked my entire life to be something different from my father. Anything different.”

I glanced up. His eyes searched mine wildly, and for the first time since I’d met him, a tremor of fear crept across my skin. He exploded into a standing position and paced away from me. His magic quickened with shadows, and mine reacted violently to it. I leaned backward, startled at this darkness in him.

“I do not wish to take what isn’t mine,” he said without turning around. “I do
not
wish to be like my father in any way.”

I crossed the room toward him, and he allowed me to embrace him. I held on to him a moment longer than necessary before breathing in his ear, “Take care of yourself, Castillo.”

“Our bond is secure,” he said, holding me at arm’s length and looking into my eyes.

I nodded, knowing bonds were all we could be. “Our bond is secure.”

He bowed his head, and I left his quarters. We would be apart, but we were still united in purpose.

#

Our escape happened under the drape of darkness, with Cris rousing me from sleep very early in the morning. Lucia stood ready at the door, and the three of us wound down endless hallways toward the exit.

Matu met us at the outer door and ushered Cris to a completely ordinary carriage, the kind I’d seen rambling through the countryside as I’d made my way from Iskadar to Umon last year. Solis shuttled into the carriage after Cris, and the door shut.

Lucia and Matu joined me in a second carriage. We settled ourselves inside with Lucia and I on one seat and Matu across from us. Including the two drivers, we made a party of seven. I wondered where we would sleep and what we would eat, but I knew those preparations had been made.

I also knew that a king and a queen never rode together. If one was attacked and killed, the separate nature of the convoy preserved the other. But we only had two carriages, not a convoy, and I thought we might as well have all crammed into one.

Until, through the tiny window, I noticed Cris’s carriage turn south down a dirt road. I expected our driver to follow, but we kept to the eastern course. “Why are we separating?” An edge of hysteria rode in my voice.

Lucia covered my hand with hers. “His Majesty will meet us in Chonal.”

Chonal was the last village in which to rest before the three-day walk to the outer limits of Umon. It would take all day to get there by carriage, and the thought brought me some comfort. “What are we to do in Chonal?”

“I’ll stable the horses,” Matu said.

“I’ll make dinner,” Lucia said.

Neither one of them would look at me. When I demanded they tell me what they knew, Matu leaned forward with an angry glint in his eyes.

“There’s more at stake here than any of us know,” he said. “Cris has asked you to visit the villages in the hopes that you can help them feel more connected with the city. That a unity can be forged, as they have been self-sustaining in both government and goods for many years. He’s wise to ask such a thing, for the strength in the villages may be the only way to oppose the High King.”

I leaned away from him, stung by his tone.

“Cris knows that his beloved Nyth is nothing more than a tyrannical empire. He has accepted the challenge to purge it and start anew. He’ll need your strength—and the might of Umon—to accomplish such a thing.”

“You’re upsetting her.” Lucia pushed lightly on Matu’s shoulder so that he settled back into his seat.

“No, he’s not.” I was pleased to hear Cris had purposes of his own. “Please, continue.”

“We want to integrate magic back into society, and the High King wants it all for himself,” he said. “We’re recruiting these villages to our cause, asking them to declare rebellion against the High King. We’re talking war, Echo. That is what we are doing in Chonal.” He looked out the window and resumed his usual stoic demeanor.

I copied him, my mind churning. As the carriage wheels ate up the miles between the city proper of Umon and the village of Chonal, I watched the river curve away from us in the distance. Sage and dirt replaced the floodplains, creating a landscape where nothing grew and nobody survived for long. It gradually gave way to smaller trees with trunks no thicker than my wrist. They created their own kind of beauty against the blue sky. When the trees thinned, the fields began. I recognized hay and corn, potatoes and wheat.

We didn’t stop for lunch. Lucia reached under the bench and produced a basket filled with fruits and breads and cheeses. We ate in silence, which had prevailed after Matu’s proclamation of war.

That afternoon, I felt nothing but mental exhaustion. I dozed briefly, dreaming of fiery horses, with great blazing hooves and glowing metallic eyes. The High King’s magicians had bewitched them, and they stampeded toward Cris and me as we cowered at the edge of a great abyss.

We held each other tightly, and when it seemed like all was lost and we would be trampled to death, he took my hand, and together, we leaped.

#

Dusk hadn’t quite claimed the day when we rolled to a stop on the outer edge of the village. I didn’t waste any time getting out of the carriage. I limped on stiff legs toward the water pump at the edge of the square. By the time I reached it, my muscles had remembered how to work. I washed my hands and smoothed my hair away from my face.

As I swallowed at mouthful of water, I realized the eeriness of the silence. A quick glance around confirmed it: The streets lay barren, the air held no whinnies of horses or idle chatter as people made their way home from the market.

Chonal was deserted.

Cris watched me as we settled into an abandoned house with only a single, guttering candle for light. Matu, Solis, and Lucia quietly discussed the finer details of traveling, dividing up the assignments of food, clothing, and husbandry between the three of them. The two drivers had disappeared to attend to their carriages.

“Echo, may I have a word with you?”

“Certainly.” I stood and joined Cris in the corner.

Shadows obscured most of his face. “I’m uneasy here, in this place no one thought fit to stay.”

The abandoned village cast a certain web of terror over me as well. “What should we do?”

“I’ve stirred the villagers to riot these few months,” he whispered. “I sent word that I’d be coming to continue negotiations.”

My eyebrows rose in surprise at his initiative, but I quickly smoothed them down. “Perhaps the villagers aren’t interested in negotiating?”

He sighed as he wove his fingers through mine. “Should I have done something differently?” He kept his eyes on our entwined hands.

“You’re asking me?”

“Of course. You’re my wife, the Princess.”

I inhaled deeply, appreciating Cris asking for my opinion, for making me feel important. “Matu said we wanted the villagers to rebel against the High King. So we just need to help them understand that’s exactly what
we
are doing also.”

“Which is impossible if they’re not here.” Cris released me, and I immediately felt the absence of his touch. “There are many who would be glad to see us both dead, including my father. If he discovers where we are or what we’re doing . . . ” He left his unsaid words hanging in the air, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and stalked further into the house.

I turned toward the window, trying to find a way through the difficult maze of the political climate in Umon. I wondered what Cris could’ve done differently, and my simple village mind came up with nothing.

“Perhaps they feel like they are being used,” I mused to myself, my voice little more than breath.

“Come, Echo,” Lucia said, breaking into my thoughts. “It’s time for bed.” She led me into a bedroom and helped me into a narrow bed that had been pushed against the wall. “We’ll be on our way in the morning.” She left, promising to return soon.

I lay in the darkness, listening to the soft whinny of a horse and the distant scrape of wood against wood. I thought maybe it was one of the drivers, reshaping one of the carriage wheels that had been bumped out of roundness.

I was nowhere near a solution to our problems when the door creaked. I opened my eyes, but could only make out the form of a person drawing closer. When Cris’s lips came gently against my forehead, I closed my eyes again and listened to his steady breathing.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

I pressed myself into the wall and opened the blankets to welcome him to bed. He lay down beside me, taking me into his arms with a sigh. “I just want—I don’t want my father to find out we didn’t come straight to Nyth. I want you to be safe.”

“I know,” I said into his chest. The thumping of his heart pulsed against my cheek.

“I’m not a risk-taker, and I definitely don’t like risking you.”

I pushed away from him and planted a kiss on his cheek, too close to his mouth to play off as friendly. He kissed me like a man who was falling in love, slow and easy, like he didn’t want to miss anything by going too fast or not holding on long enough.

“Do you think we can succeed?” I whispered, pulling back enough to find his eyes in the semidarkness.

“Together, we can.”

“You will counsel with me?” I thought of Castillo, and the many secrets he harbored. I didn’t wish such walls to exist between Cris and I.

“I’ll tell you everything,” he promised. “It’s my goal for you to trust me, to
want
to be my princess.”

With him looking at me with those liquid night eyes, I believed him. I put my cheek against his heartbeat, hoping we could become everything he spoke of.

Cris hummed a lullaby as he stroked my hair. The melody, if sung by a powerful magician, could send anyone into slumber. As it was, Cris’s limited magic simply made my eyelids heavy. Sleep edged my mind when the door crashed open. “Your Majesty,” a man gasped. “The Heonan army approaches from the south.”

I sat up, blinking into the firelight coming from the hall, as Solis emerged from the woodwork. “The south?” he asked. “Impossible. They would need to bypass the entire city of Umon to do that.”

Cris stood slowly, looking back and forth between Solis and the driver. “Are you certain it is the Heonian army, Kiev?”

“It’s impossible, Your Highness,” Solis insisted. “They would not have dared to break your agreement—or your brother’s.” He pressed in closer to Cris, partially shielding him with his body. I was shocked to hear Castillo had also struck a bargain with Heona. One of his many plans I hadn’t been informed of.