The Redwood Rebel (The Redwood War Book 1) (18 page)

In truth, she loathed the thought of having to marry in order to help her country. It negated all of her training, all of her strength and skill and ability. She had been brought up to be able to fight, defend and lead since she could walk. It had been drummed into her, despite her father’s disappointment in her gender, and she wasn’t about to throw that away so easily. If she could right the country without having to resort to marriage, then that’s what she would do.

‘The Empress won’t help you, little sister,’ Tristan assured her. ‘I understand King Arun was kind in the peace talks, but the war took a heavy toll on its own. They lost many soldiers and ships, and after the trouble here, the old Emperor refused to do business with Adrienne. They’ve lost a great deal of trade from that decision alone.’

It both touched and scared her that such extreme measures had been taken. Now more than ever she was sure she had an ally in Tsumetai, but with no wood to build ships, no soldiers, and an apparent lack of funds, would they even be able to offer her the aid she needed? Frustration beat at her, and she realised that was probably why Cygnus had allowed her to travel there once she had gained her freedom. Tsumetai wasn’t a threat.

‘All that aside, the Empress wouldn’t want to upset King Arun,’ Tristan continued. ‘He’s in a far stronger position than they are, and no matter how fond of you she might be, they wouldn’t risk war with Koren again.’

Starting to feel cornered, Naomi tried to think of another way that didn’t involve her agreeing to marriage. ‘What about our own people? Perhaps I could muster a force of rebels? The state of Chloris… there must be people willing to fight.’

He looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘Well, there is a small group of rebels living in the woods near Elvinfoot, but not nearly enough for what you need. Most of the soldiers loyal to the old King migrated, believing no heir to exist except Adrienne. It’s possible if word spread that you lived they would return, but it’s been four years. I expect they’ve all made lives for themselves now.’

She felt crushed. Was there really no way for her to do this herself? When it came down to it, was she really only good to be married off to the highest bidder? It would have been hard enough to swallow such a thing coming from her father, but the idea of having to do this to herself was horrific.

‘He’s the King of Koren, Tristan,’ she emphasised. ‘That by itself is a huge problem! My place is here, in Ffion, not halfway around Ilios with some man who I can barely sustain a civil conversation with.’

‘Would it really be so bad to be married to him?’ he asked her, trying to sound casual. ‘He’s rich, powerful, and pretty good looking, actually. Well, for a man, at least.’

He winked and Naomi rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t tell him that. I’ve already had the rich and powerful thing thrown at me as reasons to be his wife. I really don’t want to think of him trying to use the latter.’

‘But you do agree he’s handsome?’

She didn’t want to dwell on that. She was living in constant fear of Arun catching her thoughts, and the idea of her thinking about something so embarrassing was enough to make her feel queasy. He was full of himself enough as it was. He certainly didn’t need her passing thoughts to boost his ego any further.

‘There are more important things than physical appearance, you know,’ she snorted derisively.

‘I don’t know, little sister,’ Tristan chuckled. ‘When you’re royalty, marriage is almost entirely about what you can bring to the bargaining table. At this point, I would say the odds are in his favour.’

There was a faint, musical humming, and a small fairy zipped across to land on Tristan's shoulder. While he was busy listening to what the little creature had to say, Naomi found herself looking across to where Arun slept. Mulling over everything Tristan had said, she found herself again seriously considering marriage to him as a viable option.

She had to examine his motives, and was disturbed to find that if there truly was a way to break this spell that bound them together, there was no reason he wouldn’t tell her so. Oh certainly, now he knew that a marriage to her would eventually gain him power in Ffion, and as soon as her cousin the Empress found her still living, he would also benefit from that as well, but before? Before he didn’t want to be married to her any more than she did to him. If there was a way to break the Bond spell, she supposed he would have done it then. He had stood nothing to gain by lying about such a thing, and she wondered why she hadn’t realised that sooner.

At the time, she had been angered by her continued imprisonment, his outright attempt at possession, but now that he’d lifted the restriction spell, she felt much clearer in her own mind. The weight of her silent fury had gone, and with a calmer perspective, she had no choice but to admit that Arun knew of no way to break the Bond. There was a chance that someone, somewhere might know of a way, of course, but if this had been the practice in Koren for so many generations, and the King had no knowledge of any way out, the chances were slim. If he had thought it at all possible, he would have said as much in the beginning.

It was a revelation that made her ache inside.

‘Do you have friends in the area?’ Tristan asked curiously, the fairy still perched gently on his shoulder. Naomi frowned, shaken out of her disturbing thoughts and feeling a little frayed at the edges of her mind.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Other Korenians.’ he elaborated as the fairy whistled, telling them both that there had been more, but only a man and woman survived now. Taken prisoner not far from here by Ffionite sell-swords. Realisation dawned on her, and she knew that the woman, at least, was probably Esta.

Looking across to Arun, sleeping on his back and spread out like a child, she made an easy decision. Instead, seeking out Rostam amongst the sleeping soldiers, she found him curled up beside Sergeant Naseem, who had his arm thrown protectively over the other man. She couldn’t wake up one without the other, but she didn’t like to leave Arun without his Sergeant. Still, she would need help.

‘Tristan,’ she said slowly. ‘I need you to do something for me.’

Chapter Eighteen

Naomi moved as light-footed as a sparrow, bow nocked and ready as she stalked the group of Ffionites and their prisoners. Naseem and Rostam were backing her up, and between the three of them, they had surrounded the group when they stopped to eat. Naomi had counted six altogether, and knew with Sergeant Naseem's help, they could take them easily.

She was concerned to see only two Korenian survivors, but her heart leapt as she confirmed Esta as the female the fairy had spoken of. She looked tired and dirty, but not too worse for wear considering the company she was keeping. The other prisoner was a soldier, but not Rayan, and was in a lot worse condition than Esta was. He was bound very tightly with thick rope, his face swollen and discoloured from apparent beating, his left leg bloody. Naomi found herself flinching at the sight, recognising the pain he must be in and wondering just what in all hells he had done to provoke such violence while Esta remained unscathed. These men had no honour, and knew would have no problem hitting someone so much physically weaker than them, just as they clearly had no compunctions about beating a tied prisoner.

Arun would be glad to see her alive, at least, but the cold, deadened light in her brown eyes gave Naomi a chill of fear and anger. What had they done to her? Where was Rayan? The other Korenians? It didn’t bear thinking about. For now, all she could do was get Esta and the battered guard back to the Moss Tortoise where they would be safe as quickly and painlessly as possible.

She had left Arun sleeping under Tristan’s supervision and the strict instructions that when he woke he wasn’t to be told where she was or what she was planning to do. They were to keep heading South, with or without her. She knew Arun enough that should he learn of her attempt at rescue he would want to be involved, and that was out of the question. He was safe where he was, and she was perfectly able to handle this without him. The less he knew, the better for everyone.

She had known the exact moment he had woken, his automatic and irritating reaction to reach out through the Bond spell and find her. It hadn’t taken much for her to raise her mental shields with as much strength as she could muster, keeping him locked out tight, and hoped Tristan would be able to placate him long enough for her to take care of this. There had been a brief flutter from him as he tried to shrug his way into her mind, presumably to communicate, but after the trouble his mental invasion had caused last night, Naomi wasn’t about to let him in even for a second. He had retreated, much to her relief.

She had suggested Tristan tell him she had gone hunting with Rostam and Naseem, which wasn’t an outright lie, and hoped that he simply thought her concentrating on her prey, which also was true, if in a slightly skewed way. She didn’t want to put Tristan in a position where he had to lie for her, partly for his sake, and partly because he wasn’t very good at it. Hopefully Arun would be able to sense they weren’t very far away, and having taken Sergeant Naseem as well as Rostam with her, she had every intention of returning. Naomi hoped, of course, that the promise she had made last night would be assurance enough, but she wasn’t stupid.

It was the main reason she had brought them with her, if she was honest. It would placate him somewhat, and no matter the disapproval she knew she was sure to face when they returned, she hoped his relief at seeing Esta alive and knowing Naomi had always planned to come back might soften the blow. She was making the right decision to leave him behind, and she was sure that Rayan, wherever he was, would have approved. It was to no one’s advantage to risk Arun's life except Adrienne’s. He was going to be troublesome about it, but she didn’t care. This was the most sensible option open to them if he wanted his family back, and she was going to do all she could to achieve that. Arun aside, she owed Esta, and she wasn’t about to sit idle if she could help.

Looking at the staring woman sat beside the beaten soldier on the dirt, she waited for the signal from Rostam and Naseem that they were ready. Carefully taking position behind the foliage, she silently watched the group. She noted that while the men stuffed their faces with dried meat and mead, Esta and the other Korenian were left with nothing. It had only been two days, but if they weren’t being fed it would account for Esta’s distant gaze. Knowing first-hand that starvation was an effective method of forced submission, she felt anger curl in her gut. She pulled the bow taut, aiming at the furthest target.

A faint chirrup from across the camp floated to her ears, and answering, Naomi took a deep breath and fired. It took the Ffionites a moment to realise what was happening, but before any of them could react, their numbers were already depleted by half. One of the Ffionites made a dash for Esta, possibly to use her as some kind of hostage or bodily shield, but Naomi quickly re-nocked another arrow and shot him in the face. He fell back with a sharp cry and gurgle, but Esta didn’t even move. Nocking her bow a third time, she came out of the woods, ready to fire. All the Ffionites were down now, arrows protruding from their bodies at awkward angles, and as Rostam and Naseem also came out of the forest, she signalled them that everything looked clear.

‘Rostam, make sure they’re all dead,’ she said, then motioned to the beaten Korenian lying next to Esta. ‘Can you check this man’s injuries, Sergeant? Do what you can for him.’

Concerned that the other woman hadn’t so much as looked up, Naomi hurried across to her. Kneeling carefully in front of Esta, she began to feel very afraid by the expressionless void behind her eyes. It was like she wasn’t really in there.

‘Lady Esta?’ she asked quietly, reaching out a hand to touch her, then thinking better of it. She didn’t move. Didn’t even blink.

‘They took Lord Rayan,’ the broken and bloody Korenian murmured from beside her. ‘Lady Esta… she can feel it…’

He began to cough, his eyes bloodshot as they looked at her through the horrific swelling of his face. Taking the water skin from his shoulder, Naseem moved around to where he lay, carefully lifting his head while offering him a drink. He coughed, but drank what he could, and Naomi gave him a quick once over. She couldn’t see the extent of his wounds because of the rope tied firmly around his body, but now closer, she could see he really was in a very bad way.

‘Easy now, Suhrab,’ Naseem hushed him. ‘We’re going to fix you right up.’

The man named Suhrab smiled a little as he was laid back down and nodded. Reaching for Arun’s dagger that she had been keeping tucked in her boot, she offered it to Naseem, who began to cut away his bonds carefully.

‘Do you know what’s wrong with Lady Esta?’ she asked gently. ‘What have they done to her?’

‘They didn’t touch her, my Queen, I swear it,’ Suhrab croaked. ‘We made sure of that.’

‘What do you mean?’ she frowned, trying not to flinch at the honorific. It was hard to keep her voice soft and calm as she asked, glancing back to the perfectly still woman and fearing the worst. Rostam came to stand behind her, and nodded that all of the Ffionites were dead. He then kneeled before Lady Esta and waving his hand once in front of her deadened eyes. There was no response, and he looked worriedly back to Naomi.

‘They tried to make sport of her, but we stopped them. The other two died yesterday from their injuries.’ he sighed, then grimaced as Naseem pulled the last of the rope away from his torso. Naomi swallowed hard at the horrific state he was in, but tried to keep her face blank as he continued. ‘I don’t know if I could have kept her safe again. Thank the gods for you, My Queen.’

Glancing at her, Naseem leaned back on his heels. ‘Suhrab, you’re bleeding on the inside. I need to use a pretty strong healing spell if you’re to live.’

‘Thank you,’ the tired soldier whispered, closing his eyes.

Naseem turned to her then, offering back the dagger so she could slide it back inside her boot. ‘I need to do this now, but he’ll be unconscious afterwards. Probably for some time.’

She nodded her understanding. With Esta unresponsive and Suhrab down for the count, not only would answers be out of reach, but getting back to the Moss Tortoise with the haste they needed was going to be incredibly difficult. Still, if Suhrab needed treatment now, then they would simply have to deal with it.

Leaving Naseem to his work, she looked at Esta again. ‘What’s wrong with her?’

‘I’m not sure,’ Rostam said. ‘It looks like the Bond. We need to find out what happened to Lord Rayan.’

Rostam sounded so stricken, she looked back to him. ‘What do you mean?’

‘If Lord Rayan is no longer living, it could have caused this to happen to Lady Esta,’ he replied slowly. ‘But I don’t think that’s the case. It seems more likely that he’s alive, but in great pain.’

Naomi stared, trying to process what was being said. ‘I don’t understand. Why would the Bond do this to her in either case? It’s my understanding that it’s some kind of parasite, isn’t it? It needs its hosts to live, and that’s why it heals so quickly.’

Naseem and Rostam both looked at each other strangely, then back to her. The sergeant shook his head. ‘No, My Lady. The Bond ties you to one another. You share each other’s good health and strength, but also your pain. If one of you is unwell or injured, the Bond shares the strength of the other until you’re both hale again. Equally, if one of you is tortured, the other would feel it, and if one of you was to die…’

‘Oh no, this must be a joke,’ she said, already knowing that it wasn’t. Furious, she thumped herself in the leg. ‘Why didn’t he tell me any of this?’

‘It doesn’t always happen like that,’ Rostam answered hurriedly. ‘There have been cases where the Bond isn’t strong or hasn’t been in place for very long, one spouse has died while the other lives on. Sometimes if there’s a child, as well. Lord Rayan’s own mother survived the death of her husband, although they say she is much altered by it.’

It took all of her self-control not to lower her shields and fire her furious displeasure at this information right into Arun’s head. She knew things had been hard, but for heaven’s sake! Didn’t he think it was important to mention that if anything happened to her, he might die? What else hadn’t he told her? Curse the man!

‘The more I hear about this damned Bond spell, the more I loathe it,’ she snarled. ‘It makes no sense to me! Why would anyone choose to do this to themselves?’

‘Because I love him.’

Esta’s whispered voice made all three turn in her direction. She was still sat where she had been, but the emptiness had gone from her eyes, and tears streamed down her cheeks. She looked at Naomi, pain sharp in her expression.

‘I love him so much, that even without the Bond, I would rather die than live without him,’ she continued, reaching out her hand and taking Naomi’s carefully. She gave it a gentle squeeze, and Naomi felt some of the anger retreat. ‘The Bond means that while he suffers this immense pain, I can sustain his life and bring him comfort. It means that when he goes away to war, as his work dictates, there are no weeks of waiting for news. I would know the instant he was hurt, the instant he achieved victory, the instant he died. I can be with him in his last moments, no matter how far apart we are.’

Swallowing hard, she understood Esta’s sentiments, despite disagreeing with them. She could see that if you loved someone that much, it could work in your favour to be so intimately connected. The problem was she didn’t want that, not with Arun, not with anyone. She couldn’t even imagine feeling romantic love like that, trusting someone with that sort of hold over your life and heart. She had seen what happened if you loved someone who didn’t love you back. Her poor mother had been enough of an incentive for Naomi to be very careful about who she trusted with herself.

She didn’t even know Arun! While it was true he was growing on her a little, she still didn’t particularly like him. He was arrogant, hot-headed, and rude. It wasn’t that he was a bad person, but the fact that all choice in this power he had over her was gone made her shake. He didn’t deserve it, and if she could rip herself away from this spell, she would. She didn’t want anyone to have the kind of hold on her he now had, but it seemed there was so little she could do about it.

Clearing her throat, she tried to turn her mind away from the raging turmoil and focused back on the task at hand. ‘Lady Esta, can you tell us what happened?’

‘Is Arun alright?’ she asked, sounding calmer, but still somehow distant. ‘Rayan needs to know he’s alright.’

‘He’s fine,’ Naomi assured her. ‘He’s safe with the rest of the soldiers and a friend of mine. He’s still heading to Pearpetal, to your ship.’

‘He can’t go there!’ Esta gasped, grasping her hand tightly. ‘That’s where they’ve taken Rayan! It’s a trap!’

‘Shh, it’s okay, we’ll go tell Arun now. My friend won’t let anything happen to him, but they’re waiting for us before they go any further.’ She saw Esta relax visibly then, and chewing over her words, decided to probe further. ‘Are you able to tell me what happened?’

Esta took a deep, shuddering breath, and closed her eyes. ‘We were ambushed. We heard the harpy attack the camp, but as soon as we tried to return and help, they came out of the trees and held us at bay. There was little we could do.’

‘There were only six of them,’ Naomi asked in confusion, looking around the camp. ‘Originally there were ten of you. How could they take you down so easily?’

‘No, there was more. At least twenty. Everyone fought so hard, until there was just the five of us left,’ Esta squeezed her hand for reassurance, and taking it in both of her own, Naomi waited for her to continue. ‘By the time they captured us and came back to the camp to get the rest of you, you were already gone. We found the dead harpy and all the… the soldiers. Rayan knew it must have been you that got Arun to leave. He was so grateful.’