Endure - Sara B. Larson Page 0,29

of his feelings upon hearing my admission. He and Damian were very close…. Would he think of it as a betrayal to the king of Antion?

“Then we’d better keep going,” was all he said.

“Hey! What are you doing back there?” A shout startled us both, and we turned in unison to see a man striding toward us, brandishing a lantern in one hand and a sword in the other.

The meager light the lantern offered flickered over the man’s dark skin and even darker eyes.

Eljin lifted his empty hands. “You have nothing to fear from us,” he called out as the man drew closer, his features twisted with a mixture of anger and dread.

“Then why is he” — the man squinted at me in the darkness and then amended his statement — “I mean, she, holding a sword?”

I quickly resheathed it and lifted my hands as well. “I am Alexa Hollen, guard to King Damian, and this is Eljin, one of his most trusted friends and advisors. We are tracking a group of men from Dansii. They are holding one of King Damian’s guards captive, and we’re trying to rescue him. Did they come through here today?”

The man stopped a few feet away from us, the anger gone, replaced by exhaustion and a hint of wariness when he lifted the lantern up higher to get a better look at us. After being alone with Eljin for such a long time, I’d forgotten about my scarred face — or his. I just saw him, not the horrifying scars he’d earned trying to protect his mother as a child. But the man’s eyes widened when he looked at my face and then Eljin’s, reminding me of our disfigurements. “I think I know the men you’re talking about. They asked for some rooms, and claimed they were going to pay me to rent a few of my horses and then have them returned in a few days. I showed them my stable, and the next thing I knew, one of them hit me in the back of the head and knocked me clean out. When I woke up, my stable boy was dead on the ground behind me, the horses were gone, and so were they.”

Eljin grimaced, the combination of anger and sadness on his face echoing my own tumultuous emotions. “I’m very sorry.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to think my way through this. Our only option was to continue on foot, move as quickly as possible, somehow sneak into Dansii, and then figure out where Rafe went. Even though neither of us spoke Dansiian. And there was no way we’d be able to blend in, with our Blevonese coloring, our accents, and our clothing.

“Rafe’s taking him to the king. That’s what his letter said.” I pinched the bridge of my nose but opened my eyes to look at Eljin. “We’re going to have to ‘get caught’ and hope they take us to Armando. He wants me alive for some reason. If his men find us, they have to take us to the king.”

“And then what?” Eljin’s lips pursed into a thin line.

“What’s this guard they’re holding captive worth to the king?” the owner of the inn cut in. “If I were able to find you some horses … would he be willing to recompense me for my losses?”

“Yes,” I answered without hesitation. “If you could do that, I would personally see to it that King Damian remunerated you for your losses.”

“My brother runs an inn and stable two hour’s walk from here. I can send my son right away and he could return by morning with a horse for each of you.”

I didn’t want to waste another minute waiting, but getting horses of our own was our only hope of catching Rafe before he crossed into Dansii. On foot we’d be days, maybe even weeks, behind them.

“How far is the border from here?” Eljin asked the man, as if he’d heard my thoughts.

“Five or six days of hard riding. Three times that or more if you walk it.”

“We’ll take the horses. And a room for the night, if you have any available. If you keep your word, I promise you will be well compensated by the king.” Eljin glanced at me, and I nodded. It was our best option.

The man’s eyes narrowed, sizing us up. Weighing Eljin’s offer. “This way,” he finally said, turning and gesturing for us to follow him back across the small distance between the now-empty stable and the