Endure - Sara B. Larson Page 0,35
had been much more vital.
And there’d certainly been no time for a member of Prince Damian’s guard to dally in the library — even if Hector had given us access to it, which he’d refused to do.
As we continued our slow, silent trek around Bikoro, the shadow of the wall loomed larger and larger before us, and I let my mind wander. I let myself dream. Perhaps … if I made it back alive, if we somehow managed to survive this, and I was able to return to my king … once I was married to Damian and made queen, and once we’d somehow ensured peace for our people, maybe then I’d be able to indulge in reading and learning more of the history of our world.
Until that time, I supposed, it would be up to me to make history, not learn it.
I turned away from the city, forcing my thoughts to what lay ahead. Letting myself dream of being back with Damian was dangerous ground. It shook my resolve, shredding me inside as I thought of him alone at the palace, fearing the worst. I was doing the right thing, wasn’t I? As the massive wall loomed closer and closer, I wasn’t so sure. It was my fault Rylan was injured — my fault his life was in danger. But now it was also my fault that Damian was alone. Abandoned by the one person who truly loved him. Again.
“Alexa.” Eljin’s sudden urgent whisper shook me from my tortured thoughts.
I turned to see him staring behind us instead of looking at me. I craned my neck to look over my shoulder.
“Looks like we have visitors.”
I squinted through the darkness. There appeared to be a small group of men on horseback. Were they coming toward us? It was difficult to tell. The cloud cover that encased the night in darkness not only helped conceal us, it obscured our ability to see the men behind us.
They were still quite a distance back. If they were pursuing us, we could make a run for it and get to the wall long before they reached us. But then it would definitely appear as though we were doing something suspicious. My hands tightened on the reins, some instinct warning me that we needed to make it to the wall before those men made it to us.
“Let’s see if it’s us they’re after.” I urged Mira forward, squeezing my thighs and calves until she broke into a trot. Eljin had explained the different gaits to me during our trek through the jungle, and had taught me how to sit each of them. Apparently he’d grown up riding, much like Damian.
Gusto quickly caught up, trotting next to us. Eljin glanced over his shoulder every few seconds as we posted — what Eljin called rising and sitting in the saddle to match the uneven gait.
“They’ve sped up. They’re definitely pursuing us.”
Our eyes met, and I could see my own concern reflected in the dark depths of his gaze.
“What do we do?”
He glanced back one more time, and when he looked at me again, his expression was hard. “We can’t involve more people. We make a run for it.”
He tightened his reins and dug his heels into Gusto’s side. The gelding leaped forward into a gallop. I did the same to Mira, and soon the wind whipped past my face, tangling in my hair and stealing the moisture from my eyes as we pounded toward the wall. There was only one entrance that I could see, a massive iron gate, guarded by multiple men on both sides.
“What are we going to do?” I shouted at Eljin.
We were close now, only about a hundred feet away from the wall, and another fifty feet to the west of the gate, where the men on guard had turned toward us, lifting bows and arrows to take aim.
“Am I to shoot them?” I yelled, transferring the reins to one hand and reaching for the bow strapped over my chest.
“No!” Eljin suddenly sawed on the reins, leaning back and pressing his heels down. Gusto responded to his signal and slammed to a halt, kicking up clods of dirt and weeds from his hooves digging into the ground.
Shocked by his sudden stop, Mira and I went flying past them. I had to yank on Mira’s mouth, turning her back to Eljin and Gusto and then signaling her to stop as well. Eljin had already dismounted and stood near Gusto’s head, rubbing the gelding’s large