Kingdom of Sea and Stone (Crown of Coral and Pearl #2) - Mara Rutherford Page 0,29
“This is a trap, Talin.”
“I know. But not for us, I don’t think.”
“What makes you say that?”
Talin jerked his head to the left. We were moving so fast I barely caught a glimpse of the rider among the rocks on a gray horse. She had a crossbow fitted against her shoulder, but she hadn’t fired at us.
I risked a glance back just as she loosed the arrow, picking off Ceren’s first guard.
“Who are they?” I called to Talin, who was ahead of me now that the road had narrowed.
“Galethians, if I had to guess.”
“Why are they helping us?”
“I have no idea, but I’m not going to question it.”
Another rider appeared, then a third. Soon, they had filled the road behind us. I stopped Titania and turned her around. Two guards lay dead in the road. I squinted to see if more would come, but only one rider came forward, slowly.
Ceren sat on a pitch-black horse, its coat providing a stark contrast to his pale skin and hair, as did his black armor and that dark metal circlet inset with gems atop his head. The red stones seemed to glow faintly in the moonlight. He looked larger than I remembered, his shoulders broader than his brother’s now, and there was color in his cheeks and lips.
He wouldn’t come closer. That much was clear. From this angle, I could see the Galethians scattered across the mountain, all clad in gray and mounted on gray horses to blend in with the terrain. At least a dozen crossbows were trained on Ceren.
Talin had ridden ahead and disappeared around a curve in the trail. The Galethians had started to fill in the road behind me, riding backward with their bows still aimed at Ceren’s heart. And still he sat impassively below the mountain, staring at me as if to say that he would see me again soon.
Titania snorted and stamped a hoof, breaking the spell, and Ceren turned away, leaving his dead guards behind to rot.
10
The Galethian riders surrounded our party without a word, escorting us the rest of the way up the mountain and down the other side. I was relieved to see that it was not the start of a mountain range, but instead the entrance to a wide valley that stretched as far as I could see, at least in the dark. The Galethians were like ghosts beside us, absolutely silent due to their lack of tack of any kind: no bridles, no saddles. The men and women were all dressed the same, in gray tunics and leather trousers. But though it was clear we were under their guard, they didn’t keep their crossbows aimed at us, and I felt safer than I had in ages. Even Ceren didn’t dare attack these people.
We crossed the lush valley single file. I could make out the shapes of horses in the dark, grazing. Behind us, on the mountaintop, was a stone fortress, but we were moving away from it. If I squinted, I could make out tiny twinkling lights scattered far ahead of us. Houses on a hillside, from the look of it.
“Where are you taking us?” Talin asked finally.
“To bed,” one of the women said, her tone as dry as sun-bleached fish bones.
Talin coughed. “Excuse me?”
A moment later, all of the riders burst out laughing. Even Osius snickered.
The woman responded to Talin when everyone had settled down. “You’ll stay in a cottage for the night. It’s late, and we’re all tired. In the morning we’ll take you to the fortress to meet our commander.”
“I see,” Talin said flatly. I shared his confusion, but I was so delighted by the idea of staying in an actual house that I nearly wept in relief.
Several of the riders broke off as we approached a hillside, apparently returning to their own homes, until the woman who had spoken was the last one to remain. She led us up to the front of a little stone cottage lit with lanterns on the outside. A stone barn stood off to one side.
“You’ll sleep here tonight,” she said. “There is hay for your horses.” She looked at Titania, then me. “Tomorrow you can explain how you ended up with Landrey’s horse.”
“I—What?”
She ignored the confused look on my face. “My name is Kester, by the way. I’ll be back at dawn to collect you.”
When she was gone, we all shared incredulous looks and dismounted.
“I don’t understand,” Zadie said. “Why are they treating us so well?”