Page 14 of Onyx Cage: Volume II
A huff of air escaped my lips, a small, frozen cloud bursting out in the air in front of me. It wasn’t that I cared who shemarried, of course. It was the implication that the alliance would have on my clan.
I have plenty of chaos in my life already.
I lasted a full hour in the carriage before switching to my horse.
The ride was interminable enough without being cooped up in that space, allowing my mind to pull up ghastly image after image, and my soldiers patrolled our side of the mountains, ensuring that I was as safe as could be in this kingdom; not that I couldn’t take care of myself, or that my reputation didn’t precede me anywhere I went. Besides, if theBesklanovvymade an appearance somewhere on our journey, I would just as soon face them head on.
After several long days of riding, we finally emerged on the other side of the mountains. In spite of myself, I stopped short when I caught my first glimpse of Lochlann.
Parts of Socair were green in the summer, yes, and even through the winter with rows upon rows of pine trees, but it never looked quite likethis.
Lochlann was an explosion of color, almost too loud, like everything I knew of its people.
It was endless rolling hills in every shade of green, topped with bright purple and punctuated with spiky pink flowers. The roadways were lined with yellow flowering trees, some with deep red clusters of berries and sprawling branches, all against the backdrop of a bright blue sky.
Socair’s white winter must have felt like a prison to her, compared to the veritable rainbow that was her home.
“This feels like a place she would come from,” Yuriy’s words were pitched low so that only I would hear as he rode up next to me. “Even the birds are…louder.”
If it had been Kirill saying it, the words would have been teasing, but Yuriy was thoughtful. It was the first time he hadmentioned her since she left, though I’d caught him casting sad glances at her room several times a week, the outline of a card deck evident through the stark black pocket of his military coat.
I didn’t have the heart to explain to him that he was just another distraction when she was desperate in the land of her enemies.
That we all were.
Swallowing the thought, I realized that wasn’t fair to my cousin. Rowan had considered him a friend, the same way she had Taras. The same way she had Dmitriy…
It was only me she had used to fill her time until she could find her way back into Korhonan’s arms.
The garrison at the base of the mountains was an imposing tower of stone bricks lined with small, slitted windows where archers were positioned. Their arrows were nocked in their bows and aimed directly at us as we rode forward.
Yuriy approached slowly, handing over a letter with our seal to one of the Lochlannian soldiers at the gates. He then passed it back to a much stockier soldier with a hawk-like intensity in his dark eyes.
Authority bled from him as he scanned the letter, glancing up at us once or twice before nodding and motioning for us to ride forward.
His hair wasn’t the blood-red hue of Rowan’s, but streaks of auburn ran from his temple to his topknot.
“We have a contingent prepared to escort you,” he said in the deep accent of the Lochlannians.
For our safety or theirs?
I supposed it didn’t matter, not when we would have done the same if the roles were reversed, so I dipped my chin once in assent.
Though my men were visibly uncomfortable to be surrounded by the enemy, the Lochlannian soldiers were not outright hostile.
At least, the ones chosen to escort us weren’t.
But there was more than one hand twitching toward their weapons as we passed by the main patrol on the other side of the massive gates. Their eyes bored holes into us as we rode through, their expressions cold and cautious.
Had any of them fought in the war two decades ago? Had their families? Did they carry as much hatred for what and who we represented as the clans did for them?
My fingers itched for the swords at my back, but I kept my body still and my expression neutral, even if I was mentally calculating exactly how many men each of us would need to fight to escape, should the need arise.
Had Korhonan received the same warm welcome?
Had he considered his odds in a fight? Or had he been composed and calm, eagerly moving through their ranks as he made his way closer to my pet?
Of course, he had entered into this kingdom through a very different route—one even closer to the entry point our soldiers had used in the war. Had that made them more on guard? Or less, since they could have met him in the tunnels?