A Crown Of Blades(ARTK, Book 3)

Chapter 131-132

Anug 15th, 3330 A.G

Avelyn collapsed on the roll bed beside Loys, the hours of riding and then fighting a rather bold soldier over a place by a fire exhausting.

  She were quite skilled at keeping a mask over her face, at ensuring none could read what were behind her eyes- but that too took a toll. So much so that she'd begun yawning while sitting around that fire, and loys had nudged her shoulder with his.

She could not be seen to have any weakness amongst Nara's loyal soldiers. She'd seen how distrustful they were on numerous occasions, how their eyes would follow her the moment she got within a hundred feet of their pregnant queen- but she were not a monster, she were nothing like the woman who'd killed her father, who'd indirectly or directly caused the deaths of thousands.

  She would wait until she'd given birth. She would only kill the babe if no other opportunity presented itself; if Nara were alone with her babe and it were in the way of where she wanted to shove a sword-

But what were she saying? Nara Ashhand would not allow herself to be caught off guard. Nara Ashhand would never be completely alone with her heir, the future of her kingdom. There would always be a giant nearby, an advisor- or the damned king.

  He struck Avelyn as a relatively decent one, so she would not enjoy it but if there were no other options; if she could only get to one of them and get out quickly-

  Loys looked away from the cloth ceiling he'd been staring at, almost able to hear his lady's thoughts. "We could do it. We could do it right now and take off. Find an uninhabited island that is... occupiable and live our our days there."

  Avelyn's head snapped toward's him so quickly Loys thought it would fall off. "We could. But we must....."

  "Helywyse Whittaker has to die." Loys sighed. "It is why we are here, I know. And if we kill her before that happens-"

  "Her advisors or her king would make damned sure every man and woman were put on finding me. There would be an army of eight thousand spread across the entire world, all looking for me."

  "For us." Loys mumbled.

  "What?"

  "For us." He repeated a bit louder. "They'd be looking for us."

  Avelyn weren't quite sure what to say after that, so for a while she said nothing. Her mind wandered; to how even most of the lowest ranking servants seemed to love her father—at least when his family had been around to see. She thought of how noblewomen rarely got decent fathers, of how she'd been one of the lucky ones-

  And of how Segar's laugh had been so contagious even she struggled to ignore it in the weeks after her father's death. She remembered how he'd continued to care for her even when he were in moods of his own because a short-term relationship hadn't worked out. How he'd been born so kind, so different from his brother.

  Then she were reminded of how he'd gone to sharean to see his eldest sister; of how a messenger had come back instead of him and her fists clenched so tightly Loys were surprised there were no blood. After a few moments of this he grabbed both of her hands to force them open; with where they were at least one person would ask questions-

  And it weren't as if they could be honest about the depth of her anger in this place.

"If we... if we kill her now there will have been no point to any of this." Avelyn thought aloud. "To... tolerating her presence for weeks- what feels like years already. We will be killed too, because make no mistake that army out there would find us. And if they brought us back to the king whole, if they didn't hack off a few fingers for their own satisfaction first...."