The Ivory Knight

Chapter 19

They rode all day. Adeleina could feel already feel how sore she was going to be in the upcoming nights. 

She'd cried a little bit during the day, angry at the fact that they'd been caught by a group of dimwits and their arrogant leader. What kind of bandit or mercenary was that young, anyway?

They were losing all the progress they'd made over the past few days; even if she and Damien managed to somehow escape, there was virtually no chance of escaping without getting caught again. The trackers would only find them. Again.

She had not seen Damien all day. Presumably, he was riding behind her, but every time Adeleina craned her neck to see, a guard with leer at her and threaten to rope her completely if she tried to talk to "pretty boy". Adeleina stopped looking for Damien, but did not stop worrying about him.

Other than that, the day had been utterly uneventful. That snarky son-of-an-ass Rowan (whom Adeleina was secretly terrified of) always rode right next to her, making sure that she didn't try to run. This made Adeleina laugh silently. Her hands were bound; how did he expect her to jump off a horse and make it more than a few feet before getting pinned down by his knife? Whatever Rowan believed, Adeleina was no fool. She had to do this the right way: plan silently, hope for an opening, and do whatever it took to kill Alecsander.

That had become her lifeline, these past days. Strangely, Adeleina was almost glad to be taken back to Corandell. At least she had a shot of stabbing Alecsander through the eye before he did any more damage. 

"Stop!" Rowan shouted suddenly, breaking into Adeleina's furious plans. Adeleina tensed. Had something happened? Was she about to die before she even had the chance to call Alecsander a foul inbred--

"We're stopping for the night. Set up camp," Rowan barked. Adeleina relaxed, but only slightly. 

"What?" one of his men asked, flabbergasted. "It's not even close to sundown."

Rowan threw the one who'd spoken a murderous glare. 

"You don't get to direct what goes on," he said. Adeleina wondered how one man could hold so much arrogance in him. "I do."

The other one turned away sulkily. 

"You don't have to act like you're emperor of the world," Adeleina said icily, injecting as much dignity as she could into her tone as she was helplessly lifted off her horse. She hated being kidnapped.

"Aren't you afraid of mutiny?" she tried again, as Rowan ignored her and turned away.

"No," came his dry reply. Adeleina glared at his back. "They know better than to turn against me."

Adeleina fell silent, though in reality, all she wanted to do was shriek and strangle that bastard with her bare hands.

"Here," he turned and thrust a crusty, dry loaf of bread into Adeleina's roped hands. 

"What?" Adeleina clutched the loaf. It was small and hard and looked very much like ordinary bread, but she didn't trust it. Rowan probably poisoned it. Or, maybe he had filled it with rocks, and was waiting for her to fall for the joke so that he could mock her more.

Rowan sighed.

"You're supposed to eat it, princess. Don't they teach you manners in that castle of yours?"

"Don't they teach you manners in whatever mansion you hail from?"

Rowan threw his head back and laughed. He sounded like a wolf; his laugh was brittle and icy, as if he did not make such a sound very often. Adeleina felt the familiar rise of anger in her chest. Why did he keep laughing at her?