A Thousand Heartbeats

I didn’t tell anyone what I saw. I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to talk about it, not even to Escalus. There was a world of difference between worrying people were going to die and watching it happen.

We were at war.

There were no gifts on these boats, only tons of soldiers. We weren’t making a treaty on the Island, just fighting where it wouldn’t hurt our kingdom. We weren’t even brave enough to be honest about it; we’d walked them into a corner.

“My lady?”

I startled at Noemi’s touch.

“I’m so sorry, my lady,” she said, coming in front of me.

I placed a hand on my heart, trying to steady it. “Just Annika today, Noemi. What’s happening?”

“We’re almost there. It seems we’ve suffered very little damage and almost no loss of life. Based on what he saw, His Majesty says we greatly outnumber them. It should be a quick and easy defeat.”

I nodded. That was what we wanted, right? What I’d said I wanted? If it came down to them or me, it was going to be me. And if not me, at least Escalus. Escalus had to survive.

“Did you suspect?” I asked her. “That we were going to attack them?”

She shook her head, her eyes holding the same horror mine did.

“I’ll go up now. I want to be out there, Noemi. I want to be beside Escalus.”

“The king won’t like it,” she whispered.

“Oh well.” I stood and made my way to the upper deck.

It was peaceful out here now, with men moving around, preparing muskets and ammunition. I had my sword at my waist, not bothering to hide my intentions anymore. Looking to the horizon, I saw the Island as we approached.

I could see there was an inlet perfect for disembarking ships of our size. Most of the land was forested, though the trees looked foreign to me, and I could see mountain peaks in the distance. The only thing menacing were the clouds coming from the northeast, thick and imposing. In my head, I’d painted this place as unwelcoming, but the trees were so green, the sky was so bright that, if I’d been forced to describe the Island in a word now, I’d have chosen inviting.

The men pulled the ship in to the old docks, and I mounted my horse.

Noemi went to mount up as well, as I’d instructed her to, but Escalus came over.

“No! Under no circumstances are you disembarking. It was one thing to have you come along when we thought it was a small envoy, but now that there’s an entire army out there, you will not be leaving this ship.” He took the reins of Noemi’s horse in his hands, swallowed hard, and spoke. “I forbid it.”

“I unforbid it,” I called.

“Annika, do not push me today,” Escalus warned.

I sighed. “If things get too intense, she can come back to the boat.”

He was still angry at me, still enraged that I could be putting her in danger. But after a moment, the tension in his shoulders relaxed. “Fine. But nothing changes. You stay behind me, and you will leave if I give the order. Do you understand?”

She nodded. “Absolutely, Your Royal Highness.” There was gravity in her voice, an understanding passing between them.

I knew he was worried for her safety—I was, too—but it would be better for both of them if they were in the same place, where they would know exactly what was happening. If there was one thing Lennox had given me, it was a strange sense of peace through knowing the truth. That, at least, I was grateful for, and I wouldn’t rob my brother or Noemi of it. Not on a day like this.

I wondered about those left in Lennox’s army. How many had survived the onslaught? Had they come ashore yet? Were they on their way to us now?

Were they too crushed by the numbers they’d lost to carry on?

I would have been.

Swallowing, I looked at Escalus, who was mounting his own horse, and Father as he did the same. Noemi, brushing her hair off her face, and even Nickolas. What would I do if I ended this day without a single one of them?

I pushed that thought away and followed them to land. Our soldiers were disembarking as well, marching in clean lines through the thick brush. My horse didn’t seem nearly as confident here as he did back home, and it bothered me that even he could sense something was off.

I took breaths to steady myself as we made our way in silence under the canopy of strange trees. In the distance, the scattered forest broke into a clearing. The sky was split, sunlight shining brilliantly on one half, the gray of heavy rain clouds on the other. Father held up a hand as we neared the edge of the forest, and I pulled my horse to a halt.

“I see them, too,” Escalus whispered.

“Which means they can see us,” Nickolas added.

“No point in hiding, Your Majesty. If this is why we came, let’s squash this quickly and go home,” Escalus said.

Father took a long pause, looking first to Escalus and then to me. He shook his head, as if he only just now realized what he’d backed us all into. Sighing, he stared into the empty field, bracing himself for whatever came next. And then we marched.

My stomach dropped. We’d been roped into a battle we didn’t know was coming. How was this supposed to end well?

I couldn’t help myself. Once we were out in daylight, my eyes searched for Lennox. When I finally found him—his hair lifted by the breeze, his cape out behind him—he was already watching me. His sword was drawn, but those clear blue eyes were not nearly as menacing as I’d prepared myself for.

Those weren’t the eyes that ordered me to surrender and bound my hands; those were the eyes that let me go when he could have dragged me back.

I didn’t know how battles began. In my heart, I hoped that Father—now that he’d come to his senses about how terrible this was—would walk out to calmly speak to them, and that their leader would meet him halfway. I hoped that after they’d already suffered loss, they’d be willing to compromise in order to save lives. I hoped we could genuinely give them this island as a gesture of peace after taking so many of their people. I hoped we could all do better.

No such thing happened.

Without warning, the bulky shape of Kawan moved, doing so faster than I thought him capable. A bow came from nowhere, hidden under his layers of fur and leather, but the arrow was crisply visible against the graying sky, flying straight as it pierced my brother’s chest.

“Escalus!” Noemi screamed, already jumping from her horse to help him.

Around me, our soldiers charged without waiting for orders. I watched my brother slump forward, taking shaky breaths as he stared at the arrow. “Don’t pull it out,” he warned Noemi. “That will make it worse.”

So, just like that, he was going to die?

Escalus was going to die. We were far from home, and he had an arrow lodged in his chest, close to his shoulders, with no means of removing it.

And suddenly, I was very much made for the battlefield.

Lennox was still standing where I saw him last. It was as if he knew. His people might advance, and my soldiers might charge, but he and I could go up against no one else.

I dug my heels into my horse, and he sprang into life. As I started galloping, I heard someone behind me scream my name. I ignored it, my eyes trained on Lennox. He watched me for a moment, making sure I was coming his way, then turned and sprinted away. Between the distance and his speed, he had quite the head start. That wouldn’t save him today. He bolted into the forest behind him, moving nimbly around trees and jumping shallow streams. I unsheathed my sword, holding it high.

He killed my mother. He kidnapped me. His army might have just murdered my brother. So, it seemed only fitting that I ever so swiftly remove his head.

As I came up on him and went to swing, he ducked, sensing me on top of him. He turned and moved in a different direction while I pulled my horse to a stop to turn and chase him. He stopped behind a cluster of trees too tightly grown for me to follow on horseback. I circled around, trying to find a break, a way I could corner him. There wasn’t one.

I knew what he was doing. If I wanted a chance at him, I had to dismount. I hated to lose any advantage I had, but it had to be done.

I hopped from my horse, staring into the piercing blue eyes of my enemy. He watched me for a moment before stepping into the light.

Quite suddenly, all the sound in the world disappeared. No wind in the trees, no birds, no swaying grass. The earth itself held its breath as we came to meet for the last time.

“Your Highness,” he finally said with a bow. Then he charged.

I raised my sword to block him, thinking of what Rhett had taught me: I couldn’t just fend him off; I needed to attack, to strike.

I rounded on him, swiping my sword dangerously close to his cheek. When he backed up, realizing how his perfect face had nearly been ruined, he looked almost impressed. That didn’t slow him for long, and he came back at me, swinging down again. It seemed his plan wasn’t to simply run me through; he was going to wear me out first and then go in for the kill.

Two could play that game.

I swung low, forcing him to bounce back or jump to the side. He was much bigger, so it was certainly more tiring for him to move like that than for me. More than once, our swords hit in ways that sent out sparks. Our strengths were different, but we were well matched, making the fight go longer than I wanted. I suspected he felt the same.

I was about to strike Lennox again when the hush surrounding us broke. I heard the strangest sound, almost like thunderous applause. I saw in Lennox’s eyes that he heard it, too. In silent agreement, we both pulled our weapons back and turned to see what looked like a wall of gray clouds advancing as steadily as either of our armies. Wind and rain wrapped up together—overlapping as if fighting for dominance—crept ever closer as the darkness rolled in. This must have been the storm I’d seen in the distance from the ships, the darker side of the gray clouds now taking over the entirety of the sky.

At first, I was too in awe to do anything. How eerily stunning it was, how mysterious and grand. And then I saw the winds rip a tree up from its roots, and I started running.

Lennox was beside me in a flash, passing me by a few feet, then holding that same position as we ran.

I didn’t dare look back. I could hear the rain and wind behind me, and that was all I needed to continue moving forward. I’d never seen a storm like this, didn’t know how to protect myself. I couldn’t hold on to a tree—those were being torn from the ground—and I didn’t think dropping to the forest floor would help, either.

I was wrong: there was nothing welcoming about this land.

And then, in the distance, my salvation presented itself. In the side of one of those strange rocklike mountains, down an edge as sheer as a cliff, there was an opening. I didn’t know how deep it went, but it was my only chance at shelter. The only problem was that Lennox was clearly heading toward the same place. He glanced over his shoulder, first looking at me, and then at the approaching wall of wind. His eyes widened, and he pushed himself to move faster.

So, I did the same. Unfortunately, my legs were not as long as his, and my dress was limiting me. It was only a few seconds later that I tripped over a root and fell, face-first, onto the ground. I cried out from the impact, feeling certain my ribs would be bruised. I pushed myself up to my knees, desperate to keep moving, when suddenly a hand wrapped around my arm.

“Come on!” Lennox shouted, pulling me from the dirt and dragging me toward the cave.

“Keep running,” he insisted, dropping my arm once I was moving so we could hold our swords in one hand and pump with the other.

I did my best to keep up, trailing just a few steps behind him. Lennox paused at the opening of the cave, holding an arm out for me and pulling me in. We both turned, looking at the encompassing wall of gray.

“What is that thing?” I asked.

“A hurricane,” he said, the words sounding more like a question than confirmation. “We’ve gotten them before, but not this strong and never this fast. It’s going to come right over us. We have to get deeper in.”

We turned, surveying the cave. There wasn’t much depth that I could see. From the opening, the walls fanned back to form a sort of triangle, with two rounded corners. It looked like there was something scratched on the walls, but I couldn’t be sure. All that really mattered was we were trapped in here, and there wasn’t anywhere else to hide.

The sound of the wind was reaching a piercing level, and it was so close, I could feel the suction of it. I moved with Lennox to one of the corners, wishing we had more protection. I pulled my sword up as high as I could and drove it into the ground, uncannily, at the exact same moment Lennox did. He knelt, pulling me down, and we gripped our swords as the winds breached the cave.

The sound was nightmarish, loud and chaotic, and the winds were strong enough that they lifted me from the floor for a second or two at a time. I gripped my sword, hoping that I’d driven it in deep enough to hold. Looking down, I saw Lennox’s knees come up, too, and I reached out for him, attempting to pull him back down. Once his legs were back on the ground of the cave, he gripped me, too. He wrapped a leg around me, and I did the same. We held on to our hilts and one another, just trying to stay alive. I felt when he readjusted his grip, and I felt when he pulled me in tighter. My legs were surely going to be bruised from where I kept slamming into the floor, and I had to imagine Lennox’s arms were burning as much as mine were from the strain. And then, as if he could read my thoughts, he let out a groan through his teeth, as if giving a focus to the ache. I buried my face into his chest, digging fingers into his clothes, holding on until, as quickly as it had begun, the winds began to subside.

We were on the ground, holding our swords, tangled into one another, and panting as if we’d just run across the entirety of the Island.

We stayed still a few moments, unsure if the winds would pick up again. The howling was diminished, but still there. The new noise was now the rain.

We released our grips, looking out at the sheets of rain. The lip of the cave tilted down, so it wasn’t coming in, but it wasn’t anything I was looking forward to rushing into. After having my eyes clenched shut for so long, I’d adjusted to the darkness and could make out Lennox’s uncomfortable expression.

Clearing my throat, I dropped my arm and untangled my legs, moving quickly to stand. Lennox got to his feet first and, with some effort, jerked his sword upright, releasing it from the ground. If it was that hard for him, this was going to be embarrassing for me. I had to tug three times to get my sword out.

Lennox wasn’t even paying attention. He was walking, surveying.

Then he took a deep breath, a wild smile playing on his face. “Are you ready to get back to the business of dying?”

“Absolutely,” I replied, having no intention of losing my life today. He raised his sword as I pulled back mine, and we both hit stone.

I tried to readjust, but it didn’t matter. The ceiling didn’t offer much room, and, to be honest, it was going to be all but impossible to move in here; we were just as likely to injure ourselves as we were each other.

We both came to this unfortunate realization at the same time.

“So how does this end?” I asked, out of ideas. “If we can’t properly fight, do we run for it?”

He pointed to the torrent outside. “Can you see your way through this?”

I turned and stared, straining. “I think I see a tree. Maybe.”

“Exactly. If we run, we won’t make it. So, you can attempt if you want, but I’m not dying like that.”

“Neither am I,” I replied.

“Then I’m afraid it’s an uncomfortable truce for us, Your Highness.”

I huffed. He was right, of course, and I hated that. All I could do for now was survive.

“You keep to that side of the cave, and I’ll keep to this one,” I ordered.

“Agreed,” he replied, and we stepped away from each other, settling on the floor, staring across the cave into the eyes of our enemy.