A Thousand Heartbeats

I rode without stopping. When the sun set, and I lost the light, I navigated by the stars, moving east and slightly south. I would find water when I got to Kadier. I would find rest when I got to Annika. Everything beyond that was superfluous.

I moved with little more in my head than the worry that someone might be following me by now. I figured I had at least a day. Kawan wouldn’t be able to get that many people moving by night, not as battle worn and low as they were. It was Blythe I feared now; she might be driven to vengeance, and, if she was, it was possible I’d lost Inigo to her already.

I crossed the field where the army had camped as a group the night before we stole all the boats from Stratfel. I crossed the place where I’d first met Annika and fought with her. And I slowed my horse to a trot when I saw the glittering palace in the distance.

This was it. I was in Kadier. I was in Dahrain.

After all these years, after all the struggle, all I’d ever had to do was keep riding.

I paused for a moment, looking around, wondering if I would notice something, some piece of a long-lost past that had been embedded into my very bones. There was nothing.

The air was different, less briny than at Vosino. There was almost a sweetness to it. And the trees were blossoming with flowers I didn’t know. The houses I passed were tidy if small. And while it was all very beautiful, none of it was familiar.

The only thing that told me I was home was this warm feeling in my gut, something that said I was exactly where I was meant to be.

While that sensation was a comfort, I still didn’t know how to get into the palace. I got off my horse, walking him through the streets until I saw the palace gates. They were stone and sturdy, and the front gate was covered in gold. It was wide open, but there were guards on either side of it, so I doubted I could simply walk in. I stood there and sighed, trying to think of a plan. Of course, I could always try to break in. I could get over that wall if I found a portion without guards on either side. Or if I wandered around the back, there might be a weak section, something that wasn’t well tended.

But neither of these helped with the true problem: I didn’t know how to find Annika once I was in.

“Are you lost?”

I started as I looked down, finding a boy of maybe twelve or so standing right beside me. His eyes were wide, trusting, and he fidgeted as he adjusted a heavy bag thrown over his shoulder. He was too young to know what it meant to have enemies. I pitied that my peers might ruin that soon.

“In a sense,” I replied. “I have a friend in the palace, but I don’t have an invitation, so I don’t know how to get in.”

“Oh. What’s his name? I work in the stables,” he told me. “Maybe I know him, too.”

I was about to tell this curious boy that I wasn’t looking for a him at all . . . when an idea came to me.

“Actually, his name is Palmer. Officer Palmer.” I did a quick mental inventory of what I had on me and reached into my waistbelt, pulling out my switchblade. “This is the only thing I have that would be of any value to you. It’s yours if you can bring Palmer out to me. Can you do that?”

He squinted. “He’s the one who was missing, right? He came back all beat up?”

I nodded. “Yes. Heard he had quite the adventure. Do you think you could bring him to me?”

The boy looked around and then pointed. “Wait under that tree over there.”

In a flash, he took off, running through the gates without notice from the guards. I pulled my horse over to the tree and waited, gazing at the apples growing in the branches above me. So this was what it was like here? Trees and food grew without anyone really tending it? I shook my head. I reached up and gave an apple to my horse, and I stuffed another in my bag for later.

After a few minutes, I started getting restless. What if he couldn’t find Palmer? Should I still try to break in? How long should I wait before trying?

An older man and his wife walked by. She had a cane, and he was holding her other hand. They walked slowly, coming from who knows where and in no hurry to reach their destination. They looked as if they felt safe here, content. Whatever the faults of the Kadierians, I had to admit the common people were well tended.

Once they passed the gate, I was stunned to see Palmer walking out. When his eyes met mine, he smiled.

“I’m so glad you changed your mind,” he said by way of greeting. “I fear the monarchy is sinking beneath my feet, and we need all the help we can get.”

“I’m here for Annika. That is all.”

He nodded. “That will be enough.”

“I hope so. I need to warn you now that my departure might have sped up an inevitable invasion.”

Palmer nodded. “Well, as you say, it’s inevitable. At least now we have both foreknowledge and you.” He took my horse by the reins and pulled him through the gates of the palace. I kept my eyes down and my mouth shut. I had no idea who had been on the Island, and I wondered if anyone besides Annika would recognize me. Dear Nickolas might if our paths crossed.

Palmer walked me around the side of the palace, and I could see we were heading straight to the stables. Annika had mentioned something about training out there, and I smiled at how little space she’d had to make herself so competent with a sword.

“Told’ya I could get him.”

I turned and found the boy already back to his work, cleaning a stall.

“So you did. And, as promised, your reward.” I handed over my switchblade, a little sad to part with it. “Use it well.”

“Grayson, please tend this horse,” Palmer requested. “If anyone asks, I received a guest from my hometown. That is all.”

Grayson smiled and gave a tiny salute. “Yes, sir.”

Palmer chuckled as he led me out toward the castle. “He’s a good one. Her Royal Highness actually helped the last stable hand get a place in library ages ago. Rhett. Changed his life. I daresay she’ll try the same for Grayson at some point.”

Ah. Rhett. That was another name I knew. Palmer, Rhett, Dear Nickolas, and Escalus. These were the men in Annika’s life. I had to say, I didn’t care for half of them.

“Where is Annika now?” I couldn’t hold back from asking. “Under guard, I assume?”

Palmer nodded. “I’ve come to trust you. So, don’t fail me, Lennox. Everything is falling apart right now. If it sinks, I’m trusting you to keep her afloat.”

“Easy,” I said. “I’d do that at the risk of my life. And yours. And anyone else’s, come to think of it.”

He stared into my eyes, looking, I think, for a lie. He found none.

“Keep your head down. Follow me.”

I traced Palmer’s steps down the back hallways and staircases of the palace. Every once in a while, I allowed myself the briefest glimpse at a piece of art or furniture, but otherwise, I obeyed. He stopped at a corner, holding out an arm, and I waited.

“Let’s go.” He moved quickly, opened a door, and pulled me inside as fast as he could. “You’re to wait here. No one besides Her Highness or myself would be so bold as to open the door without knocking. If you hear someone else coming, hide.”

“Understood.”

Palmer went from the room as fast as he came, and I turned around to see exactly where I was.

Oh.

Her fingerprints were all over this room. In the half-finished needlework by the window, in the books piled by the bed, in the five dresses slung over the back of a couch, in the colors and textures and scents of everything.

I judged from the clothes scattered about that no one had been tending to her, and, while the room wasn’t that cold, I chose to make her a fire all the same. Once the kindling was lit, I stepped back, walking around. I supposed some part of me should be jealous of the fine way she’d been raised. But it was easier to take heart in the fact that the girl I’d loved since I was a boy grew up in comfort. I walked over to the foot of her bed, dropping my bag there and reaching up to touch the gauzy fabric that hung down along the posters.

My hands were too dirty for this place.

“I will be outside this door until dawn.”

I turned, hearing Palmer’s voice outside the door. “By then, you will have to give me instructions on what your plans are.”

“Plans for what?”

My heart started dancing at the sound of Annika’s voice. I reached quickly into my bag.

“You’ll see,” Palmer replied.

He allowed the door to open just wide enough for her to walk in, making sure that no one might accidentally see me. Annika’s adorably confused face looked at her hands, at the fire . . . and then at me.

She froze where she was, speechless, and even from across the room, I could see the tears in her eyes.

I tossed the apple across the room, and she caught it easily.

“Will you ever stop surprising me?” she asked.

“I hope not.”

“I have so much to tell you,” she whispered.

I shook my head. “Unless it’s to tell me that you love me a thousand times, it can wait.”

And she dropped the apple, running across the room and crashing into me, throwing us both back onto the bed.