Battle for Cymmera. Dani-Lyn Alexander
Читать онлайн книгу.
grabbed her arm, the flare of pain in her hand a stark reminder of the injury the savage had inflicted. “No way. We have to get out of here.”
Holding a hand up for everyone to stop, Lucas cracked the door and peered out.
“I may know a place we can go, but I need a book from my room.” Mia pulled her arm free.
“All right, let’s go then.”
Mia pinned her with a stare. “I’m going alone, Ryleigh. You have a responsibility to an entire kingdom now.”
“My responsibility to you will never change.”
Lucas pushed the door open wide and whispered for their group to stay low and against the wall as they entered the back courtyard.
The children remained unnaturally quiet, their eyes wide with confusion and fear as they followed Lucas’s instructions. An older girl lifted a younger one into her arms and hugged her tight. Silent tears streamed down the little girl’s face as they ducked low and filed out.
Mia lowered her voice to an urgent whisper. “You are my queen, and I respect you. You are my sister, and I love you. I appreciate that you’ve always protected me and taken care of me. But you babied me to death. Was that really for me? Or was it for you? To fill your need to keep me close, to avoid dealing with the pain and grief of losing those close to you.”
“Look, Mia—”
“I refuse to be your excuse to shirk your responsibility to thousands of Cymmeran citizens now. I am your closest advisor. I am Cymmera's new prophet. Elijah trained me to assume that role.”
She ripped her arm out of her sweatshirt, baring a tattoo that circled her bicep. A thin, intricately woven, tribal design, purple and lavender intertwined lines, similar to the one that had appeared on Ryleigh’s arm during Jackson’s Death Dealer ceremony, only instead of white flowers marking her as a queen, Mia’s tattoo held the deepest royal purple flowers. Perhaps marking her as a prophet? “Now… You have your responsibilities, and I have mine.” She started toward her room.
Shock held Ryleigh silent. Was Mia right? It didn’t matter. She didn’t have time for this right now, and right or wrong, Mia wasn’t roaming the castle alone while they were under attack. She started after her.
Survivors still streamed out the back door, their hushed whispers gaining urgency while they waited their turns to evacuate.
Darius Knight appeared behind Ryleigh and shoved a little boy into her arms. “I’ll go with her. Get everyone out of here.”
She shifted the boy’s weight to her uninjured side.
Darius reached Mia in a few long strides, took her arm, and leaned close to her ear.
“I’ll meet you by the dragon caves,” Mia yelled.
Letting Mia go was one of the hardest things Ryleigh had ever done, but she did let her go. No matter how strange Mia had been acting lately, she had to trust her. And she trusted Darius to protect her. They could sort the rest out later. As Mia and Darius disappeared, she wiped the little boy’s tears, held him closer, waited for the remaining survivors to exit the kitchen, and waved the two remaining guards forward. “Let’s go.”
They crossed the courtyard at the back of the castle and slid through the large iron gate undetected.
Black smoke billowed from one of the tower windows.
They descended the back side of the mountain before reaching the next mountain in the chain and starting up. The smaller children struggled to navigate the rough terrain. The adults, many of them injured during skirmishes in the castle, did their best to help, but their pace had begun to slow.
The little boy who’d struggled so wildly had finally settled down. He now trod beside the soldier who’d saved him, head down, shoulders slumped in defeat.
They had to find somewhere safe to rest.
The castle blocked any view of the mountainside below it that held the city of Cymmera, but smoke filled the sky in that direction, so she could only assume the worst.
Ryleigh slid and almost lost her footing, loose rocks tumbling down the mountain behind her. She clutched the little boy closer, biting back a scream as agony tore through her hand. Healing didn’t come automatically to her yet, and she couldn’t focus with everything going on. She’d managed to slow the flow of blood from her side a little, but if the lightheadedness was coming from the blood loss, she was going to have to try harder. She’d see what she could do once they reached the caves.
The boy slipped, and she hugged him tighter.
He whimpered and buried his head against her shoulder.
She didn’t know the child, but he couldn’t be more than two or three, and they had no idea where his parents were. She tried to reassure him he’d be safe, but mostly, he stayed quiet, only letting out an occasional soft cry when she squeezed him too tight.
The boy, he wouldn’t, or couldn’t, tell her his name, clung to her neck, practically choking her.
Savages stampeding on their heels spurred her to move faster than comfortable up the steep incline. Many of the others cast nervous glances over their shoulders. A few soldiers urged the civilians to move faster. Now way could they stop and give the kids a break.
They’d almost reached the dragon caves, but if the savages continued at their current pace, they’d probably overtake them before all of them made it to the caves. If they couldn’t make the caves, she’d have to try to find another escape route. But then how would Mia find them?
Besides, Mia specifically told her to go to the dragon caves. There might be an important reason for that. Jackson had always followed Elijah’s orders pretty blindly in Ryleigh’s opinion. If Mia really had taken Elijah’s place, a thought Ryleigh really couldn’t fathom at the moment, her instructions might be based on some knowledge only she possessed.
And where was Mia? She hadn’t returned to the group as far as Ryleigh knew. Neither had Darius, so she had to assume he was still protecting Mia. She refused to accept any other possibility.
“Here. Let me take him.” Noah pried the boy from her neck and lifted him into his arms. He grabbed Ryleigh’s arm and helped her climb over the edge of a slick rock formation. The higher they climbed, the more snow and ice coated the land.
“Is my entire army with us?” Though the group had stayed together, it was hard to keep track of who had escaped with them.
“Yes.” Noah climbed over the rocks behind her. “Our job is to protect the queen.” He waggled his eyebrows and shot her a grin. “Where you go, we go.”
She laughed and shook her head. His boyish charm seemed out of place under the circumstances but was a welcome distraction nonetheless.
Snorts and grunts from behind them sobered her quickly. “They sound awfully close.”
“I don’t think they’re as close as it seems. Most of your army is ahead of us, seeing to the safety of the women and children, but a line of Cymmeran Guardsmen escaped and are bringing up the rear. The savages will have to fight their way through that line before they can get to any innocent civilians. I haven’t heard any indication of a battle.”
“No, me neither.” Ryleigh climbed over the trunk of a fallen tree and scrambled onto a narrow ledge. She stood and stretched, her back sore from carrying the child, the gash in her side throbbing, then sat with her feet dangling over the edge and pulled the boy into her lap.
Better for Noah to have his hands free if they fell under attack. At least he had a weapon. And two working hands.
“Do you know how many we were able to get out?” She smoothed the little boy’s hair out of his face.
Noah knelt and checked him, avoiding Ryleigh’s gaze.
Several Cymmeran civilians dotted the mountainside below her,