Amaskan's Blood Raven Oak (polar express read aloud TXT) 📖

“I can’t help but wonder if you’re capable of playin’ body double to Her Highness. Your manners leave a lot to be desired.”

This time when Adelei grabbed a piece of fruit, she let the juice run down her fingers to her wrist as she squeezed it. “This is excellent fruit,” she said, and she slurped loudly as she cleaned up the juice by way of her tongue. Ida sighed but didn’t comment further.

“I’m trained well enough to know how to act when need calls for it. Right now, I need to eat breakfast so we can get on the road already, a task that would go much faster without you staring at me as if you’re waiting for me to wipe my arse on the table.”

The warrior’s chuckle was half growl, and she massaged her throat. “Point taken.”

When Adelei had woken up that morning, her jaw had still ached from the knowledge that she’d fallen asleep and missed her opportunity to flee her escort, but once she’d seen the abundance of food, she’d decided to stick around. Besides, she wasn’t sure she could get into Alesta on her own without being accosted.

“What did the Order tell ya about Her Highness?” asked Ida.

“Mostly idle gossip from the few towns I crossed through on the way here. She’s flighty and fanciful and possesses a cow’s brains. Pretty enough on the eyes but nothing betwixt them. Completely in love with life but never having experienced it.” Adelei aimed for a bored monotone but failed, the last of her words spoken with more bite than she’d anticipated.

“And I take it ya don’t approve?”

Adelei shrugged. “Who am I to tell a princess how to live? If she wishes to choose stupidity over intellect, so be it. It’s no skin off my back.”

“But it is,” said Ida, who leaned across the table. Her rancid breath tickled Adelei’s nose. “If you’re to guard her, how she lives is your concern and could mean ‘the skin off your back’ as ya put it.”

Her ears burned, but Adelei merely shrugged. Most people didn’t live long enough to intrude on the personal space of an Amaskan. Most people didn’t even try. Her gut told her to pin the warrior to the stone floor and find out her angle. Something was afoot. Patience would gain her better access, even if she did want to add another scar-line across Ida’s throat.

“If you’re to guard the Princess, to serve as a body double, you’ll need to act like a princess. So far, what I’ve seen is a youngling with too short a temper. Does Master Bredych no longer teach meditation?”

When Adelei stood, her chair fell and landed with a loud crack on the floor behind her. “How do you know that name?"” she whispered, fruit forgotten.

“Augh, we don’t have time to get into this. We’ve delayed too long already.” Ida dropped several bags at Adelei’s feet. “Grab your things—we need ta go.”

“We will make time. Now.” The words were a command, sharp as the knives Adelei carried.

“Not now. Not here.”

Adelei hesitated. Ida knew too many things she shouldn’t. She was more than she let on. A danger to the Order. If Master Bredych had been here, he’d have killed Ida. Adelei retrieved her bags but kept her gaze on the woman in front of her. If Adelei returned to the Order, she’d be an outcast. Ostracized for dishonoring them and worse, labeled an oathbreaker. She might have been stricken from the records, but at least she wasn’t marring them.

As she closed the door behind her, she paused a moment. “I will go with you, Sepier Warhammer, because this job has been given to me, but you will explain yourself once we reach the privacy of the road. If I feel you’ve been dishonest with me or have endangered my mission, you’ll find out how dangerous the Amaskans are, as I will kill you where you stand without hesitation or mercy. For the good of the people.”

The warrior smiled then, a half-smile that came with knowledge and a sense of power. “I would expect nothing less of a… former Amaskan.”

Ida mounted her horse: a large, dappled grey and black beast that stood a full two hands taller than Midnight. No way she could get a horse of that breed, much less handle mine, without access to the Order. She wears no tattoo that I can see, but somehow she’s had Amaskan training.

While Sadai’s main export was horses, the kingdom’s specialty was trained war horses. Expensive and smart, the beasts were well-built for combat and easily trainable. Mounts were taught simple commands like enemy and guard, making them invaluable to anyone in the battlefield. I’d never be able to afford one—lucky for me that Midnight was a gift from King Adir. Even on a captain’s pay, she’d not be able to afford such a mount. Just how close is she to this King Leon? A relative perhaps?

More questions than answers set a worry knot between Adelei’s shoulders, adding to the throb at the base of her skull where her head wound lay. No pack beasts, just the two horses stood outside the building. Forest lay between here and Alesta, capital city of Alexander. Plenty of small towns between, and thankfully, no desert.

Ida spun her horse around to face Adelei as she tied her saddlebags in place. “I’ll answer, but only because His Majesty’s ordered me to do so. Ya don’t intimidate me, and ya aren’t the first Amaskan I’ve encountered.” And with those words, Ida’s grey mare trotted off toward the eastern road and left Adelei hustling to catch up.

And you’re not the first pompous captain I’ve dealt with either. I’ve coped with women like you before—known a few in the Order in fact. It wouldn’t surprise me if you’ve tried to gain membership to the Order and failed out or quit. I wonder which it is?

Adelei urged Midnight into a canter. She was in no particular hurry to catch up to the