Heart of Defiance (The Royal Spares)

Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Signy

C aptain Amalia grimaces as she smears the yellowish green algae over her dark skin. “You’re sure this part is absolutely necessary?”

Landric’s mouth twists apologetically. “Unless you like the idea of getting stung by a horde of wasps.”

“No, I suppose I’d prefer to avoid that outcome.” She shakes her head. “Well, even if the stings don’t do the job well enough, the stink should keep the Darium soldiers far enough away they won’t be able to murder us.”

Her dry tone and the ridiculousness of the situation shock a laugh from my throat despite the tension balled tight inside me.

I restrain a grimace of my own as I dip my hand into the murky pond. The odor that rises off the water makes me think of rotting fish. A shudder runs through me as I slather more algae across my arms and onto my cheeks.

But it’ll be worth it if it means we can carve a bigger hole in the Darium army. At least the summer day is warm enough that the dampness isn’t unpleasant too.

Iko uses a stick to swirl the film that coats the surface of the water, his own tan skin already yellowed by drying algae. “Hard to believe anything else can live in this mess.”

“I don’t think much does,” Landric says, straightening up. He’s streaked the slimy stuff even through his coppery hair, but somehow he’s still handsome with his eagerness to share his knowledge brightening his expression. “The harvesters cultivate these ponds around the marl tree forests so they have easy access to the algae when they need it. I don’t think they care about much else.”

As we step back from the pond to give more of our allies a chance to slather themselves in the protective vegetation, Jostein shakes his head. “I wonder how the nobles on their estates would feel if they knew how much of a stink surrounds their fine furniture.”

Landric chuckles. “That’s why marlwood is so expensive—dealing with the damned wasps. But I don’t think the people who buy the products made from it give it much thought beyond knowing that type of wood is a valuable commodity.”

He knows because of the work his family does—because of how he’s helped his merchant parents with their business. When he presented his plan to me and then the officers last night, he explained that it’d occurred to him there was a marlwood forest within a few hours’ march of our current camp.

I examine my limbs for any patches of bare skin I might have missed. “What happens if the algae doesn’t ward the wasps off enough and they sting us too?”

Landric’s voice softens. “That shouldn’t happen. Not when they’ll have plenty of other targets to take out their annoyance on. But just a few stings will only hurt a lot and slow down your reactions. It takes several for full paralysis to set in. The only deaths I’ve ever heard of were unprepared folk stumbling into a stretch of marl trees and stirring up an awful lot of the wasps. They don’t even come out from their tunnels unless they’re disturbed.”

Of course, we’re going to be purposefully provoking the insects from their preferred home just beneath the bark of the trees. But I guess marlwood wouldn’t be a commodity at all if the harvesters couldn’t cut down trees to harvest it without being stung to death.

I’m not sure how well-known marlwood is in our neighboring realms, let alone all the way to Dariu. It’s possible someone in the Darium force is aware of its unique relationship with the wasps. But it seems unlikely they’d also be aware of exactly where the local supply happens to come from.

As we tramp around the edge of the forest, I breathe through my mouth to avoid the worst of the stench. At least we’re all in this smelly situation together.

Over where the woodland comes up on the nearby road, there’s a stretch with about a quarter mile of more peaceful trees—cultivated purposefully so that travelers through this area don’t accidentally set off a wasp attack. We’ve removed the signs warning of the marl trees beyond. Several of our soldiers are setting up tents and scattering equipment so it looks as if we were using this part of the forest as a camp rather than an ambush.

The Darium army won’t be quite as quick to charge after us now that we’ve played one trick on them. We need them to think they’ve caught us rather than that we welcomed the fight.

Another soldier lopes through the trees and tips his head to Captain Amalia. We’ve been leaving traces of our journey so the Darium forces can track us down, making the evidence look as accidental as we’re able to.

After yesterday’s confrontation, none of us has any doubt that High Commander Livius and his underlings will be eager for vengeance.

Our last sentry to arrive reported that the army was marching this way, only a couple of hours distant. I peer through the trees, hoping the man who stayed back to play a peddler walking the road will come out of his encounter with the Darium force in one piece.

He has to let the soldiers think they’ve bullied him into admitting he saw us hiding in these woods. With the grace of the gods, they’ll be in enough of a hurry to follow our trail that they simply toss him aside once he’s coughed up the information.

I check my sword at my side as if the algae might have stolen it when I wasn’t looking, my pulse beating faster. We had a huge victory yesterday. Today’s scheme isn’t even my plan—I’m not responsible for how it turns out.

But I’m here in the thick of it. And none of the other people around me would be here if I hadn’t lit the first spark of rebellion.

I sit down next to rather than on a bed roll, not wanting to risk contaminating it with the stink, and will my nerves to settle as well as I can. We can’t act until the Darium army reaches us. There’s nothing to do at the moment but wait.

Landric sinks onto the ground next to me, his eyes equally alert. Jostein and Iko have gathered with a few squad-mates around Captain Amalia. As my gaze lingers on them, taking in Jostein’s assured stance and Iko’s brilliant grin, Landric glances over at me.

He must be able to tell where I’m looking. His voice comes out low and even. “What’s going on between you and them… it’s more than just physical, isn’t it? ”

I swallow hard, the motion bringing back an aftertaste of the mirewort Jostein passed to me earlier this morning. To make sure there are no unintended consequences from our passionate interlude. For now , he said as he set the packet in my hand, with a gleam in his bright blue eyes as if he could imagine a future when pregnancy would be welcome rather than a mistake.

The memory of that moment and of Landric finding us last night sends an awkward flush through my body. “I don’t see how it’s any of your business.”

Landric winces. “I know it’s not. I know… I have a long way to go before you’ll really trust me. And you deserve to be happy.”

I raise an eyebrow. “I feel like there’s a ‘but’ coming.”

“Not really.” His gaze drops to the twigs and pebbles scattered on the forest floor around his feet. “This isn’t how I’d have wanted to look—or smell—when putting this out there, but it seems like I’d better say it now or I’ll lose any chance at all. I already lost so many when you were right there in front of me in town.”

Is he trying to present himself as an alternate suitor? My previous flush turns prickly beneath my skin. “If you’re saying that I should entertain your interest over theirs?—”

“No,” Landric says quickly, his head jerking back up so he can meet my eyes. “That wouldn’t be fair of me. But if it isn’t a competition between them, maybe... maybe you’d be willing to consider me alongside them.”

My breath snags in my throat. I don’t know how to answer him when he’s looking at me so earnestly, when all our tangled, painful history still hangs over us.

He means it right now. I don’t think he would have a couple of weeks ago. How quickly could his affections shift all over again ?

I still don’t trust him. So why does my heart thump even faster at his proposition?

Before I have to respond to him or myself, a short whistle pierces the air. My stance tenses, rising up so I’m braced on my feet.

The army is almost on us. Any moment now…

The seconds pass by with the rustle of the leaves overhead and the stench of dried algae seeping into my nose. I’ve almost sat down again, thinking it was a false alarm, when one of the sentries posted at the edge of the forest comes running into our midst.

“The Darium army—they’ve found us! We’ve got to get out of here!”

He yells loud enough for his voice to carry all the way to the road behind him—which is the point. Let the enemy soldiers think they’re falling on us unexpectedly, that they’ve driven us into a panic.

We scramble to our feet, panic not at all difficult to feign when all those swords and lances are bearing down on us. At least the trees will shelter us from distant arrows.

Landric grasps my arm with a quick squeeze, fear flickering through his expression and vanishing beneath a firming of determination. A thunder of stomping feet reverberates through the trees as the Darium army barrels toward us.

All of us take off for the deeper forest. We need them to see us fleeing but not quite catch up with us until we’re amid the marl trees.

Taunting shouts ring out behind us. The high commander’s voice booms out in the same contemptuous tone as yesterday. “You won’t escape us now, vermin. We’ll stamp you all out like the rats you are.”

The stampede of footsteps sounds from either side of us—the Darium soldiers doing their best to surround us, coming up along the edges of this patch of forest where they can run faster on the un-treed ground.

I push myself faster and spot the mottled gray bark of the first marl trees up ahead.

A crossbow bolt zings through the air to slam into a trunk. Someone farther behind me cries out.

I hurtle into the midst of the marl trees alongside my comrades, all of us whipping out our weapons. Whacking the bark on one tree with the flat of my sword, I kick the next nearest trunk at the same time before dashing onward. All around me, bodies and blades thud against the precious trees.

And then the buzzing starts.

A fierce hum swells in the air as hundreds of tiny red-and-brown bodies spew from little holes in the tree bark. The angry insects shoot right past me, raising the hairs on the back of my neck but not pausing to aim their stingers at me.

They careen straight toward the unprotected soldiers storming into our midst.

The wasps fly at uncovered hands, at the gaps in helms and around collars, as penetrating as the lissweld pollen but ten times more vicious. The figures in their skeletal uniforms who barged into the forest break out into a horrifically ridiculous dance, shaking and slapping as they try to fend off the miniscule attackers.

As their larger enemies, we can’t just stand back and watch. The Veldunian soldiers among us launch themselves at the Darium force, cutting down our opponents while they’re distracted by the wasps.

Some of the Darium soldiers have already crumpled over, the toxin in the stingers numbing their bodies. I can’t quite stomach stabbing those people in my inexpert way while they’re so defenseless, but I knock off their helms, giving the wasps better access. Welts are swelling around their necks and mouths .

One woman lurches forward with a jab of her sword toward Landric, who has his back turned to her as he shoves away another soldier. My heart lurches. I swing my own sword with all the strength I used to put into my axe when I chopped wood at my old cabin.

The blade slams down on her wrist and severs it from her body so abruptly my jaw goes slack.

Landric whirls around at the woman’s groan. She slumps over, yanking the stump of her arm closer to her body, trying to huddle against more wasps descending on her.

My childhood friend blinks and looks at me with a mix of shock and relief. “Thank you.”

A sudden guffaw tumbles out of me. “Thank you for this fantastic plan.”

The cries echoing between the trees are all triumphant now as the Darium soldiers lie broken or dash away in another retreat. We’ve won the day once more.

I can only imagine how much more furious the survivors will be when they descend on us next. But that’s a problem for another day.