Ragnhild glared at me, and I half-thought he was going to punch me.
“Do you know how much trouble you’re going to be in when you get back? How much trouble I’m going to be in?”
“Not if we succeed,” I pointed out.
“You’re kids!” he cried. “This is madness! Tergor, take them back to the castle. I can’t waste any more time with this.”
One of the guards grunted, and pulling up next to us, he grabbed the reins from Julian.
“Just let us come!” I cried out, realizing that I’d underestimated how pissed off Ragnhild would be. “Tejus said that this was a recon mission only, and we’re smaller than you, so we’ll have a better chance of escaping unseen. Please,” I begged. “I was the one under the entity’s influence—at least let me help bring it down!”
Tergor the guard grinned, turning back to Ragnhild with a questioning look on his face. Clearly the guard didn’t like the idea of heading back to the castle any more than we did.
“This is madness,” Ragnhild muttered again, his jaw clenched. He wasn’t yelling anymore though, which, if I compared it to experiences with my parents, was usually a sign that we were winning.
“We’ll stay back from the shore—we’ll just watch from the cove,” I added, not meaning it—but he didn’t need to know that.
Ragnhild looked in the direction of the ocean. The sky was getting steadily lighter—we were running out of time.
“You stay back,” he hissed, “and when we return to the castle, I want your word that you’ll tell Ashbik the truth—that this was all your idea.”
“Agreed!” piped up Yelena brightly.
Jeez. Of all the times for the bossiest person in the world to stay silent.
“Didn’t fancy arguing our cause?” I muttered in her ear as we continued to ride.
“You were doing perfectly well on your own. I didn’t want to remind him that he had a helpless human girl on his mission,” she replied smugly.
Helpless? Hardly.
“Will you two be quiet?” Julian snapped.
I shut my mouth, realizing that I was pushing my friend to breaking point.
We carried on riding alongside Tergor, now moving at a slower pace as we approached the cove. I glanced over at the guard a couple of times, but he didn’t speak to us. Beads of sweat formed on his temples, and his ruddy face grew paler as we continued our journey. He was scared, I could see it.
Why aren’t I?
I held onto Yelena with a steady grip, my breathing regular, my skin without sweat or goosebumps. We were traveling to the cove, the place where I’d almost lost my mind with fear time and time again. Where I’d been possessed, taken hostage by forces so dark and evil that I could barely believe they existed. I wondered if I was done with fear—my body, and my mind just couldn’t fit any more in. Somehow I’d become immune.
“Are you afraid?” I asked Yelena, thinking that it might not just be me.
“Why?” she snapped, affronted.
“I just want to know—honestly. Are you?”
“I’ve been afraid since the day I got here. Doesn’t mean I have to turn and run away from it.”
Her reply surprised me. I had thought that Yelena was so bossy and bull-headed that maybe all of Nevertide’s horrors had just passed her by, that she’d taken it all on the chin. It reminded me of something my dad had said—that true courage was when you accepted your fears, but did whatever you were afraid of anyway. I guessed Yelena was just courageous. Maybe—though I didn’t want to admit it—she was just a little braver than I had ever been. Obviously, I would never actually tell her that.
Ragnhild signaled for the troop to stop. We all came to a halt, Julian struggling slightly with the bull-horse, until Tergor leant over and gave a hard yank on its reins. We all began to dismount—we would be traveling the rest of the way on foot.
“You and you”—Ragnhild pointed at two of the guards—“check that the coast is clear up on the cliff. If it’s safe, the rest of us will travel down the passage.”
The guards nodded, and hurried off.
“The rest of you, wait here until I say so.” The lieutenant glared directly at the three of us. I nodded meekly, not in any hurry to defy him again.
“Ashbik is going to demote me,” he muttered. “Then Tejus is going to lynch me.”
As I glanced over at the lieutenant, a thought occurred to me.
“Is that why you came down to the cove, telling Ruby that Ash had sent you to keep her safe?”
The lieutenant glowered.
“How do you know about that?” he shot back.