The Dragonprince's Heir by Aaron Pogue Page B

But they flowed north in something resembling a square formation, and the four of us drew curses and glares from the men who had to move around us.
    "Come on, come on," Caleb growled, even as I grabbed the reins and darted forward to move with the flow. Jen and Toman fell in easily behind me, and Caleb at my side.
    We went twenty paces before I shook my head and looked at Caleb. "What's so funny?"
    "Hmm?"
    "You laughed at me," I said, careful to sound curious instead of hurt. "For being tactical."
    "Ah," he said. "That was not at you."
    "Then what?"
    He walked in silence for a moment. "You have never seen me at war."
    "Of course I have," I said. "Back when—"
    "No, you've seen me fight the dragons." He chuckled again. "The dragons. Nightmares born to scour the world of every memory of man. And they hated us like no other. I killed seventy-four of them, Taryn. Unbonded. With crossbow, with swords, with stones, or with my bare hands."
    He threw that appraising look out over the ragged regiment moving ahead of us and bared his teeth. "Men are nothing."
    "Well...no, not these. That's precisely what I was saying."
    He smiled down at me, but his voice smoldered like white-hot coals. "And that's why I laughed. The full corps of the Green Eagles could not keep me under chain, Taryn. You should know that. If I went in force, all the king's army could not keep me from Isabelle's side."
    I realized I was staring up at him. My teeth clicked together, and his smile twitched again before it faded. I turned my own appraising stare north. I remembered that moment, when the crossbowmen's officer came to confront us, and I'd seen the vast menace of the army all around. I remembered Caleb's hand on his sword.
    I chewed on my thumbnail, puzzling over it. "Then why did you back down? Why do we march with Ardain foot soldiers instead of riding in Mother's carriage?"
    He met my eyes for a moment. "There would be costs. It's important you understand. It is not the king's might that restrains us."
    "But you said—"
    He only narrowed his eyes, but it was enough to silence me. "It's our honor. Our goals. Our purposes. We submit to this king not because of the threat he poses to us, but to the things that we pursue."
    For a long time I said nothing at all. Then I asked him, "Why do you tell me this now?"
    "Because you keep making foolish plans. You keep trying to pick fights even though you don't realize we could win them! And, worse, you never consider that—win or lose—fighting them at all would destroy everything Isabelle cares about."
    He turned his back on me and went three paces, while I still stood stunned. Then he said just loud enough for me to hear, "You are a greater threat to your mother than all the king's men."
    He didn't slow; he just kept walking. But Jen and Toman had both stopped two paces ahead of me, and they stared back at me. They wore the controlled, blank expressions that Caleb had taught them so well, but I could feel the weight of their eyes on me.
    He had called me down before. He and Mother had both spoken to me like this, back at the Tower. But he had never done it in front of anyone else. I felt the cold grain of fury deep in my stomach, but it smothered beneath the hot, heavy flare of shame. It seared in my neck and high on my cheeks and behind my eyes.
    I dropped my gaze and knotted my fists. Souward's Seventh still flowed around me, jostling me, and eventually that constant tide of men dragged Jen and Toman away. At the edge of my vision I saw their feet shuffle awkwardly, turn back north, and finally leave. I waited another long moment, grinding my teeth and trying desperately not to repeat Caleb's words inside my head.
    Then at last I risked a glance up. Caleb was almost lost in the crowd. Jen and Toman were well ahead of me with their eyes fixed on the road. I took a heavy breath and followed after them. I did not quite catch up with them. I did not speak with them. The sun burned a trail to the western horizon