Chapter Four
"Stop!" I called.
Victor ignored me, still running hard, sweat sliding down his smooth back. I wasn't out of shape by any means, but I carried a lot more muscle than he did. At least, that was what I told myself as an explanation for why I was panting with every step and his breathing was still even. I put on a burst of speed and grabbed his arm, dragging us both to a stop.
"They're miles away by now," I gasped out. "We can't keep chasing the truck. We need a plan."
The prince narrowed his eyes. He yanked his arm from me. "You should have stopped them. You have your gun, you could have blown out the tires!"
"Okay, one, it's not that easy and two, if I had done anything differently, you would have been smooshed into nothing but red gore on the pavement. You weren't even moving!"
"Then you should have let them hit me. I am paying you to protect my sister, not me."
I rolled my eyes at that. "Why, I didn't think of that? Of course, the royal family at Raindrop will be outraged that I didn't let their prince be killed. You know, now that I think of it, I should have let you die. I'm sure your parents wouldn't have gone all elf-berserk on the dwarves if I'd done that and, you know, lost Charlotte anyway because I was in the semi's path too. Or should we both have died?"
Victor frowned, but I guess he saw my point because he didn't continue the conversation. He scrubbed his hands over his face and pinched the bridge of his nose. "If we can't catch them on foot, then what is your plan?"
"Owen is very good at our job. I know he looks like the muscle of the group, but he's smart and he's like a pitbull when he decides on something. He's going to stay with Charlotte no matter what. With any luck, he's already beat that driver to bits and is coming back with Charlotte as we speak."
He looked torn for a moment but nodded reluctantly. "What does he want with her, anyway? Why take her?"
"I don't know. You think maybe her baby daddy hired him?"
"Doubtful. Damien might be possessive, but there are rules about how he can stop her from marrying Prince Thomas. He can't kill us and hiring an outsider… it's not his style."
"It would have been good to know they weren't going to kill us before we got attacked." I narrowed my eyes. "What if I had killed somebody? I thought they were trying to kill us, but if they weren't and I had killed one of them—"
"Oh, you're not an elf," Victor said with a shrug. "They might kill you."
"Great. Just great. Sit down. I'm tired of standing."
We moved off the road to sit on the shoulder. I tried to swallow, but my throat was sticky and dry. We would need to get something to drink. How, though? There were no water bottles sitting on the side of the road.
"You say Owen is good at what he does?"
I nodded firmly. "He's very good."
Victor picked a piece of grass and shredded it. "I wondered how a male dwarf ended up in your protective guild."
My hackles rose. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Just that from my understanding dwarves have rigid gender expectations."
I remained silent.
Victor paused a moment, then pressed on. "Among dwarves, children are named daughters of Brimir or sons of Blainn, are they not? Girls are considered to have sprung from Brimir’s blood, while boys sprang from Blainn's bones."
I nodded reluctantly. "And girls are thought to be more fluid or cunning, suited for protective duties, while boys are stronger and more suited for working as physical laborers. Yeah. It's a load of nonsense, though. Owen's as good at protecting people as anybody, and I'm more than capable of doing the heavy lifting."
Victor's gaze roamed over my shoulders and arms. "I can see that. You are very strong."
Was it just my imagination that his voice suddenly took on a husky tone? I felt blood start seeping into my face. I might not have enjoyed the way he was looking at me before I saw him fight, but now I knew he was more than just a fancy-pants prince. I chewed on my lower lip before I shook off the thoughts and got back to my feet.
"Going through the forest will be faster than sticking to the road," I said. "We'll have to get to the nearest settlement to track Owen."
"What about reinforcements?"
"We don't need them."
Victor narrowed his eyes. "I don't doubt your abilities, but we don't know what numbers we are against. It would be prudent to—"
"The guild doesn't do reinforcements. They call us. We don’t know anybody except for the people who trained with us, and I never really… bonded with them. I don't have any numbers to call. Owen and I do things on our own."
I was afraid of getting the same scolding that I always got from my superiors and parents whenever this subject was brought up, and I braced myself for Victor's disapproval. However, there was no judgment in his eyes as he nodded.
"Which way?" he asked.
I hesitated as I glanced around. I knew which road to follow and approximately how far away it was, but navigating through a forest wasn't my strong suit. Owen was the one with the tracking abilities. His time underground left him with an excellent sense of direction. I relied too heavily on him for that. There was something about moss on trees and north, though.
Victor understood without me having to say a word. "I took a look at your maps while we were driving. It's this way." He pointed.
I frowned. "If you know, why ask me?"
His eyes sparkled. "I thought that if I just said it without consulting you, you might get offended and decide to shoot me. Besides, I didn't want to assume that you were uncertain where to go."
I scowled at the truthfulness of his statement. There were some things that I just didn't like to admit, and one of them was when I didn't know things. In my line of work, I had to be self-reliant in most situations. Friendships, even with our partners, were discouraged. Owen and I broke this rule because of his dogged insistence on being nice to me. Personally, I thought it was partly why we were so successful – along with our stubborn determination to prove everybody else wrong – but it was still hard to break free from years of conditioning.
"So elves have a mystical sense of direction, huh?"
"No. But we have to go north-east and as you can see by the position of the sun—"
"Okay, you don't have to give me a lesson."
Victor shrugged.
We climbed over the fence and headed through the forest. The air was cool and I worried about Victor, soaked in sweat, but he showed no signs of being cold. Squirrels chattered and birds sang. I kept a hand on my gun, keeping my ears sharp for any unfriendlies, whether elf, wolf, troll or other.
After some time Victor spoke. "So do you really not know how to tell the direction from the sun, or were you just trying to make me feel better?"
"I wasn't taught that sort of thing," I admitted. "My training was… Well, I wouldn't say that I had a real childhood. It was all very highly regimented and there wasn't a lot of adult intervention in interpersonal problems. That was for us to figure out and deal with, not for them to take care of. Great for some of the girls, but for someone like me… I was an easy target."
Victor nodded as he hopped nimbly over a fallen log. I scrambled after him, envying his grace.
"Charlotte was my only companion growing up," he told me. "You are right in thinking our society is highly stratified. I befriended one of the servant's children once and they were punished for it. Not me. Them."
"That's fair," I murmured sarcastically.
"There are many injustices in my society. Our parents would love to see Charlotte marry the man who sired her child, but Damien is a hard man. He is set in the past. Charlotte wanted to create her own destiny." He stopped and turned towards me. "I want to create my own destiny as well. That was why I… approached you in the motel. You are a beautiful woman, and you are strong and brave. I didn't mean to insult you."
The heat climbed higher into my cheeks. I ducked my head and tried not to show how pleased I was at his attentions. "It wasn't an insult. It just caught me off guard, you know? I overreacted. Maybe once this is all done, we can go out for a drink or something."
He nodded. "I would like that."
I grinned, but before I could say another word, the ground beneath me shifted. With a yelp I fell, arms windmilling about. I grabbed Victor's cuff and dragged him down after me. We hit the ground hard in a pit five feet deep. A loud crack sounded as white-hot pain jolted through my leg and I screamed.
I panted as sweat broke out over my face. Victor rolled off me and grasped my shoulders. "Are you okay?"
I tried to move my leg. More pain. My stomach churned, and I was only just able to choke it down. I shook my head. There was no way I was getting anywhere on this leg.
"Leg's broken. Here." I pulled out my gun and pressed it into his hands. "Take this. And my cell phone. You'll have to go get Charlotte back yourself. Just go to town and send somebody back out for me."
"No. I'm not leaving you here."
As touched as I was by his concerned, I shook my head firmly. "This is a troll pit. I know how to deal with them, but they'll tear your pretty face off."
The grin that broke over his face was the first I'd seen. "You think I'm pretty?"
My face flushed as Victor brushed a strand of hair from my face. "Ugh. Just go before I shoot you."
He sobered quickly. "No. If your Owen is as good as you say, we have time. And if not… I need you. I can't navigate technology. I never learned how to use it."
"I'm not going anywhere with this busted leg."
His hands cupped my leg, making me wince, but his touch was gentle as he probed. "It's not a bad break. I can splint it, and then we can go to a healing mud springs. I need you, Eloise. So no more arguing."
I wanted to keep arguing just because he told me not to, but a wave of pain washed over me again and I nodded. I didn't have the energy to fight. I'd heard about the elves' healing mud pits and they were meant to do miracles. If my leg could be healed… I just hoped Owen wasn't somewhere, counting on me to get to him quickly.