Chapter 31: Royal Blood (Part 1)

Minutes later, the five of them sat under a large pine. Day-old rainwater dripped from needle and branch. Fog rolled through the evergreens. Or perhaps it was a cloud. After all the climbing, it certainly seemed to Justin as if they were high enough to be in the clouds.

Justin eyed the soldiers. The dark-haired one hadn't brought any tea-or hay-only a bag of supplies, some dried, salted meat for Leah, which she hadn't touched, and a pair of barb-tipped spears longer than the soldiers were tall.

And Justin had noticed something else. They were dressed an awful lot like the soldiers he'd buried.

"I am very sorry that you were abducted, my lady," said Olorus. "I had hoped that the Guardian, Sir Ahlund, would have been able to protect you."

"Ahlund is dead," Leah snapped.

Olorus's eyes widened. He exhaled wearily through his nostrils and closed his eyes. "I mourn his loss. But how did you escape? What about the men who kidnapped you?"