Chapter 10

We began walking again after everyone finished eating. The guards surrounded Esylle, Sorcha, and Frog again, but Tollam refused to walk in the front now. He didn't want Sorcha at his back and insisted on walking behind her. I had tried to pull him aside several times while everyone was sleeping to talk to him and tell him she wasn't going to hurt him, but he kept insisting we should just kill her.

I was going to keep trying to talk to him because I'd rather convince him she was harmless and to keep her secret rather than killing the man. I hated Tollam. I was pretty sure most people did. If I brought his head to the whores in Guttertown, there would probably be a week-long celebration and I'd never have to pay for a damned thing there ever again.

I wasn't a psychopath, and I didn't enjoy killing. It would just cause problems because Folcard liked this one. He had brutes he sent when he needed to knock heads to make a point. Tollam was more of a spy and assassin.

Sorcha could easily handle him, but I didn't want her to. She'd never killed anyone before and Belisarus had terrorized the kid into thinking she was bad. She may be Lisana and she might not, but Esylle was right. She could unite all of Nestran on the throne. She had that mouth on her, but there was also an innocence about her, and I didn't want to destroy that by putting her in a situation where she'd be forced to hurt someone to protect herself.

Tollam continued to run his mouth while we walked, trying to antagonize Sorcha and it was worse than the first day. Sorcha seemed less upset about Tollam being absolutely terrible to her than she was about Esylle trying to show affection.

"I hope I get to kill your little friend, too," Tollam said. "I don't know what he is, but it's probably not natural like you."

Sorcha stopped, and I didn't know if she was finally going to rise up to his taunts. She turned around and faced him.

"You bleat like a fucking goat, and you smell like you sleep in their pen. If you make one move toward hurting Frog, I'll do to you what I did to that bear."

"She finally shows her true colors!" Tollam yelled. "You should let me kill her now."

"She didn't show anything!" I snapped at him. "You've been threatening her for the last two hours and I'm surprised she hasn't responded to you until now. I don't know what you smell like to someone with Theran senses, but she's right. You sound like a damned goat. If you're that afraid of her, don't provoke her. Just ignore her and leave her alone."

"I'm not afraid of her. I could easily kill her," Tollam pouted.

"You're petrified of her, and you have been since she saved you. Just ignore her and leave her alone. We know you want her dead and we've already told you she's not to be killed."

Tollam set his mouth in a grim line and didn't speak. I needed to make a plan for him to have an accident. This was just going to escalate until he tried to hurt her, and he definitely was going to report everything to Folcard.

When we stopped for lunch now, Tollam did his own thing finding food because he refused to eat with us. Two soldiers would go hunt game and another would go with Frog to forage. One would stay behind with me to try to teach Sorcha how to defend herself. She seemed open to learning, but I was a little hurt she never seemed to want to learn from me.

She'd somehow rope Esylle into her lessons and when Esylle would join us, she'd disappear with whoever was with us, leaving me with Esylle. Esylle wanted to learn to fight, so I was teaching her. Which was hard, since I hadn't been with a woman in a very long time.

My cock stopped working as soon as I realized I was in love with her unless I was thinking about her. It seemed unfair to another woman to bed her and think of Esylle. The whores in Guttertown expected that, but I couldn't do that to Esylle, even though she didn't love me. So, here I was, trying to teach the love of my life to fight while trying to control my cock like an eighteen-year-old boy.

And that little imp kept looking over here like she was up to something. I knew that look because it was the same look Esylle had when she was plotting. Esylle was better at lying than Sorcha was, but not when she was getting up to mischief.

That fucking kid. I really wanted to know what she was up to. I was surprised when she started laughing. I hadn't so much as seen her smile since she got here. It was nice, knowing everything she'd been through. Esylle and I just stopped for a minute.

Esylle leaned against my shoulder.

"I've been waiting for that. I was hoping to see her smile. Lisana smiled and laughed so much as a baby."

"You need to at least have a part of you prepared for the fact that this girl might not be her. Lisana was three months old when she was taken. We have no idea what she might look like now."

"Look at her. The parts of her that don't look like me or my father look like him."

I didn't study her as intently as Esylle always did. I could see the resemblance between Sorcha, Esylle, and Joron, but that's only because I knew they were related somehow. I looked over at Sorcha, who was now relaxed and rough housing with Bastan. Since she wasn't paying attention right now, I studied her face.

I never noticed before, but Esylle was right. It wasn't just the unusual eyes. The parts of her that did not look like Esylle looked like Rivannus. She hadn't grown up around her, but most of her mannerisms were Esylle's.

I didn't think she had been near us when Tollam ran into the bear and I didn't think she would have been because she was looking for different roots and vegetation and they were hunting animals. But she seemed to materialize out of nowhere as soon as Tollam hit the ground. I knew most of that was because of her gifts, but Rivannus could almost do the same thing, looking back on it now.

I'd gotten to know Rivannus. Rivannus had invited me hunting with him several times. Looking back, I remembered how he always seemed to know where the game was and would warn me not to go places in the forest because it wasn't safe. I didn't think anything was strange about it at the time, but thinking about it now, with this strange girl here, I could possibly see it as being different.

I didn't know why Rivannus would hide something like that from Esylle. Against everyone's wishes, Esylle told him their family's secret, and he was always in the nursery with Lisana and was there sometimes when the baby would cry and the drapes would catch fire. Why would he hide a secret like that when Esylle's secret, which was just as big, had been trusted to him? Esylle and Rivannus were so close. I couldn't imagine him keeping that secret from her.

I was starting to have my doubts that this girl was not Lisana. I looked back over where she, Bastan, and Frog were sitting and chatting. She looked more relaxed than she had since she showed up. It was the soldiers who suggested teaching her to fight, but it seemed to be a good idea. She seemed to be having fun and relaxing. I didn't have a lot of information about what she went through on Idric, but it was enough to know no child deserved that.

She pulled her flute out of her bag and started to play an airy tune. I knew I was going to risk upsetting her again, but I hoped she was more relaxed now. I walked over to her and took it away. She looked up at me, confused, angry, and a little hurt. She demanded to know why I took it.

"You said when you played back home, animals would come to you. I don't want to risk this flute somehow calling to the tribes."

"It's just a flute! Why would he tell me to play it on the way back if it was going to hurt me?"

"Why has he done or said any of things he has so far? Why did he demand you come? I don't want you playing this until you have answers from him!"

"Playing relaxes me. You keep telling me to calm down and stop getting angry. The flute helps."

"You're going to have to find another way to keep calm. I don't want to risk anything until we are back on Idric."

"You don't have any answers; I don't have any answers. Belisarus does, and he told me to play on the way back!" she growled.

Bastan put his hand on her arm, and I was surprised she didn't draw away immediately like she did every time Esylle tried to touch her.

"Let's just do it Leodos's way for now. If the tribes do somehow find us, there is only really four of us and Leodos who will protect you. Tollam would just let you die. You are powerful, but I don't think you can fight off several tribe members at once. Just relax and let us take care of you. I shouldn't tell you this since she will be my queen but ignore Princess Esylle if she bothers you. Just stay the way you look now until we get to your home."

I was surprised when she didn't protest or leave to run again. We had a pleasant lunch. We were able to continue with our journey and surprisingly, Tollam kept his mouth shut.