I shook my head enthusiastically. “No, sir!”
“Good, and have you and your guard already been to the seamstress and armory to be properly outfitted?”
“Not yet…”
“Well then I will have one of your factionmates take you. Ray, you were just there the day before, I trust you can show Ryiah and Paige the way?”
“Yes, sir.”
“When you three are finished please meet us in the strategy hall. Commander Nyx will be reporting on the latest activity for the squads currently present.”
The boy nodded and led Paige and me away from the crowd, back down the keep steps to the third floor. As we turned the corner of yet another winding passage he turned to me with a hint of old humor.
“So, what do you think? Better than four years with Byron?”
“Are you kidding?” I kept a straight face. “Those were the best days of my life.”
Chapter Three
“During the patrols our squad follows a very specific formation,” Lief began. “A handful of soldiers scout ahead, and the rest flank the very front and back of our pack. The knights are next and take center. Crammed in the very middle is us,” The lead mage cleared his throat. “Sounds simple, right? It is. But every time a new Combat mage joins the squad they inevitably try to play hero and break formation at the first sight of danger.”
“Has a mage ever broken formation just to run for his life?” Ian inquired innocently.
The lead mage rolled his eyes. “How I have missed your senseless humor.”
Ian nudged his mare closer to Lief with a chuckle. “Admit it, you pined for me every night while I was away.”
Ray and I exchanged smirks. The lead mage was also a Ferren’s Keep native, and so the two older boys had a whole slew of insults to throw at one another whenever Ian deemed Lief’s speeches too dry.
In the past two years I had almost forgotten what it was like to be friends with the curly-haired mage. Hearing him get along with our new leader now was bittersweet. I was happy to see Ian smiling again, cracking jokes and lightening moods, but also sad. Because I knew no matter how much time we spent together our friendship would never be like that again.
When Darren had first turned me away I had been devastated. What I had done to Ian was no better.
The difference was our motives. Darren’s actions had been justified. He’d been trying to do what was best for the kingdom. Mine? Wrong, selfish, and cruel. I had used one of my best friends to shield myself from feelings for another, and when those feelings had finally gotten to be too strong I had tossed him aside.
Ian had forgiven me the day of his ascension, but that didn’t erase the past. Our friendship would never be the same. And I had only myself to blame.
“We lost two Combat mages that day.” Lief’s story carried through my thoughts. “Sir Gavin doesn’t usually yell but you should have seen him. He lost his voice after three hours of shouting at the rest of us. It didn’t matter that the ones who had disobeyed his orders were dead—he held every one of us accountable. Told us if we ever saw one of the other mages try to march to the front of enemy lines we had better stop them unless we wished to be demoted and sent to some far away town with no action at all.”
“That hardly seems fair,” I said.
Lief raised a brow. “It’s not meant to be fair.”
Ray coughed. “And what if someone—say Ryiah—decides to take off on her own and threatens me with a pain casting?”
I guffawed and the boy winked at me.
“How am I supposed to stop her from breaking formation to help one of our injured comrades? I don’t know about you or Ian, but the girl is second rank for a reason.“ Ray cast an apologetic glance at Paige. “My apologies but I don’t think you can stop her either. Not without magic.”
My guard glared at Ray in reply.
“Get help. Try to stop her however you can.” Lief turned his attention to me with a furrowed brow. “You aren’t planning to do something reckless, are you?”
Ian chuckled somewhere behind me.
“Of course not!” Even as I said it, I couldn’t help thinking how grateful I was that the rest of them didn’t know about my mission in Dastan Cove. Darren had blackmailed our leader Mira into leaving out my antics in our report to Commander Chen. Which was a good thing because if it had been public knowledge, then Ray would have realized his hypothetical scenario had actually happened.
“I am very good at following orders.” Most of the time, anyway. “You don’t have to worry about me.”