“Move fast. Your body can’t handle this temperature for long.”
Grabbing onto the branch, she lowered herself farther into the water, the force of the current nearly knocking her body off. Jarvik kept hold of the branch as she made her way across. When she reached the other tree, she pulled herself onto it, her body violently shaking. Wrapping herself around the tree and branch, she held them together for Jarvik. He untied his tunic, wrapped it around his neck, and submerged his legs into the water. Placing his hands on the branch, he began to make his way across.
The branch gave a little, so she clutched onto it with her hands, trying to keep it as still as possible. A moment later, Jarvik was at her side. He placed his dry tunic across her shoulders and pulled her to her feet, kicking the branch into the river to remove all traces of where they had crossed.
“Come on.” Holding her hand, he led her onto solid ground. “Where to?”
Allyssa pointed to the nearby waterfall, thankful she had studied her father’s maps in such detail. “The camp is at the top.” And when she got there, she would plop herself in front of a fire until she was nice and toasty.
“Are you sure this is the right waterfall?”
“Positive.” It was the tallest one out of the half dozen that were visible.
“Have you ever climbed anything like this before?” he asked at the base of the mountain.
“No.” She had climbed ladders attached to the sides of buildings, jumped across rooftops, and regularly scaled her laundry chute, but climbing rocks was another matter entirely.
“The boulders will be slippery because of the mist from the waterfall. We’ll weave our way up on the left side of it. Watch for a path. I’m assuming if the Russek soldiers were able to find the cave and fill it with supplies, then there has to be a trail somewhere.” The water was so loud she could barely hear him speak. “I’ll lead the way.” He started climbing the gray boulders, steadily moving to the south.
She climbed after him, trying not to think about how cold she was. All her energy and focus went to maintaining her hold. The climb was slanted instead of vertical, making the ascent easier. When the waterfall was almost out of sight, Jarvik doubled back, continuing in a zig-zag pattern.
After a couple of hours, the sky started to lighten as the sun rose. Allyssa’s arms and legs shook from the steady incline, her neck ached, and her clothes were still wet. “Let’s take a short rest,” she hollered to Jarvik. He nodded. A few moments later, he led her between two large rocks to a small alcove. The space was just big enough for the two of them to sit side by side, shielded from the wind.
“It’s quiet in here,” she mumbled, stretching out her legs before her. She wished she could take off her boots and rub her feet, but she’d never be able to get her soggy boots back on. Instead, she leaned against the rocks, closing her eyes. What she wouldn’t give to be home in her soft bed right now.
“I’m sorry,” Jarvik said. “Our situation is entirely my fault.”
“No, it’s not.” She opened her eyes and looked at him. This was the first time they’d been alone since they left the castle. Now that she had the opportunity to ask him all her pent-up questions, she didn’t know where to begin. Reaching out, she took hold of his hand, examining the wooden ring he wore.
“I thought perhaps Prince Odar had given this to me, although it didn’t seem his style,” she mused, thinking back to when she received the anonymous gift. “The wood indicated it came from the Bizantek Forest. I read a book and discovered the tradition behind it.” The book explained that giving such a ring was an old peasant tradition where a man gave the woman he wished to court a handmade ring. If she wore it, it symbolized her agreement to become better acquainted with the intention to marry.
“Have you forgotten? I am Prince Odar, so your assumption is correct.” He squeezed her fingers, not allowing her to let go. “Allyssa, there were so many times I wanted to tell you my true identity. I’m so sorry I lied to you.”
And there it was—the thing she had been mulling over but did not understand. She considered her situation with Grevik. Her chest tightened just thinking about him, his death still hard to comprehend. She had concealed her identity from him because they couldn’t be friends otherwise. Yet, when she confided everything to him, he was upset and hurt. She never had a chance to make things right before the assassin killed him. Because of her. She regretted he didn’t forgive her and wished she could have explained in more detail why she lied. The least she could do was give Jarvik the opportunity she never had.
“Why did you do it?” Allyssa asked, gazing up into his dark brown eyes. “Please help me understand, because I’m having a hard time trying to figure you out.”
He sighed. “There are several reasons—some of them better than others.” He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. “I’ll tell you so long as you listen to everything I have to say before responding. Then, when I’m done, even if you’re upset, you won’t take it out on me right now. We need to work together to find your soldiers, put the assassin in prison, and make it to Fren to stop the upcoming war. We don’t have time to fight with one another.”
As hurt and upset as she was about being lied to, she couldn’t hate Jarvik, not after everything they’d been through. At least as long as the man she’d fallen in love with—his personality, characteristics, and heart—were the same, and that part of him wasn’t a lie. Even now that she knew his true identity, she still thought of him as Jarvik, the squire, not as Prince Odar. “Okay. I’ll listen.”
His shoulders relaxed, and he leaned his head back against the rocky wall behind him. “This entire mess began when Princess Shelene came to visit Fren.”
Allyssa remembered him telling her that Prince Odar fell in love with Princess Shelene of Russek. They were engaged until the union was dissolved by the prince’s parents when they learned she only intended to marry him in order to gain access to Fren’s military so Russek could destroy Emperion. “I assumed Prince Odar—I mean, your decoy—was in love with her. But he wasn’t—you were.” The realization made her numb. She tried to keep her expression neutral so she wouldn’t reveal how jealous this made her.
“I am Prince Odar,” he said gently, “and Jarvik is—was—my best friend. We simply switched places.”
The image of his friend being shot in the back by an arrow was seared into her mind. She was about to apologize for his loss when he said, “I am the one who fell in love with Shelene.”
Allyssa hated the girl already.
“She swept into our court, astonishingly beautiful, alluring, and sophisticated, looking at no one but me.”