The Rider's Reign by Jessica Day George

Author:Jessica Day George
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

17

CAPTURED

“So bold!” her mother laughed. “It reminds me of your father! Dear Charles!” She shook her head, but her pistol never wavered. “My poor Custard was such an optimist, too. I see he passed that on to you. The very idea that you could just waltz right into the private hunting lodge of the emperor of Kronenhof and steal a herd of horses and a hostage princess? Armed with what? Your wits, your cousin, a pair of handsome boys, and an owl?”

“More or less,” Anthea said, still trying to keep her tone cool.

Beloved of Florian? Blossom’s voice was as shaky as Anthea’s was trying not to be. If we run? Will she shoot us?

She will. Don’t run.

Anthea reached out her other hand to Campanula and repeated the instruction. The bigger mare leaned into her hand, her stubborn nature put aside for once. Anthea couldn’t imagine how awful it would be to smell freedom and have it taken away again.

Or maybe she did know.

“Are you telling them not to move?” Her mother raised a plucked eyebrow, nodding her head at the mares. “Very smart.”

The only thing Anthea could do was buy the others more time to escape. She reached out to the bramble hedge that was Constantine’s mind.

Run. Run now. My mother has caught us. I will stay with the mares. I will find a way to get them out safely. You have to take the others, find Finn, and go.

I will not! I will not leave mares behind!

You will, Anthea shouted, making her mental voice like a whip cracking. You will leave two mares behind so that the rest of the herd will live!

You do not order me around!

Beloved?

Florian, run! Anthea screamed in her mind.

If Constantine wouldn’t listen, perhaps Florian would. She ordered him to go as loudly as she could. The mares stirred, disturbed, and Campanula turned to face Anthea’s mother and took up a defensive stance.

We go, Constantine said suddenly.

Good! Protect the Now King and the New Meg! Anthea shouted.

We will return.

I know!

“Come along now, Anthea,” her mother said, gesturing with the pistol. “Put these creatures back in their stalls.”

Anthea felt like the spiky coal of Constantine’s rage had lodged in her heart. She turned on her mother, wondering if flames could actually explode from her eyes.

“These aren’t stalls. They’re cells. Prison cells,” Anthea snarled. “Look at them! Knee deep in filth! Sick, starving, wounded!”

“So dramatic!” Her mother rolled her eyes. “It’s not like we had a stable to keep them in! We’re doing the best we can!”

“I highly doubt that.”

Her mother laughed. “All right! We’re not taking good care of them. Because we don’t actually care what happens to them.”

Anthea gaped at her mother. “Then why … why did you kidnap them?”

“I am not going to stand here in this malodorous cellar and discuss it,” her mother said, as though Anthea had chosen the location.

Anthea snorted.

“You’ve been spending too much time with these animals,” Genevia said, wincing. “Now come along.”

Anthea put one arm over Blossom’s back, the other over Campanula’s.

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