Page 36 of To Save a Kingdom

Zadé’s smug expression turned crooked. “Don’t worry, Princess. I’ll protect yeh.”

“But I’m the queen! I can’t be captured, or it could mean the ruin of the realm.” And boy, didn’t that sound like something an egotistical, self-centered noblewoman would claim?

Wrinkling her nose, Zadé gaped at her. “Yer gunna let ‘em pack you off all safe-like in a tower, forever protected n’ under guard?” She cracked her knuckles, raised her eyebrow and nodded toward the felled log. “Or do yeh wanna do yer part ta make yer kingdom safer fer the people, Yer Majesty?”

Aliya sighed. Of course, as queen, it was her job to keep the realm’s roads secure for everyone to travel. And Zadé did have a point. They were better equipped to handle brigands than most. “Well, when you put it that way…”

Zadé shot her a dazzling grin. “Excellent!” Swinging back into her saddle with a loud whoop!, she nudged her horse’s ribs with her heels and raced down the hill like a banshee.

“Wait!” With a quick snap of her reins, Aliya chased after the hollering woman. Zadé enjoyed fighting far too much to be entirely sane.

They approached the log and Zadé hunkered down as if she was planning to jump it. A bear of a man stepped into view, bringing them both up short. A medium-sized sword, a little shorter than Elessan’s, dangled from one hand.

Zadé’s horse reared as she pulled back on its bit. “This yer obstacle course?” she asked.

The man lifted his weapon, the movement accentuating his massive biceps as he eyed first Zadé then Aliya like he’d stumbled on an unexpected dessert buffet. One corner of his lips tipped up. “Well, ladies, I suppose it depends on who’s askin’.”

His eyes crawling over Aliya’s skin raised the fine hairs on the back of her neck. The spark of power in her chest jumped as if aching to burn this man where he stood.

“It’s against the law to block the roads,” Aliya said, hating the faint tremor in her voice.

The man relaxed, writing her off as a threat. “Is it, now? Says who?”

Zadé met Aliya’s gaze, her grin couldn’t be wider. Turning to the man, Zadé’s glare pierced his as she said, “Her Majesty, o’ course. Queen Aliya Larimar Cerel.”

Aliya caught the man’s eyes, letting some of the hardness she’d seen in King Malkov’s expressions leak into hers. “Me.” Tugging on the smallest filament of power, she conjured a fireball around her right hand.

Zadé grabbed the pommel of her saddle and in a display of strength that had Aliya’s jaw dropping, raised both legs into the air in a handstand. With the next heartbeat, she backflipped to the ground, landing in a crouch so she could swing one leg out to trip the man.

He lunged back, barely managing to avoid her ankle. “Knife-ears!” he yelled over his shoulder.

The bushes beside to the boulder rustled as three more men emerged. One brandished a club, another a sword longer than the leader’s, and the third held a spear.

Four on two wasn’t the bad odds Aliya had feared, but it was worse than she’d hoped. Without waiting for the robbers to move, she hurled her fireball.

The group scattered as the flames crashed into the bush and exploded against the rock behind them, spraying the foliage. The dried leaves lit up as the fire caught.

One of the men cursed in a language Aliya didn‘t recognize. “Kill the mage!” another screamed, raising his spear over his shoulder and heaving it in her direction.

Freeing her right foot from the stirrup, Aliya tumbled off her mount as it sailed overhead. She slapped her horse on the rump, sending it off to the side and out of harm’s way.

Reaching into her power for another filament, she formed the magic into the shape of a javelin and tossed it back at the man who’d thrown his weapon at her. The burning lance slammed into his torso, pinning him to the ground.

The man screamed as his skin hissed and smoked.

The rancid stench of charred fat permeated the clearing.

A glint of sunlight reflecting off metal flashed in her peripheral vision.

Aliya rolled to the side as a sword sliced through the air where her neck had been half a heartbeat before.

Zadé yelled from behind the human, “Attacking yer queen is treason!”

Aliya clenched her jaw and ripped a chunk of magic from her core, flinging it at the swordsman.

A headache bloomed in the back of her eyes. She was using a lot of power too quickly. Cressida would be disappointed in her.

Pressing her lips into a thin line, she pushed the thought and its accompanying pang of guilt to the back of her mind, where she could stew on it later. Knowing her luck, it would be late at night when she was trying to sleep.