My right foot felt slightly heavier. The slash wound on my thigh from the Royal Guard's attack last night had started bleeding again. Though it stung, I kept walking without slowing down.
Behind me, Tywin Ashford followed close on my heels. The ten-year-old had been walking through the forest for seven hours without complaining once. His expensive clothes were now caked with mud and torn in several places.
We were deep inside Silvanum Forest, a dense woodland on the outermost border of Kingspire, the capital of the Kingdom of Asr. The trees here were enormous and tall. Their thick foliage blocked out the sunlight, leaving the forest dim and cold.
For enemy troops on horseback or wearing heavy armor, this muddy ground was torture. But for me, it was the perfect place to hide.
"You're dragging your feet, Sir Cassian." Tywin's voice broke the silence.
His voice was quiet, but clear.
"Did the wound on your thigh open again?"
I stopped and looked back.
The Ashford family's distinctive silver hair lay plastered against his forehead. But beneath his dirty clothes and exhausted face, the boy's blue eyes remained calm.
"It's only chafing from walking so far," I replied flatly.
"It won't stop me from protecting you, Master Ashford."
"Just call me Tywin!" the boy cut in quickly.
"Father said so before we fled. Outside Kingspire, the name Ashford could get us killed."
"You don't need to call me by my House name, and you don't have to be so formal with me, Sir."
"Very well... Tywin," I said.
I knelt on one knee so that our eyes were level.
"We'll rest for ten minutes behind these tree roots. Drink your water."
Tywin didn't argue. He sat on the dry roots of an oak tree, took the waterskin from his waist, and drank slowly. He sipped a little at a time so his stomach wouldn't cramp when he had to run again later.
I watched his small hands tremble slightly. Physically, the ten-year-old was already utterly exhausted. But mentally, he refused to give up.
All this chaos had happened in a single night.
House Ashford was one of the most respected noble families in the Kingdom of Asr. But a political conflict at court had driven the other noble families to unite against them. Led by the New Faction and aided by the Royal Guard, they surrounded and burned the Ashford residence.
I remembered my final moment with Lord Luther Ashford, Tywin's father, in that burning room.
"Don't try to find out who betrayed us, Cassian!" Lord Luther whispered, his body drenched in blood. "Get Tywin out of this kingdom. Hide his name. As long as Tywin lives, the Ashford family will never truly perish."
As a lowborn knight from the borderland of Blackwood, I didn't understand the complicated politics of the nobles in the capital. All I knew was that my main task now was to carry out my lord's orders and save the only surviving heir of House Ashford.
"How much farther to the border?" Tywin asked as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"About forty-eight kilometers," I answered quickly. "If we keep walking at this pace, it'll take around fourteen hours."
"The enemy definitely won't send ordinary soldiers after us." Tywin looked down at the ground beneath his feet.
"Lord Vane has a specialized tracking force. Their hounds are extremely skilled at picking up the scent of blood."
The boy really was intelligent and understood how the enemy operated.
"I know," I said.
I drew a small knife from my waist and cut a cluster of pungent wild leaves growing near the tree. I crushed them until their juices seeped out, then smeared them over the bandage on my thigh to mask the smell of blood.
A sharp sting immediately seared my skin, but my expression remained flat.
Tywin watched without blinking. "You didn't even wince."
"Isn't it very painful?"
"Wincing won't lessen the pain. It only wastes energy," I replied calmly as I adjusted my leg guard.
"In Blackwood, we're taught to save our strength for more important things."
The corner of Tywin's mouth lifted slightly.
"You're completely different from the noble knights at court. They're more concerned with polishing their steel armor than training."
"Armor that's too shiny only makes it easier for the enemy to find us," I said.
"Sleep for five minutes, Tywin. I'll keep watch."
Tywin nodded. He folded his hands over his knees, leaned his head against the tree trunk, and closed his eyes. Within a short while, his breathing became steady, and he fell into a deep sleep.
I stood slowly without making the slightest metallic sound. I moved several meters ahead and hid behind some bushes.
My eyes carefully surveyed the surrounding forest. The direction of the wind, the movement of the bushes, even the sound of snapping branches in the distance—I took note of everything.
The nobles at court might think they had already won after destroying the Ashford family. But they were wrong. As long as a knight from Blackwood guarded this boy, they would never succeed in stopping our escape.
Just as I was about to shift my gaze back toward Tywin, the night wind suddenly changed direction.
The smell of wet earth that had dominated the forest was now masked by another scent. It was faint, but unmistakably familiar to the nose of a border soldier.
The scent of chainmail lubricant... and the acrid tang of tracking magic.
I froze.
My fingers slowly closed around the hilt of the sword at my waist.
The enemy's magic-tracking hounds weren't following our trail from behind after all. The scent was coming from ahead... directly along the only path to the border of the Valen Mountains.
They weren't chasing us. They had already surrounded us and were waiting ahead.
One... two... three.
In the darkness beneath the great trees fifty meters in front of me, three pairs of glowing red eyes slowly opened in the silence.
"My calculations were wrong," I thought coldly.
"This game has begun far sooner than I imagined."