The False Prince (The Ascendance Trilogy #1)(6)

Latamer raised his hand. Not because he’d been trained to, but because it had worked for Tobias. “Sir, I think I’d like to leave. I’m not fit to compete with these other boys, and frankly, I’m not one to face danger, even for great rewards.” Apparently, the nagging voice hadn’t visited Latamer’s head.

“Certainly you may leave.” Conner politely raised a hand toward the wagon. “Why don’t you get back in there and I’ll have Cregan drive you to the nearest town.”

“Tonight?”

“The rest of us have more to discuss tonight, so yes, go right now.”

Latamer gave an apologetic smile to us and thanked Conner for understanding. I nodded a good-bye to him, and wondered, like I’m sure Roden and Tobias did, if it’d be smart to make the same choice. Conner hadn’t said what would happen to the boys he didn’t pick for his plan. Nor just how dangerous things might get.

Then I realized what my instincts had been trying to tell me. Mott was ahead of us, motioning Latamer toward the wagon. Where was Cregan?

I stood and yelled, “Latamer, stop!” But my warning only gave Latamer time to turn from climbing into the wagon. His eyes widened as he saw what I had sensed. An arrow whooshed past me and pierced his chest. Latamer yelped like a wounded dog and fell backward on the ground, dead.

With a furious cry, I leapt toward Cregan, who was still partially hidden in the shadows behind us, and tackled him to the ground. Cregan went for the knife at his waist, but one hand still held the bow he’d used to kill Latamer, so I got the knife first. With my body crossways over Cregan’s, I started to crawl off him, but Mott lunged at me from behind and I collapsed facedown into the dirt. Cregan took a deep breath, then sat up and easily wrested the knife from my hand. That was probably a good thing. I don’t know what I would’ve done with it if Mott hadn’t stopped me.

“You killed him,” I growled, getting a taste of dirt into my mouth.

Conner knelt beside me and lowered himself so that I could see his face. His voice was eerily calm. “Latamer was sick, Sage. He wasn’t going to get better, and I think he proved a good lesson for the rest of you. Now you can get up and rejoin the other boys, or you can take a wagon ride with Latamer. It’s your choice.”

I thrust my jaw forward and glared at Conner, then finally said, “I suppose Latamer won’t be much company now. I’ll stay here.”

“Excellent decision.” Conner clapped a hand on my back as if we were old friends. He nodded at Mott, who let me go, then added, “I’m sure Latamer’s death is a shock to you, but it was important for you three to understand the seriousness of what we are doing.”

When I sat up, Cregan’s leg brushed roughly past me as he went to help lift Latamer’s body into the wagon. Normally, I’d have kicked him in return, but for the moment I was too stunned to think.

“Bury him deep,” Conner said.

Still on the log, Tobias was pale and perfectly still. Roden looked as if he was having trouble breathing. My breathing wasn’t working any better. It didn’t help that Mott had rudely pressed his knee into my back for the last couple of minutes.

Conner’s smile was a thin line on his face. “Sage, I believe your question earlier was why we had the meeting before we ate. This is why. So we wouldn’t waste our food.” His eyes passed over to Roden and Tobias. “How about it, then? Does anybody else want to leave?”





Mott laid out a sack of fresh fruit and salted meat, but other than him and Conner, none of us touched it.

“It’s your last chance until breakfast,” Conner said. “You’ll want to keep your strength up.”

Roden shook his head at Conner. He didn’t look like he could stomach a bite of food anyway. Tobias had been nearly frozen since Latamer was killed. He’d barely even blinked. I’d gone numb. Literally. I felt nothing.

Conner and Mott ate their meal while the rest of us sat. Slowly, the shock wore off and we began to accept that as long as we did what we were told, we’d live to see another morning. Conner offered the food to us again.

“We have more traveling ahead of us, so you’ll only hurt yourselves if you don’t eat.”

Roden reached for the food first. He handed it to me and then Tobias. The piece of meat I took was unbearably salty and forced me into taking an apple, even though I had no appetite for it. I don’t think Tobias or Roden enjoyed their food much either. A wave of nausea threatened me every time I looked in the direction where Latamer had fallen.

At the orphanage, we’d all seen our share of violence and brutality. I once saw an older boy start kicking a younger one just for rolling over onto his mattress. It took five of us to stop him. But Conner had told Latamer it would be safe to leave. He baited Latamer, to teach us a lesson about leaving. The knowledge that Latamer had been brought along only for that purpose consumed my thoughts.

If I’d figured out what was happening even a few seconds earlier, could I have stopped it? Were any of the rest of us here as no more than a lesson to the others?

“Now that you’ve eaten, we can continue our conversation.” Conner nodded at Tobias. “Stand up. I wish to get a general understanding of who each of you is.”

Tobias stood stiffly. His knees were rigid and he looked like he was about to be sick.