The Tyrant King Is Obsessed With Me

Chapter 113: Chapter 113 - Saved by strangers

Solomon gritted his teeth as the calls of the guards seemed to draw closer with every passing second. Despite how well he had memorised the land, he was no match for the men who had spent their lives moving through it. Men who knew every corner and path to move through, while Solomon was still learning the shape of it.

"He’s over there!" The call cut through the trees, confirming that they had not lost sight of him.

Solomon looked back to measure the distance.

There was still some distance between them, which he had bought himself by attacking the guards the moment Thalia walked away with the butler. He didn’t trust waiting for Thalia to return and let him go or offer the reward. Her mother wouldn’t be so understanding either.

Solomon looked ahead, his mind turning over every option left to him. "They’ll track the hooves," he thought, his gaze dropping to the dark trail the horse’s hooves had pressed into the earth.

He thought of jumping from the horse and losing himself in the trees, but the horse was his only means of travel. Losing it would cost him far too much time, and by then Thalia and her mother could have moved on, making the search start over from nothing.

Solomon muttered a curse under his breath as two riders emerged from the trees ahead. "Forget it," he said, drawing his sword.

If he died here, unable to deliver the message to Lilith, then Solomon could only hope that wherever she was, she would understand that he had fought for her until there was nothing left to give.

Solomon raised his sword and rode to meet the two riders.

To his surprise, they swung their horses wide of him and rode past, weapons raised, driving towards the men who had been giving chase.

Solomon pulled his horse to a stop and turned, hardly believing what he was seeing. Two strangers had taken up his fight as though it were their own.

He sat motionless for a moment, watching as the marchioness’s guards fell one by one to blades that moved with the ease of men long accustomed to large numbers. These were not ordinary soldiers.

Solomon shook off his shock and turned his horse, riding back to join them. He needed to know who they were and how they had managed to arrive at the exact moment he needed them.

Solomon rode hard into the fight, his sword finding the chest of a man chasing down on him from the right.

With the strangers’ help, the last of the guards went down. The silence that followed felt almost too sudden, and Solomon didn’t lower his sword.

"Who are you, and why are you helping me?" Solomon questioned, remaining on guard.

"We should go before the next wave arrives and kills all of us. Would you rather stand here and talk?" one of the strangers asked. "I can already hear more horses coming."

Solomon had no good reason to trust them and no good reason not to. He fell in behind the two men, keeping enough distance to respond if they turned on him.

Solomon studied what they wore as they rode, searching for any marking or crest that might tell him who had sent them. There was nothing he could read.

"Were you sent by Lilith?" Solomon asked, though some part of him already knew the answer couldn’t be that simple.

"We were sent to follow you on your journey with the princess," said Clyde, a man serving in Cassian’s army.

"We’ve been with you since the day after you left the castle. Always close, never seen," said Preston, the second man from Cassian’s army, with a satisfaction that suggested he was rather proud of it. "You’ve finally given us a proper fight. The others were dull."

"Others?" Solomon asked.

"The others we had to deal with along the way to keep you safe. You may have thrown a cloak over her head, but the people around you knew you were travelling with someone important. Surely it must have struck you as strange that the journey was so quiet," said Clyde.

"It was oddly silent," Solomon admitted. "But I didn’t notice either of you behind us. I’m surprised you managed to catch up, leaving a full day after."

"We’re the best trackers in his grace’s army. Well, his majesty’s now," Preston corrected himself with a slight tilt of his head. "Finding you was the easy part. The princess was not especially quiet. Without us, you would have faced far worse. No need to thank us. We enjoyed the excitement."

"We happen to like a bit of fighting," Clyde agreed. "Now it is our duty to get you back safely to the castle. Don’t try to disappear on us, because we will come after you," he warned.

"And we will kill you. We’ll tell everyone a bear found you first," Preston said, laughing at his own suggestion.

"There are no bears around here," Solomon said. He let the laughter settle and then asked more carefully, "Why weren’t you sent to kill me?" He was genuinely curious about how much Lilith had chosen to reveal.

Clyde shrugged. "We don’t question his majesty’s orders. We follow them and trust that he has his reasons. Personally, I was hoping for the other outcome, but the order was to bring you back."

"It does surprise me," Preston admitted. "Given that we heard the queen had been poisoned, and you disappeared around the same time. But questions are above us. We must move," he said, urging his horse forward.

Solomon and Clyde moved to follow after Preston and away from the marchioness’s lands.

As they rode, Solomon found his thoughts drifting to the question of whether Lilith had told Cassian the truth about the poisoning. It hadn’t been part of the plan for Cassian to know, but Solomon had been gone long enough now that things could have shifted between the two of them.

What troubled him most was the thought of Lilith letting her guard down too far, and what Cassian might do with that trust if he ever decided to use it against her.