Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he reached out and closed his hand around the cool handle of Anik's sword, drawing it onto his lap. He hadn't seen Anik use it in a real fight, but he remembered the way he had wielded it during their sparring match and his practice. The slow, precise movements of his body, the sword an extension of himself. It had been harder than it looked. Neither Niklas nor Ren had had much time to practice on the road, not that it would have done Ren much good, anyway. He had pulled his sword against an unarmed man and still nearly lost his life.

Flecks of blood still clung to the blade of the sword just below the crossguard. Anik had drawn his weapon in the woods and skewered the man in front of him. Then Niklas had pried Anik's sword from his hands and knocked him unconscious. Niklas, who couldn't even beat Ren in friendly fights half the time.

Ren's eyes narrowed, a thought growing in his mind, realisations forming and connecting. They made his heart skip and he sat up straighter, grip tightening on Anik's sword.

There was no way Niklas could have disarmed and incapacitated Anik in complete darkness. Anik was much too skilled a fighter, especially against someone like Niklas, who had barely any fighting skills. And there was still that one inconsistency – why would Anik kill a man with whom he had been engaged in what sounded like pleasant conversation with only moments before?

Ren stared at the blade of the sword as if the cold steel could somehow provide him with answers.

Anik'd had no motive for killing that man. The very reason he had followed Ren halfway across the country was to avenge the deaths of his people. Niklas had encouraged Ren to get rid of Anik many times, but Ren had turned him down. Niklas knew he wasn't strong enough to kill Anik himself, so what if getting Ren to dispose of Anik had been his plan all along?

Getting out of bed, Ren discarded the blanket and grabbed his boots, yanking them on without tying the laces. Maybe he was grasping at straws and maybe he was just desperately searching for something that could help him out of this mess, but he had to know the truth.

His boot heels clicked against the stone floors as he marched down the corridor and took the stairs down two at a time. He passed a guard, who jerked awake and was probably relieved that Ren didn't bother reprimanding him for sleeping on the watch.