“He told me,” her voice cracked, and she swallowed a couple times before trying again. “He told me he would always be my father. That we were family, no matter how I’d come to them. And then he told me the story of how he’d found me. How he’d been on his way home fromOlympia with a company of soldiers. They had stopped at Hekate’s temple to leave an offering, and he’d wandered off to relieve himself,” Terena laughed and Croak shot her a grin. “And then he heard me crying a few feet away. He walked until he found me. When he came over to grab me up, he found a man beside me, face down. Lorence, my father, said he’d gone to the man, but he wasn’t moving. When he flipped him over, he saw the man was dead.
“A few years later, I asked him for more details.” Terena wiped her nose with the back of her hand and sighed. “I asked him if the man had any wounds. If he looked like me; did he have the same black hair or hazel eyes?” Terena shook her head. “And when I started asking more questions about the man, he told me if I wanted to know more about who I am and who my parents were, he would help me. He gave me some things he’d found when he rescued me: my blanket, a gold armband the man wore, a gold necklace he’d had in his pocket.” Terena lifted a hand to touch the necklace she wore at her neck.
“We poured through books to see if we could find any mention of either, anything similar that might lead us to the city-state or region I might have come from. Of course, we started in Olympia, where he found me. Lorence told me about people called trackers and how they made their living finding lost treasures left behind by the gods. That we could hire one to find my parents. I told him I wanted to be a tracker, and that was that.”
“Have you found your birth mother?” Jason asked, his voice soft as he looked at her, his eyes shining.
Terena dropped her head, but did not speak.
The silence thickened around them.
“There once was a man with a very?—”
They erupted in laughter as Croak began singing in the fraught silence. Terena’s laughter was sharp as tears stung her eyes and she hung her head. The others howled as Croak’s bawdy song got worse.
Terena looked up at last.
And met Daris’s heated gaze.
CHAPTER THIRTY
They traveled for a week, camping in wooded areas far from any villages or towns they passed. Daris wouldn’t risk questions or prying eyes seeing their sizable group passing through.
After Croak had grumbled about a warm bath, Daris had told them to get used to their situation, for he wouldn’t let any of them be seen by someone who might take back word to their enemies.
He did, however, send Jason and Michael into one of the first villages they’d come across for provisions. Croak had tried to tag along, but was vetoed rather quickly by both men. When they’d returned with only the food and supplies Daris had sent them for, even Rydon and Gabriol had added their voices to Croak’s loud complaints about the lack of alcohol.
So the next town they’d neared, Croak had gone along with the others to bring back appropriate provisions.
They were a few days away from Thuria when Daris called a halt for the night. Jason and Rydon had gone off to scout for a suitable place to camp while the rest of them stretched their legs or sought privacy to see to their needs.
Terena let out a groan and rubbed at the back of her neck as shepaced away, tugging Nyx along as they neared a small pond close to where they’d stopped. She crouched at the edge and cupped her hands into the cold water, lifting it to her face, and drank. Nyx dropped her head and lapped at the water beside Terena, sending gentle ripples across the still surface.
The moonlight cast a pretty glow over the pond and surrounding trees, a soft melody of night filling the silence. Terena lifted more water and splashed her face, sighing as the cold bit into her skin, waking her.
After that first night with Daris and his men, Terena had remained wary, unwilling to fully fall asleep.
“You’re exhausted.”
Terena stiffened, glancing over her shoulder to see Daris standing a few feet away to her left. Rising, she wiped her hands on her pants.
“We’re all exhausted,” she replied.
He shook his head once and took a few steps closer. Terena turned slightly toward him, her hands at her sides.
“Truth. But you haven’t been sleeping much.”
Terena lifted her shoulder. “I doubt any of us have been sleeping much.”
He looked at her a moment longer, his brow furrowed. “I’ve seen you. When you’re close to drifting off. It’s like… youwillyourself to stay awake. At first, I thought maybe you were uncomfortable around me, around my men. Understandable. But we’ve been traveling for over a week now and you haven’t let down your guard.”
“Haveyoulet down your guard?” Terena countered. It was bad enough he’d noticed. That he’d been watching her that closely. For him to try to figure out why was something she would not allow.
He lifted a corner of his mouth but said nothing.
Seconds passed, neither of them breaking the silence. Terena turned to leave, feeling awkward, when he spoke.
“I didn’t realize he was your brother,” Daris said.
