I slapped a hand over the sticky stain on my skin. “Juice. They’re, uh... a bit messy.”
“Juice tends to get everywhere when you’re... eating,” Maz said with a solemn expression that belied the laughter in his blue eyes.
Aiden glared at him as he sat down by the fire. “Shove that fruit in your mouth before I do it for you.”
Maz rolled his eyes and cut into his moonblood. “Gods, only you would still be cantankerous after tasting such delicious fruit.”
Ruru slurped the crimson juice from his. “Holy Four, that is good. Like an orange, but so much better.”
I smiled at him, grateful he was actually talking about the moonblood. “And a little sparkly, don’t you think?”
He nodded, his smile drooping a bit. “I miss my sticky bread, though. Gods know when I’ll ever have it again.”
I squeezed his arm. “We’ll get back to Aquinon soon.”
“Do you really think this Henry fellow will march his army there?” Ruru asked.
We’d told the others about the letter I’d sent. But it could’ve gotten lost or seized. He could’ve decided not to come.
I swallowed hard. If I died in the mine, no one would save Everett and Delysia. Or Aquinon. Renwell would win.
“I hope so,” I said thickly. I met Aiden’s eyes across the fire. The same concern was etched between his brows.
“He’d better be here in the next two days,” Maz said around a mouthful of bloody fruit. “We can’t wait.”
“I know that,” I snapped.
His brows lifted.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. “I just... need him to come.”
Maz’s face softened. “Of course, lovely. I’ll keep watch with you.”
“You’re not doing a very good job of that,” said Nikella as she appeared out of the darkness.
Maz waved his hand. “I knew you were coming.”
Her lips quirked, the first sign of a smile in days. Her arms were full of leaves, branches, berries, and tools.
Ruru jumped up to help her set everything down.
“Did you find everything?” Aiden asked. He jutted his chin at the mortar, pestle, and hatchet she laid at her feet. “Where’d you get those?”
“Friends,” she said. “You four will need to cut down a tree and create several hollow lengths to store everything in.”
I gazed up at the massive trees surrounding us. “Won’t that make Viridana angry?”
“We’re not the ones taking more than our share,” Nikella reminded me. “She’ll grow back swiftly.”
Suddenly, I very much wanted to see that.
We quietly ate dried pork mixed with boiled beans while Nikella stripped, ground, and sifted the flora she’d collected. She explained as she went, but I nodded off as she was showing us how to braid something called shiverroot into a fuse.
The next two days passed much the same, with the notable difference of not kissing Aiden again. We shared looks. We brushed past each other. We sat together by the fire. But our battle preparations consumed my thoughts.
Every hour I prowled outside that gods-damned fortress, every time I spied on the other side of the river, searching for a soldier who could be Henry, killed a little more of my hope.
We were also no closer to figuring out how to take a shipment without arousing too much suspicion.
