There was a scuffling noise just behind us. I gripped Dredger tighter, hiding my knife behind his back.
“Oh, uh, I see what you mean,” came Wottel’s embarrassed voice. “I’ll give you a minute. Fucking Four, don’t make a fourth baby right here in the gatehouse. Captain would be right pissed.”
I flinched. They had three children? They must truly be desperate to risk their lives helping us.
Holy Four, I hope it’s all worth it.
“He’s gone,” Dredger breathed in my ear, immediately shaking me off.
An honorable man. And a dead one if I didn’t hurry.
I raced back over to the second pin and sawed as hard and fast as I could. It seemed like hours, but was probably only seconds until I’d severed the handle and replaced it.
Dredger nearly melted into a puddle of relief when I reemerged, tucking my knife into my boot.
“Go, go!” Dredger pleaded, shooing me like a lost chicken.
I hurried out, blowing him a kiss. “See you at home, darling!”
The guards hooted and teased, then converged on a flushed Dredger and his basket of food.
No one questioned me as I left the wall. Locklean waved and wished me a good night. I replied in kind. Gods, I hoped these guards would join Aiden and Henry when they arrived. We needed all the good soldiers we could get.
I strode back the way I’d come, not daring to leave the main road. The Wolves didn’t stop me, but the guards at the Noble Quarter gate did.
“Oh, silly me,” I said in a quavery voice. “Somehow, Lady Melaena’s earring ended up in my basket. I need to return it to her.” I held up the ornate gold earring Melaena had given me.
The guards shifted their spears toward me. “Did you steal it?” demanded one.
“Oh, Eleanor, there you are!” Melaena called, hurrying toward us. “I was about to come looking for you. I believe I dropped my earring?—”
“I have it right here,” I said, waving it under the guards’ noses.
“What a good friend you are. Please let her in.” Melaena smiled at the guards, but even I heard the thinly veiled command.
They grumblingly did as she said.
We hurried back toThe Silk Dancerand collapsed into undignified heaps on the dressing room chairs.
“Is it done?” Melaena asked, fanning herself.
I handed her the earring. “We are ready for an invasion.”
“I pray we survive it.”
“I pray we are victorious,” I said grimly. I would die fighting before I succumbed to another cage.
Find me, Aiden, before it’s too late.
Chapter 61
Aiden
I stoodat the bow of the Shadow-Wolf prison ship as if I could get to Aquinon faster by leaning as far out over the water as I could.
Two weeks. Two gods-damned weeks without Kiera.
I’d barely slept. I wouldn’t have eaten much if Maz hadn’t threatened to force it down my throat. His arrow wound had healed enough that I considered his threat genuine.
