“Excellent. I’ll report for work tomorrow and use her name to get across the bridge.”
Brielle nodded, her gaze darting once more to the door.
Dread curdled in my gut. “What aren’t you telling me? Do you think someone followed you?”
“No. I always adhere to the routine you gave me. Walk at different speeds. Take extra turns. Loop back. I... I just...” Her throat bobbed. “I think Renwell is getting suspicious.”
My dread flared into fear. Renwell—the man who’d hunted down People’s Council sympathizers and whose Shadow-Wolves I’d been dodging since I’d arrived in Aquinon.
“Why do you think that?” I bit out. “Has he said anything to you?”
“No. But... he caught me in his study a month ago.”
I crushed the uniform in my fist. “Gods damn it, Brielle. What were you doing in there?”
She lifted her chin, a steely glint in her eyes. “I wanted to find more evidence of the horrors he and Weylin are carrying out inthe Calimber mine. I heard there were children working in that gods-forsaken hole.Children, Aiden.”
“I know,” I growled. I hadn’t told her much of my time in the sunstone prison, but I’d seen those horrors with my own eyes. I still saw them in my nightmares. “But what did he do when he discovered you?”
“I played the simple, dutiful woman and claimed I was looking for a piece of paper and ink to leave him a note, asking whether he would join us for our special Viridana’s dinner tonight.”
I winced. “Did he believe you?”
Contempt hardened Brielle’s face. “I never know with Renwell. That man could lie to the gods themselves and get away with it. He also refused my invitation, so I don’t know where he is right now.”
This time it was me who glanced at the door, then around the empty warehouse. Nothing stirred. I also hadn’t heard a whistle from outside.
Brielle said she hadn’t been followed, and yet... I felt it, too. A wrongness. A prickle at the back of my neck.
Gods damn it, I shouldn’t have made Maz go to the docks.
“You should leave,” I said. “Get back to the Temple before your guards question the Teachers. I’ll follow to make sure no one else is.”
Brielle nodded, then hesitated before resting her palm against my unshaven cheek. “If we don’t speak again, I want to thank you, Aiden. For letting me know my husband didn’t kill my best friend’s son. And for helping me fight for my family’s—and our kingdom’s—freedom. Thank you,” she whispered.
I swallowed hard against the knot of guilt in my throat. I didn’t deserve her gratitude. I’d done nothing but lose more lives since I’d started fighting back.
But I only needed one more. Weylin’s.
Brielle led me to the door. Just as the latch started rising.
We both froze.
The latch continued to glide upward. The door creaked as someone pushed it from the other side. But the crossbar held firm.
Slowly, I grasped Brielle’s arm and dragged her behind me. She shook like a leaf in a storm, her mouth clamped shut.
“Brielle,” said a deep, deadly cold voice.
Brielle let out a low moan of terror, her nails digging into my arm. “It’s Renwell,” she gasped. “Holy Four, he found me.”
Gods damn it, why didn’t the stable boy warn us? Unless Renwell had found him first.
My heart beat frantically as I hauled her away from the door. Theonlydoor.
Something crashed against it, making Brielle jump.
“I know you’re in there, Brielle,” came Renwell’s voice again. “I know what you’ve been doing. Is your new gardener in there as well?”
