But then I’d heard her ordering Skelly to bring us to Calimber. She knew nothing of what awaited us there, except perhaps Dracles’s most elite soldiers.
It seems neither of us cares who we harm to achieve our goals, little traitor.
Yet here I was again, letting her lead me into danger on the chance we could discoversomethingthat would obliterate Renwell, Rellmira’s newest false king.
I laid a palm on the infirmary door, glancing at the finger my father’s falcon ring had encircled. The insignia of the last true king. I’d torn it off after we sailed into the open sea and shoved it into my pocket.
I had no right to wear it.
Taking a deep breath, I pushed open the infirmary door.
“Where is she?” Sigrid snarled the moment I stepped inside.
Nikella hadn’t followed me back, leaving me alone to face the small, angry mob. But I supposed I deserved it. I’d been putting off these inquiries for days.
And now I was also going to tell them I was delaying our trip home to take yet another risk.
I leaned against the healer’s table and folded my arms over my chest. The stab wound I’d sustained from that gods-damned coward, Weylin, twinged, but I ignored it. “Kiera’s on deck with Skelly.”
“Why did you bring her with us?” Sigrid demanded.
“How did one of Weylin’s daughters end up in your company?” one of the injured bone-rattlers asked.
More and more questions hurtled from every corner of the room. Except from Maz, who stayed turned away.
“Did she know who you really were?”
“Is she still in league with Renwell?”
“What exactly happened in the palace two nights ago?”
“We should put her in chains and give her a taste of Dag justice.” That last one was from Sigrid, of course.
“Enough!” I snapped. “You forget that she also helped us escape the Den. If it hadn’t been for her quick thinking, we might have perished under that second wave of Wolves.”
Sigrid twirled her blade in her hand. “There might not have been a second wave if she hadn’t told Renwell what day we’d be attacking.”
“She didn’t tell him how many warriors we had or where we planned to attack. Only that I aimed to kill Weylin and what day I would do it.”
“Why didn’t she just kill you if she wanted to protect her family?” Yarina asked, her blue eyes thoughtful, as if this were the route she would’ve taken.
Iscowled. “I don’t know. Perhaps she was worried she wouldn’t make it back to the palace alive if she tried.”
“Or she didn’t want to kill the man she loved,” Maz mumbled into his pillow.
A shocked silence fell.
A memory flared of me bursting into Melaena’s room at The Silk Dancer after I’d found out Kiera had been spying on us. My normally level-headed friend and business associate had shouted,“She loves you!”
My heart hardened. “She was never in love with me, Mazkull. Why are you making excuses for her?”
Before anyone could stop him, Maz rose from his cot, his head nearly brushing the roof. His blue eyes blazed. “Why aren’t you? Have you asked her any of these questions, or did you immediately condemn her and cast her out of your heart?”
“Sit down, Mazkull,” I ground out, taking a step toward him.
“No.”
His sisters crowded closer. “Sit down, or we’ll make you,” Yarina threatened.
