“And endless pitchers of Sunshine,” Maz chimed in.
“Shut up, or I’ll eat whatever’s left in your saddlebags,” Yarina snapped. She became very testy when hungry.
My stomach growled. I tried not to think about food, but rather everything else I missed—the sun, hot baths, hot meals, a bed.
I missed the comfortable lodge I’d shared with Nikella. I missed the little apartment I shared with Aiden, Maz, and Ruru in Aquinon.
I even missed my palace room. Not the one Renwell had moved me to, next to his office. But my princess one, where Mother would come in to braid my hair in front of the gilded mirror or to eat breakfast with me, Delysia, and Everett on my little stone terrace.
We’d tell funny stories and stuff ourselves with fresh fruit while the rising sun banished the long shadows from my western view. A pocket of happiness in a palace of misery.
I’d been glad when Renwell moved me after she died.
She’d haunted me in my old room. I’d find her out of the corner of my eye, on the edge of reality and hopeful dream. Just a shadow, a trick of the light, and I’d see her still sitting there, soaking up the afternoon sunshine or arranging flowers in a vase she’d painted for me. A glimmer, and my heart would stop, desperate to clutch at that moment in time where she could still be with me. As I always wanted her to be.
But it was never real, and I couldn’t keep torturing myself. So I’d let Renwell do it instead.
A hand landed on my shoulder, jolting me from my memories. “Your watch, Kiera,” Nikella murmured. “No training tonight.”
I nodded, then realized she probably couldn’t see me. “Understood.”
Peeling off my blanket, I rolled it up and stored it next to my pack. Then I belted my sword around my hips, nestled under my knife brace. The sword was cumbersome, a weight I was still getting used to, but the knives were a familiar, comforting presence.
Mother’s knife took up residence in my boot once more.
I stepped around Jek, Maz, and Sigrid, who were sitting and staring in opposite directions. Aiden’s familiar shadow leaned against a tree, guarding the horses.
“Be careful,” he whispered as I passed by.
Was he as familiar with my shadow as I was with his?
I’d taken watch several times, so I began my route. Walking ahead on the trail. Walking behind. Then short forays into the creaking woods.
Mirrored eyes flashed at me before blinking away. We had yet to encounter a bear or a mountain lion, like the ones Maz told stories about. But my heart beat faster all the same.
Carefully, I slipped through the woods to the west, stepping around rocks and logs like I was sneaking around someone’shouse. But out here, I always had to keep track of where our camp was. Which was much harder without a fire to guide me.
Another gleam caught my eye, and I grasped the hilt of my sword. But this time, it didn’t move or blink away. It flickered.
Holding my breath, I crept closer.
Fucking Four, it’s a fire. Armored men. Horses. Saddle blankets with the Rellmiran crest.
A border patrol.
Chapter 27
Kiera
My grip trembledaround my sword hilt as I tried to burrow into the tree I leaned against.
I counted eight of them. They were still unsaddling their horses and stoking their fire as if they’d just stopped patrolling.
Why weren’t they using the trail?
Either they were hiding... or they were searching for someone.
Ruru? He’d said the border patrol he’d escaped had stopped looking for him, but what if they hadn’t?
