“The place I was going didn’t have villages or cities. I slept rough and moved fast. She couldn’t have kept up or been quiet enough. But if I’d left her in a makeshift camp... there were things in the woods that would’ve killed and eaten her.”
“So no one with sense would’ve brought her?”
“No.” He ate a few wedges of the pink fruit along with a chunk of meat. “You have more control. Teaching you won’t be a waste of time.”
“Teaching me what?”
“How to survive.”
She blinked. “Am I going to be abducted?”
“Obviously yes. You already have been.”
“Right,” she said with a small burst of laughter. “But I didn’t think you planned to teach me to fight you and Wex.”
He smiled. Then his smile faded. “No.”
“You took me because I had a debt to pay, right? Giss and I will never tell a lie that hurts someone innocent again. I’ve regretted it from the moment I realized I couldn’t just pay Larsinc’s fine and get him released. When they took him to the Wilds, I almost couldn’t live with myself. I did everything I could to help him. I sold a quarter of our valuables and was in the process of selling more. I’d have sold it all to save his life. I swear it.”
“If you’d been faster or more successful, things would be different.”
“Yes. We’d never have seen each other again.”
He didn’t respond.
“Right?” she asked.
“Well now,” Roll said, entering the kitchen chamber. “Our little beauty is awake. Do you want me to finish her exam now?”
“No,” she said, frowning.
“Yes,” Tok said.
“No! Why do you keep persisting in this? If you thought I was infected with something, wouldn’t it already be too late? I’d have passed it on to all of you by now!”
“It’s not that kind of exam,” Rollow said with a hint of amusement in his voice.
