“I should be offended by that.”
She laughed airily and rested her temple on his shoulder. Taavin gave her a light kiss on the crown of her head. He stretched an arm behind her with the corner of the second blanket in hand. Soon enough, she was bundled against him.
“Do you want to rest?” Vi murmured, already feeling sleep overtake her.
“No, I’ll take first watch.”
“All right.” She yawned. “Wake me if you see the Knights.”
“I will,” he promised.
Vi slept surprisingly well that night. The next morning, she and Taavin watched the windmill’s sole occupant—an elderly woman—make her way into town. She did not so much as glance in their direction as she passed the thick brush concealing them.
The woman being alive meant for certain they’d made it before the Knights, which helped Vi sleep even sounder the second night. It was still possible that things had changed so much between her vision and now that they wouldn’t bring Vhalla here. Vi mentally gave them two more days before they would split up; he would wait here and she would head off to the Crystal Caverns.
Even if the world had changed since her vision and Knights didn’t come to the windmill, she knew they would end up there. They always did. In every world, the crystal weapons sought to be returned to the Caverns.
Vi was dozing when the thunder of hooves startled her. She straightened and listened carefully.
“I hear it too,” Taavin whispered as he hastily folded their blankets.
Sure enough, a group rode up. Vi recognized Schnurr at its head. Vhalla was tied to a horse in the center, looking even worse than she had in Vi’s vision with heavy shackles, inlaid with crystals, around her wrists. Vi balled her hands into a fist and gritted her teeth. She wasn’t sure which made her angrier: the fact that the Knights of Jadar were a perpetual thorn in her side, or what they had done to Vhalla.
She and Taavin remained crouched low, holding their breath, and watched what unfolded through breaks in the brush.
The elderly woman they’d seen before came out to greet the travelers on her doorstep. She couldn’t get out a word before Schnurr skewered her through the eye with his sword. Vi didn’t even wince as he cast the woman aside. Her corpse landed in an identical position to the vision Vi had seen.
“It’s the same,” she whispered as quietly as possible into Taavin’s ear.
“Good.”
She didn’t know if she’d call this “good” but it was at least playing out just as Yargen had showed her. The Knights of Jadar untied Vhalla from the saddle and carried her in. Vi watched for a second time as the woman was thrown unceremoniously onto bags of grain. The group followed her inside and the door closed behind them.
“What now?” Taavin whispered.
“I… don’t know,” Vi admitted. “This is everything I saw.”
Taavin pursed his lips, clearly thinking over their options. “Well, we know they’re going to take her to the Crystal Caverns.”
“Yes, and we can’t let them do that.”
“Do you want to free her, then?” he asked. “We’re not playing by the rules anymore, right? We don’t care if we change fate. This is it.”
Vi struggled to find words. “Who are you, and what have you done with my Taavin?”
“I will always be your Taavin.” He gripped her hand.
“Let’s wait and observe,” Vi declared. “We’ll move when an opening presents itself.”
“You’ve always been good at seeing opportunities.”
She gave him a weary smile and brought her attention back to the windmill.
Night fell. The movement in the windmill settled and Vi assumed everyone had lain down to rest. She wondered how much closer she’d let them get to the Crystal Caverns. She’d killed Knights there before; she could gladly do it again. Perhaps she’d ambush them when they left. The creative and delicious possibilities for destroying them were endless.
“What was that?” Taavin whispered in the still night.
“I didn’t hear anything.”
