“You said we’re in need of money, yes?”
They were. While they’d pilfered from the camps they’d destroyed, it wasn’t as though the Kakos soldiers were carrying bags of copper or gold with them. And Will’s resource in Colmur did not come cheap.
“I’m still considering the merits of simply stealing it off of some poor, drunk soul,” Will admitted. Not that they’d be able to steal enough for what they needed, not without attracting some sort of attention from guards.
But Aidon shot him a dark grin as he held up a small pouch. “How do you think I secured my buy-in?”
Seven hells. Will hadn’t even seen him swipe anything.
“I hope you’re as good at cards as Aya recounts,” hewarned.
Aidon’s grin grew sharp. “I’m even better.”
5
Aya had lost count of the days.
At first, she’d tried to track the sun’s position in those brief moments of lucidity. But then, her mind had become too muddled, her dreams too sharp, too realistic, and she couldn’t determine what was true and what was imagined.
Had Tova been leaning against her shoulder?
Had Aya dreamt of the feeling of her blood on her hands?
“She looks half dead,” Andras’s rough voice muttered from somewhere beyond where Aya sat bound to the skiff’s mast. Aya blinked, the fog in her vision lifting enough that she became aware of the pain that curled around her body. Thick ropes dug into her chest, adding to the ache that radiated just beneath them. Her fighting leathers were caked with dirt and blood, the material hot to the touch from the sun.
Evie’s face came into view as she crouched before Aya. Her pale skin had grown tanner from their time at sea.
“She does, doesn’t she?” Evie mused, her head cocking as she took Aya in. The saint stretched out a hand, and Aya hated herself for the way she flinched.
“Be calm,” Evie murmured, setting her hand against Aya’s cheek. Healing light pulsed from Evie’s palm, warm againstAya’s skin, which tingled beneath the power. She could feel the tightness in her face, swollen from the heat and the sun and Andras’s fists, receding.
“There,” Evie remarked as she sat back on her heels. She was dressed in a tan tunic and brown britches—had she been wearing those all along? Aya couldn’t remember. Evie’s fingers were gentle as they tucked a piece of hair behind Aya’s ear. “More presentable for our esteemed hosts.”
It took several long moments for Evie’s words to settle in Aya’s hazy mind. Her fear was a distant thing, numbed by the agony that radiated through her with every breath. She swallowed against the dryness in her throat.
“You’re a fool if you think Kakos will welcome you with open arms,” she croaked, the words thick on the sandpaper of her tongue.
They’d be lucky if they were killed on sight.
Gods, let them kill us. Please, let them kill us.
Evie fixed her with a saccharine smile. “I would be a fool indeed to approach Kakos so directly. Though I do return with one of their esteemed warriors.” She flicked an appraising look at Andras. “Did you know, Aya, that Andras was trusted by the king himself to carry out his assignment in Tala?”
No, she hadn’t known. She had tried, those first few times she woke, to garner some information. To stay still, so that she might listen, might hear something of use. But it had been fruitless. Much like the days, Aya had lost her grip on the snatches of conversation she’d overheard until she couldn’t differentiate dream from reality.
She dragged her gaze to Andras. There was a smugness in the tilt of his chapped lips, a pride she wanted to smother.
“Do you think your king will forgive your failure?” she rasped.
The pleased looked vanished from the Diaforaté’s face. “I aided your bitch queen in advancing Kakos’s cause,” he spat,taking a menacing step toward her. “Your Dyminara friends are dead. Dunmeaden is in ashes thanks tomyaid.”
The pain of that truth was equally sharp, and Aya clung to it. “And yet she fooled even you,” Aya pressed. “Or did you know she intended for me to call down the gods?”
“All the easier to kill them—”
“Enough,” Evie cut in, her hand extending toward where Andras was reaching for the knife sheathed at his hip.
Aya blinked, her heart stuttering in her chest.
