“Unlikely. They’re too stupid to strategize or plot. And even Laitha can’t force them to do something so far outside their intelligence.”
He stepped close to me again and pointed past the scattering of sheds and outbuildings between us and the rest of the valley.
“You can’t see it from here,” he told me, “but that way, if we continue due north, there should be a hunting path that leads up through the hills. That’s where we’re headed.”
I peered into the darkness but saw nothing. “Is there any cover between here and there?”
“No. It’s fields and pastures all the way to the base of the hills.” He looked down at me. “Think you can manage that?”
Most definitely not.But I didn’t like the implication that I couldn’t.
“I need to do something about this dress,” I said. “It’s about six inches too long for easy sprinting.”
“I can help with that.” Moonlight glinted off metal as he whipped out one of his many knives. The next thing I knew, he was crouched down by my feet, his blade slicing off the bottom few inches of my dress.
In spite of everything, I caught myself smiling.
“When was the last time you found yourself kneeling in front of a woman?” I asked, pleased to be in a position to teasehimfor once.
My remark clearly caught him by surprise, but he recovered quickly. “Are you enjoying yourself, butterfly?”
“It’s just fun to see you on your knees. You strike me as the kind of guy who’s used to having it the other way.” The words shocked me even as they came out of my mouth, and I actually clapped my hand over my lips in surprise. Where hadthatcome from? Was Esmer finally rubbing off on me after all this time?
Radven, no surprise, appeared to be absolutely delighted by my loss of filter.
“Looks like the virgin has a dirty mind after all,” he said in that honey-smooth voice of his. “Though I should have known, given the way you threw yourself at me back at the inn.”
“I didn’tthrow myselfat you,” I insisted. “You were the one who was hitting on me all night!”
“And you were the one who begged me to touch you in the end.” His wicked smile shone up through the shadows, and though he finished slicing the fabric off my dress, he didn’t rise.
Instead, his fingers moved beneath the new, rough edge of my skirt, finding my ankle once again. This time, though, they didn’t stay there. They moved slowly but deliberately up my leg, skimming lightly across my skin.
And my body, so recently and abruptly denied the pleasure it craved, responded immediately, my nerves flaring back to life with a force that had me leaning back against the building for support.
Radven, still grinning, used his other hand to lift my skirt even higher and duck his head beneath.
Oh, sweet lord…
When his lips first brushed against my inner calf, my knees nearly buckled. And as they moved higher, up to my knee, then my inner thigh…
“Wait,” I said suddenly, grabbing his hair through the fabric of my skirt. “Do you hear that?”
Ifeltit more than heard it—that now-familiar littlepulsethat meant one of those zhespers was near. And when I held my breath, temporarily silencing my rapid breathing, I could make out thewhirof its wings as well.
Radven removed his head from beneath my dress, then rose in one smooth, graceful motion. He still had his knife in his hand.
He crept to the corner of the building, silent and elegant as a leopard, and he peered around the edge of the building and down the main street of Far Meadow.
And then he threw the knife.
I couldn’t see where it landed from where I stood against the side of the building, but I heard the small, slightly squishythumpof something hitting the ground.
He touched his heart, quickly whispering the same prayer I’d heard him use earlier, and then he turned back to me. “Run. Now.”
I ran. Past the sheds and other outbuildings and into the dark.
Almost immediately I came to a field high with some kind of golden grain—the stalks were nearly as tall as my shoulder. I slowed slightly, unsure if I was supposed to run through the tightly laid rows, but at that moment Radven came darting up behind me.
