Ellina thought of the cove Venick had described from his boyhood, and how he and his friends used to climb the nearby rocks, daring each other to jump from greater and greater heights. She felt like that. She felt like she was about to dive off a new peak, that the hunch that had been growing within her since last summer would soon be confirmed, or denied. This was the moment when Ellina would toss her question from the cliff, and listen to the sound it made as it hit the water below.
“My life has been nothing but a series of lies,” she said. “Some of those lies were the kind I used to tell myself, because I was afraid. Others were truths that have been withheld from me. My mother kept secrets—about why she really created the border, why she fought with her sister Ara, why she wanted to initiate Miria early into queenhood. I think you know those secrets, and now, I would like you to share them with me.”
As Erol considered her, Ellina’s suspicion continued to grow. Fragile. Hard to look at. Harder, to know that this man had the answer to so many of her life’s mysteries, and that if he trusted her enough, he might be willing to share them.
At last, Erol gave his reply. “As you wish.”
???
When the night reached its peak, Ellina set Bournmay out into the city to hunt for rats and rabbits, then went to find Venick. She had so much to tell him. Yet when she ventured to the inn’s second floor and knocked on his door at the hall’s end, there was no answer.
She tried the door. It was open.
Ellina entered the small space, which was strewn with his things, everything dropped in a rush, most of his bags yet to be unpacked. She moved to the balls of her feet, then realized that her desire to move quietly felt too much like snooping and dropped back onto her heels. She walked deliberately across the room. The floorboards groaned.
Hesitating, yet remembering the way Venick had touched her shoulder earlier, and finding confidence in that, she perched on his bed to wait.
Time slid by. He did not appear.
Ellina told herself not to worry. Most likely, Venick was with Dourin, or back on the inn’s roof. Maybe he was waiting for her somewhere as she waited for him. Yet when the moon began its descent and Venick still had not appeared, Ellina could no longer ignore her concern. She stood. There was a cloud of anxiety in her stomach.
She would set up a search party. They would scour this inn, the city, the entire continent if they must. Ellina grabbed her coat, marched out the door—
And straight into Venick.
She reeled. “Where have you been?”
He looked down at his hands, which held a basket of food.
“You wentshopping?”
“Well.” A shrug. “I was hungry.”
“It’s the middle of the night.”
“There’s a market,” Venick said. Then, seeing her agitation. “I paid for this. We won’t be one of those armies who demands free room and board.”
“I was about to gather a search party.”
He started to smile, then realized she was serious. He bit his lip, hoisting the basket in offering. “Can I make it up to you?”
Ellina stepped backward into his room, and Venick followed, shutting the door behind them. As he moved to set the food on a low table, Ellina became aware of how small his quarters were, and how much space Venick seemed to occupy in comparison.
She slid away to open the window. A breeze rushed in, dissipating his scent.
He moved up behind her. “Are you angry?”
“I wish you had told me where you went. I thought—” She kept her back to him, fiddling unnecessarily with the window’s clasp. “I thought you might have—” She could not say it.
“Hey,” he said, catching her elbow. “I’m fine.”
She turned to face him. “You need to be careful.”
“Bournmay was with me.”
“She cannot protect you from everything.”
Venick’s gaze darted between Ellina’s eyes, the room’s low-lit fire gilding his face. “I understand that you were worried.”
