Despite everything, that makes me smile. “Stillno?”
He flushes. “Ah. Well.”
But then he says nothing else.
It’s rare I have the opportunity to see Quint flustered, so I let go of his jacket and run one last finger along his jaw. “So charming,” I tease. “Very well. I’ll return as soon as I can, Palace Master.”
He sucks in a breath, but I’m already turning, losing the smile, ready to be the king.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Harristan
The house Quint secured for Saeth’s family is tiny, set well apart from any others. It looks more like a remote hunting cabin than a building to serve any other purpose. From what I remember, it’s a fraction of the size of the house they had in Mosswell, with no pens for livestock or even much of a yard, but there’s a wide porch with a swing. The shutters are all drawn tight, but lantern light flickers through the cracks. I don’t hear anything from within, but a fire must be set in the hearth because smoke curls from the chimney, too.
“That one?” I say to Thorin.
He nods. “I’ll wait outside.”
“No,” I say. “Go sleep. You should have let Saeth relieve you earlier.”
“I can remain with you for the morning.
“If you fall asleep on your feet, it won’t do any of us much good, Thorin.”
He gives a humorless laugh. “I haven’t done much good lately anyway.”
That draws me up short. “What?”
He looks over. “I suggested Reed and Sommer.”
“And I agreed.”
He sets his jaw and looks away.
I speak into his silence. “Saeth agreed as well. And Master Quint, for that matter. Reedwasloyal. He died proving it. Thorin—this was not your fault. Sommer was desperate andstarving.”
He says nothing to that either.
“We should have gone for them earlier,” I say. “I was worried they were locked in the Hold. I had no idea they’d be banished from the sector and left to starve.Ifailed. And not just the mission. I failedthem. They deserved better. And now, because of it, I’m failing both of you.”
Thorin is so quiet that I think he agrees, and the weight of this knowledge sits heavy in my heart. But then he says, “I’ve known Jack Wadestrom all my life. I don’t know if you knew that. Our mothers have been close since before I was born, so he’s practically family. We even made it into the palace guard around the same time. Two weeks ago I was buying him a drink when we got off duty—and now he’s dead.”
I let out a breath.
“He was loyal,” Thorin says quietly. “They wereallloyal. If you’d asked me to name anyone I’d expect to turn on you, Jack wouldn’t have made the list. And he didn’t just turn on you. He turned onme.”
I think of the horrible battle in the clearing, the way the rain poured down. Thorin and Wadestrom were grappling in the mud, and I thought all was lost—until Saeth showed up.
“How did it change so fast?” Thorin says, and there’s a desperate note to his voice. “What have they been telling them?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “But nothing that happened last night was a failing on your part.Nothing.”
His eyes seem to darken a bit, and he hesitates as if he’s going to contradict me, but then he says, “None of it was a failing on your part either.”
I look at the small house, all locked up tight. I consider Leah Saeth, and the mystery of whatever she endured. I consider Sommer waiting to be questioned, with answers that might be damning in ways I can’t even fathom. “That remains to be seen.”
Saeth’s wife answers the door when I knock, and when she sees me alone on the threshold, her eyes flare wide, and she gasps. The surprise doesn’t last long before it’s replaced with the same icy regard from last night. She grabs hold of her skirts and offers me a brief curtsy. “Your Majesty. I thought it would be Ben, coming to summon us.”
