His scowl deepens.
“No, look,” I say, before he can get frustrated. “I’ll show you with your own name. There’s the L, and when it’s at the beginning of a word, it sounds likeluh. Then the O, which can sound likeohorah. Then the C, which . . .” I frown at thechand run a hand back through my hair. I don’t remember how I learned all this. “Wait, that one’s kind of unusual because it’s with theH—”
“All right, I’m done.” He starts to shove back from the table.
“What?” I demand. “Where are you going?”
“Teach someone else, Your Highness. I’m not your trick pony.”
“I know.” I slam down the pencil and match his scowl. “It’s a real pity, too. A trick pony would’ve been a lot more fun at every turn.”
He startles, then runs his hands over his face and sighs. He drops back into his seat heavily and glares at the paper, his jaw set.
So maybe we are going to have to sit here without speaking.
But he eventually runs his finger over Karri’s name. “I haven’t told her.”
“That you can’t read?”
He nods and pushes the paper away. We sit in silence again, but this time it’s different, and I’m not entirely sure how. He’s not confiding in me, not really.
But almost.
“Do you think she would care?” I finally say.
“Maybe she wouldn’t have. But now it’s been so long that it feels like a lie.”
I go still at those words. “I can understand that.” He scoffs, and I raise my eyebrows. “You don’t think I felt that way about Tessa andWeston Lark?”
He considers that for a while, and I can see him wanting to reject it. But he can’t, because it’s really no different. I’m remembering the early days, the shame I felt for the way the night patrol had killed her parents, all the different ways I tried to figure out a new path to make things better—and failed.
“She’s so smart,” Lochlan says, musing. “She can do better.”
“Undoubtedly,” I say.
“You’re such an ass,” he says, and he kicks my chair.
“Oh, were you talking about Karri? I was talking about Tessa.” I give him a wicked look. “Though I’m not sure my response would change.”
“Maybe we’re meant to be stuck here. Sparing them both. A stupid forge worker who can’t read, and the spoiled prince that everyone hates.”
Ouch.He doesn’t say it with rancor, but the words sting more than they should.
“A lucky turn for Kandala then,” I say, “seeing as there’s currently a dire shortage of the latter.”
Lochlan gives a sharp bark of laughter like I’ve truly surprisedhim, but then his eyes narrow and he gives me a rueful glance. “I didn’t expect you to ask for his help,” he says.
“Hmm?”
“Ford Cheeke.”
“Ah. Tessa once told me that I turn everyone I meet into an adversary, so I’m trying to change that.”
“Well, your ‘plan’ is full of holes.”
Lord.I don’t need him to tell me that. I look away.
He’s still studying me. “I can’t believe you convinced Crane that you werepretendingto be Prince Corrick.”
