Despite the fact that I watched him crush a man’s ribs earlier, he has my sympathy. Our roles are very different, but he clearly doesn’t want to do any of this any more than I wanted to be the King’s Justice. The saddest part is that I don’t think he has the full capacity to understand that he could resist them. He could crushLina one-handed and walk right out of here if he wanted to, but the longer I spend with them, the more I realize that whatever Lina did to him seems to have left him with the mind of a boy. A boy who’s been beaten down so severely that he doesn’t even try.
I look him in the eyes, because none of them seem to. “Thank you, Mouse. I do appreciate the reminder.”
He gives me a nod. “You’re welcome.”
I take an apple from the basket on the table and offer it to him, because I’ve seen the others steal his food, poking his arms and saying he could stand to miss a meal. “Here,” I say. “We had some left.”
His eyes light up a bit, but before he can take it, Lina swipes it from my palm and bites right into it. “Thank you.”
I glare at her, wishing I could order him to pullherteeth out of her mouth.
She glares right back at me, and she knows it, too.
Lochlan swears under his breath, and he pushes past me. “Let’s go.”
Lina takes one more bite of the apple and turns to follow him.
When her back is turned, I reach into the basket and grab a muffin from the bottom. It’s from this morning, so it’s a little dry and crumbly, but I take Mouse’s wrist and press it into his hand.
He looks down as if he can’t fathom what I’ve just put against his palm, but then he sees the muffin.
He inhales sharply, and I tap a finger over my lips, glancing at Lina. She doesn’t hear him, but Lochlan does, and he looks back.
“Our secret,” I whisper to Mouse, as Lina stomps down the hallway.
Mouse worriedly follows my gaze, then looks back at me and Lochlan. For half a second, I’m worried I’ve made a misstep, thathe’s going to turn on me for offering him food behind her back, even something that’s just a simple kindness.
But then he tucks the muffin into one of his massive pockets, and for the first time since I’ve met him, Mouse smiles.
When we head deeper into Silvesse, Lina doesn’t lead us south, toward the harbor. Instead, we head back toward the cove where Oren Crane’s ship is docked.
“Where are we going?” I ask. “We’re due to meet with Ford Cheeke.”
“Not anymore,” she says. “He’s already given his messages to Oren.”
My heart thumps in my chest. That wasn’t part of the plan at all. “What? When?”
She looks back at me. “At dawn, when the ships docked.”
My thoughts are spinning. Ford Cheeke wouldn’t have given messages to Oren Crane. Oren shouldn’t have been able to reach him. Ford was terrified of him.
Did Lina and Mouse hurt the man and his daughter?
Lochlan glances over his shoulder and meets my eyes. I don’t know what to make of it either, and I don’t know if I can ask.
Like the first morning we went out to Oren’s ship, we have to row and climb up to his boat. I’ve grown more used to the rowing, and Lina says, “You’re turning into a bit of a sailor, aren’t you,Weston?”
I don’t know why she’s saying the name like that, and I don’t like it. It rolls around in my head with the way she came to the door, like the way she questioned which name was real.
When we climb onto the deck, torches are lit, and the sails areopen and billowing in the wind. Small fires flicker farther out on the water, too, and I realize there are other ships in the moonlight, waiting just beyond this one.
And in front of us is Oren Crane, standing with Ford Cheeke.
“This can’t be good,” Lochlan mutters.
He’s right about that. I try to ignore the pounding in my chest, because I have no idea what this could mean. “I wouldn’t expect to find the two of you together,” I say.
Ford is glaring at me. “It was nice of you to show his people how to access my offices, Your Highness.”
