“Silvesse,” Mouse says. He points out at the water. “That way’s south, so you can’t see the others from this side.”
I can see the sun, which tells me which way we’re facing, but he’s politely answering my question instead of knocking my head in, so I give him a nod and say, “Thank you, Mouse.”
Lina jabs him with her elbow and rolls her eyes. “They know which way is south, idiot.”
He frowns. “I’m not an idiot.”
One of the other men, the one with the sword, says, “Both of you, knock it off.” But his voice is tired, like minor bickering between Lina and Mouse is a common occurrence that no one wants to deal with. “Just walk.”
We walk, but now Lina is muttering insults at Mouse, while his mouth is silently curled in a frown.
Maybe their distraction isn’t a trap at all. Maybe it’s genuine.
Lochlan must sense it too, because he glances at me again.
It’s so tempting. If there were only four of them, I might chance it. If they had no crossbows, I’ddefinitelychance it. But it doesn’t matter if we can face all of them hand to hand when it only takes one of them to shoot us.
I keep my eyes on the road and give a little shake of my head again.
Lochlan clenches his jaw. He doesn’t like it—but he obeys.
Well, there’s a surprise. Perhaps I can still be alittleprincely.
I hope we’re walking all the way to the city, just because I’m intrigued by the potential, even if the thought of walking for miles in this heat is a little wearying. But we only walk parallel to the ocean for a short time before we turn off the road and head into the trees again.
Behind us, Lina and Mouse have fallen silent, though I’ve now heard her call him a dozen different insults and it’s a contemptuous kind of silence. I glance back at Mouse and wonder if he’ll answer more questions. “How far do we have to go?”
“Not far.” He points vaguely, then peers back at me. “If you’re too tired to walk, they’ll make me carry you.”
I shake my head quickly. “I can walk.”
But I think about how he phrased that.They’ll make me.Mouse might be the biggest man here, but he doesn’t have the most power.
I think about Lina’s steady stream of insults, the way he said nothing.
Maybe he doesn’t haveanypower.
“I thought Oren might be in the city,” I say.
A woman behind me snorts, and I glance over my shoulder. She’s older, close to forty, with heavily scarred arms and closely shorn hair. “Redstone’s got eyes around every corner. You’ll never find Oren in the city.”
Redstone.The name tugs at my memories, and it takes me a moment to realize they’re talking about Rian. The whole time he was pretending to be Captain Blakemore, he was really Galen Redstone, the king of Ostriary.
“So he hides in the woods?” says Lochlan.
“Oh, he isn’thiding.” The man with the sword shakes his head and glares at the older woman. “Oren’s got his own people around every corner, too, Esther.”
“Oh, shut it, Ian.”
This timetheystart bickering, arguing over who has the most spies in the city. I don’t mind, though. It’s very telling. These pirates aren’t unified—and it’s interesting to hear Rian discussed in this way.
While they ramble at each other, Lochlan gives me another significant glance. I don’t even look at him. I’m worried about the other two, the men who haven’t said a word.
Eventually we head downhill, and the going is so steep that my boots catch on roots and underbrush and I have to grab at tree trunks to keep my balance. There’s no path at all, and I don’t know what signified that this was the direction to go. I can’t imagine that Mouse would have carried us all this way. I look up at his broad shoulders and figure he probably could have.
When the ground flattens, it goes soft, sand shifting among the underbrush. I hear water just before the trees open up, and then we’re in the sun again, standing on the beach, facing west now. This appears to be a small cove, with a rowboat pulled up onshore, a larger ship bobbing in the waves out in the ocean. I wonder if it’s anchored there.
Then Ian says, “Push the rowboat out. You two can row.”
