I finally set down the horse’s hoof and turn to face her. “They haven’t all been unkind. And even if they have, they don’t deserve todiefor it.”
She looks right back at me. “You hate Rhen, and from what I’ve heard, you’d have plenty of reason to hate some of the soldiers, too. You didn’t have to risk yourself. I’m grateful for what you did. So is Rhen. Grey will be, too, once he hears about it.”
The king. I didn’t even consider thathewould need to know about this attack, too. I wonder if that means they’ll send Tycho right back when he gets here. The thought makes my chest ache.
“If there’s anything you need,” Harper says, “if there’s anything youwant, I hope you’ll ask for it.”
The only thing I really want is something I can’t ask for.
“I don’t want anything,” I say woodenly.
She holds up a hand, and I see she has a ring like Tycho used to wear. “At the very least, I can fix your face.”
I hesitate, because the scratches still burn. My eyes flick to the scar on her cheek, and I wonder what caused it.
“I won’t be as fast as Tycho,” she says. “I don’t wear it very often because Rhen . . . ?well, he doesn’t like it. He has a bad history with magic. But I know how. If you want.”
He has a bad history with magic.I hate that it lights a spark of curiosity in my thoughts. Magic isn’t feared here the way it is in Syhl Shallow. Magic is what helped them win the war.
I don’t care. I shove the curiosity away. “No.” I hesitate, wondering if I’m being rude. “But thank you. Your Highness.”
Her eyebrows go up. “I know you’re not afraid of magic.”
“I . . . don’t want to erase it.”
Harper nods and drops her hand. For a moment, her expression isa little haunted. “I understand. I don’t mind my scars either. I have a friend who says they’re a reminder that you survived something terrible.”
The night Tycho first showed me the marks on his back, he said he’d made his peace with it and had forgiven Prince Rhen. He told me that the prince had his own scars. I’ve seen the patch Rhen wears over his missing eye, and the scars that peek around the edge.
I’ve hated the prince for so long that until this moment, I’ve never really considered that it probablywasvery terrible.
“Really,” Harper says. “Anything.” She pauses. “Even if you just want to speak Syssalah with someone who isn’t going to make you read books about lambs. I’m always desperate for practice.”
That startles a smile out of me, and I hate myself for it a little bit. “You speak it very well,” I say.
“Thank you! I used to beg Tycho to practice forhours. Jake, too, when I see him.” She smiles, then rolls her eyes. “Rhen is better than he seems, but he’s too arrogant to risk stumbling over pronunciation.”
That almost makes me laugh.
I stop myself before I do.
She notices, and sobers. “Thank you, Jax. I meant everything I said.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
“Harper.”
I nod and hold out the reins to her horse. “Harper.”
She takes the reins, and the buckskin presses his muzzle to her chest, but she doesn’t turn away. “I just . . . ?I want you to know that Rhen cares for Tycho a great deal. He considers him a friend. A good friend.” I stiffen, but Harper continues, “I think he worries he’ll lose that friendship if he can’t figure out a way to resolve things with you.”
My anger swells and flares without warning. “He’sworried?” I snap, and my voice is like the crack of a whip. “The prince doesn’t deserve Tycho’s friendship. He doesn’t deserve hisloyalty. Neither does the king.Do any of you have any idea what he’d already endured? How much he’d already suffered? I willneverresolve things with a man who could do that to him. Do you understand?Not ever.”
She flinches, and her breathing has gone a little rapid.
I draw back, then run a damp hand over my neck. I seem determined to find myself at the end of a rope. But I can’t find the will to apologize for anything I said. I don’t care if guards swarm the forge. I meant every word.
But now she looks wounded, and that steals my thunder. My anger isn’t with her anyway.
