“We only have one weaponfor now,” I say.
The queen frowns, but Tycho’s head snaps around. He meets my eyes, and he smiles. “For now,” he agrees.
“What?” says Callyn, looking between us. “What does that mean?”
“We have a bar of Iishellasan steel,” I say, lifting one shoulder in a shrug. “So if we just need to make more weapons . . .”
Tycho’s smile widens. “Then it’s a good thing we have a blacksmith.”
CHAPTER 26
CALLYN
Somehow, I’m back in my bed in the bakery, and I can’t quite make myself believe it. It’s not that I never expected to come back here. It’s more that I never expected Alek to be lying right beside me.
Across the hall, Nora is asleep in her own room, little Sinna curled up besideher. I checked on them an hour ago, and the princess had her hands wrapped around Nora’s arm so tightly, as if my sister were a full-grown doll.
I offered my bed to the queen, but she declined, choosing instead to follow Tycho and Jax back to the forge, where my friend intends to get to work. The familiarplink- plink- plinkof his hammer is a sound that’s deeply embedded in my consciousness. I’d hoped to have an opportunity to reunite with my best friend, because so much about him has changed, but it seems that we’re on opposite sides again, at least in a small way.
I saw how he looked at Alek.
I also saw how Alek talked tohim.
As usual, my thoughts are a mess. Even now, we’re in bed together,but we’re notin bedtogether. We just have a lot of people who need sleep, and not a lot of areas to do it. Two feet of space exists between us. Honestly, we were closer in the carriage.
“You should be asleep.”
His voice is a low rumble, barely audible over the sound of the rain on the roof. I look over. “So should you.”
“What troubles you, Callyn?”
“Ah . . . literally everything? What troublesyou?”
He doesn’t smile. If anything, his frown deepens. “Their plan is so . . . reckless.”
He sounds so aggravated. I study him in the shadows. Beard growth covers his jaw now, and his hair is a tufted mess from the rain. He stripped his armor a while ago, so now he’s in a loose tunic and trousers, but they’re damp and rumpled from the downpour. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him quite this unkempt.
“If you’re worried about it,” I say, “maybe you should be in the forge helping them.”
He scoffs. “Helping them with what? Making arrows? Lining the edge of my sword with their steel?”
“Yes . . . ? Those actually sound like phenomenal ideas.”
“Callyn. Tycho has two soldiers and a lazy blacksmith—”
“He’s not lazy,” I say hotly.
Alek continues, unperturbed. “The queen only has you and me. The Truthbringers killed her courier. No help is coming. We have no army, no guards, nodefense, yet they intend to summon the Truthbringers and the scravershere. The king barely survived the first attack, and he had a field of soldiers. We have almost no one.”
“You’ve forgotten Nora,” I say. “The queen has her, too.”
“Ah, yes, the key to surviving the battle! Yoursister.”
I shove him in the shoulder. “Stop being such an ass.”
“I’m being a realist.”
I sigh, because he’s right as usual. “I know.”
