“Does it matter where we’re going?” I finally answer, “you don’t know where we are anyway.”
The Lemming grinds her jaw. “It matters because I want to know how many days you’re planning to keep me.”
Keep me.
The words send a wave of nausea, hot and acidic, roiling through my stomach, but I keep my face neutral. I don’t have time for this now, to sink into the void and blanket myself with shame. I will it away, smothering it until the hot coals disintegrate to ash.
“It depends how fast we can travel.”
Her eyes widen, surprised I’ve conceded an honest answer.
“At this pace, it’s going to be awhile. Normally, Nadjaa is about four day’s journey from the Boundary.”
Her lips twist into a snarl. “Perhaps you should have kidnapped someone better suited for hiking through the woods.”
Delight, as pure as if I watched a flower bloom, threads through me. “You’re right. Before my next kidnapping, I’ll take that into consideration.”
Her eyes remain on mine, the longest she’s ever held my gaze. There’s no way for her to know I’m mostly joking; that I intend for her to be the last person I have to force into subservience, but even so, there’s no fear in her eyes. Nothing soft or pliant, only a flash of raw anger that calls to me on a primal level. A thrill shoots through me. Perhaps whatever is coiled beneath that smooth Similian skin is not easily leashed.
We walk on in silence.
I grow still when sunlight filters through the trees once more, every muscle coming to life. The old road. A relic of an ancient civilization that runs from one side of Ferusa all the way to the Shadiil mountain range. The easiest path from the Boundary to Nadjaa, but a gamble, even at the best times, because it’s usually teeming with thieves and highwaymen. And that was before the Praeceptor took over this territory.
Now—now, we need to get far, far away from it. Even if the way around takes three times as long.
The girl eyes the road wistfully.
“Let’s cross,” I tell her tersely.
She blinks at me in bewilderment. “Cross? Why can’t we take the road?”
A muscle feathers in my jaw. “Because we can’t.” The road appears deserted, as do the trees that line the other side, but that means nothing here. The shadows are deep and the Praeceptor’s reach is far.
She plants her small feet. “You said we were headed west. That’s west,” she insists stubbornly.
I glare sidelong, unable to help the irritation that rises. I hold a breath, reminding myself she doesn’t know better. She’s lived her life safe behind the Boundary. Things like warlords and their reigns of terror are entirely unknown to her. “The road isn’t safe,” I say finally.
She mulls this over for a moment. “I have such a hard time traveling through the woods,” she says and my eyes snap to hers. This is the first she’s acknowledged her weakness directly, and certainly the first time she’s soundedapologeticabout it.
“I’m trying to hurry,” she presses on. I narrow my eyes. If anything, the Lemming has only walkedslowersince my proclamation that our journey was taking too long. “But the road would be far faster.”
Her voice is pliant, as soft and smooth as butter, and for a moment, I’m struck dumb. Her face is open and innocent, no sign of the restlessness I glimpsed earlier. And she’s right. The road would shave off at least two days of traveling. We would be able to meet Max and Cal by tomorrow morning and ride to Nadjaa quickly after that.
Time is the one thing I cannot bend to my will, no matter how hard I try. It does not fall beneath my command, and I am helpless to stop its trudge forward. The month will come to an end. And if Denver has not returned to lead Nadjaa, the Praeceptor will come to claim the free city.
“From the way you handled those Boundary hunters, I doubt we’re in much danger on the road,” the girl adds, gazing up at me through a curtain of dark lashes. Like two emeralds sparkling through black ash.
“You know nothing of the dangers of Ferusa if you think I’m the most dangerous thing here.”
She merely purses her lips delicately and shrugs. “If you say so. The woods it is then. I hope whatever is in…Nadjaa, did you say?” The name of the moon city sounds funny and foreign on her lips. “I hope it doesn’t mind waiting.”
I curse roundly, both highly impressed and irritated she’s so acutely observed my weak point. I’ve never thought her the meek, simpering girl she pretends to be, the one Iexpectedher to be, but for someone unschooled in the art of emotions, she is an unnervingly quick study at wielding them as one might wield a sharp weapon.
Which doesn’t change the fact she’s right. I have no time and the road would buy me a reprieve. Room to take a breath for the first time in a fortnight.
Anxiety threads through me, turning my stomach to lead. “Let’s go then. The road,” I practically snarl at her, but she doesn’t balk. Only nods demurely and takes a step onto the pockmarked pavement as if she’s merely following my orders.
I follow her with a growl. I know full well who has ordered who and there’s not a damn thing to do about it.
