She froze, her eyes going wide, when she saw me standing there.
“Mina,” she whispered in astonishment. Then came the anger, her shoulders going back. “Did youfollowme?”
She was the one sneaking rations while the rest of us slept and she was angry with me? She was taking food from us all when there was so little of it left. The women and Mo hadn’t returned from the hunt, if they even found any food.
When I didn’t flinch away from her anger, I watched her shame begin to take root. I wondered if that was what the horde king had seen in me tonight, when he said he could see my guilt.
It was a pitiful sight. One that made me uncomfortable to witness.
Kaila came to me, taking my hands in hers.
“Please Mina,” she whispered, her eyes pleading with mine. “Don’t tell anyone, all right? It’s just…the baby…”
One of her hands left mine to curl around her belly protectively.
“I don’t want to lose another one,” came her soft confession.
My throat went tight with memory.
“She was so small,” Kaila whispered raggedly, though her eyes remained dry. Many of us had listened to her sob for days after her last miscarriage. We had all watched Emmi bury the lifeless girl, who had come much too early. “She didn’t have a chance. But this one will. He’s stronger. And I swear I will give back what I take here. Emmi will double his hunt rotations once the women return. Just don’t tell anyone.”
“He-he will kno-know,” I told her. “He co-counts it.”
Her grip tightened on me. “He won’t find out.”
But it sounded like she was trying to convince herself. And once Benn discovered that one of us was taking more than our share, he wouldn’t rest until he knew who it was, and until they were punished, pregnant or not.
“Will he, Mina?” she asked, her question pointed. “Don’t tell him.”
She said the words slowly, like I wouldn’t understand them otherwise.
I didn’t see what choice I had. I had sympathy for Kaila. I knew that she needed more nourishment right now than me, at least.
“Please,” she whispered, her tone softening.
There was a crumbled bit ofrikcrunon the edge of her mouth. I caught sight of the opened chest behind her, the key sitting neatly in the lock, Ghertun in make. I wondered if Emmi had stolen it for her.
“Will you tell him?” she pressed.
In the end, I shook my head. Only because I didn’t trust my voice.
“Thank you,” Kaila breathed. “Thank you, Mina.”
Chapter Nine
“Mina,” came the sharp bark.
Immediately, I stopped scrubbing the clothes in the small stone basin next to the well. I was huffing with exertion, my arms trembling from the lack of food this last week.
Benn stood in the hallway. Taylor was next to him. For a moment, I feared that Taylor somehow discovered I’d been inside the horde king’s room last night. But the other male simply looked tired and his gaze was more rapt on Shayna, who was on the other side of the well, hanging up the freshly washed clothes to dry on snags in the mountain wall. They would take days to dry in this humid environment and always smelled like a swampy bog once they did. Like the one we used to live beside.
The others grumbled and complained when they pulled on the washed clothes but I wondered if the smell brought a sense of comfort to them, like it did to me.
“Come,” Benn ordered. The horde king’s sword was in his grip again. Slowly, warily, I rose from the floor, wiping my arm across my forehead. My tunic was drenched in sweat, my hair sticking to the sides of my face. I probably looked as wretched as I felt.
I followed Benn from the well room and wound a familiar path through the Dead Mountain until we stood in front of the horde king’s door. Jacques was still on guard from this morning, looking more refreshed than he did yesterday.
My heart began to pound. I cast a look at Benn, wondering if he’d seen the cleaned wound across the horde king’s chest already.
