“Thanks for the meal,” I told Syris, who only inclined her head, a worried expression on her face. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Good night, Amaia,” Tarkosh said.
I passed by my quarters, heading inside to grab my travel sack—everything I’d brought with me to Karak, stuffed into a small bag. After I collected the items, I gave a quick look around mytemporary room, but I was, truthfully, happy to leave it. I wouldn’t miss the solitude.
I followed Myzalla back to Alaryk’s dwelling. Before I went inside, she told me, “Another guard will be assigned to you tomorrow. I have to make preparations to travel to Elysom.”
I frowned. “Is Alaryk going?”
“No, I’m going in his place,” she said.
Because of the deal we made?I wondered.
“I, for one, wanted you gone, Amaia,” she told me. “I thought it would be safer. I think we should’ve sent you all back, Ryak included, and washed our hands of it.”
I frowned.
“But he wanted you here,” Myzalla said, her voice low, her eyes narrowed. “And he’s willing to risk everything just to keep you here. I hope you’re worth it.”
I couldn’t stop my flinch then. I hoped my guilt didn’t show on my face because my gut was swimming with it.
I didn’t reply. Instead, I watched her walk away, and then I turned up the steps to Alaryk’s dwelling, feeling those perilous emotions begin to press against the cage of my breast.
For a moment, I almost knocked on the door, but then I remembered…this was where I lived now. There was no need to knock.
When I opened the door, I found Alaryk sitting at the table, a spread of parchment scattered around the very place where I’d been face down, this time last night.
I tried to keep my neck from getting too hot, shutting the door behind me.
Alaryk had been eating as he worked. On what, though, I couldn’t be certain. It looked like typography maps.
“Is that Karak?” I asked, nodding to the rolls of parchment.
“It is,” he replied. “Would you like to see?”
I would. Dakkar had no idea the expanse of the Karag’s country. I was curious, and when I stepped up behind Alaryk, I lookedover one of the parchments, seeing two different land masses, separated by two smaller islands, one of which I knew was the Arsadia. The other must’ve been Elysom. And on the maps of the land, I saw mountain ranges depicted, lakes, valleys, rugged coastline, vast forests.
“Where is Grym?” I asked, leaning down for a better look.
“Here,” he said, running the edge of his thumb, which had strummed between my legs last night, to the northeast. A nearly vertical line had been drawn on the map, following a mountain range and what I thought was a river.
“And is that Harta?” I asked, running my hand over the line.
“Yes,” he replied. “Are you going to report this back to yourDothikkar?”
I stiffened. I shot him a sharp look, realizing that our faces were closer than I’d thought. His tone was serious, making me wonder if he somehow knew about my conversation with Nevin today…
But I didn’t think that was possible. We’d been alone, at the back of the hatchery, our voices low.
“Of course not,” I replied, trying to hide the stab of shame I felt. Because truthfully, when it came to protecting my family, I didn’t know what I would and would not reveal. I thought I might do anything if it meant that my parents and my brother were safe.
Alaryk rolled up the maps, wrapping a leather cord around them and stacking them on the table. There was a nearly empty tray of food, a sliver of blue fruit with fat black edible seeds remaining, which he popped into his mouth. He stood, and I backed up a few steps, feeling out of place and thrown off balance, wondering if he did somehow know I’d been sent here to deceive him.
When the silence stretched too long, I said, “I’m feeling well tonight.”
He regarded me with a long look. “Oh?”
“I think we should take advantage and go to Samryn.”
