“Yes. Nim’s here,” Keely replied with an arched eyebrow, knowing perfectly well it wasn’t what Alanna had wanted to ask.
“And….” She cast her mind around, looking for a sensible question that might give her more information about Val. “Where are we exactly?”
Keely snorted but answered anyway. “We’re a couple of hours north of the city. Captain Tristan ordered a move yesterday. We don’t dare stay in any towns or try to borrow a house after last time.”
Alanna frowned. “What happened last time?”
“Reece found the house we stayed in, it was loaned to him by the brother of an ex-girlfriend.” Keely wrinkled her nose, “That might be making far too much of whatever relationship they had. Anyway, Helaine and her brother went to Ballanor the next morning and told him where we were. It’s how we were found so quickly. And why Reece is such a mess. He thinks it’s his fault that we were betrayed.”
Alanna closed her eyes for a moment. Helaine must have known what she would cost them all. Bard. By now she should have been used to the vile things that people would do for power.
It was a miracle that they were all alive.
Her stomach growled loudly once more, and Keely snorted as Alanna pressed her hands to her complaining belly. She needed to get up. And she needed her clothes.
“Where is my dress?”
“Gah, I burned that horrible thing.”
“You didn’t!” What was she going to do without a dress? She always, always wore one.
Keely’s eyes twinkled as she looked over Alanna in her cotton shirt, half unbuttoned and only just falling to the top of her thighs. “I did. I thought you looked rather fetching in that. And when Captain Honorable sees you in Tor’s shirt, he’s going to lose his mind!”
A deep flush crept up her cheeks. “You didn’t! Keely, no, by the Bard, Val would….”
What would Val do? Her blush deepened as her imagination supplied a variety of interesting alternatives. The benefit of many years of being almost invisible in her home castle was that the maids and servants had spoken freely in front of her, and she had picked up several ideas that suddenly seemed relevant.
Her friend’s delighted laughter cut into her horrified whisper, and she realized what Keely had tricked her into admitting.
Keely grinned as she took out the ugly black dress, clearly still in one piece, and started smoothing out the wrinkles from where it had been folded.
“Who’s Tor?” she asked to distract Keely, and herself.
“Humph.” Keely frowned as she turned to the back of the tent and shook out the thick black dress. “An irritating grump. Telling me what to do. Always stomping around the place, polishing blades.”
She made her voice low and gruff as she mocked, “Do this, Keely, don’t do that, don’t use your arm, sit here, Keely....” She gave an exaggerated shudder, green eyes narrowed. “You’d think I was a baby duck and him my mam! A too-big, too-muscled mama. Gah.”
Alanna couldn’t remember ever seeing Keely so riled up. Or the faint upward tilt to her lips as she spoke of a man.
“You like him then?”
“What? No! Absolutely not. Anyway, you know how I feel about soldiers.”
Alanna smiled but didn’t push. Keely would run in the opposite direction for sure. At least she’d succeeded in distracting her friend from the subject of Val.
She took the dress from Keely and held it up. It was long and dark and austere, buttons to the neck, and the heavy wool was still slightly damp where someone had washed away the rotten stink that had splashed her in the square.
And she realized that she couldn’t bear to put it on. The mourning dress that she would forever associate with her half-life, living death as the queen. The dress that she had come so very close to finally, truly dying in.
She ran her fingers over the dark folds and felt the weight of her former life dragging down at her, and she let out a long sigh as Keely watched her with soft eyes.
No.
She had promised herself no more tears. And that also meant no more mourning. This was her second chance. And she was taking it.
She shook her head slowly and let the dress fall to the ground. “You were right. Let’s burn it.”
Her friend lifted her chin in acknowledgment, a gleam of pride in her eyes. “Leathers maybe?” Keely suggested.
