His nonchalance made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. “Is this a trick?”
“Absolutely not. I’m not your queen. I don’t play tricks.”
Masakage approached her. “He really doesn’t. Not even when we were kids. He just sits around, brooding.”
Xaydin shoved at him. “Don’t you have someplace to be?”
“I do. Are we taking the ferry to the island?”
A scowl furrowed Xaydin’s brow. “I didn’t give you an invitation.”
“You did not. My curiosity is such that I can’t leave now. This is going to be spectacular. My errand can wait.” Masakage smiled. “But yours…this I wouldn’t miss for all the kingdoms.”
Xaydin growled. “I hate you.”
“Hate you less.”
Their interaction baffled her. Of course, she knew very little about such things as she’d never spent any time around her siblings.
Maybe it was normal?
Not that it mattered. She was on a quest, and no one would stop her.
Xaydin jerked his chin toward the inn she’d just left. “Go get your things. Tell me which horse is yours and I’ll saddle it while we wait for you.”
There was only one problem with that. “I don’t have a horse.”
He arched a brow. “Foot or magic?”
She knew he was asking how she’d gotten here. That was something she definitely couldn’t answer. At least not truthfully, because it was shameful to her. And it was something she never spoke about to anyone.
So she answered with the closest to truth that she could. “Foot.”
“I’ll get you a horse. Go collect your things.”
Not sure if he would or if this was a trick, she returned to their shared room and quickly gathered her travel pack. She had to move fast before they left her.
If he really intended to take her to theaþaswere, then she couldn’t let this chance pass.
While she knew this was going to be a fight to see who won their way, she was determined to be the victor. No one would stop her from her task.
Because if she returned home without theaþaswere, Meara would have her killed.
This wasn’t just a mission for her.
It was everything.
3
“Is this a trick?”
Xaydin blinked at Masakage’s question as he finished saddling his horse. “No.”
“You’re really going to let her go with you?”
“That’s what I said.”
“Why?”
