Camp? What camp? I look around. Does he really mean sleeping outside in all this snow?
“Aren’t we going to stay in a traveler’s inn?” I ask.
“Do you see one?”
Okay, that’s a fair question. There’s a whole lot of beauty but also nothing around us. And we still have three days until we reach the mountains far in the distance.
“Don’t worry,” he says. “I picked up supplies to make a camp when we were in Vashney.”
He said that when he got bored in the dress house.I’m gonna get camp supplies. But there isn’t a house on his horse.
“I’ve got to tell you: I’m really not a huge fan of freezing to death,” I say.
He nods. “I know that. I’ll keep you warm.”
My stomach swoops, and my heart flutters. I glance over at him.
He stares for a moment and then clears his throat. “We need to let the horses rest and gather firewood while it’s still light.”
The wind blows right into our faces, and I sigh from somewhere deep within me. I really, really do not want to sleep in the cold.
“It’ll be all right, Aeri,” he says.
Easy for him to say. He’s built like a brick oven.
We continue along the Northern Pass until Royo pulls his horse off the roadway.
“This is a good spot,” he says.
We have to talk about the definitions of words. There’s nothing “good” about this.
He heads toward the rock outcropping. It’s literally a few boulders and some pine trees.
I’m still trying to figure out what makes this good when we ride up. Apparently, what he means by good is “not covered in snow.” There’s a patch of bare dirt between the rocks and the pines.
“This is perfect,” he says.
I arch an eyebrow. “That’s not what that word means.”
Royo glances at me, nearly smiling as he dismounts. “We’ll be protected on three sides, making it hard to ambush us. Tie your horse to that branch. You can feed them while I get us set up.”
That’s right—he also bought feed bags while I was in the dress house.
I could’ve been there all day, but I settled for ordering just four necessary outfits when Royo came over a third time to ask if I was done. The reality is that if we don’t survive stealing the egg, it won’t matter how many outfits I bought.
It doesn’t take long for Royo to have a very small tent set up and a fire going. Gods, I think this is what he means by a “camp.” He takes out a pot and fills it with snow.
“What’s that for?” I ask.
“I’m making our dinner,” he says.
“Oh good—we’re having snow.”
I stand with my hands on my hips as he pulls out our provisions. I don’t have faith in this, but it’s not like I know how to cook. I’m just glad I stuffed myself full at breakfast and bought some buns, breads, and cakes at the bread house for our trip. I also picked up some dried meat for Dia.
She’s sitting on the branch of the tree closest to us. I fed her after breakfast, despite Royo staring at me like I’d lost my mind. I don’t tell him about how Dia warned me to flee in Quu. I don’t think he’d believe me.
And it’s a minor miracle that Royo is speaking to me again. We aren’t nearly as close as we were in Tamneki, but I also don’t have the weight of the secrets and lies keeping us apart.
