A pin drop could be heard in that forest.
Hokda paused his collection as the silence dragged on. He turned slowly, still knelt low to the ground, to face Killian and Fyar. Both wore matching expressions of utter bewilderment.
Killian gaped. “Is he sick?”
“Dying, I imagine,” remarked Fyar.
Hokda pursed his lips and gave them a dry laugh.Ha ha.
“You know why I couldn’t drop out,” said Fyar. “I would hate for my cousin to think he got to me. It would only encourage him.”
“It’s only us here now,” said Killian. “You can let down your guard and rest.”
“Oh,” Fyar drawled, a sharpness to his voice, his eyes on Killian. “Can I?”
Killian bristled.
Hokda cut in before anything could truly start. “We’ve been riding for hours already. I think it’s a good enough spot as any to make camp. I, myself, can admit I wouldn’t mind the rest. It’s exhausting being out in this forest.” He looked down at thearachnid at his feet. “Actually, we could stand to go a few paces upwind.”
“Wehave no right to be tired,” Killian scoffed. “We’ve done fuck all today. You haven’t even been standing on your own, your fat ass has been sat in a saddle the entire time.”
“Thisfat assis quite delicate, I’ll have you know.” Hokda put his hands on his hips as he glared up at Killian. “I’m not cut out for this brutish work.”
“Delicate?” That was the most ridiculous thing Killian had ever heard. “You wouldn’t know delicate if it punched you in the face.”
“Says you? The very definition of a violent brute. How many times have I had to mend broken bones and black eyes, all your doing?”
“The Guard need hands-on training.” Killian shrugged. “Remind me,Healer, out of the three of us, who was it that gutted me, lit me on fire—”
“I never lit you on fire!”
“—andpoisoned me, all in the same two hours? Who was that again?”
Fyar arched an eyebrow, looking on in amusement. “Gutted? Lit on fire? I don’t remember your tests being so…extreme when we discussed them.”
Hokda looked like he’d sucked on a lemon. “You weren’ton fire. There were no flames.” Because that’s the part he wanted to clarify. He then stuck up his nose like a child. “The apprentices need hands-on training.”
Killian rolled his eyes.
Humming thoughtfully, Fyar turned bright eyes on his healer, as if looking at him in a new light. “A thought justoccurred to me. You seem to have a certain…affinity for poison. Should I be concerned, Hokda? You do have unlimited access to my quarters. And other morerestrictedareas of my estate.”
The healer looked stricken. “Don’t even joke about that. I would never.”
“But you have no qualms with poisoning Killian?”
“None,” said Hokda without hesitation. “Why would I?”
Killian put a hand over his heart. “That hurts. It really does. I thought we were friends.”
Hokda stuck out his tongue. “As if.”
Cracking, Fyar let out a low string of chuckles, shaking his head fondly at the two bickering in front of him. Hokda and Killian stopped, and shared a smile before catching themselves and turning away pointedly. They knew what they were doing, and were just happy that Fyar was beginning to lighten up.
“I guess this area is as good as any,” Fyar said, taking back his reins and swinging into the saddle. “We couldalluse the rest.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
THERE WAS A small stream a few paces north that they ended up making camp next to. Tree roots spiraled out of the soft, mossy stream bed. As thick as some trunks, the roots rolled through the earth like waves, twisting and curling like snakes around the cluster of trees where the three settled. A natural barrier to the elements. The stream trickled by slowly,the water in no rush as it traveled over the forest floor, sliding over the rocks and pebbles in its path.
