And Taillefer was back to asking questions.
“Why were those people left to rot as an example? Just bad luck? Or were they an actual target? Roasting them nightly has been the play to deter dissenters for seventeen years—why do this? And why now?”
Taillefer was right to veer toward the guess that the Warlord was likely motivated by some new circumstance, but Amarande was not about to share anything with him. It would expose Luca and the resistance. The less Taillefer knew about literally everything, the better.
“Stop talking. We only have so much water left and you’re wasting your saliva. Of course, you are welcome to turn for the glistening mountain waterfalls of Pyrenee, but I have to get to Luca. That is the plan.”
Amarande was being as vague as possible on purpose about her intentions. And Taillefer was clever enough to know it. Of course. “No, that is thegoal,Princess. Theplanis how we’re getting there. The goal and plan cannot be one and the same.”
This was something her father would’ve said. The words didn’t sound right in Taillefer’s mocking inflection. “Fine. The plan is to find anyone who might know Luca’s whereabouts.”
“And someone at this inn—named for the Warlord—would know? I realize neither of us has slept, but even I see the holes in that. Do you expect Luca to be there? It seems rather stupid of him to go for the only lodging place marked on a map. Isn’t there somewhere less well-known?”
Amarande let out an exasperated sigh. “It is the only one allowed by the Warlord; that is why it is on the map. I doubt he’s there, though.”
“Then why are we going?”
“For information.”
Taillefer raised a brow at yet another vague reply. “And someone there will know where to find Luca?”
She had no answer. But given what she knew of the pirates’ previous foray into the Torrent with Luca in tow, it was the logical place to start without much more to go on.
If they failed here, she would set out for the Hand. Like the Cardenas Scar and the Warlord’s Inn, it was a likely place to gain information via query, theft, or threat. Or payment—her mangled necklace or his pouch of gold should do the trick.
They rode in blessed silence for another half hour before Taillefer tested her resolve yet again. “Remind me how is it that you two got separated in the first place? Surely Luca wouldn’t know you were locked up andnotrescue you, would he?”
She said nothing. Which, of course, meant Taillefer couldn’t let it sit, sarcasm dripping in his raised voice as they raced west and north. “And howwereyou planning on getting to him from that cell without me rescuing you?”
He was trying to force a reaction—ignoring her assertion that she’d saved herself with him as the catalyst. He continued to needle her. “You are not answering my questions, Princess.”
Amarande let the rushing wind and hoofbeats on cinnamon sand be her response.
She stared ahead at the Warlord’s Inn, visible on the horizon at last. To the goal. To Luca, always to Luca. Nothing else mattered—not her crown, not her duties, and not the newfound family members who had appeared to sweep them both out from under her. The time to deal with them would come, yes, but not until Luca was safe.
“Princess, I grow weary of your silence and vague bon mots.” Taillefer lunged for her reins. Grabbing them out of her hand, he brought both their horses to a halt, the earth belching dust around them as the twin geldings slid in the dry footing. “Answer me.”
“Do not attempt to control me,” Amarande growled as she dove for her reins.
Taillefer was stronger and had more leverage. Rather than plant her boot on his horse’s shoulder to push off—the animal didn’t deserve such a bruise—Amarande divested him of his own dagger, snatchingit from the sheath at his belt. One slice and she cleaved the reins straight out of his grip.
Losing his leverage and his balance, too, Taillefer fell away, nearly sliding straight off the other side of his saddle. Bringing her horse back up to a gallop, she spit over her shoulder, “As much as I wanted to, I did not kill your brother with a blade I stole from him, but that doesn’t mean I will be as kind to you.”
Taillefer hauled himself into a more stable riding position. “‘Kind’ is not a word I would use to describe you in regard to my brother.”
“You say that as if you are innocent.”
“According to my mother I am not, though I did not pull the blade. That was all on you, Princess. And though you did not murder him with his own weapon, as you’ve so cleverly pointed out, his death will forever be part of your soul.”
“Do you think I am not aware?! I cannot shut my eyes without seeing Renard’s dying face. His death will mark me as long as I live.” Her voice was high and taut as a string stretched thin. “And it isyourfault.”
Taillefer appeared completely unperturbed. “I am not evil. I am ambitious. There is a difference.”
“Youareevil!” Amarande stowed his dagger, mostly so she wouldn’t stab out his eye right then and there. “There is no other name for what you did to Luca. I won’t put anything past you. And let’s be honest, you are only helping me because you had nowhere else to go.”
Astonishingly, Taillefer said nothing.
Amarande continued, fury building, as she laid out everything she’d kept inside since Taillefer had appeared in her cell. “You are using me now just as you used me to kill your brother! I must live with that and Luca must live with what you did to him to garner action from me.Weare the ones who live with the pain. You simply live with the satisfaction of pulling the strings. I have yet to see a single grain of remorse from you for anything you’ve done.”
