We’ve made it inside and have begun our search.
Your ever faithful servant, Kazi
The queen only called me by my full name, Kazimyrah. Signing off with Kazi would clang like a warning bell in a graveyard.
She was not coming as I knew she wouldn’t. Whatever letter she had sent would have its own hidden message just for me. All Gunner saw were the words she wanted him to see.
“Look there,” Wren said. “Straight ahead. We caught up sooner than we thought.”
In the distance, a dust cloud churned up behind a wagon.
“Maybe I can get Mason to teach me how to drive a team of horses someday,” Synové mused. “If we come back.”
Wren shook her head. “One—first you need to get Mason to talk to you at all, and two—I don’t think we’ll be welcomed back.”
Synové shrugged. “Depends. Kazi’s searched the grounds, and we haven’t seen any sign of the captain. If he’s not here after all, we’ll be leaving under friendlier terms.”
Friendlier terms? Synové was weaving a scenario I hadn’t considered.
“It’s possible the coward’s gone already,” Wren agreed. “He deserted a battlefield. He’s run before. Running is what he’s good at.”
Yes, he was a coward in some ways, but he wasn’t afraid to kill on a grand scale. I saw the worry in Wren’s face, the way she chewed on the corner of her lip. It weighed on us all. Wherever the Watch Captain was, he was a danger. It was like having a poisonous snake loose in a dark room. Anywhere you stepped could be deadly. The queen’s lead had been at least a little bit of light shed on the corner where he lurked.
Synové blew out a dramatic sigh and batted her lashes. “But if he should turn up at Tor’s Watch, we’ll have our monster … and I suppose poor Mason will just have to learn to live without me.”
Wren chuckled. “Kind of the way Eben does?”
Synové shot her a frown, then studied me. “What about you, Kazi? Is it going to be hard for you to leave?”
I knew she would dig in this direction eventually. “In some ways,” I admitted, trying to tiptoe around the obvious, foolishly hoping she would drop it. “I’m entranced with every square inch of Hell’s Mouth. I’ve never seen a town like it. The tembris and skywalks are—”
“You know what I’m talking about,” Synové said. “That other item you’re entranced with.”
I was silent for a long while. “No,” I finally answered. “It won’t be hard for me to leave.” Staying was never an option.
* * *
I watched the wagons ahead of us, the dust billowing to the side, when something else caught my eye. “What’s that? Way over there?” My stomach squeezed with dread.
“Riders,” Wren confirmed.
A lot of them—and my instincts told me they weren’t friendly.
“They’re stalking the wagons,” Synové said.
“Like wolves,” Wren added.
I didn’t need to say a word to Mije. The nudge of my knee and my weight lifting in my stirrups were all he needed to send him flying, and together we became a dark wind racing across the landscape.
My thoughts galloped as fast as Mije, and somewhere in my head I heard desperate words that couldn’t be mine. I do want tomorrows with you, Jase. I want a lifetime of tomorrows.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
JASE
“You see that?” I yelled, moving my team closer to Samuel’s. Tiago sat beside him.
Samuel nodded. “I’ve been keeping an eye on them.”