The wrong voice.
Clucking. Sighing. “Oh dear. A lover’s quarrel? Affection is so fleeting, isn’t it?”
When I turned, Paxton took a step back, his straza a step forward, maybe seeing something in my face.
It didn’t do them any good. My fist shot out, sending Paxton flying to the ground.
*
“If they weren’t broken before, they are now,” Mason said. I winced as he pulled on my fingers and rewrapped my knuckles.
Gunner had brought some ice for my jaw. The inside of my mouth was raw where my teeth had sliced into it.
“She’s got a helluva swing,” Titus mused with admiration, ignoring that it was my mouth that was her target.
“What’s going on?” Priya asked, walking through the foyer of the apartment.
“Apparently, Jase’s favorite Vendan soldier doesn’t approve of Previzi,” Mason answered. “She gave him a stinging lecture about them in front of everyone.”
“And she hit you?”
“She wasn’t herself,” I answered. But who was she? I didn’t think she heard half of the things I said to her. She was transformed the minute she saw the Previzi warehouse. Their goods were sometimes questionable—but dammit, every kingdom dealt with them. Yes, we looked the other way. So did everyone else. They had merchandise people wanted. And they bought plenty of goods to trade here at the arena at a fair price too.
Priya’s brows rose. “So Vendans are sticklers for the letter of the law?”
No. Kazi skirted too many edges to be a stickler. Something else bothered her. She had acted strange from the minute she stepped into the tunnel. Her eyes had been glazed.
“We’ll go do damage control out in the arena,” Priya said. “Say you two are cozy again and having a good laugh about it. Just a lover’s spat. Enough saw you two all kissy and hand in hand today that they’ll buy it.” She paused, her hands on her hips. “And it’s true, Jase, isn’t it? Just a spat?”
I nodded. Maybe. I was still retracing all our steps and words.
“Well?” Gunner grumbled as he, Priya, and Titus walked out the door. “Go find her and actually get cozy again. We’ve got a queen on her way.”
Mason stayed behind. He tied off the bandage and eyed the door waiting for it to shut. “I didn’t want to bring this up in front of the others, but I thought I should mention it. Something a little peculiar.”
I slid my tongue along the swollen flesh in my mouth. “Say it.”
He told me the apothecary in town had approached him today and asked when we would be getting another shipment of birchwings in. He was out of stock and had a request from a patron.
“You know how often we get it, Mason. Once a year, twice if we’re lucky.” It was made from a fungus that grew like wings on birch limbs in the north. The Kbaaki brought it along with other potions they concocted. I didn’t care about fungus right now. “He’ll get it when he—”
“It’s not about the birchwings. It’s about who asked for it. Wren. And she asked for enough to knock out half the town.”
“Maybe she just doesn’t understand dosage.”
He shook his head. “I gave her a small vial from the storeroom on the night of the party. She said she had a headache. I told her it was four doses’ worth.”
I remembered seeing the half-empty vial when I rummaged through Kazi’s wardrobe for a shirt.
“Why do you suppose she’d want so much?” Mason asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe to take back to Venda with them. They may not have medicine like that there.” I stood. I had to go find Kazi. She was probably back at Tor’s Watch by now. “Just keep an eye on our stockroom. Make sure it stays locked.”
I was just stepping out the door when I ran into Garvin. I waved him off, saying we’d have to talk later. “I think you’ll want to hear this now. It’s about that girl from Brightmist.”
My pulse raced a little faster. “Go ahead.”
“I finally figured it out. I was in the tower, keeping an eye on her in the arena when it came to me. I saw her stumble into the king—deliberately. I think she nicked him.”
“She stole from the king?”
“I can’t be sure,” he answered. “Not from way up in the tower. She was smooth. But she meant to run into him, I know that much. I watched her run between the stalls, circling around right into his path—and then her hands were all over him.”
I ran my fingers through my hair, blowing out a frustrated breath. She didn’t mention taking anything from the king. I looked back at Garvin. “You said you figured something out?”
“Her name. Ten. She was a petty thief in Venda. Probably the best.”
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
KAZI
My breath came in gulps. Eben’s arms clamped around me.
“Breathe, Kazi. Take it slow,” he whispered in my ear.
Water steamed in a kettle. Hot bread lay on a rack. Half-chopped turnips were abandoned on the cutting board. Their voices were details, like the bread and steam and the stab in my throat, all of them splintering through me, as if I had stepped into a world that was exploding apart. Eben had seen me storm through the hallway and pulled me into the kitchen. Natiya’s eyes loomed in and out of my vision. Wren bit her nail. Synové pulled on her braid. I closed my eyes.
As I hurried up the mountain, all I could think was, Eleven years. For eleven years, the driver had been coming and going with the Ballengers’ blessing. He was here all along. This was where his journey began, where he slept and ate and bathed, where his life went on, when mine had stopped.
“Are you all right?”
All right? I made a vow. I had no choice but to be all right.
But my insides bled.
Drained through my pores.
Every part of me hollow again.
I remembered the brokenness.
The hunger.
The years vanished, and I was hiding under a bed again.
Where is the brat? Where is she?
In the warehouse, I had reached for my knife. I was ready to kill them all, just as I had been when I’d gone after the ambassador. It was only the flash of the prison I had landed my whole crew in that made me stop.
The man who took my mother was here. Somewhere. And if he wasn’t here today, he’d roll in on a wagon tomorrow, or the next day, and when he did I would do something that would jeopardize everyone in this room because he mattered to me more than a thousand valleys piled with dead. I craved justice for one.
I need you, Kazimyrah. I believe in you.
I floated between worlds, between oaths and fear, promises and justice—between love and loathing.
“Drink this,” Natiya ordered.
Eben loosened his hold, and I took the water Natiya held out to me. I finished the glass and asked for more, turning away, leaning against the counter, molding composure the way I did when my next meal depended on it. A hundred tricks, one piled on another, fooling myself that I could do it, digging my nails into my palms until one pain masked another that I couldn’t bear.
I downed the second glass of water and finally turned back to face them. I told them about the Previzi warehouse.
Anger pinched Wren’s face. “Previzi? Based here?”
“And the welcome mat is rolled out for them,” I confirmed. “Something else happened too. I punched the Patrei in the face.”
A deep silence fell in the room.
“Did you knock any teeth out?” Synové finally asked, a certain desperation in her wink and smile.
“If I did, it wasn’t enough.”
Natiya sighed. “You’ll have to smooth it over with him until we leave. An apology—”
I would not apologize. Ever. “We leave tomorrow,” I said.
“But—”
“With our quarry,” I added. “I know where the captain is—at least I think I do.”
I told them my hunch. It was Jase who had given me the answer. And Priya. And my own forgotten wishes that my mother and I had had a second way out.
As I had escaped from the arena, as Mije gave me all he was worth racing up the back trail to Tor’s Watch, I heard Priya speaking again, They escaped down another path, and then Jase, Every good stronghold has more than one way out. Otherwise you could be trapped.
Another way out.
*