Flick bore her words, making no attempt to interrupt her.
“Why’d you do it?” she asked, throwing up her arms. “Why didn’t you tell me?” She looked back toward the Demon Riders by the cave. “And have you become bosom friends with Pashla, too?” She finally admitted it. She was jealous of her friend, who picked up allies wherever he went, while it seemed she herself only found more enemies.
She ran out of words and settled for glaring at Flick, who stirred when he realized she was done.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” he said, subdued. “I knew Tristam wouldn’t agree if I asked him beforehand, and if I’d told you, you’d have been forced to decide whether you wanted to hide it from him. This way, the blame fell squarely on me.” He took a breath. “I don’t know Pashla well at all. Adele was the one I asked for help, and she found the others.”
“And you just decided this was the right thing to do?” Kyra said.
“Can you think of anyone else who could have helped us?”
She couldn’t, really, but she wasn’t ready to let him off the hook. “Just because things didn’t explode today doesn’t mean they won’t tomorrow.”
“I know. But it’s worth it.” Flick spoke with surprising conviction, and Kyra wondered at it. He sank down onto a fallen log. After a moment, Kyra grudgingly followed his lead.
“Why?” she asked.
Flick stared down at his hands, massaging the knuckles of his right hand with his left. “Call me foolish, I suppose, but I think it might do some good to work together with these people. I’ve had a few run-ins with the Makvani now. Truth is, they do look on us humans as something below their regard. But I’m realizing that it’s different when they see you face-to-face. That’s why I don’t think those folk by the cave will hurt me, even if their clanmate was wounded by a soldier this morning. I’m no longer a nameless human to them. And I wonder, if more of them actually spent time with us, maybe something could come out of it.”
“You think we could avoid a war?”
Flick sighed and absentmindedly broke a twig off the fallen tree. “I don’t think Adele’s eager for a fight, and some of the others aren’t either. I mean, I’m not na?ve. I know this will only make a small difference. But it’s better than nothing, in’t it?”
His face had such an optimistic cast that Kyra found it hard to hold her grudge. “I hope you’re right,” she said. “And I hope Tristam can get over what happened today and trust us again.”
“Tristam, in particular, needs to get over his fears.”
There was a layer of meaning in Flick’s tone that caught Kyra’s attention. “Why? What do you mean?”
“Oh.” For the first time, Flick stumbled on his words. “I just mean…”
And Kyra remembered how Flick had pointed at her when he argued with Tristam. The pieces fell together, and she looked incredulously at Flick. “You’re not trying to put me and Tristam together, are you? You’ve been against it from the beginning.”
“I was wrong,” Flick said. “I admit it. Tristam’s a decent fellow. He’s not my da, and you are not my ma. I probably should have realized that sooner, and I worry that something I said might have swayed you against him.”
Kyra put a hand to her temple. Of all the times for Flick to come around…“You were wrong about him,” she said. “But it doesn’t matter. He’s still a nobleman, and he has duties to his family.”
“That might be true,” said Flick. “But he in’t married yet, and who knows what might happen? Things are changing, Kyra. I don’t think we can take anything for granted anymore.”
Kyra wondered if the fight with the messenger had muddled Flick’s brain. But then she followed Flick’s gaze to where Adele stood arm in arm with Mela, and she finally understood.