The soldier sized them up, and Kyra hoped desperately that Pashla and Adele wouldn’t decide to attack. They wouldn’t be so rash as to change shape in front of twenty soldiers, would they? Next to her, Pashla lowered her eyes just the slightest bit. Was she trying to hide the amber in them?
“Your business?” asked the soldiers.
“Winter mushrooms,” said Flick. “They go for a fortune at the markets, and we used to have a good patch a little north of here. We thought we heard demon cats though, so we’re cutting our losses. Best to leave here with our lives and no mushrooms than the other way around, right?” He gave the soldier a self-effacing grin.
The soldier released his hands from his scabbard. “You heard the roars too, then?”
“Aye,” said Flick. “Raised the hair on the back of my neck.”
The soldier jerked his head toward a man behind him. “Nyles almost got one this morning. Stuck it good in the shoulder, but the beast got away.” Pashla stiffened, but the man didn’t seem to notice. “Best to pick someplace to forage that doesn’t put you in the path of fighting. His Grace doesn’t want people in the forest these days.”
His Grace, Kyra thought wryly. Not even the Council. The soldier was referring directly to Willem as if he were Duke of Forge. That didn’t bode well.
The soldier waved them on their way, and Flick started walking in the direction of the main road. The rest of them followed. When the soldiers were no longer in view, Kyra let out a sigh of relief.
“Those are the soldiers you’ve been telling me about?” asked Pashla. She stared back in their direction, her gaze calculating.
“Aye,” said Kyra. The clanswoman didn’t seem as dismissive of the troops now that she’d seen them. Kyra wondered if this morning’s fighting might have changed her mind. “Pashla, I know Leyus doesn’t want to see me, but those soldiers could be a real threat to you. Can you please let me speak with him just once?”
In the ensuing silence, Kyra found herself wishing again that the clanswoman wasn’t so hard to read. Finally Pashla gave the slightest of nods. “I’ll bring you to Leyus, though he will not be happy with me.”
Kyra celebrated a brief moment of triumph before she remembered Flick, Idalee, and Lettie. “I should see my friends safely out of the forest first.”
“Bring them,” said Pashla. “There are those in the clan who are curious to see more of the humans.”
Curious? Kyra wasn’t about to risk her family’s life to satisfy some Makvani’s curiosity.
Her hesitation must have shown, because Pashla spoke again, exasperated this time. “We are not barbarians,” she said. “We do not hunt humans for sport. They will be under my protection.”
“We’ll come,” said Idalee. When Kyra looked at her, she shrugged. “Every time we try to go somewhere safer, it just gets worse. At least Pashla says she’ll protect us.”
Kyra looked to Flick and then Lettie, who nodded in turn. “So be it,” Kyra said.
Pashla set off without further comment, leading them through the trees. As they walked, Adele unclasped Flick’s cloak and handed it wordlessly back to him.
“You don’t get cold?” he asked.
“No,” she said.
Kyra bit back a grin as she watched Flick waver between his usual inclination to insist she keep it and his suspicion that Adele would kill him if he argued. He took back the cloak.