R’shiel had thought Tarja was worrying about the Kariens unnecessarily. News of the Envoy’s death would take weeks, perhaps months, to reach Yarnarrow. An invasion force would take even longer to muster and cross the vast northern reaches. It wasn’t until she heard Tarja outlining his plans to Drendik that she understood his concerns. The northern border was completely undefended, protected by a treaty that had been well and truly broken. It would take months to move the Defenders into position. Even if the Kariens did not arrive until next summer, Tarja worried that it wouldn’t be enough time.
Ghari waved to them as he disappeared in the long reeds growing close to the riverbank. The farm of a rebel sympathizer lay less than a league from where they had left him. He would be mounted and on his way within the hour. They pushed back into the river and headed north, watching the retreating figure of the young rebel.
“Will they come?” she asked.
“They’ll come. To see me hang, if nothing else.”
“That’s not funny, Tarja.”
“I wasn’t joking,” he said.
It was obvious that the first wave of Defenders had arrived in Testra when Drendik eased the boat into the docks early the following afternoon. A red-coated corporal immediately hailed them. Drendik gave a wonderful impression of a foreigner who didn’t understand a word of Medalonian, nodding and calling “Yes! Yes!” to every question the corporal yelled at him. Tarja and R’shiel waited below in the passage just beneath the companionway, listening to the exchange.
“Suppose they try to search the boat?”
“Drendik’s an old hand at this,” Tarja said. “They won’t get a foot on board until he wants them to.”
“I’m sorry.”
He looked at her curiously. “For what?”
“For getting us into this mess. If I hadn’t killed that Defender in Reddingdale...”
The passage was narrow and Tarja had braced himself against the movement of the boat by placing his hand on the bulkhead above her head.
“If you must blame someone, blame Joyhinia. She’s the one who started it all.”
“Perhaps. I wonder if she would have been so anxious to adopt me if she’d known who my father was?”
“Be grateful she didn’t know. She would have slit your throat.”
“Well, it must be all her fault then,” she agreed wryly. “If she’d murdered me at birth, we wouldn’t be here now.”
“Poor little Princess,” he teased.
“Don’t call me that.”
“What should I call you then? Divine One? Oh-Fabled-Harshini-Demon-Child, perhaps?” It was almost like the old days. She hadn’t seen that mocking smile for so long. His eyes were startlingly blue in the dim light of the passage. He looked at her for a long moment then lowered his mouth toward hers.
“The captain says it’s safe to come up now.”
R’shiel jerked back at the sound of Aber’s voice, burying her head in Tarja’s leather-clad shoulder in embarrassment.
“Thank you,” Tarja said. “We’ll be right up.”
Aber closed the hatch behind him. Tarja gently lifted her chin with his forefinger, forcing her to meet his eye.
“R’shiel?”
“What?”
“I love you. You know that, don’t you?”
“You’re just saying that because you’re afraid I’ll turn you into a toad, or something.”
He smiled. “You think so?”
“Don’t you care that I’m not human?”
“You’re human here,” he assured her, pointing to her heart, “where it counts. Now get a move on. We’d better get up top before young Aber comes looking for us again.”
She kissed him, just to be certain that he meant what he said. Somewhat reluctantly, Tarja peeled her arms from around his neck and held them by her sides.
“We have a long road ahead of us, R’shiel. Don’t make it any harder.”
“Do we have to do this, Tarja?” she asked. “Can’t we just go away? Find a place where nobody knows us?”
“Some place where I’m not a marked man and you’re not the demon child? Name it and we’ll leave this minute.”
She sighed. “There is no such place, is there?”
“No.”
Tarja let her go and moved to the hatch. R’shiel followed him, catching a movement out of the corner of her eye. She spun toward it, but the dim passage was empty.
“What’s the matter?”
“I could have sworn I saw somebody!”
“There’s nobody there. It must have been a trick of the light.”
“It was a little girl.”
Tarja opened the hatch and stepped through. R’shiel glanced back over her shoulder at the empty passage. She was certain she had seen something. She turned to follow Tarja up the companionway, touching something with her boot on the first step. Curiously, she bent down and picked it up. It was an acorn, tied with two white feathers.
“Look at this.”
Tarja looked down at the amulet and shrugged.
“It’s the symbol the heathens have for the Goddess of Love.”
“How did it get here?”
“It probably belongs to Drendik or one of his brothers.”
She frowned, certain she had never seen any of the Fardohnyans with such an icon.
“Should I give it back to them?”
“If you want,” he agreed, a little impatiently. “Come on.”
R’shiel slipped the acorn amulet into her pack and followed Tarja out into the bright sunlight.
chapter 57
Tarja had never felt more exposed than he did walking through Testra toward the inn where Mahina waited. It felt like the streets were crawling with Defenders. He was certain he would be recognized, certain someone would notice them. He walked with his back stooped, a barrel of cider balanced on his shoulder, which served to conceal his face. R’shiel walked ahead of him, the Harshini Dragon Rider’s leathers concealed beneath a long blue cloak. The hood was pulled up
Even as he thought about it, the inn appeared across the way. He could feel R’shiel relax and realized she was as tense as he was. He wanted to reach out to her. To touch her hand and reassure her. She glanced down the road and crossed it quickly, waving imperiously for him to follow. He smiled to himself as she did. R’shiel knew the habits of the Sisterhood. Tarja trailed obediently in her wake, almost bumping into her as she stopped dead just inside the entrance to the taproom.
