‘How did you find her?’ he asked.
‘My queen almost took a dagger to her throat,’ Tesadora said. ‘Who is taking care of things out there, Rafuel? She’s running around like a savage.’
‘
Lucian watched Kasabian approach.
‘Not a word,’ Rafuel whispered hoarsely. ‘Not a word, I’m begging you.’ His eyes found Japhra’s. ‘I need to see the woman and at least Donashe won’t question why I’m not in the camp if I’m with you, Japhra.’
‘No,’ Lucian said.
‘Enough!’ Japhra said firmly and Lucian saw the surprise on everyone’s faces. ‘I answer for myself,’ Japhra said. She looked at Rafuel and nodded and he walked back towards Donashe and his men. Lucian watched them surround Rafuel, clapping him on the back. It made Lucian’s blood boil again. They were congratulating him on having a Lumateran woman.
‘Do you feel no shame?’ he said to Tesadora and Japhra.
‘Only for you,’ Tesadora said, her voice cold.
Harker was there before him.
‘You’ve been a stranger to us, Mont.’
‘I’ve been a stranger to myself, Harker,’ he said. ‘What goes on here?’
Harker shook his head. ‘Nothing good. You’ve heard about Alonso and how they’ve stopped the grain wagons? Donashe and his pigs consume any food we do get. These people are starving, Lucian. And just up there,’ Harker said, pointing to Lucian’s mountain, ‘your people are filling their bellies.
Lucian didn’t know what to say. He could have convinced himself that these people were not Lumatere’s responsibility, but how could they not be?
‘Come,’ Tesadora said to Lucian quietly. Reluctantly, he followed her up into the caves. She wanted him to see firsthand, but he didn’t have to. What was he expected to do? Defy Isaboe?
The valley dwellers were listless, worse than they were in the days Phaedra had kept their spirits high. There was barely any talk among them and the only emotion they seemed to show was a pitiful flare of hope at the return of Tesadora and the girls. Later, they entered a cave where a handful of the men sat miserably. One man clutched Tesadora’s arm.
‘Can you see to my wife?’ he asked her. ‘They won’t let us share the same cave and I know she’s not herself here,’ he said, pointing to his heart.
‘Does she suffer from melancholy?’ Tesadora asked.
‘I’ve not seen her in such a way since … since a long time ago. Since the first day of weeping eighteen years past.’
Lucian saw sorrow on Tesadora’s face. ‘You lost a babe?’ she asked huskily.
The man nodded. ‘It was so close to being birthed,’ he said. ‘And then it was gone. But we learned to live with our pain and my wife swallowed her grief. Until now. Until all those weeks ago … on our journey here to the valley. We came across a girl … a mad-looking girl, who begged us for a ride. From the first moment my wife … even myself … from the first moment we saw her, there was a bond I cannot explain.’
Tesadora looked up at Lucian. ‘Repeat his words in case there are some I don’t understand.’ She looked at the man. ‘Speak.’
The man smiled at the memory. ‘It was as though I could look into the girl’s eyes and see a spirit I knew. My wife felt the same.’ The man shook his head. ‘And then she was gone.’
‘Gone where?’ Lucian asked.
‘Dead. From the plague. She was one of the younger women who took ill.’
The man’s face was pained. ‘And for my wife, it was as though we lost our unborn babe again.’
Lucian heard the intake of Tesadora’s breath. She bent forward and cupped the man’s face in her hands.
‘I’ll go see your wife,’ she said.
Lucian followed Tesadora out of the cave.
‘Is it her?’ he asked quietly. ‘The girl he was speaking of? Is it that … princess?’
‘Shh. And don’t speak of her again,’ Tesadora warned. ‘Don’t you risk her life, Lucian. Enough has been lost. Do you understand? Enough.’
There was more than a warning in her voice. And Lucian remembered the day they had first interrogated Rafuel in the prison on the mountain. ‘Have you noticed anything strange in the valley?’ the Charynite had asked. Lucian remembered how Tesadora had been the one to guess that day. There were no children in the valley. They had bled from the loins of the women. Tesadora had left the prison, shattered. Lucian knew she was half-Charynite. She claimed it was her Charyn blood that called her to this valley.
‘You lost a babe?’ Lucian said. ‘Eighteen years past?’
Tesadora stared up at him and continued to walk, but Lucian gripped her hand.
‘On the day of their weeping, you bled, didn’t you, Tesadora?’
Tesadora pulled away and Lucian saw the tears that refused to fall.
‘Mind your business, Lucian,’ she said, her voice cold. ‘And feed these people, or may the food you put into your own mouth turn to parchment.’
Late that night, Phaedra heard a sound outside their cave.
‘Did you hear that?’ Cora asked.
‘Shh.’
There was silence. Nothing but the sound of the malevolent wind. And then Phaedra heard it again. Three short whistles. Rafuel.
They hadn’t seen Rafuel for weeks and something inside Phaedra made her feel uneasy. She held a finger to her lips to signal the others to stay silent. Until she saw Tesadora and Japhra and the Mont girls, Constance and Sandrine. The Mont girls gaped when they saw Phaedra.
‘How … how could you do that to us?’ Constance said. ‘After we gave you a home. How could you do that to Lucian?’
‘I warned you not to make a fuss,’ Tesadora told Constance. ‘If you can’t keep silent, go back to the camp.’
Sandrine began to weep, while Constance stared at Phaedra with anger. And hurt.
Meanwhile, Phaedra’s companions were as furious as the Monts, turning on Rafuel.
‘Why trust Lumaterans over Gies and our men?’ Ginny cried.
‘You need to tell Harker,’ Jorja said.
‘Father will know what to do,’ Florenza added.
‘If you can trust anyone, it’s Kasabian,’ Cora snapped.
Tesadora threw them a scathing look.
‘You’d think death would have silenced you all,’ she muttered. She knelt beside Quintana, and Phaedra saw the beauty of Tesadora’s face now more than ever. Her eyes, normally so hostile, danced with joy and life, with an almost purple hue to them. Her hair looked silver in the light of the moon. Phaedra had only seen Tesadora this animated once before. When the Queen of Lumatere had sat in her tent with Princess Jasmina on her lap, laughing with the women of her kingdom. And now, here with Quintana. Deep down, Phaedra had wanted Tesadora’s laughter and warmth herself.
The Princess responded to Tesadora’s presence with a show of savage teeth, the closest thing she had to a smile.
‘Are you going to let Japhra see to you?’ Tesadora asked Quintana, her Charyn still weak.
‘I’ll translate if you want,’ Phaedra said.
Tesadora waved her away. ‘Oh, we understand each other, don’t we, my little savage?’
Quintana looked almost haughty with such attention, her smile now wolfish. Tesadora laughed and held a gentle hand to her cheek.
‘Japhra is the best midwife we have. More than a midwife. Gifted beyond imagining.’ Tesadora gently lay Quintana down. ‘It will seem as if she’s doing strange things, but it’s only to ensure the babe is safe.’
They lifted Quintana’s shift and Phaedra wanted to look away. The belly frightened her but she didn’t want
