“Are you thirsty, Miss…” He raised his eyebrows.
Miss? She nearly sputtered.
His smile turned a little hesitant. “My name is Ivar. That’s mybrother Illis.” The other nodded from where he was putting up a tent. “And ourcompatriot Dina.” The monk gave a little wave. “And our new friend, Calla.” Hepointed to the pyradisté, who snorted, still glaring at Thana and PrinceGunnar. No doubt she thought Thana had disabled her pyramids. For once, Sylphhad a strong desire to admit that it had been her. It seemed only fair that shefinally be the one to instill fear in someone else.
But she didn’t need magic to do that. She’d been born into power.She began to admit her title but hesitated, all at sea when it came to who wasallowed to know what amongst the prince’s peasant companions.
“Sylph,” she said. Someone had once mentioned that the name hadgrown in popularity since her birth. Naming a child after the nobilitysupposedly brought luck.
Ivar’s smile widened, and he held out a water skin. “Good to meetyou, Miss Sylph.”
She took a small sip. “And you, Ivar. Tell me, how do you come toride with the prince?”
“Companions of old,” he said.
He wasn’t a noble, and she didn’t know any courtiers who worearmor. Some of the queen’s cronies did, those who’d fought beside her duringthe Troubles, but he seemed too young for that. Perhaps all these people knewthe Umbriels through Thana and her position as royal pyradisté. But why wouldthe prince bother with them?
And why hadn’t they asked why she was riding with Thana?
Because they already knew. They were agents of the queen whowished her dead, and she’d been a fool.
Sylph struggled to keep her face neutral as her heart thundered.Ivar hadn’t needed to ask her name, but it had put her off-guard enough todrink the water. She handed the skin back woodenly.
His eyes seemed to glitter as he took it, and a tinny sound filledher ears. Any moment, the forest would spin as darkness descended, and shehadn’t even had a chance to tell Thana that—
Ivar took a long pull from the skin, and sound returned tonormal, the only upsetting thing being that he hadn’t wiped the spout first.
“Sylph?” Thana asked as she rejoined them. “Are you all right?”
“Perfectly,” she managed.
“Good. Come on. Let’s all sit down together. We’ve got someinformation to share.”
Sylph wanted to ask, “With people who want to kill me?” But shewasn’t dead yet. And she wasn’t poisoned. She took a deep breath. There wasstill time for answers.
What a quandary life had become.
Frightening. Invigorating.
She’d never equated the two before.
Chapter Fourteen
Prince Gunnar stared at Sylph from across the campfire, buthe might as well have been someone she’d never met. His face seemed open andyet more closed than she’d ever seen. His real self—if that was indeed whatthis was—seemed serious and secretive, his eyes probing and unnerving, aquality she’d never associated with the greatest gadabout in the land.
“You may have heard of the Order of Vestra?” he asked.
“It’s a child’s tale,” she said. “The secret protectors of thecrown, bogeymen for traitors.” She shrugged. “Or children who won’t eat theirgreens, though why such creatures are named after an ancient Farradain noble,I’ve never been able to guess.” She thought it might be another way ofmaintaining noble control, but she wasn’t about to say so in this crowd.
“We’re very real,” he said.
“We?” She looked to his comrades as pieces fell into place. Whowould want to push the image of control more than the highest nobles in theland?
“It’s not bandied about,” he said with a trace of his usualdrawl. “Secret order and all that. I’m glad it’s been relegated to a threat formisbehaving kiddies. Maybe one day, it will pass out of public remembrancealtogether.”
“And you act as agents for the crown? Why not leave that to theroyal guards?” Anxiety fluttered in her chest at her own daring. In the past,she would have remained quiet in front of the prince, put on a show ofmeekness, but the fact that he had a secret identity made her want to throw offher old life, too. She could show that she was clever, that she pondered theworld at times.
That she was so much more than what her father had made her.
And if she couldn’t express her feelings to Thana, she could atleast impress her. Thana was watching her proudly already. Something in hersoared.
“Too conspicuous,” he said. “The people we chase are normally inthe shadows, and they rarely expect the prince to be after them.”
She nodded. That explained why he recruited help outside thenobility, like Thana who—as monarch’s pyradisté—was already privy to many royalsecrets. None of which Sylph had heard until now. Anxiety gripped her. Steady,she reminded herself. She had to keep her wits. “And you have decided I amtrustworthy because Thana has found me worthy of aid?”
“No, my lady. It’s because you are a noble pyradisté and have asmuch to lose as any of us.”
Her chest froze. So he knew. And yet he sat so casually, as ifshe wasn’t an abomination. None of his cronies batted an eye. They all knew.The queen must have guessed after she and Thana had fled. How far had theknowledge reached? Her peers? Her father?
“Breathe,” Thana said softly. Her touch on Sylph’s arm was like acool cloth to a fevered brow. “Watch me, Sylph. One, two, three.”
They breathed together for a few moments, and Sylph forced herfacial muscles to relax, relax, relax, and admit nothing.
Prince Gunnar sighed. “It really got you in a tizzy, didn’t it? Ialmost don’t want to tell you the rest.” After scrubbing one hand through hishair, he said, “You know of the pyradisté rebellion in the past?”
She managed a nod. “Thana told me. The pyradistés tried to takecontrol of the kingdom.”
“Well, what’s not commonly known, not even by Thana, is thatthose pyradistés were led by the king’s cousin.”
Everything inside her balked. “There are no noble pyradistés.”She felt a fool the moment she said it, living proof that she was.
“There were many,” he said. “After the
