She looked at the top of the hill, which was more of a mountain now that she saw how much more there was to go. We’re gonna be a while.
“You good?” Corian asked from behind her.
“Yeah. Just taking it all in.”
L’zar stopped at the curve of the switchback heading in the opposite direction and suggested, “You should keep your eyes and your attention that way.” He pointed at the peak. “Right now, the only thing that matters is up there waiting for us.”
Cheyenne kept climbing. “He’s not a thing, L’zar.”
“Yes, I know. You’re the first to jump to everyone else’s defense but mine, aren’t you?”
“So far, you’re the only one I have to defend against.”
Behind her, Corian shook his head but remained silent. Maleshi trailed her fingers along the tops of the tall, pale grasses tinged with purple growing along the path.
“I’ve never attacked you, Cheyenne.”
“I wasn’t talking about me.” Just every other magical who trusts him too much and can’t see L’zar’s lunatic sucker-punch until they’re on the ground.
“Have I hurt anyone?” L’zar chuckled. “I mean, really hurt anyone. We’re talking about since you and I have gotten the chance to get to know one another.”
“We’ve already been over this.” Cheyenne’s foot slipped on the loose dirt of the path and sent a wave of gravel and dust down the mountainside. Focus. “There are plenty of situations where nothing is as bad as hurting everyone around you, just like saying nothing is lying through your teeth.”
“Ah. You’re still focused on my lack of action, is that it?”
She heard Corian’s hesitant breath behind her but kept after her father up the trail. If he thinks I’m talking about them, that’s his problem. “Yes, and I’ll have a problem with it until you decide to step in and do something. Not because it’s part of your plan, L’zar, and not because it serves your twisted purpose.”
“Don’t speak of my purpose like you have any idea what it is!” L’zar stopped and glared down at her from the next level of the trail above. “You don’t see the way this all plays out, Cheyenne. If you want me to treat you as an equal, quit running your mouth like a child.”
“Hey, I’m not the one who stayed up all night getting wasted and almost ripped the whole raug city out of bed to shut me up.” Cheyenne put her hands on her hips and returned her father’s burning gaze. “You wanna throw names around and call me a child? Great. I can hold up a mirror, L’zar. That’s what kids are for, right?”
The drow thief stared at her, then his gaze flicked to Corian and Maleshi. The nightstalkers had stopped to watch the argument, and the fact that they had witnesses seemed to snap L’zar back into the present. “You excel at reflecting all my pet peeves right back at me.” A humorless chuckle escaped him. “But you have no idea what I’m thinking or what I have planned. Don’t talk to me like you do.”
“Why won’t you tell me?” Cheyenne spread her arms. “Let me in on the secret plan you’ve been off in your own world thinking about for the last two days, huh?”
He cocked his head, then let a slow smile bloom on his face. “Where would the fun be in that, huh? You’ll know when you’re meant to know, just like everyone else.”
L’zar picked up his hurried pace up the mountainside, and Cheyenne snorted. “Yeah, everyone except you.”
“Let him have his fun, kid.” Corian shrugged. “Everything else worked the way it was supposed to when we got to the Heart. Well, mostly. In the end, what needed to happen happened. If he wants to keep his secrets, we’ll wait together until he’s ready to share.”
Cheyenne stopped and turned to frown at the nightstalker. “So you don’t know what he’s got cooking up for his nephew either?”
The nightstalker blinked.
“He won’t lie to you,” Maleshi said. “But he’s not gonna come out and say it.”
“Interesting.”
“No, it’s not.” Corian scowled and trudged toward the switchback, quickly gaining on the halfling. “And don’t look at me like that and say, ‘Interesting.’I don’t have to tell you who you remind me of when you do that.”
“Plenty of family traits I have no control over, I guess.” When Corian grunted and shot her a warning look, Cheyenne spun to head up the hill behind her father. Maybe I did just pull a L’zar, but I can read between the lines with the rest of them. If Corian doesn’t have any clue what the drow’s got up his sleeve, we all need to be a lot more careful.
She looked up the mountain at the drow thief, who’d stopped to put his hands on his hips and take a deep breath, gazing out over Nor’ieth like he took this hike all the time to clear his head and get the endorphins pumping. Cheyenne snorted. He could probably conjure his own endorphins if he wanted to.
Half an hour later, they reached the first leveling-out of the mountain, though they still had another six yards at least until they reached the peak. Cheyenne squinted against the sun blazing down on them and could barely make out what looked like another Grecian temple above them. The white stone glistened in the sunlight and blocked out whatever else was up there.
When she looked down the way they’d come, Corian and Maleshi followed her gaze. “They’re all still down there.”
“Probably waiting for one of us to fall off or for the top of the mountain to explode.” Corian heaved himself up the particularly steep switchback and nodded at Cheyenne to continue. “Can’t stop now.”
“Did something happen?” Cheyenne looked at Maleshi, who wouldn’t meet her gaze.
“Not yet.” Corian gestured up the path for her to keep
