Briar rolled over on her bedroll, a paintbrush jabbing her side. A few members of the team were still talking quietly by the cave entrance. Someone on the other side of the fire—she thought it was Nat—snored loudly, but the ripping snores couldn’t drown out the memory of all the destruction her family had created together.
Even in the northernmost county in the kingdom, far away from High Lure, Briar couldn’t escape her parents’ art. She liked the camaraderie of the team and the positive nature of their mission, but they wanted destruction from her too. They’d gotten a taste of her power at the river, and she feared what else they would ask of her now.
Chapter 11
Archer watched Briar tossing and turning beside the fire. His gaze strayed to her often lately. He told himself it was because he had just seen her do something remarkable. Lifting them all to the other side of the river had been a magnificent deed. But she’d done remarkable things every day he’d known her, and it felt different somehow after their time in Mud Market.
She gave a little sigh, her lashes fluttering, and he wondered what was going on behind those eyes, beneath that frizzy hair.
“Are you listening to me?”
“Huh?”
Jemma rolled her eyes. “You were the one who called this meeting. Pay attention, won’t you?”
“Sorry.” Archer repositioned himself so he was facing Lew, Jemma, and Esteban, who had gathered at the cave entrance for a conference while Briar and Nat slept. “What were we talking about?”
“The fact that the whole county knows we’re here, thanks to Esteban hollering his location to the four winds,” Jemma said. “King Cullum himself probably knows what we’re up to by now.”
“I was following orders,” Esteban said sullenly.
“We didn’t have a choice,” Archer said.
“Actually, we did.” Jemma looked over at Briar’s blankets and lowered her voice. “I understand she’s useful, but there’s no point having a powerful curse painter if we make a scene every ten miles. You should have left her on the other side of the river.”
“After what she did for us?” In addition to hoisting them across the river, Briar had saved Archer’s life. He had wanted to test her trustworthiness, and as far as he was concerned, she’d passed with flying colors. “She could have walked away with her new paint supplies and left me to Barden’s cronies even before the river.”
“This is what she does for a living,” Lew said delicately. “I doubt it would hurt her feelings if we let her go with payment for services rendered.”
“Lew is right,” Esteban said. “She’s a hired contractor. She understands this is business, probably better than you.”
Archer bristled at that. “You’re just annoyed because her plan to cross the river worked when you didn’t think it would.”
“I am not annoyed,” Esteban said with what Archer was quite certain was annoyance.
“There’s no point in arguing,” Jemma cut in. “After all that ruckus, we should assume the authorities on both sides of the river know what we are intending to do, curse painter or no curse painter. Larke will prepare accordingly.”
“Let’s not overstate the problem.” Archer pulled an arrow from his quiver and used it to scratch an itch on his back. “They know where we are, but that doesn’t mean they know we’re trying to rescue—”
“You told Kurt yourself,” Jemma said. “If he sold you out to the town watch, nothing will stop him from selling that information to others.”
“I am counting on it.”
“What?”
Archer figured this was as good a time as any to tell them the new plan, which he’d worked out as they rode through the night. After what Kurt had told him about Horatio Drake’s failure at Larke Castle, he was certain the old plan had to go. And there was another part of the job he hadn’t told them about yet.
“I’m counting on Kurt peddling the information I gave him like golden teeth. He’ll send the authorities in the wrong direction.”
“I get it,” Lew said, combing his fingers through his red beard. “A bluff.”
Jemma looked skeptical. “So, where does he think we’re going?”
“Larke Castle.”
Lew’s grin faded.
“And where do you think we’re going?”
Archer prepared to leap up and run for it if one of them decided to thrash him for what he was about to say. He ought to be able to escape Jemma, Lew, and Esteban by virtue of sheer youth and stamina.
“I know you’re going to hate me for this, Jem,” he said, “but I have reason to believe Larke has chosen a location other than his castle for Lady Mae’s confinement.”
“Her what?”
“Her confinement. Her lying-in. Her labor and delivery.”
Jemma’s face paled, looking ghostly in the moonlight. “You can’t be serious.”
“Serious as a taxman.” Archer glanced at the huddled forms of Briar and Nat.
They were definitely still asleep, though Nat’s snoring made it sound as though he had transformed into a bear. A bear with a sore throat, who was in the middle of being choked to death.
Archer turned back to the three older members of the team, the core group he trusted more than his own flesh and blood. “Lady Mae is going to have a baby,” he said, “which means we have to rescue two people, who will hopefully still be attached by the time we get there. But after talking to Kurt, I no longer think they’re in Larke Castle at all.”
“You’re going to be the death of me, Iva—Archer,” Jemma said, massaging her temples with grimy hands.
Archer winced.
