"Actually, I don't. It may seem like an out-there choice, but sometimes, the Arts have a mind of their own. I imagine it was a choice you had to make in some respects."
I'm amazed by how accurately he's describing how the choice felt to me.
"Something like that," I admit.
"Exactly." He hands me a leaf topped with steaming pheasant.
The two of us eat in silence, both lost in our own thoughts. I think I've eaten better in the past couple of days than I have in the entire year prior to that. I thought Cobalt would be useless at surviving thanks to his White Tower upbringing, but I'm wrong. He's probably even more prepared than I am in a lot of ways.
Something brushes up against the bits of old metal we hung up in the trees in a radius around ourselves as an early warning system, making both of us freeze.
We listen again for any hint of what might be coming towards us. If it's just an animal, we shouldn't hear the metal pieces clanking against one another again. But if it's a person...
Clink-clink-clink.
We're both on our feet in seconds, Moonslinger in my hands, and Cobalt's knife in his.
"Do you think it was the Arts that made them come?" I ask.
He shakes his head. "The people who know what it means will stay away because they don't want to be caught up in that much power. I doubt anyone from the city will come to find out what's going on if they don't understand it. They might even think it's a dragon."
I nod, not completely convinced, but his logic does make sense.
"Should we..." I'm about to suggest we go and check out what's coming when a lone figure stumbles into the clearing.
The person keels over almost immediately.
Despite knowing it could be a trap and that I'm putting myself in danger's way, I rush over, dropping Moonslinger down beside me as I turn the person over.
"Marina," I whisper, recognising the person. "What are you doing here?"
She groans and opens her eyes. "Raine?" At least she's as surprised to see me as I am to see her, though it doesn't explain much about what's happening.
"It's me," I promise. "What are you doing here?"
She frowns. "I don't know," she admits as she pushes herself up into a sitting position. "I've been stumbling around for a few days trying to find something to eat."
I gesture for Cobalt to bring over some of the pheasant.
He doesn't seem impressed by the turn of events, but he does it anyway.
"Eat this," I instruct, taking it from him to give to her.
"Thank you."
"Cobalt, Marina, Marina, Cobalt," I say, introducing my two allies.
He eyes her warily, as if he doesn't trust what she's doing hee. I don't blame him. If one of his friends showed up like this, I don't think I'd trust them either.
"Marina is my friend," I tell him, daring him with my gaze to challenge that and tell me to send her away.
But Cobalt is too good of a person for that. Instead of doing anything of the sort, he smiles at her and gives her a half-wave. "Nice to meet you."
"Likewise," she says through a mouthful of pheasant.
"Is anyone following you?" he asks.
She shakes her head. "I don't think so. I haven't seen anyone else for days."
He purses his lips, but doesn't point out that's meaningless. From what he's told me, most of the White Tower volunteers have so much training before they come in here, that they can be sneaking up on you without you even realising it. That's one of the reasons for our warning system. It's not foolproof, but anything is better than nothing, especially when we've been staying in one place for a few days.
"What have you seen?" I ask, wanting to learn more about the Duels without going out into the main arena itself. I'm perfectly content to stay in the second patch of mini-forest we've found, so long as this one doesn't burn down too.
She shudders. "Too many things. No dragons yet, though. I'm starting to wonder if there are any."
Cobalt and I exchange a glance.
"There are," I confirm, but don't tell her I've killed one of them. I don't want to make things weird.
"I don't think they're our biggest problem though," she admits. "I saw some of the other contestants do unspeakable things." A tear runs down her cheek and splashes to the floor.
Cobalt grimaces, but doesn't say anything. I'll ask him about what he's thinking once Marina is asleep. She looks about ready to collapse.
"You don't have to tell us about that now," I reassure her. "Why don't you make yourself comfortable by the fire and we'll keep watch." A small pang of guilt builds inside me at the knowledge that part of me wants her to go to sleep so I can ask Cobalt what he's thinking. That doesn't feel very fair to Marina, but at the same time, he knows more about this than both of us combined.
She nods, and crawls over, before collapsing in a heap. It takes mere minutes for snores to start coming from her exhausted body.
"Can we trust her?" Cobalt asks before I can pose any of my own questions. "Yes."
"How well do you know her?"
"Well enough to know she could be an asset. She managed to escape the Marriage Market." I hope she doesn't mind me telling him, but he needs to know what she's capable of so he accepts her.
"Interesting."
"She's my friend."
To my surprise, he smiles at me. "It's okay, Raine. I trust your judgement. If you say she's good, then she's good." "Thank you." I'm surprised by the way his affirmation makes me feel. He really does have a way of making it feel as if we're a team, even though he has a lot more knowledge and skills than I do. "What were you thinking? When she talked about what the other
