They aren’t still gathering wood. There’s a pile by their feet, but they’re sitting on a fallen log, heads together as they giggle over something. I keep struggling to remember Cedany is only twenty—she acts so much older. Right now, though, she looks her age, her face relaxed, eyes dancing with some shared joke.
I start to back away, not wanting to interrupt. Cedany leans over to whisper something, and Kaylein taps Cedany’s arm as if in mock-outrage at whatever she said, and—
I trip over Malric, who is right behind me. As I stumble, arms windmilling, the two young women leap up.
“I’m fine,” I say, getting my balance. “I saw you were talking, so I was leaving and someone”—I glare at the warg—“was guarding my back a little too closely. I’ll go back to camp. Sorry to interrupt.”
“Were you looking for us?” Kaylein says as I start to leave.
“Yes, but it wasn’t important.”
“Perhaps not,” Cedany says. “But we shouldn’t linger in the forest at night, nor allow you to do the same. I found yarrow, and we stopped to pick some in case anyone gets foot sores from damp boots. I’m guessing Wilmot sent you to shoo us back to camp.”
“No, I just…I’ll take some wood, but you don’t need to hurry back.”
“A princess ought not to be carrying firewood,” Cedany says with a smile. “If I were a princess, I certainly wouldn’t.”
“Then how would you know what it was like to be someone who did? What it was like to need to chop your own wood to stay warm?”
“Your mother taught you that, didn’t she,” she says with an eye roll. “Queens are supposed to be evil. Every fairy tale I’ve read says so. If they seem nice, they’re secretly evil.” She squints at me. “Queen Mariela is actually stockpiling all those monsters you hunt, isn’t she? Then, one day, she’ll threaten to unleash them on Tamarel unless we pay her a hundred bushels of gold.”
“Mmm, that’s actually possible,” Kaylein says. “You haven’t seen Rowan’s monster collection. It’s not exactly a stockpile yet, but she’s working on it.” She turns to me. “What did you wish to see us about, your highness?”
“I just wanted to speak to you for a moment. But—”
“I can take a hint,” Cedany says, throwing up her hands. “Let me gather some more yarrow, and I’ll be gone.”
I tell Kaylein my predicament as we sit on the fallen log, while Malric rests at my feet and Jacko hunts a mouse. When I finish, she’s quiet. Too quiet. I glance over to see uncertainty and discomfort on her face.
I stand quickly. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought you into this. It isn’t your job. I just—” I swallow and straighten. “I’ll figure it out. That’s my job.”
“But it shouldn’t need to be. I forget how young you are. At your age, I could barely lift a sword, let alone be expected to wield it against monsters.”
I eye her skeptically. “Berinon said he gave you a tin sword at the age of five, and Berinon never exaggerates. He always used to say he left the stories to my father.”
She smiles. “Fair enough. Let me think a moment on this.”
I lower myself onto the log again and watch Jacko hunt as Kaylein thinks.
Finally, she says, “When my brother was fifteen, and I was twelve, he was sneaking out at night to cause trouble with other boys. I knew it, and I had no idea what to do. It wasn’t terribly bad trouble—just the sort of mischief young people do at that age—but my parents would talk about what was happening and say they couldn’t believe anyone let their children out at that time of night.”
She shrugs. “How heartbreaking would it be to discover their own son was one of them? Everyone was talking about the mischief the boys caused, and if it was discovered, my family would have lost business. But telling them felt like tattling. I realized I had to talk to my brother myself. Tell him that I knew and ask him to stop or I’d need to tell our parents.”
“And he was all right with that?”
She throws back her head and laughs. “How would you feel if Rhydd said that to you?”
I consider it. “Angry. Hurt, but mostly angry. At first. Then I’d think about it and realize he had a point.”
“Which is exactly what Asher did. He cursed and ranted and called me a little sneak and a spoilsport. He was only having fun, after all. For a whole day, he wouldn’t speak to me. Then he confessed to our parents, and they came up with a plan. The boys could sneak out and pull harmless pranks, but they had to do good things, too, like magically mending an old fisher’s net. So if their mischief was caught, people wouldn’t be as upset.” She straightens. “That part doesn’t apply to your story, of course, but my point is that you should speak to Alianor alone and let her tell the others, but be prepared for her to be angry at first.”
I nod.
She continues. “Next, I believe the question you need to ask is what harm you do by waiting.”
I glance up, brow furrowed.
“Either she looted the camp because that’s how she was raised,” Kaylein says, “or she’s covering up her family’s involvement. The latter is more troubling, but is it an issue now? That is the question.”
I consider what she’s saying. “Even if we knew her clan took the travelers hostage, it isn’t an issue until Tamarel investigates. That’s what you mean—that there’s no reason I need the truth now.”
“But you will need it soon, if only for the sake of your friendship. She can’t keep
