I closed my eyes and searched for dreams that would warm me. Dreams that would get me through the night.
* * *
Jase’s back looms in my vision. His hair ruffles in the breeze. We are just beginning our journey. I stare at him as he rummages through my saddlebag.
“Hey, what are you doing over there, Patrei? Stealing something? Do I need to arrest you?”
“I hope so,” he answers eagerly. He turns. Synové’s gift is in his hand.
I shoot him a disapproving frown. “It’s only the first day,” I say. “She said to wait until mid-journey.”
“But I’m curious now … aren’t you?”
He pouts in that maddening way that makes my stomach squeeze. That makes me want to kiss the pout right off his face.
“Yes,” I answer. “I’m curious.”
The package unravels in our hands as if it wants to be found out. Look inside, it seems to whisper.
We are easily seduced. Its magic lures us, and we are its willing victims.
And then I look up and all I can see are Jase’s deep brown eyes and the question in them.
I rolled over, pulling my cloak tighter around me.
That’s all I wanted to see, Jase’s eyes and the magic they held—a different kind of magic—as I drifted deeper into sleep.
* * *
They’ll listen, Kazi, and they will love you. It will all work out. I promise.
Love is not something you can force, Jase. It will happen or it won’t.
It will.
He was so certain, but he understood families better than I did.
One thing I did know was I loved Lydia and Nash more than I loved my own life, and knowing they were safe made it possible for me to do everything I could now to save Hell’s Mouth. But there was more than Hell’s Mouth that needed saving.
Montegue’s sights were set on everything. He wanted it all.
The papers, Kazi. Get the documents. I had orders from my queen. Papers didn’t just disappear. Someone had taken them, and I had to get to them before Montegue did.
The remaining spires of Tor’s Watch were hidden from view now, but earlier I had used them to help me navigate my path. They were my initial marker. I remembered where the spiraling ribbon of bats in the sky had been in relation to them. Thank the gods the sun was shining today, because once surrounded by tall trees that all looked alike, it was easy to get turned around in the forest.
I stepped lightly as I went, always watchful, but the silence was hopeful. The soldiers were concentrating their efforts elsewhere—at least for now. A skinny meadow, a toppled tree, a large blue bear rock, a waterfall, and a cave with bats. Lots of bats.
If I could find even one of those, I was certain I could find the others, and then I stopped, taking in my surroundings again. I looked behind me and forward again. I was walking in what could be a long, skinny meadow—or what might be a green meadow in spring. Now with winter, it was just a brown leaf-littered indentation surrounded by trees.
My pace picked up, and I turned, searching in all directions for anything else, and then, in the distance, just past the meadow, I spotted a rock. An enormous rock, the color of a cornflower, that looked like a standing bear.
I ran, and somewhere in the distance, I thought I heard the roar of a waterfall—or maybe that was just the roar of blood in my ears. I was almost there. I knew it.
But then, out of nowhere it seemed, several yards ahead of me, someone was standing in my path, a spear poised over one shoulder and a knife in the other.
I froze, staring at the painted face that was striped to blend into the forest. Rags were wrapped around his head, camouflaged with leaves and small branches. His clothes were the same. Whoever it was, he looked like he was part of the forest come alive. And then I noticed it was a her. The person in front of me had a full chest and the curves of a woman.
And then another one stepped out not far from her, and I whirled at the sound of a third one behind me, all dressed the same.
And then it finally sank in who they were.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
JASE
“What are we going to do with the horses once we reach the cave?” Synové asked.
“There’s room,” I answered. “They can go in too, at least a good part of the way.”
“So does this make us family?” Wren asked. “Because I don’t need any more family.”
“It makes us something,” I said. “You can decide.”
“Family, as I see it,” Synové answered. “This is a pretty big secret. The hidden entrance,” she said with hushed drama. “We either have to be family or you have to kill us. Isn’t that how these kinds of secrets work?”
Wren took out her ziethe and spun it. “There’s alternatives.”
“Family,” I confirmed. Wren’s alternative wasn’t appealing. But the truth was, they were Kazi’s family, and that made them mine too. And they were laying their lives on the line for her—that made them an even deeper kind of family.
Wren stopped her horse and put a finger to her lips.
We all stopped and listened. Footsteps. Scrambling footsteps. And grunts. We signaled one another, and I quietly slipped from Mije. Synové nocked an arrow.
There had been a lot of soldiers combing the mountain, I assumed in search of the gray-haired woman. We had encountered one group, but once they questioned us, they let us continue on our way, convinced we were only hapless Kbaaki trying to return home. But these footsteps sounded different. Someone alone. And in a hurry.
Maybe the woman who had escaped? If she was in trouble with the king, it meant she was probably a loyalist. We could help her. We got a late start leaving town, but we would make it to the vault before nightfall if we didn’t encounter any problems. She could come with us.
The rustling footsteps grew louder. It helped mask my own footsteps. I held my finger to my mouth, signaling Wren and Synové to remain quiet as I crept close to the ridge. The noise was just below me. I looked down the small embankment to another path that paralleled ours.
Someone was scrambling up the slope. My head pounded as I tried to decide between staying concealed or leaping over the embankment.
I leapt.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
KAZI
“Well, well, look who we have here,” Priya crowed. Her knife was still unsheathed.
They circled around me, and I turned, trying to keep an eye on all of them.
“I’m on the run from the king,” I explained. “I’ve been searching for you. The family. I want to help—”
“Sure you do,” Gunner said, smiling. The kind of smile that was deadly.
“It’s not what you think. I’m not—”
In an instant the smile was gone and his face gusted with rage. “My brother is dead! That’s what I think! You murdered him, and now you’re as good as murdering the town!”
“I didn’t kill Jase! He’s alive! I swear!”
Gunner nodded, and suddenly Mason’s arm crooked around my neck, choking me, jerking me backward while he pressed the tip of a knife to my side.
Priya grabbed the front of my cloak, her hand trembling. “You hanged him! You hanged my brother! I heard it out of your own mouth!”
“You were there?”
Her eyes glowed with hatred. “We snuck down for medicine, and I heard every word. Now that you’re on the outs with the king, you think your lies will get you anywhere with us?” She spit in my face, then shoved me harder into Mason, letting go of my cloak.
“He’s alive, Priya! I promise! I had to say those things. The king forced me! He’s a madman. But Jase is safe. Paxton took him to—”
“Paxton!” Mason tightened his grip on my neck. “You better shut up while you’re ahead.”
Gunner chuckled and stepped closer, his amusement more frightening than his rage. “You’re worth a lot of money now, you know? We heard the news today. Seems you betray everyone in your path. The king and Banques have a noose
set aside just for you, and there’s a hefty bounty on your head to make sure your neck fills it. Money isn’t of much use to us, though.” He ripped my cloak off and then took my belts and dagger. “These are the kind of things we need now.” He felt my pockets. “You have any medicine on you?” He grunted when he found they were empty.
“No. I—Please, listen to me. Jase is at the settlement. So are—”
“If Jase were alive, he would be here!” Priya yelled.
Gunner’s hand shot up, gripping my face. “You picked the wrong family to betray, soldier.” He looked at Mason over my shoulder. “We have what we want. Kill her.”
“Wait! Please! I love Jase! I—”
“Shut up!” Priya ordered, but her eyes stared into mine, sharp and alert like she saw the raw truth there. I love Jase. It couldn’t be faked. She had to see it.
Mason’s arm pinched tighter around my neck.
“What are you waiting for?” Gunner said to him. “Do it.”
“A body right here might not be a good idea,” Mason answered. “And maybe we should—”
Gunner rolled his head in disgust. “Oh, for the love of gods. Here—” He reached out and grabbed my hair, pulling me away from Mason, then twisted me around and jammed my arm up behind my back—my bad arm. I gasped with pain, and white light shot behind my eyes. “There’s a better way,” Gunner said. “The slower way she deserves. We’ll let her hang the way she hanged Jase.”
He began dragging me back through the woods, then down a slope, until we hit level ground again and a thick bed of leaves swished beneath our feet. I pleaded with him as I stumbled, telling him I was on the run because of Lydia and Nash, that I had hidden them in the Ballenger tomb, but it only enraged him more. My words meant nothing. I was the enemy. There wasn’t a single thing I could say that would make him think otherwise. We reached a clearing, and he let go of me. They all stared at me, and I wondered what was going to happen next.
“Enjoy your journey straight to hell,” Gunner said, and gave me a hard shove. I stumbled back but then everything seemed to explode around me. Leaves flew through my vision, and my body sprang upward, ropes pinning me awkwardly. I couldn’t understand what was happening and then I finally realized I was caught in a snare. I hung there, my body twisted, and I tried to untangle my limbs. Tried to find a way out. Panic rose in me. “No, no, no.” Not now. Not when I was this close.
Priya watched me struggling, her eyes cold slits. “They’ll be by before too long. A whole squad of them patrols this way every day. I’ll help them out.” And then she screamed, a loud, desperate scream that vibrated through the trees. A signal to the soldiers. Someone had been caught.
They all turned and ran, disappearing into the forest like they had never been there.
“Priya!” I called. “There’s a weapon! Jase hid a weapon … in the greenhouse.”
But they were gone.
I frantically tried to reach the top of the snare, but my weight made it impossible to open.
I heard shouts. Soldiers getting closer.
And in seconds, they were there.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
JASE
I landed on top of him and then we were both rolling, slugging, and wrestling for control over each other.
“Dammit!” he yelled. “Get off me, you stupid Kbaaki!”
Almost as fast as I had leapt, I heard Wren cursing and Synové ordering me back. “I have him! Back off!” She was ready to shoot an arrow between his weasel eyes.
And then I pinned him, my knee on his chest, my hands wrapped around his throat.
“Stop!” he rasped, pulling at my fingers.
“I should have done this a long time ago.”
His eyes widened, not because I was choking him but because he recognized my voice.
He stared at me like I was the mythical beast of the Moro mountains. “Jase? You stupid bastard! Let me go!”
“Get some answers first,” Wren said. “Then kill him.”
But before I could ask him anything, he started giving me answers to questions I hadn’t even asked.
“It was me, you idiot! I was the one who took you to the settlement! I’m the one who took your ring!”
My grip on him loosened. I didn’t know who took me to the settlement, but I was certain it wasn’t him. He was up to something. “What game are you playing now, Paxton?”
I let him push me off. He rolled away, crouched on his knees, and grabbed his bleeding mouth. “Devil’s hell! That’s the second time you’ve done this to me! If I lose this tooth—” I saw his tongue fishing around in his mouth. He spit out blood.
“You think I care about your teeth? All I care about—”
His head turned sharply, his eyes blazing like a demon. “Shut up! Do you hear me? Shut up and listen! I don’t have time to explain! Kazi’s here, somewhere on this blasted mountain, running like me! Trying to get to the vault. But she’s hurt, and I don’t know how bad. Things went wrong. We stole Lydia and Nash!”
* * *
In this steep terrain, two riders were too much for one horse, so I walked next to Paxton, leading Mije behind us while he told me everything he knew. He dabbed his split lip from time to time with one of those ridiculous monogrammed handkerchiefs of his. For the first hour I couldn’t shake my distrust of him. It was ingrained in me. But I forced myself to listen. He knew secrets no one else knew—things Kazi had told him about us. She had told him about Sylvey’s empty crypt. She trusted him, so I tried to trust him too, but it didn’t come easy. He told me he was strong-armed by the king to work the arena, but he didn’t do it just to save his own skin. He confirmed that the king was behind the attacks and invasion. Paxton wanted to find a way to break his stranglehold on the town—working from the inside instead of the outside.
Why? I thought. Why did he want to help us?
“Isn’t the arena what you’ve always wanted?” I asked, still skeptical.
He looked sideways at me, his eyes angry slits again. “The arena? Sure, I wanted it. But not so much that I would steal it from my—” He stopped short, avoiding the word. The word didn’t fit between us. Family. We might be blood cousins, but we were more like comfortable adversaries. I had grown used to him as an annoying thorn in my side.
“You don’t know anything about me, Jase,” he continued. “There’s lots of things I want. Right now I just want to make sure Kazi’s safe and get those power-hungry devils out of Hell’s Mouth. The rest I’ll figure out later.” Protect. Sometimes I forgot he was a Ballenger too.
It seemed impossible that we had a mutual goal now.
He told me he used my ring to fake my death. That was why they stopped looking for me. “Kazi took it hard, but it was the only way I could get them to call off the search. And to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I could trust her. She turned on me one day and held a blade to my throat, sobbing that I had hunted you down like an animal. I’m pretty sure she intended to kill me. When I confessed that you were alive, she collapsed in my arms. That’s when I knew for sure, that nothing between you two had been a farce.”
His voice changed when he talked about her. He liked her, respected her maybe. It was a side to him I had never seen. “She told me you were what had kept her going when she wanted to give up. Something about promises you had made to each other and hearing your voice telling her to keep going—just a little farther. And that’s what she did.”
I swallowed. Cleared my throat. I remembered shouting those words out in anger and desperation as I held her chin up and we floated wildly down the river. I had shouted them to an enemy because my survival had been completely entwined with hers by a chain. Now I couldn’t survive without her for a different reason.
As Paxton and I climbed the mountain on foot, Wren and Synové spread out, trying to cover as much ground as we could, Synové riding ten lengths to one side, Wren ten on the other when the terrain allowed it, all of us looking for any signs that Kazi had passed this way.
; Paxton said both he and Kazi knew there was another entrance to the vault but didn’t know exactly where it was. All Paxton’s grandfather had passed on was that it was in a cave, which left a lot of mountain to cover. Kazi was going to question the children for more specifics before she left them in the tomb, but he didn’t know what she had found out.
I wasn’t sure how much they remembered anyway. My mother and I took them there about a year ago. Nash had been fascinated with the bats. He would remember that much, I was sure. And I remembered Lydia reciting, left, left, right, left, determined not to forget the paths in the caves.
“You’re sure Lydia and Nash made it to the settlement?” I asked.
Paxton nodded. “The tomb was empty. I went back late that same night to be sure. Binter and Cheu took them. They left a mark so I would know it was them.”
His straza. I remembered them well. They didn’t just have brawn. They were sharp and crafty and as nasty as scorpions. Not much could stop them. Tiago had once said we should try to hire them. But they were loyal too. Paxton had chosen well.
He told me that Oleez had been in on it too and had gone into hiding. I realized then that it was her that the soldiers had been searching for. Dinah, a girl who had worked in our kitchen, had betrayed them. That was how things spun out of control.
“You said Kazi was hurt. How?”
“Not hurt bad enough that she couldn’t run, but she was blasted off the road above the canyon. She fell a long way. For a while she was leaving a trail of blood.”
“Blasted?”
“They tried to stop her with a launcher.”
Those were the sounds we heard three days ago. Montegue was hunting down Kazi with weapons we had created.
Paxton said it wasn’t until the next morning that they caught on to his involvement and he had to run. He tried to leave hints that he was headed back to Ráj Nivad. “There’s a price on her head. Probably mine now too. Montegue will do anything to get her back. Besides stealing Nash and Lydia, she stole something else of his—”
Vow of Thieves (Dance of Thieves) Page 25