“Your brother and I had everything well in hand—”
“You absolutely did not. Your plan was to do nothing and hope it was the right choice.”
Ren pulled the cap from his head and his hair glinted in the night as he paced between the trees. “Why sneak out? Why risk everything, and make your family worry more?”
I put my hands on my hips. “Because he’s my father, Ren.” He stopped his frenzied pacing. “I didn’t say goodbye,” I whispered. My lips pressed together, but the words were already out. “I had a chance to hug him before he left. To wish him safe travels. But I didn’t.” I sniffed. “No one else could go, but I could.” I shrugged. “No one would miss me.”
His head dropped. “Chiara—”
“How long did it take anyone to notice I was gone?” Ren hesitated just long enough for me to know I’d hit my mark. “How many days?”
His shoulders dropped. “Two.”
Aleksa sucked in a breath. I’d almost forgotten she was here.
My throat tightened, but I forced the words out. “He’s my father, Ren. If I can find him, it’s worth any risk. Any danger.”
He heaved a sigh and rubbed one hand over his face. “You shouldn’t have gone alone.”
“Yesilia was with me—”
“Wrong person.”
“Aleksa—”
“Still the wrong person. Sorry,” he added with a nod to her.
“How did you find us?” Aleksa asked.
Even in the darkness, I could see his stance tighten, and his hand moved to his sword, though I wasn’t sure he realized what he’d done. “I found Yesilia in Cozzare; she told me what road you’d taken—”
“Did you see my sister?” Aleksa blurted out. “Is she…How is she?”
Ren arched his back, and I finally took in how slumped his shoulders were, how he leaned on a tree for support. “She’s better.”
Aleksa froze. “Better?” She set her hands on her hips. “Do not lie to me.”
I closed my eyes. Ren had healed her. Had used his magic to pull the sickness out.
“Yesilia is very talented,” he said softly.
Aleksa studied him, then me. “Yesilia didn’t know we’d be in this bosco.”
Ren hesitated. “I was trying to catch up, but was too tired to continue and thought to rest here.”
But he touched his chest when he said it. Had his magic helped him? Or the Medallion? I wasn’t sure how it worked, what its limits were. I wasn’t even sure if he still had it—I’d overheard Jenna talking about it, but I’d never seen Ren wearing it.
“Ren, are you okay?” I asked. “You look halfway to death.”
He chuckled ruefully. “More like three-quarters. I’ve been rained on, cheated, ambushed—”
“You came alone?” I interrupted. “You’re—” The king, I almost said, but bit my tongue in time.
He shrugged. “I was the expendable one.” His voice was low, missing all of its usual cadence and charm. Flat. “You need to go home.”
“No,” I said, and widened my stance. “We’re almost to Riiga.”
“Chiara—” he started, widening his own stance.
“We can talk in the morning,” Aleksa said, interrupting the brewing fight. She was right, though. We needed sleep.
Ren sank to the ground, deflated, and rested his head in his hands like he couldn’t hold it up any longer. “We’re returning to Turiana in the morning.”
A tiny spark of hope had ignited when I realized Ren was here, that I wouldn’t have to venture into Riiga alone. But seeing him crumple to the ground like that, like he’d only kept himself together until this very moment, extinguished that hope.
I glanced over at Aleksa, willing her to understand, to agree with me.
Aleksa gave the barest of nods, then glared at Ren.
I would not be returning home tomorrow. Not when we were this close.
Ren
Chiara and Aleksa were gone when I woke up. I spent an hour behind them on the road, cursing their light feet and my exhaustion. At least they were easy to track. And I didn’t have any luggage to drag along. No change of clothes or coin purse, either. I sighed—I hoped the belongings the mercenaries had ridden off with weren’t important to whoever Enzo had borrowed them from.
The girls maintained their distance ahead of me on the road. They knew I was following them, but they kept going anyway. I couldn’t understand why—I mean, I knew Chiara wanted to help her father. I understood that more than she could imagine. But she had to know the dangers of Rialzo. Of Riiga. Did she think she could waltz in and demand her father’s return?
“Give me one good reason not to throw you over my shoulder and take you home,” I said when I was close enough that they’d hear. Maybe not what Yesilia had in mind when she asked me to listen to Chiara’s plan when I sat with her in Cozzarre, but I hadn’t eaten nearly enough food for this.
Chiara kept trudging forward, ignoring me.
“They’ll catch you, and then do you know what will happen? They’ll torture you, Chiara. One scream from you, and your father will give them anything they ask.”
She tugged her skirt higher out of the mud as she walked. “They won’t catch me.”
She said it with enough certainty to make me pause. I was tired of talking to her back, so after a deep breath, I jogged the distance between us and gently took her arm, turning her to face me. “What do you know that En…your brother doesn’t?” I asked, wary of how keenly Aleksa watched us. No matter if Chiara trusted her enough to travel with; I’d only reveal what I had to.
Chiara folded her arms and stared up at me. “I know how to get into Riiga without getting caught. Without going through Rialzo.”
My eyebrows shot up and my chin tilted down. “You do?”
She fidgeted and swallowed. “Well, I don’t, but Aleksa does.”
Aleksa’s hands went to her hips. “I said I’d get you into Riiga. I didn’t say anything—”
Chiara shook her head. “You came to Turia two months ago—when the border was closed. When there was no passage granted through Rialzo.”
Aleksa’s mouth snapped shut. She mimicked Chiara’s pose, with arms folded across her chest. But I remembered what the man—Erron—had said. “Twin pines,” I muttered.
Aleksa’s head snapped toward me. “What did you say?”
Maybe there was another way into Riiga. “And when you get into Riiga without getting caught?” I asked. “How do you plan to find him?”
Chiara tilted her head, like she was weighing her words. Weighing me. “How about the same way you found us in a patch of trees off the road in the middle of the night?”
She raised her eyebrow at me, and I almost—almost—laughed. She’d been masquerading as an obedient, quiet princess, when in fact she had been collecting information like a crow collects pretty things.
I folded my arms across my chest as well. “Okay, so you get into Riiga. We find your father. How do you plan to rescue him?”
She tipped one shoulder up and started walking again. “I have something Janiis wants.”
Aleksa and I glared at each other, then hurried after her. “Janiis?” Aleksa asked. She pulled Chiara to a stop again. “Whatever you have, you need to keep it. You cannot give him anything he wants.”
Chiara pulled away from Aleksa’s grip. “You said you’d get me into Riiga if your sister was healed. She is. Now, we go to Riiga.”
Aleksa shook her head back and forth so hard my neck hurt. “I have only his word on this?” she said, throwing her thumb toward me. “No. You cannot do this. When you negotiate with Janiis, you always lose.”
“I agree with Aleksa,” I said. “We should turn back. Your brother will—”
“I’m going. With or without your help,” Chiara gritted out, and star
ted along the path again.
Aleksa and I heaved a sigh together. She glared at me, then called out, “Wait. You want to know why I warn you away from Riiga? I will tell you.”
Chiara stopped and faced us.
“It started when Janiis took on a new advisor. Everything deteriorated, like Vera was a mountain of sand against the tide. There is more than the curfew and labor camps and forcing the oldest boy in every family into the army. There are dangerous mines that collapse when a storm brings the tide too high—”
“What are they mining?” I interrupted. Riiga was known for vineyards and wine. Trading.
Aleksa brushed my question away with her hand. “I do not know, only that the blacksmiths are working all the time now. And it gets worse.”
A songbird trilled as it swooped over the rocky field surrounding us, a lone bird in the vast expanse.
She swallowed hard. “There are those who opposed Janiis and his new advisor. But they either mysteriously disappeared or became Janiis’s most vocal supporters—overnight, with no reason. All of them. You would do better to accompany me to Turiana and address our concerns to King Marko. He is a good man. He will help us.”
My jaw clenched tighter the longer Aleksa spoke. If what she said was true, the Plateau wouldn’t withstand the threat of the mages. “How has no one heard of this before?”
“Soldiers at the base of the cliffs arrest anyone who tries to leave,” she said.
I took off my cap and scrubbed my hand through my hair. “Glaciers.”
My head pounded. No, wait. The pounding wasn’t in my head. I squinted into the rising sun. The Medallion flashed hot against my chest as the pounding grew louder.
“Quick,” I hissed, jamming my cap back on. “We need to hide.”
I pulled them off the road, toward a patch of scrubby bushes. Tucked behind the bushes, a gulley ran alongside the road—once full of runoff, now nothing more than a trickling stream.
I landed on the loose rocks at the bottom of the gulley and turned to help Chiara and Aleksa as the pounding continued, but they were already jumping down. Chiara landed hard and fell against me. My arms went around her, but Aleksa crashed into us, and we sprawled on the muddy rocks.
The hilt of my sword dug into my side, forcing out my breath. The Medallion had settled, but not completely.
Chiara froze next to me. “What—”
“Someone’s coming,” I whispered.
We remained still, my arm tucked around her waist, as horses—at least five from the way the ground trembled—galloped by. Without stopping. I untangled myself from Chiara and Aleksa—and my sword—and crouched low to see over the edge of the gulley. Who had the Medallion warned against?
“That’s Nótt!” I whisper-shouted. I had a hand on an exposed root, ready to pull myself up, when Chiara tugged me back down.
“Who’s Nótt?” she asked, my sleeve bunched in her fist.
“My horse.” I peeked over the ledge as the riders disappeared around a bend. “It means nightfall. I wanted to name him Crowberry, but Jenna wouldn’t let me name him after food.” I snapped my mouth shut so I’d stop rambling. We’d almost been caught; that had been too close.
“How did they get your horse?” she asked, releasing my sleeve and adjusting the strap of her bag on her shoulder.
I rubbed the back of my neck, then realized I was covered in mud. I tried shaking it off my hands, but it stuck to everything. “I was ambushed two nights ago.”
“By whom?” she asked.
I scraped my hand against a rock to get the mud off. “Mercenaries from the Continent, I think.”
Aleksa gasped, but not from what I’d said. She tried to stand, but fell when she set her foot down.
“Where does it hurt?” Chiara asked, kneeling next to her.
Aleksa pursed her lips until they were purple slits against pale skin. “Ankle,” she choked out.
Chiara eased off Aleksa’s shoe and brushed the mud away from her skin to feel the bone.
Aleksa groaned and tucked her chin against her chest, breathing hard. “It twisted when I landed.”
Chiara looked up at me with her huge hazel eyes. She tilted her head at Aleksa’s ankle.
I closed my eyes. I didn’t mind helping Aleksa. I didn’t think I should reveal my identity.
“Ren,” Chiara said quietly. Had she learned that look from her mother? Because it seemed like a look Cora would give.
I heaved a sigh and checked one more time that the riders had passed, then knelt in the mud next to the two girls. Aleksa leaned away from me, her elbows tight to her sides like she’d scramble away if she could.
“May I?” I asked. She glanced at Chiara, then nodded. I rested my hands on either side of Aleksa’s ankle, feeling for broken bones. “Hold still.” I closed my eyes and dug into the center of myself, where the rushing magic swirled, eager to be released. I hadn’t fully recovered from healing Ilma, but there was enough for this.
My hands didn’t change temperature, though Jenna said she felt heat when I healed her. Aleksa didn’t move, didn’t make a sound. The rushing continued, and I felt Aleksa’s ankle mending itself back together, then pushing my magic away once it had returned to its complete state.
I sat back in the cold mud, taking slow breaths to hide how little energy I had left. Aleksa stared at me.
“You healed my sister.” It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t respond. She stood with Chiara’s help and tested her ankle. “Who are you people?” she asked, brows furrowed so deep they nearly met in the middle.
I used the exposed root to pull myself out of the gulley, then reached down for Chiara. She stared at my hand before taking it. Was it the mud? The magic? I’d never seen a girl hesitate to take my hand.
I braced one foot against the root, then heaved her up. Easily. How could she think she would be able to stand against Janiis?
Then we both reached for Aleksa, helped her up, and sat next to the short bush. I rubbed my forehead. The sun had risen above the trees and beat against us, and my empty stomach cramped.
Aleksa stared at me, shaking her head.
“Out with it,” I said, too tired to deal with this back-and-forth. Sitting on the roadside arguing wasn’t helping Turia or Hálendi.
“You cannot go to Riiga,” she said. She’d pieced together my identity, then.
“He has to. We both do,” Chiara said. Faint lines deepened around her eyes and mouth, and she looked as tired as I felt. “My father—the man we seek—is the king of Turia.”
Aleksa sighed, then closed her eyes and tilted her face to the sky. “As you said, glaciers.”
I studied the road, the tracks the riders had made as they kicked up mud on the way to Cozzare. Three of the horses were shod differently from any I’d ever seen. Mercenaries. One horse was from somewhere on the Plateau, and one was my horse. I faced the path to Rialzo, hoping the Medallion would warn or whisper or anything. Nothing. I turned back toward Cozzare slowly, dreading that I’d have to tell Chiara we shouldn’t go after her father. Dreading finding a way to keep her from continuing on alone.
But the Medallion remained silent.
My brows furrowed and I turned toward Rialzo again, but this time, the Medallion warmed when I faced east, into the countryside. “What’s out there?” I asked, pointing to the rolling, rocky hills that almost looked like Hálendi.
Chiara shook her head. “Nothing, as far as I know.”
Aleksa stared at me so long I shifted my feet. Rested my hand on the pommel of my sword.
“I will take you to Riiga through the twin pines,” Aleksa announced, standing and scraping what mud she could off her skirt with a rock.
She left the road, leaping over the gulley. Heading the same direction the Medallion had indicated.
Chiara grinned at me and ran after Alek
sa. She almost slipped back into the gulley when she jumped but found her balance at the last moment—her dancing instructors had taught her well.
I stared back toward Cozzare one more time. Yesilia could take care of herself. The provision I’d signed with Edda before leaving would hold. Hálendi would be taken care of should anything happen to me.
* * *
The sun blazed from the east, with no trees to offer shade, no path to ease the trek as we climbed over boulders and around scrubby bushes.
A bird sang somewhere nearby. Empty countryside stretched as far as we could see. The chain of the Medallion rubbed against my neck as we crossed the uneven terrain.
“What do you plan to trade?” I asked Chiara when the silence became too much for me. I needed something to distract me from the fact I’d specifically told Edda I would not go to Riiga. That if Marko had been a target, I would be as well.
That although I’d left Hálendi in capable hands, I still wanted to return and have a chance to do what my father had wanted me to do.
“I found a clue to something important. A treasure,” Chiara said, with a long look at me.
“And you want to trade the treasure for your father,” I said. If that wasn’t the vaguest plan I’d ever heard, I’d eat rocks for dinner.
She shook her head and jumped onto a boulder, landing lightly. “No, I want to find the treasure and then trade the clue.”
Most of her hair had come loose and trailed behind her in the wind. She looked back at me, and the whole scene hit me—her carefree and alarmingly mischievous grin, her flowing black hair cascading around her, and the vast, empty landscape sprawling behind her. Like she’d conquer the world if given half a chance.
“Devious. I like it.” I jumped up next to Chiara. She shivered, but the cold wind felt like home. “Okay, so show me the clue.”
Her lips twisted to one side.
“If you’re dragging me to Riiga, I’d like to know everything, please.”
She dug into her pocket and pulled out a small book. The book I’d given Jenna. When I first saw it in Chiara’s hands back at the palace, it had hurt. My sister hadn’t needed anything from me, not even a silly trinket to remember me by.
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