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.