Yeah, something he couldn’t let me in on. Something he couldn’t talk to me about for five seconds. Something he didn’t trust me enough to—damn it!
“Get some rest,” Rosier advised, eyeing me. “You might need it later.”
“You get some rest!”
“Good idea.” He curled up under my skirts and went to sleep.
I jolted along in the cage, getting progressively more angry and miserable by the minute. And not just because of Pritkin. But because the rain was coming down harder now, drumming on the wooden roof and dripping off the sides. And making the dips and holes in the so-called road fill up with water, so that we got splashed every time a wheel hit down.
Not that it mattered. The wind was pretty much ensuring that we were all soaked to the skin anyway. Causing me to hug my knees, trying to preserve what body heat I had left. And making the thin shift I was wearing all but transparent. But it wasn’t outraged modesty that caught my attention, and had me blinking down at my chest in confusion.
It was the necklace.
Specifically, Billy’s necklace, which I wore so often that I tended to forget I had it on. But it was hard to ignore now, giving off a puddle of warmth against my icy skin, its central ruby glowing faintly through the halter’s loose weave. And nestled heavily between my breasts as usual, despite the fact that it had absolutely no business being there.
The merchant had handed me over to a crabby old woman with black teeth and a harassed look. Who had dragged me into a tent, stripped me, and pawed through all my stuff. She’d taken everything, including my beat-up tennis shoes, my caked-with-mud T-shirt and shorts, even my underwear.
Yet she left me this?
It was even weirder when I realized that the necklace was heavy gold, set with a central ruby that acted as a talisman, along with several smaller ones on the sides. And while it was undoubtedly ugly as sin, with scrolls and flouris
hes and rococo doodads, it was also worth more than anything I’d seen in this entire country. Hell, for all I knew it might be worth more than the entire country, at least in this era, considering that most of what I’d seen of Wales consisted of mud and weeds.
Yet she hadn’t taken it.
I clasped it through the damp material, wondering if I was imagining things. But I could feel the weight in my palm, and Billy’s presence inside, just as I had in the suite. Too drained and exhausted to talk to me, or even to wake up from the stasis ghosts fell into when low on power, but undeniably there.
If I was imagining things, I was doing a good job.
My bracelet was sliding around my arm as well, but I’d half expected that. No one could remove that thing for long. But the necklace . . . I took it off all the time, since it was uncomfortable to sleep in. And if it had any special abilities to come find me again, they’d never shown up before.
I thought about it for a minute, and then I poked Rosier. “Do you see anything?”
He opened a heavy-lidded eye and looked at me blearily. “What?”
I showed him my front. “Do you see anything?”
He scowled. “Did you wake me up for this?”
“I’m serious!”
He sighed and muttered something that sounded like “women.” “Yes, they’re very nice. Can I go back to sleep now?”
I frowned. “What are very nice?”
“Oh, all right. They’re better than nice, if you like that sort.”
“What sort?”
“The big pillowy sort. I’ve always been more partial to the teacup variety myself.”
I stared at him for a moment, and then I poked him again, hard. “We’re not talking about my breasts.”
“What, then?”
“The necklace!”
“What necklace?”