Page 58 of A Thieving Curse

“How so?”

He scrunched his nose. “Purring.”

Shehadbeen a little mean. “All right. My ankle is still a little sore, anyway. I suppose I can swallow my pride for the sake of speed and saving time—”

His wings unfurled, and he picked her up before she had even finished speaking. He soared upward. She gasped and curled her sore arms around his neck for support. “Stop doing that!”

“What?”

“Picking me up unexpectedly! A little warning next time?”

“All right, Princess.” A laugh rumbled in his chest.

He flew for several minutes, then alighted near a rushing, boulder-strewn river. “Don’t fall in,” he warned as he walked down the bank. “It’s freezing with snowmelt and deeper than it looks. The undertow will drown you if the boulders don’t crush you first.”

That’s cheery.She kept well away from the riverbank while Alexander knelt on the shore. He tugged on a rope tied to a nearby tree and pulled up a dripping woven cage with a jagged tear in the side. He frowned and left it on the shore, muttering about bears.

She followed as he worked his way down the river. The next trap held wriggling fish. He pulled string and hooks out of the bag, humming to himself as he stuck hooks through the corners of the fishes’ mouths and strung them together. He carried the line of fish as he moved further down the bank, then tossed them on the ground to reel in another trap. As he strung together the fish he pulled from it, he spoke without looking at her.

“So you and your brother are very close? That is, you said he’s your best friend, but…I guess I didn’t realize what that meant.”

She leaned her shoulder against a scarred ash tree. “Yes. He’s the person I trust most.”

“Tell me about him?”

She shifted, unsure she wanted to share her memories of Gareth. They were all she had left of him until she returned home—but that might take years. “He always made sure I wasn’t left behind.” She didn’t know why she said that. She immediately regretted it, especially when Alexander flinched.No going back now.“He wanted me to go with him wherever he went. If he learned any court gossip, he made sure I knew, too. He would sometimes tell me what he was learning from his tutors about war or diplomacy. He’d get up to all kinds of trouble, and he always brought me along. We left a trail of frazzled nurses and tutors in our wake.” She smiled to herself.

“He actually tried to teach me to sword fight. I wasn’t any good, and we got the tongue-lashing of our lives. That didn’t stop him from trying again. He was more disappointed that I was so bad at it than he was about getting grounded. He gave up after the second time. Said I was unteachable.” She chuckled.

Alexander shoved the fish into the bag and stood. “And he didn’t want you to marry Tristan?”

Raelyn fiddled with the edge of her sleeve. “He didn’t want me to leave. And…” She shook her head. “He’s protective.”

He snorted. “I did note that.”

The ache in her heart grew, and she felt a headache coming on. This separation was too fresh to talk about.It shouldn’t be. It was coming anyway.Still, it was worse when he didn’t know where she was or if she was all right.

“What were you going to say?” Alexander asked.

“What?”

He adjusted his wings against his back. “You said ‘and,’ then shook your head. You were going to say something else.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to tell you.”

He winced. “Fair point.”

She stared at the white spray of water against a large boulder. “He didn’t want me to go because he knew I didn’t want to.”

“But…you were so insistent—”

“Because marrying Tristan is—was—my duty. My purpose.” Raelyn rubbed her forehead. “You said you heard Gareth yelling at our father about whether to stop looking. You should have heard him go off on our parents after I fought through my choking sobs to tell him about the treaty. If he hadn’t been a prince, he would have been hanged.” She tucked a flyaway curl behind her ear. “I got used to it, though. After I was informed, my marriage was brought up in my lessons every day. I was ready to serve my people. But Gareth…he never stopped hating the treaty. For making me cry, for taking me far away.”

“So…” Alexander said. “You’re telling me he always would have hated me.” She frowned. He looked over her head. “If things had been different, if I was never…this. If my uncle had never been king. Gareth still would have hated me for taking you from Eynlae.”

“Well, more your parents, since it was their idea.”

“What?”

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