Page 69 of The Threadbare Queen

She would have to think how she was going to shift it.

Chapter 17

Deni stared at the split in the road, and felt the same plunge of fear he’d felt a few days earlier in Bartolo when he’d split the team up for the first time.

“Which way do we go?” Carrie asked.

“Both ways.” He knew he sounded grim. That’s how he felt.

There was silence as everyone stared at the two roads.

One curved to the right. Toward Cervantes. No doubt it looped north, up through the foothills and into Grimwalt. The other went due north, up through northern Kassia and then most likely split again, right for Grimwalt, left for the mountains and Jatan.

Both looked well maintained and clear of debris. Well used.

Unlike the other kink in the road they’d passed yesterday afternoon.

Deni had dithered a little when they came across it, nothing more than a narrow track that left the main path, but he and Oscar had ridden down it a short way, and found it ill-maintained and rough.

They had both decided whoever had taken Ava would take the faster, clearer path to Grimwalt, would try and get within the safety of Grimwalt’s borders as quickly as possible. They had rejoined the others ten minutes later, glad they’d eliminated the road and happy they wouldn’t have to travel on it.

The choice that lay before Deni now was infinitely harder.

“Oscar will take one road, I’ll take the other. Whoever gets the north road takes two along, whoever heads for Cervantes takes one.”

“Because the north road heads toward Jatan?” Tras asked.

What was left unsaid was that was the more dangerous path.

Deni nodded. He swung out of his saddle, snapped off two piece of long grass and held them out to Oscar. “Let the Whispering Grasses decide. Long goes north, short goes east.”

Oscar pulled one out and they measured the two against each other.

“Looks like I am headed north.” Oscar stuck the grass into his mouth and chewed. “I’ll take Tras and Carrie.”

Deni nodded. “Let’s stop here for a last meal together, and then we go our separate ways.”

It wasn’t ideal. But it was all he could do.

Whoever had Ava would be struggling with a captive Deni knew would fight every inch of the way. Avasu would never submit while she had breath in her body.

So the going would be slow.

They could catch up before her abductors reached Grimwalt, with its closed borders and corrupt Speaker.

They had to.

* * *

They were walkingin the gardens when Erdene spotted the group of nobles up ahead, coming toward herself and Talika.

They had a determined air about them.

“You need to have an argument with me.” She slowed her steps as she spoke, putting a hand on Talika’s forearm. She was surprisingly annoyed to have their walk interrupted, even though the point of these walks was to show the queen was present and accounted for.

Spending time with the Cervantes soldier had become something Erdene looked forward to more and more, and these walks, where they had privacy to speak without pretense, were her favorite.

Talika lifted her brows and glanced up ahead. Saw who was bearing down on them.

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