Page 86 of The Threadbare Queen

And yet, he felt no guilt whatsoever in using it now.

He moved to the back of the tent, looping his scarf back on.

“Kym.”

“I thought that was your voice.” Kym’s whisper came from low down, as if she were lying on the ground. “How did you convince the guard to leave you with me?”

“She was falling asleep. I think she barely understood what I was saying.” He hoped she believed him. He certainly wasn’t going to tell her about Ava’s magic fabric squares.

“She’ll be in trouble when she’s found sleeping and my tent in empty.” Kym started to move, as if to lift the back of her tent up.

“Wait.” Luc crouched lower. “Your tent isn’t going to be empty. You’re not coming with me.”

She went still. “Because that would make them more wary.”

Luc sighed. “Yes. I have a plan and I need them to think they’re safe here for it to work. I heard Tuart say he’d release you tomorrow on his way to Jatan. Kikir will follow you to make sure he lets you go.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“Kikir won’t leave you. He’ll get you out. You can go wait in Bintinya for us.”

She was silent for a moment. “Thank you.”

“Why did you go to the camp last night?” He didn’t ask her if he could trust her. No matter whether he could or not, her answer would be the same.

“I saw . . .” She drew in a ragged breath. “I saw Joacim.”

Luc had to think a moment who that was. “One of your fellow scouts? One of the ones who never met up with you at the appointed place?”

“Yes.”

He could hear her voice was muffled, as if she was suppressing tears.

“He turned traitor?” Luc wondered why a Chosen camp survivor would do that.

“I wasn’t sure.” He could hear the intensity in her voice. “I didn’t want to say anything until I could speak to him. It was possible he’d seen the Jatan moving into Kassia and toward Cervantes, and joined them to keep better watch, to find out what they were up to.”

That was true, Luc decided. It would have been a daring move. A courageous one.

“And? Was that what he was doing?” Luc asked.

“He was captured, but he was able to persuade them that he was unhappy with the Rising Wave, at being left on the edges of the border. He told them he felt abandoned.”

“So they just let him join them?” Luc didn’t hide the skepticism in his voice.

“No.” Her voice sounded small. “He had to give them information. About Kassia, about Cervantes, to keep himself alive.”

Luc said nothing.

“He didn’t know what to do. He’d compromised himself, and he was stuck. He didn’t know if we’d won against the Kassians or whether we had been defeated. He was biding his time.” She was crying, Luc realized.

“It was his blood we found?”

She drew in a shuddering breath. “They caught us together after I snuck into the camp, and he tried to protect me. Hurst, that officer we took prisoner in the village, he stabbed Joacim. He bled so much. He died holding my hand.”

“What did he tell the Jatan? Do you know?”

She took a moment. “He told them Cervantes was vulnerable. That all the soldiers had joined the Rising Wave to march on Fernwell. That there would be no resistance.”

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