Page 94 of Truth's Blade

Melodie liked the sound of that. “Did you see the ledger?” she asked. “Over fifty people like you and me, sold as slaves?”

“I saw.” Ava’s voice was quiet. “So fieldwork will definitely be part of it. You can move around Kassia and Cervantes, using that ledger, and find those people.”

“What about in other countries? Marchant sold people all over the continent.”

“I saw that.” Ava’s lips twisted. “We’ll have to make a plan. Find people we trust to look into it.”

Melodie searched her face, hoping she was being sincere.

“We won’t leave them to rot,” Ava promised her. They turned and headed back to the house. “I was like those people in the ledger at one time in my life. You would have become one, if Marchant got his way.” She glanced over at Viviane, who along with Genevieve, Jon and Ricardo were helping to burn everything Melodie had judged dangerous in the fire that had been lit, throwing things into the flames with gusto. “As well as my daughter.”

As they made their way across the lawn, Melodie saw Theo was standing with Ava’s heart’s choice, Luc Franck, near the porch, and both men turned and watched them approach.

They were both so clearly warriors, their faces so serious, their bodies so honed and dangerous, she suddenly felt flustered by the attention. Before she could help herself, she blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “Commander, did you know your sword is enspelled?”

There was a sudden silence all around her, and she glanced quickly to the side, and saw everyone in earshot had stopped what they were doing and were staring at her.

“Is it, now?” Luc Franck angled his sword away from him, looking down the length of the blade with interest.

She felt the heat rise in her cheeks. “Obviously, you already know that.”

“Oh, no,” Theo said, and there was a suspicious amusement in his voice. “He doesn’t. What spell is it?”

She looked uncertainly between the two men, and then at Ava.

Ava gave her an encouraging smile.

“You must have noticed the blade is always sharp?” she said, tentatively.

“A blade that’s always sharp,” Luc Franck murmured. Then he looked up and smiled. Sent her a wink.

Ava gave a snort of amusement, and all around them, soldiers began to laugh.

Melodie turned in astonishment, trying to work out what was going on, and Theo grabbed her up and swung her around, still chuckling.

“You have finally solved a very long-standing debate,” he said, and kissed her on the lips before he set her down. He draped an arm over her shoulder and hugged her close. “I think you’re truly one of us, now.”

CHAPTER 37

Melodie had never beento Ta-lin, that she remembered.

The center of Cervantes was small but charming, and a lot of it looked as if it had been built in the last fifteen years, since Kassia had fought the Rising Wave and lost.

“The old queen almost razed this place,” Theo told her when she mentioned it. “So it’s been rebuilt over time.”

“Do you like it better than Fernwell?” she asked. She had always wanted to see the capital of Kassia, set in a glittering harbor, with a palace that people said shone in the morning light.

“I thought I would always prefer Ta-lin, but Fernwell is . . . vibrant. There’s a lot happening there, whereas Ta-lin is sleepier. Slower-paced.”

Melodie winced in her saddle and decided she wouldn’t mind a slower pace for a bit.

They had barely rested since leaving Grimwalt, snatching a bit of sleep in tents. When they’d reached Illoa, Ava and Luc had spent an hour on the Grimwalt side, speaking to Grimwaldian officials, while everyone else had snatched a meal and a rest at the barracks on the other side of the river, and then they’dcontinued on, riding hard, stopping only to water the horses and eat.

“I only thought of it later, but while we were resting in Illoa, did you want to fetch your things from Vinest?” Theo asked.

She had thought about it, but she couldn’t work out a way to do it that wouldn’t have slowed the whole party down, and she had eventually decided there was nothing to go back for. “I can get new things,” she said, and felt an easing of pressure at the words.

The past was behind her.

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