Page 27 of Thorns & Fire
‘Dessa and I will go,’ Kipp blurted.‘We’re less recognizable than you or the Bear Slayer.And I can charm the pants off just about anyone.’
Wren started to protest.‘But—’
‘He’s right,’ Torj told her.‘As much as you loathe my company, there’s no way I’m letting you go into a camp likely full of traitors to the kingdoms.If you want supplies, Kipp and Dessa will get them for us.’
Wren’s glare could have melted skin off bones.‘I can handle myself.’
‘Not the point,’ he argued, reaching across for her reins.
‘Don’t you dare—’
‘Too late, Embervale.’Torj started to guide their horses away from the settlement.‘We’ll water the horses and wait for Kipp and Dessa.’
A stream of curses followed as Wren jumped down from her saddle.She turned to Kipp.‘Be quick,’ she warned.
‘If you’re not back in thirty minutes, we’ll meet you at the turn-off for the Mourner’s Trail,’ Torj added.
As Kipp and Dessa approached the gates, Torj guided an unhappy Wren around the fringes of the forest, looking for water.
‘We could get all sorts of information if we went inside,’ she muttered.
‘We could also get ourselves killed,’ Torj replied through clenched teeth.
‘That’s true no matter where in the midrealms we are,’ she bit back, twisting around to keep the gates in view.‘Look!’
Torj followed her pointed finger back to the entrance, where the larger gates had swung inwards.He tugged Wren close, behind the cover of a thick oak tree, her back flush against him as they watched a band of men emerge from the camp on horseback.
‘How many?’Wren asked, unmoving in his arms.
‘Twenty, maybe thirty...’Torj muttered, hoping that she couldn’t feel the hammering of his heart against her spine.
‘So basically, their entire defence force is leaving?’Wren guessed as the unit rode out through the forest without fanfare.
‘We can’t know that.’
Torj’s skin crawled as his gaze fell to something else: a long piece of parchment nailed to the outer wall.Spotting it, Wren darted from where they were hidden, tearing it free.
‘Embervale,’ Torj hissed, at her side again in a matter of strides.‘What the fuck are you thinking?’
But Wren’s eyes were transfixed on the text.Torj peered over her shoulder.
On the fourteenth day of the month, Lord Silas invites you to a gathering of like minds at noon.
Learn how you can assist the People’s Vanguard with its noble cause.
It’s time for liberation.
‘That’s today,’ Wren murmured.‘We have to see it.We have to know what they’re planning.’
‘No.’
‘Torj, put all our bullshit aside andthink.Whatever is going on, we’ll need to report back to Audra when we return.We needas muchinformation as possible to have a chance of stopping an all-out war.’
Torj wanted to shake her by the shoulders.Didn’t she know what she was asking of him?What she wanted him to risk?He could feel the phantom echo of the bond between them, humming in her presence.But there was no bond.Not any more.
That hardly mattered in their current predicament.He started his protest anew.‘There’s no way—’
‘If you were with Thea or Wilder, you wouldn’t hesitate,’ she said, unflinching.
