Page 7 of Mountain of Mirrors and Starlight
“To rescue the prince. I could come with you. I’m notcompletelyuseless in the field—”
“Who called you useless?”
“Umm? You? Several times.”
“I have no memory of this.”
“It was last week, Ais.”
Aislinn sighed, tossing her knife aside and throwing herself on one of the beds. She wriggled uncomfortably over the lumpy mattress. Beau didn’t blame her; mortal beds left a lot to be desired.
He flopped down next to her. It was just as bad as he imagined. “Are you trying to prove something by going alone?”
“I’m not trying to prove anything. I just want silence and the opportunity to stab something.”
“That does sound plausible.” He stared up at the fabric draped over the bed posts. “Strange that the dwarves would kidnap the prince.”
“Why’s that?”
“Well, it’s not really their style. They’re short tempered, but an honourable people, from what I can gather.”
“No entire race can be completely honourable.”
“What’s the motive, then? Not greed, if they haven’t tried to ransom him.”
“Maybe they accidentally killed the brat and are just covering their tracks.”
Beau paused. “You don’t seem to be particularly concerned about the missing prince.”
“I don’t know him.”
“You don’t feel sorry for King Owen, losing his wife and son one after the other?”
“I don’t like him.”
“His sadness is real.”
Aislinn shrugged at this, rolling away from him—something she had a tendency to do when confronted with emotion. She bent down to pick her knives off the floor, examining each one as she did so. “Have you seen our parents?”
“They went to source you some rope for your journey. They may be some time.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Umm…” Beau grimaced, not particularly wanting to recall the conversation he’d overheard, “I believe Father said something about, ‘I’m considering asking you to tiemeup, but that may not be a good idea, given how much I’ve annoyed you of late…’ It was followed by much glaring and giggling.”
Aislinn stared at him. “I may never use rope again.”
Juliana and Hawthorn reappeared an hour or so later, together with a large quantity of rope and several other pieces of equipment they thought would be useful.
“I bought you a new knife,” Juliana proclaimed, unsheathing it to show her the blade.
“It’s the same asall her other knives!”Beau hissed.
The two women snapped back that it was not, and Hawthorn rolled his eyes affectionately and whispered, “women” under his breath. Aislinn pretended not to hear.
“How can you stand it here, Mother?” she asked as Juliana helped her pack a small bag of supplies.
“I am an excellent queen and have mellowed in my old age.”
