Page 155 of The King is Dead
We stopped and lit a fire for lunch on the second day and I told Yilan we needed to take a real break. We were all weary, hungry, and tired after sleeping on the ground. The excellent beds in the Shadekin Palace had spoiled us. I wasn’t the only one groaning when I’d pushed out of the furs Yilan and I shared overnight.
“It’s a two day march through the Shadows by the shortest route—which we aren’t taking. Do you want to risk losing most of the third day to the fog?” Yilan asked me quietly, under the level of the rustle of the forest and the others’ low voices.
“A couple hours won’t change our last day of travel dramatically, but it could make today a lot more bearable,” I muttered.
Yilan shrugged and told everyone to remove their horse’s saddles to give them rest.
An hour later we had a fire, boiled water for tea, and a much improved morale. We were all sprawled on the ground in a circle,letting the flames beat back some of the damp mist. With full bellies and warmth from the tea, we could almost have been traveling for fun. A simple adventure. Not a group of allies surrounded by a deadly fog with a supernatural threat.
Yilan’s head had just tipped slowly against my shoulder and my eyes were just beginning to droop when the sound of trotting hoofbeats reached us, dampened by the fog, which was disorienting. For long seconds I couldn’t tell which direction the hoofbeats were coming from, and turned to count our mounts—had one of them broken its tie and taken off? I loosed one of my spears and pulled it to my side just in case.
But a few seconds later the hoofbeats grew louder, and then the fog swirled, spitting out a sweaty, chestnut mare with a hooded figure on its back far too small to be a Neph.
At first I thought it was a messenger—and if so, the news must be dire. But then the horse slid to a halt, blowing hard, and the rider threw back the hood… to reveal a handsome, middle-aged woman.
Harris.
I blinked as she looked frantically around, scanning our circle, and all of us stared back, stunned. Then Yilan leaped to her feet and Harris zeroed in on her.
“Where is she? She’s with you, right?”
In the bond, Yilan went cold and my stomach clenched as Ifeltthe fear wash through her.
“Who?” Yilan breathed, though she must have known.
“Istral!” Harris said frantically. “She disappeared yesterday. It took hours to check all of her hiding spots and be certain she hadn’t hidden herself back at the Palace. I’ve been riding since midnight—she must be here. Shemust be!”
“What?!”Yilan’s hands covered her mouth and when she spoke, her voice was shaking. “She’s not. Harris… she’s not with us.”
The woman threw up her hands with a terrified wail. I was about to go to Yilan when I looked at Gall who was seated on a fallen tree a few feet to my right. He’d bebesidehimself to know Istral was missing. We’d need to—
But Gall was just sitting there, staring at Harris. He looked stunned.
And wary.
Not terrified.
Not even scared.
And notworried?
Yilan whirled, her expression terrified and my name on her lips, but I put my hand up to her and rose quickly to my feet, striding over to Gall whose eyes snapped from Harris to me as I approached.
“Gall…” I said with a deep warning in my tone. “Do you know anything about this?”
My instincts screamed when, instead of defending himself, or chittering with delayed terror as happened when he was afraid, hesquirmed.
“Gall?” I repeated as I reached him, staring down at him.
But Gall just stared at me sullenly, then shook his head and shrugged.
I waited, but hedid not speak.
Which was Gall’s way of keeping secrets.
Except for his worried conversation with Yilan about the fog and who was—or wasn’t—safe within it, he’d beenveryquiet since we left the Palace. I thought it was because he was upset about leaving Istral, and I’d tried to be understanding. But now that quietness took on an entirely different light.
“Gall.”When he met my eyes, I let him see both compassion and warning in my gaze. “Are you hiding anything? Do you knowanythingabout where Istral is? I think you do.”
