“I don’t know how,” she admitted.
“Neither do I, really.”
Asha bit down on a smile. “All right.Onedance. But if it ends horribly, it’s not my fault. You were warned.”
Jas grinned. He rose and pulled her to her feet. But as they moved into the sea of dancers and skirts flared against her legs, Asha’s palms started to sweat. She remembered why she never did this: it made her feel clumsy and foolish.
She looked to Callie, her feet moving to the tune of her reed pipe. She looked to Jas’s friend, her smile as bright as the moon. Dancing was for other girls. Not death bringers.
Jas slid his arm around her waist.
“Ready?” he asked as the next song started up.
Asha wasn’t ready. In fact, she was starting to panic. But even if she could find her voice to say so, the beat of the drum and the chime of the lute and the whisper of reed pipes would have drowned her out.
And then, just as Jas’s fingers slid between hers, ready to lead her in the steps, something caught her eye.
Torwin stood at the edge of the dancing circle—where Asha had been sitting just moments ago. He wore a simple white shirt, unlaced at the throat, revealing his sharply defined collarbone.
The sight of him tugged at her heart.
Asha glanced to the musicians. Next to Callie, a gangly draksor boy stood plucking the strings of Torwin’s lute.
She looked back to Torwin. He’d caught sight of her and was now watching her and Jas dance, his lips parted in surprise, his eyes full of... hurt.
Before she could realize why, he disappeared down the path between tents.
Forty-Two
Asha didn’t wait for the song to end. Instead, with her hand still in Jas’s, she stopped dancing and pulled him through the crowd.
“What are you... ?”
Pulled him all the way up to his friend.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Asha said when the scrublander girls stopped dancing and turned to face them. Sensing what she was about to do, Jas tried to tug his hand free and escape, but Asha held firm. “I’m afraid I have to rush off, but I don’t want to abandon my dancing partner. So I wondered...” Asha looked from one to the next, until her eyes fell on the girl Jas had been watching.Lirabel,he’d called her. “I was wondering ifyoumight want to dance with him?”
Lirabel’s big eyes looked from Asha to Jas in surprise. She was a soft-looking girl with a heart-shaped face and a gentle mouth. Lirabel dipped her head shyly, then said, “I would be honored.”
And that was that.
Asha smiled. Jas looked terrified. But when Lirabel looked up into his face, he stepped toward her, swallowing.
Asha released his hand. Turning, she pushed out of the crowd, heading in the direction Torwin had disappeared, down the path between tents.
She walked past the noise and the crowds and finally caught sight of him near the outskirts of New Haven.
“Torwin! Wait!”
At the sound of her voice, he slowed. Then turned around.
Asha ran to catch up, stopping just before a leaning structure that smelled like iron. There was no door, just a small opening, and in the starlight Asha could make out the shape of an anvil before everything melted into shadow. The smithy stood on the edge of the camp. Out here, the world was silent and dark and the stars were bright specks of sand, glittering above them.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. “You’re supposed to be—”
“Dancing with Jas?”
Torwin looked away from her.
