I didn’t have a good answer for that.
He tipped up my chin. “You owe me nothing, Fox. And Ididn’t buy the bonds; I paid them off. You owe no one a thing, not anymore. And I’ll put that in writing if it helps.”
I looked up at him. “You didn’t buy them?”
Now he looked offended. “Of course not. You should both be free. We all should. But this was the only bit of freedom I could afford.”
“Wait—the treasure room was empty.”
“So it was. But the book you found in the library turned out to be a list of moneylenders in and around the stronghold. We think someone in the palace—advisers the prince shouldn’t have trusted—secreted goods and coin out of the palace.”
“A nest for when the prince was killed?”
“Exactly. And I’ll be working on getting that back. In the meantime, I now owe Savaadh a very large sum of coin. Your freedom was worth it. Unless you want me to tear those up?”
“No.” I stuck the portfolio behind my back. “Don’t even think about it. Thank you. No one else would have done this for us.”
“Other than Savaadh,” he muttered.
“Other than.”
“I have something else.” He tried to take the portfolio away, but I couldn’t make my fingers release it. “I’m not taking your freedom, Fox. Just give me the portfolio so I can give you something else.”
He managed to uncurl my fingers and placed it on the bed beside me.
“What could possibly be better than that?”
“Hold out your hand.”
I rolled my eyes, but I did it. Gaze on me, he drew something from his pocket and placed it into my palm. I looked down at my hand and found a drawstring pouch—bigger than any he’d given us before—full of gold coins, heavy and gleaming.
“Oh,” I said quietly, weighing it in my hand. I could feel my cheeks warming. “Oh, that’s nice.”
“You’re like a damned dragon with a hoard. And you’re going to make me jealous of coins, staring at them like that.”
“Why are you giving me this?”
“Because you deserve a reward for saving my life, catching the practitioner and my uncle. There’s a bag for Wren, as well.”
I emptied the bag onto the bed and spread out the coins, gorgeous and gleaming in the candlelight. They were newly stamped with perfectly crenellated edges, one side stamped with an orchid, the other with a profile of the Emperor Eternal’s face.
Wren and I had talked about what life might be like if and when we were free, but the ideas had been soft and unspecific. We didn’t want to tempt the gods with details. We’d travel beyond the stronghold. We’d see things we hadn’t had a chance to see. We knew how to work, to survive, and theft would keep us from going hungry. Now I had freedom and coin. What were we to do with it?
Freedom was new; freedom was terrifying.
“I presume the Lady won’t want you staying at her manor.”
He was right. We were no longer useful to her, so even though she’d known us since we were children, she’d still want us out.
“I’d like you to stay here,” he said quietly. “You and Wren both. But I know you want to taste freedom. If you need time before leaving the stronghold, the bookseller in the northern market has a small cottage to let. I’m told it’s not much, but it would be a place for just the two of you.”
He was willing to give me freedom because he knew I wanted it, craved it, even if it meant I’d be farther from him. Thatwas…remarkable. He was remarkable, all the more so because he had the power to be callous and cruel with impunity. Instead, he’d chosen kindness and compassion.
“You didn’t have to do all this.”
“I did,” he said. “You’ve earned it. I owe you my life, many times over. Because I have the ability to do it, and that ability should be used for good. I know you can take care of yourself, Fox. But you deserve to have someone who believes in you. You’ve deserved it for a long time.”
“About us—” I began, but he shook his head.
