“I canseethat,” Baze replies, swinging the blade and making it sing. “She’ll grumble ...”
“Undoubtedly.”
He picks up the slightly bigger sword I had forged for him in the same wood, and strikes them against each other, splitting the air with a sharp sound.
He winces.
Internally, I do the same.
“And I’m free to holdyouaccountable?” he grits out, eyeing me over the crossed weapons. “I’ll be taking full advantage of that because I’ll tell you now, she isnotgoing to like this.”
I fold my arms and lean against the wall. “My decision. I’m happy to take the fall.”
Take herhate.
“You say that now,” he mumbles, inspecting the swords from all angles, “but last time we changed, she spiked my tea with something that made my piss turn green for a week. Just so you’re aware.”
Greywin lets out a hearty chortle, leading Baze to narrow his eyes on the old man.
“I thought he was deaf.”
“He can lip-read just fine ...” the corner of my mouth threatens to bounce up into a half smile, “though he rarely bothers.”
Clang.
Clang.
Clang.
“I’m going to take that as a compliment.”
“Good for you.”
He jerks his chin at the chest. “What’s in there?”
“A contingency I hope we don’t require,” I mutter, sweeping past Baze on my way into the cave’s gloomy length.
He swears, low and sharp, before his hurried footsteps follow.
“She needs to know, Rhor.” He shadows me through the waterfall of vines that act as a natural door into the dewy forest lit by blades of dull morning light.
“About?”
He slays me with a condemning glower. “Everything. Or at least the fucking basics.”
“No.”
I let the vines fall back into place behind him and spin on my heel, stepping over mossy boulders and tree roots that twist out of the soil.
“You’re fucking brutal. I was hoping you’d soften with age, but every year that passes, you just seem to get worse.”
I brush my hand against a tree. “I’m choosing to take that as a compliment.”
“Good for you,” he says, matching me stride for stride while we marinate in a stretch of silence. “I hope you’re prepared to pick up the pieces if everything unravels.”
“That girl has been in pieces since I lifted her from the rubble,” I mutter, watching him veer around a deeper pocket of shadow. “There’s nothing nearby. You don’t have to dodge the dark.”
He takes the long way around the shadow of a boulder taller than us both, traipsing knee-deep through a rushing brook. “With all due respect, I’m not prepared to take my chances. Have you seen the one she feeds on the edge of your scent line recently?” He shivers, leaping onto dry land. “It’s almost doubled in size.”
