“If you’re so certain, how do you think you’ll get close enough to kill him?”
“He will grant us an audience if he thinks the Storm Crow has been found. Then he will kill you, of course.” There was nothing but cool indifference on her face. “And I will strike.” She shrugged. “You should be thrilled for my company. Perhaps I will kill him before he gets you. Or at the very least, exact revenge on your behalf after you’re dead.”
“I’m not the Storm Crow.”
Oskaren rested a casual hand on the hilt of her sword. “Who you are or aren’t matters little to me. I only care what the king believes, and unfortunately for you, there’s a powerful sorceress claiming otherwise.”
“You can’t come with us,” Dess insisted. “Thia needs the Tyrant’s help. And I….” He trailed off, and Thia suspected it was because he didn’t know what he was going to do. He seemed too good-hearted to fully desire another person’s death, and yet had expressed his own desire for vengeance.
But she recalled Sorscha’s words.She was so kind. So good.
Thia sighed. “It’s as much her right as it is yours,” she said to Dess. “If she wants to come, I don’t feel we should stop her. Besides,” she rubbed her forehead, “she’ll only follow us anyway.”
Dess protested. “You don’t know her. She will betray us in the end. If she even makes it that far, with that stomach wound.”
Oskaren gave a cold laugh. “And how far will you make it without me?” She tossed the sack at his feet.
He eyed it warily. “What is that?”
She gave a dramatic clutch of her chest. “Such trust. This is the thanks I get.”
“Thanks?”
She jutted her chin at the bag.
Dess waited another moment, then cautiously picked it up. His mouth parted at its contents. “Atorweed.”
“Blooming just above, ready to drip, drip, drip”—Oskaren punctuated each repetition with the tap of a finger on the air—“poisonous sap onto your precious, sleeping heads.”
Dess slammed the sack shut. “Or you were collecting it to use on us later,” he muttered, but his cheeks were pink.
Oskaren’s answering smirk was not a comfort. “You wound me. I could cry.”
Thia knew the girl wasn’t serious, but something in her heart caught as she wondered if the girl evencouldcry with what the Tyrant had done.
She turned to Dess. “It’s not her fault. Her heart was taken, just like your memories. You are the same.” She’d promised Sorscha she’d ask the king about Oskaren. Perhaps if the girl came with them, she could do her own asking.
Dess winced. “We arenot.”
Thia sighed internally. “Oskaren.” The girl gave a mocking salute that sent her nails into her palms. “Do you promise not to harm us?”
Oskaren surprised her by sobering for once. “I need you for my plan. Until it is fulfilled, I will protect you with my life.”
That was more than Thia had bargained for. She cleared her throat, suddenly feeling awkward. “Good.” She paused. “Dess? Are you okay with this?”
Dess chewed his lip, attention flicking between Thia and the weed Oskaren had supposedly spared them from. Finally, he loosed a breath. “If you do not have a problem with her, then I will do my best to swallow mine.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Thran roll over on his bed. If he was awake, he was pretending not to be.
“It’s settled then,” Thia said, suddenly exhausted. “Can we get some sleep now?”
“By all means,” Oskaren said, sweeping her hands out in a grand gesture. “A lady needs her rest.”
Thia swallowed a retort, recognizing the bait for what it was, and climbed into her bedroll. After a moment, Dess did the same.
To Thia’s immense and continued annoyance, Oskaren fetched her own pack from where she’d evidently stashed it a few yards away, and began spreading her roll right next to Thia’s. While she and Dess were back-to-back, Oskaren lay facing her, curling up onto her side so that they were mirrored. They watched each other for a moment, Oskaren laughingly, Thia infuriated. But she refused to let the girl get to her and held the stare until Oskaren finally closed her eyes.
Thia waited for the trick, the snide comment or sudden prank, but after a few minutes, the girl’s breathing deepened, letting Thia know she was asleep. She moved to turn onto her back, but something in Oskaren’s face made her pause.
