“She can find anything,” I breathed.
Tal lifted his chin, a new gleam entering his eyes. “Even the entrance to the Mountain?”
My eyelids fluttered closed, briefly. “Maybe even that.”
“So that’s why you want her.”
“Yes,” I said, letting him believe the lie.
The truth I suspected, was much more troubling.
* * *
Yaseema waited at the edge of the village, as I had instructed her, her arms wrapped around her shoulders. She was illuminated by one of the streetlights and looked so small in comparison to the two warriors I’d just spoken to in the forest—even though she’d managed to make Badar bleed with a vicious scratch down his throat.
“Are they dead?” she asked bluntly.
I rubbed my hand across the back of my neck. “No.”
“Good. They didn’t harm me, you know.”
“They could have. They likely wanted to. And why do you care so much about the well-being of rebels?”
“Why did they take me?” She ignored my question.
“They don’t want Reza having an advantage.” I shook my head. “No, that’s not right. It wouldn’t just be an advantage if he found the crown, it would be catastrophic.”
She took that information in, chewing on the inside of her cheek. “And how did you manage to convince them otherwise?”
“I told them that if you went missing, Reza would wipe the entire eastern corner of the River Court off the map. It simply wouldn’t exist anymore.”
She huffed a breath. A cold breeze lifted the curls around her face and she gave a small shiver. My anger slowly leaked out of me at seeing such ahumanreaction. I unclipped my cloak and draped it around her shoulders, silencing her when she protested.
“We are heading back to the caravanserai before any other member of the resistance decides to abduct you.”
I took her hand in mine, and she glanced down in surprise, though I hadn’t thought about the casual intimacy of it. I just wanted to make sure she didn’t disappear again.
She can find anything.
Even the entrance to the Mountain?
I’d be lying if I hadn’t thought about it, if I hadn’t wanted to try to see if she could give us a way into the cursed Mountain.
I had no idea if the magic of Queen Azari’s crown would break the curse but if it took away the Court of Salt’s power, it was the only chance we had.
We wove through the cobbled streets, and she didn’t pull her hand from mine, nor object to my pacing. The streets were quieter now, the night bazaar closed. Villagers still gave me a wide berth, eyes flickering to the crystal embroidered on my sleeve, knowing that I worked for the Salt Court.
At last we made it back to the caravanserai. The main hall was already full of sleeping travelers, but there wasn’t any way I was leaving Yaseema alone after tonight. Instead, I walked her to her room, exhaustion settling into my bones.
“I’ll sleep out here, to make sure you don’t get absconded with in the night.”
She glanced down at the floor by her door and then back up at me. “Don’t be foolish. There’s plenty of room for you to sleep in here. There’s even a chair.”
The journey, coupled with how much I had to be around Reza, had seeped into my skin, weighing me down with fatigue, like lead in my veins and it smothered all my protests. I allowed her to usher me inside, stepping through the open door and gave her a stiff nod of thanks.
A fire raged in the hearth, and she unclipped my cloak from her shoulders, draping it over the chair.
“Your cloak is so heavy, I don’t know how you can walk around with it all day.”
