“Oh,” was all Rolan could manage to say.
Anaya gave him a worried look, then opened her mouth to speak, but they were interrupted by Luc and Evaine returning.
“You, boy,” Luc said. “When you’ve caught your breath, go and pack your things. Whatever isn’t burned to a crisp, anyway.”
“What?”
“You’ll be staying with the apothecary until this trouble blows over.”
Rolan burst to his feet. Well, hetriedto burst to his feet. But his lungs were still scraped raw, and he ended up stumbling into Anaya and leaning on her for support, coughing hard.
“No! I want to stay with—”
“Let’s save your lungs the agony by skipping the part where we argue, and you end up doing what I say anyway,” Luc growled. “I won’t have you caught between a titan of a Cryptic and a gang of idiots with flaming arrows. When you’re back in Crisanth, stay in the apothecary and keep your head low. The fewer people who know where you are, the better.”
Rolan told himself that if his lungs weren’t full of soot, he’d come up with an argument so brilliant and compelling that Luc would have no choice but to let him stay. As it stood though, he merely hung his head in submission, feeling shame for leaving Luc alone in such a dangerous situation.
They set out with the dawn, tense and quiet. Luc ranged ahead and to the left and right, scouting for trouble atop Apple. Rolan took the lead on the road, making a show of doing his own watchful duty, but he knew if theywereattacked, there wouldn’t be much he could do but yell for Luc.
“I’m glad you’re coming back with us,” Anaya said.
“For as long as you’ll be around,” he said bitterly.
He regretted the words as soon as they were spoken, but he was too stubborn to apologize. Anaya’s eyes flashed with hurt and anger, and she fell a few steps behind him to walk beside Evaine.
Smarting both in lungs and spirit, Rolan ground his teeth together. It was Anaya’s fault, really, for thinking of leaving Crisanth. Leavinghim. Becoming Evaine’s apprentice was bad enough, but at least she’d been around when he wanted to see her.
But Sylvet might as well be the other side of the world. And the capital? He couldn’t imagine it.
He knew one thing for sure: If Anaya went to Sylvet, she would never return. She had always been able to see paths through the world that were hidden to him, leading to bigger, farther places. And a part of him had always known this would happen, that she’d slip away like sunlight through his fingers, taking her bright glow to some other part of the world that he could never reach.
She was his best friend. Probably his only friend. And he would lose her.
By the time they reached the city gates, Rolan was in such a dark mood, he didn’t even say goodbye to Luc. He only gave a surly nod, then went in ahead of Evaine and Anaya, into the city that more and more had ceased to feel like home.
- CHAPTER 26 -BUTTER
You have to stop moping,” Anaya declared, slamming down a clay jug on the table by Rolan’s head.
He startled awake, his eyes crusty. “I wassleeping!”
“It’s nearly noon,” Anaya said. “You were moping.”
Groaning, Rolan reached for the jug.
“I wouldn’t,” said Anaya.
“I’m thirsty,” he rasped, still hazy from his nap. He lifted the jug to his lips—
And spluttered the vile liquid all down his shirtfront. His tongue burned, and he rushed about frantically in search of water.
Anaya regarded him pitilessly. “Told you.”
“Whatwasthat?” Rolan gasped out, settling for a glass jar withdaisies inside it. Tossing the flowers, he downed the water they’d been resting in. “It tasted like horse pee!”
“That’s because itwashorse pee.”
Rolan looked at her, horrified.
