Page 52

“What is it?”

“My claim.” She pointed with her pinkie. “The dogs were Forson, then Gondyttr. The garnet is Hyld.” It was half-Isfolj, whatever gibberish she’d just spewn. Eavus shook his head. “I am your evidence,” she explained, like he was a child. “This is mine. This is what I must show the Isfolj.”

“Why give it to me?”

“Prisoners are searched, yes?”

Eavus nodded, in something of a daze. She shrugged.

“I cannot have it taken. After they search, you get it back to me. If you can’t, if something goes wrong— This will show the Isfolj I am a person of status.”

“We’re not in Isfolj.”

“Isfjold,” she corrected. “Isfolj is the people. Isfjold is the land. You bring my ring to them. To a jurl.”

“And what will he do with it?”

“We have laws,” she said matter-of-factly, as if that would be enough.

Isfolj laws. In Colcium. It was a possibility, he supposed. Colcium was a weird little city—it was the only place south of the Jerad Waters with any Isfolj, that was true, but that’s because it seemed to have a little of everybody. It had a reputation of too many people from too many tribes, and if there was any sort of joint government, it was likely similar to what they had in Norbucum, where the Isfolj were allowed to govern their own people and given a voice with Aleteria. But a voice. They were allowed to speak before the functionary. Eavus suspected Revni had greater hope than a mere audience in mind.

“Where did you get it?”

“I’ve had it. I had thought to hide it, until after we reach your regiment, but I can’t anymore.”

Eavus racked his memory. He had a vague inkling of a ring on her finger the first time he’d tied her up, but it was possible he was imagining it, because he definitely hadn’t seen it when they’d traveled through the marshes. He’d had to retie her, after he stumbled in the swamp and yanked the rope so hard it left burn marks in her wrists. He flushed at his treatment of her, then and just now—Oh, he’d covered up his loss of temper, and there she was, believing him and not holding a grudge. But he knew, in the moment he’d given into his rage, he had meant it. He always thought of himself as a man of honor and duty, as better than others. But he was capable of such terrible things, and it was only his will that held them back.

But that morning on the marshes—he’d been surprised at how young her hands had looked, despite their calloused strength. Thin fingers, pale. No scars.

Definitely no ring.

And if she’d had a ring⁠—

“Why didn’t the Blue Men take it?”

She shrugged, held out her hands for him to tie her wrists.

“It was hidden.”

“Where??”

Revni gave him a leveling look that Eavus didn’t understand in the least. Where could she possibly have hidden it that they wouldn’t see it? They’d patted them both down, taken every item off both their belts. She’d talked with them, so she couldn’t have put it in her mouth— So where could she have⁠—

Eavus dropped the ring like it was poisoned.

“Ew. Gods. Have you just been walking around with this stuffed up inside you?”

Revni flushed, but with anger not embarrassment, and snatched the ring off the ground.

“Not all the time! Just when I was worried it might be noticed! But I can’t do such tricks now, can I? Not when my body is bleeding.”

She held it out again.

“Is this why you stopped to pee so often?”

“It wasn’t comfortable.” She held it out again. Eavus didn’t want to take it. “I washed it,” she admonished, rolling her eyes.

Eavus gingerly took it back. He felt childish and silly, his face red and his hands cold. We all did what we needed to survive, didn’t we?