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Something brushes against me in the water, and I shove away, imagining large fish and birds and who knows what else.
Until a hand wraps around my arm and hauls me up. I kick for all I’m worth, and my savior does the same.
When I finally break the surface and take my first drag of blessed air, I think I’ll find Kellyn grasping my arm.
But it’s Temra.
“I’ve got you,” she says. “I’m not letting go.”
We kick to the shore, where I see Kellyn dragging Petrik out of the water. They’re screaming at each other, so at least I know they’re both breathing.
“—grown man doesn’t know how to swim?”
“I was raised in a library! There were no lakes or rivers or damned puddles in the library!”
Once I crawl onto solid ground, I roll onto my back to breathe. Mud and rocks and even small trees still plunge into the lake from where we fell, the slide not done yet.
The guards are blessedly absent, finally, deterred by the dangerous drop.
We made it.
Kellyn urges us up and finds the nearest road leading out of the city. The visible threat may be gone, but it could easily return.
After a few hours, we finally rest. Kellyn clears a path through the trees, and we slump onto the soft mosses on the ground, each of us out of breath, a hundred or so feet from the road.
“Everything’s gone,” I say. “Our spare clothing, all the supplies, the horse.”
“Poor Reya,” Temra says.
“They won’t hurt the horse,” Petrik assures her. “She’ll likely have a very good life on that estate. You needn’t worry.”
“At least we have the weapon. Weapons,” she clarifies to avoid specifying the sword. “And we have money, don’t we?”Temra turns to me. “You always carry a large purse on you. Just in case.”
At that question, I turn my accusatory stare to Kellyn. “No, we don’t have any money. Not anymore.”
“Did it fall in the lake?”
“No,” Petrik supplies. “The mercenary wouldn’t come help us save you unless he was properly compensated. We would have been there sooner if Ziva hadn’t had toconvincehim to come.”
“You’re exaggerating,” Kellyn says. “That’s not what happened.”
“Really?” I cut in. “What would you say happened?”
“I said taking on the whole town would be stupid. I meant we needed a plan before jumping in!”
Petrik is shaking his head before Kellyn finishes his sentence. “You only came once Ziva handed over everything she had on her. You’re despicable.”
“You all wanted me to take on a hundred villagers! Excuse me for hesitating! Besides, it’s not like you didn’t pause to grab your books before coming to alert Ziva.”
“They were already packed! It didn’t even take a second to sling them over my shoulders! I had to grab the weapons, anyway. I knew we would need them in the fight. Don’t try to put this on me. You’re the one who didn’t leap to Temra’s defense immediately.”
“Never mind that now,” Temra says, breaking up the argument. I’m impressed by her sensible tone. She should be furious.She’sthe one who almost died. “We need a new place to lie low, and we need supplies.”
Temra, Petrik, and I huddle together, exhausted and wet. “I have some food in my pack,” Petrik says. “We can gather fruit to take with us. There’s no helping sleeping on the ground at night, but if we stick together, we should be all right.”
Temra nods. “We need a destination. Someplace to start afresh.”
“We’re already headed in the direction of Lisady’s Capital,” Petrik puts in. “The big city would be a good place for you two to start over and hide.”
