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“I guess we’re lucky she’s got nowhere to run off to out here, then,” I said, the edge to my tone still sharp.
I didn’t want Kah to know how conflicted I was feeling. A part of mewanteda reason to be angry at Raven, so I’d stop noticing the soft pout of her lips when she was humming or the sparkle in her midnight-blue eyes when she remembered something she’d forgotten. Or the way she fought fearlessly against the Rathalans.
But I wasn’t angry with Raven. I was angry with myself. For lying to her. For using her. For not being able to protect her last night. Now, with this injury, I worried I wouldn’t be able to keep her safe if the Rathalans attacked again. Worse, if we traveledthrough the bramblelands, I wouldn’t be able to keepanyof us safe. The thought that something might happen to Raven cut deeper into me than the malarite blade.
Kah glanced sideways at me like he was reading my thoughts. Instantly, another heavy wave of guilt washed over me.Lila. I needed to be focused on returning toLila. She was the one I needed to worry about protecting. If that meant traveling through the bramblelands, so be it.
“Watch for the bowman,” I said to Kah, changing the subject. As Javan faded into the distance behind us, I couldn’t shake the distinct feeling we were being followed.
“I am,” Kah said, his nose working to catch scents in the wind. “Nothing so far.”
Just then, my foot caught on a rock, and I stumbled forward, dropping my staff. A sharp pain shot from my shoulder down to my fingertips. I clutched my arm, swallowing a roar of frustration that clawed at my throat. My body was taking its sweet time to heal, and I hated being the one who slowed us down. Blazen snails moved faster than me.
Raven backtracked to pick up my staff and silently held it out to me.
I wrapped my hand around hers, not letting go when she tried to pull away. “Look, about earlier—” Kah’s ears perked up, probably eager to witness one of my very rare attempts at an apology. “I was wrong to accuse you of anything. I’m sorry.”
Raven’s expression didn’t soften.
“I don’t know if you know this, but they say when you’re wounded with a malarite weapon, you temporarily become an ass, so, really, it’s not my fault,” I said with mock innocence.
To my surprise, she laughed. “I’m not so sure it’s temporary.”
Seeing her laugh made me feel like the fracture that I’d caused between us was starting to mend.
“She has a point,” Kah said.
“Maybe so,” I admitted.
We continued our trek south along the deserted road, and she slowed her pace to walk beside me—the snail. I leaned on my staff, which I was regrettably having to use as a walking stick. My injury was begging me to rest for another day, but we couldn’t linger here. I had no doubt that Bloodbain would send out his concentrated armies in wave upon wave until they broke upon us and drowned our meager defenses. So, I set my jaw and tried to ignore the raw ache that threatened to bring me to my knees with every step.
“What’s in the bramblelands?” Raven asked, her tone serious. She readjusted the pack of supplies on her shoulders that she’d insisted on carrying until my wound healed.
I let out a long breath. “It’s a maze. A never-ending maze of razor-sharp black bramble, so tall it blocks out the sun. Each thorn threatening to send you into an endless sleep. It’s a deadly?—”
Kah glared at me. “What did I say about scaring her off?”
My jaw tightened. “She needs to know what we’re getting into, Kah.”
“Fine,” he grumbled.
“Whatarewe getting into?” Raven asked. The cold wind had turned her cheeks pink and whipped her hair across her forehead. I found myself resisting the urge to tuck the loose strands behind her ear.
“We’ll be entering the lands of the Bramble tribe …” I began.
“And …?”
“The Bramblemen are—”How should I put this?“Dangerous.”
“How dangerous?” Raven said, raising her eyebrows.
“The truth is, I’ve never seen a Brambleman. Few people have. They’re secretive and elusive. Rumors say that centuries ago, they were a small tribe of Arden merchants, obsessed withbuilding a city of gold and riches. Overtaken by greed, they became thieves and murderers, hoarding mountains of stolen treasure in their kingdom. Some say they grew the deadly bramble around their gilded city to keep it concealed. Others say they were cursed by a powerful Magi who surrounded their land with bramble to keep them shut in. Over time, they became a new tribe, probably adopting some unpleasant traits of their kana—the bramble. All I know is that the Bramblemen don’t trade in the markets or have contact with the other tribal kingdoms. Nor are they a part of the Tribal Peace Accords. They’re said to be as dangerous and deadly as the bramble itself, and?—”
Kah cut me off. “Maybe leave out the part about them being cannibals.”
That was just a rumor, and one I wasn’t planning to mention anyway.
He kept talking. “Because I hear they eat every part of a person except the bones, which they carve into?—”
