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But I wasn’t done. He could hate me all he liked, but whatever distaste he had for the Shades needed to be stifled before we reached the kingdom.
“Good,” I said, tossing a pebble at the wall above Riven’s head. “I wouldn’t want you to be a hypocrite.”
“I’m not a hypocrite,” Riven spat, taking the bait. He sat up, his dark eyes devouring me like a wolf after its prey. But I could be a wolf too.
“Really?” I pursed my lips. “Didn’t you tell me you wanted to save the Halflings? That you saw them as yourkin?”
Riven nodded, his scowl made his high cheeks even more severe. His violet eyes swirled with rage as his chest breathed heavy.
“The Shades are Halflings too,” I said, standing up. Heat flushed my skin and my stomach churned as I looked at Riven’s disgusted face. “You don’t get to judge them for being the monsters the king turned them into. The Shades weren’t born as weapons. They weren’t born as killers. They were born aschildren. Stolen. Ripped from their parents and placed on that godsforsaken island.” My hands turned to fists at my side. My voiced cracked as I continued, but I refused to break away from Riven’s gaze. “They were children faced with a simple choice: survival or death. You have no right to judge them on how they survived it. If you want to liberate the Halflings, you liberate them all.”
Riven’s brow furrowed. He didn’t look at Nikolai and Syrra who sat frozen in their bedrolls. He just turned over and went to sleep.
IWOKE TO SYRRA CLEANINGone of her blades and the others packing their bags. I leaped up out of my bedroll. Gerarda must have passed while I was asleep. I reached for my dagger at my hip, but its holster lay on the ground beside me where I had placed it the night before.
Syrra kept wiping her blade, murmuring to herself before she addressed me. “Calm down, child,” she said softly. “We did not hurt the Dagger.”
My eyes narrowed at the weapon on her lap. “You didn’t?”
“It is good practice to tend to a blade before one starts a journey. That is all I am doing.” Syrra dragged out each word with another wipe along the steel. “The Dagger passed only an hour into my watch. I tracked her down the path. She camped for a few hours and then continued on. We are a half day’s ride behind her now.”
“She’ll reach Caerth by the morrow,” Riven cut in, buckling a saddlebag.
“Should we wait another day? Just to make sure we don’t catch up to her,” Nikolai asked, one of his legs shook as he strapped a bag to his horse. “This is all for nothing if we run into each other in Caerth.”
I shook my head. “We don’t need to travel with the same haste as before, but we need to travel. The Harvest draws closer every day. We can’t afford to lose another.” The leaves of the forest had already begun to turn, though the colors were different here. Black leaves turned gray and the burning crimson of the Elder birches shifted to dark amber.
“You’re certain she won’t dally in Caerth?” Syrra asked for the third time.
“No. She thinks I’m back in the kingdom. Whatever it is she came to tell me, she can do so using our networks. She already thinks I’m headed back to Koratha; she’ll only spend the night. Knowing her, she’ll stay just long enough to hear a report from the Shades and catch a few hours’ sleep. She’ll leave with them at first light.” Gerarda prided herself on her quick travel, often forcing her Shades to ride eighteen hours a day during assignments.
“She won’t leave the Shades in Caerth? To watch for who may follow her out of theFaelinth?” Riven asked, coming from the back of the cavern with the last horse.
“Gerarda travels with three pairs of Shades. There weren’t any stationed in Caerth when I came through, so I suspect she’ll leave one pair behind to surveil the city. They will not be a threat to us.”
Riven froze, the reins falling from his hand. “You mean to kill them?” he asked. His eyes turned to slits as he stared at me.
I shook my head, trying to hide the disgust from my voice. “No, the entire point is tonotalert anyone to where we are or where we’re headed. When we reach Caerth, I will seek the Shades out. I can learn why Gerarda was in the Faeland and send them off with a message from me.”
“You want to meet with the Shades in Caerth?” Riven repeated. He dropped a saddle onto the back of his horse and buckled it with a strong tug.
“Yes,” I said, preparing myself for a fight. “Managing them is smarter than hiding from them.”
“Absolutely not,” Riven said, slicing his hand through the air. The black steed beside him swung its head away from his hand.
“I thought this was an alliance?” I said, my blood simmering beneath my skin. “So far you’ve fought me every chance you’ve had.”
“And I’ll keep fighting you as long as you’re trying to get us killed!” Riven bellowed, his anger bouncing against the walls of the cave.
“We’ve been trapped in this godsforsaken cave for threemiserabledays!” I yelled back, throwing my arms into the air. “If I wanted to kill you, why would I suffer through that?”
“EvenIwanted to kill you after the second day,” Nikolai muttered under his breath. Riven flashed him his fangs.
“Enough,” Syrra interrupted, holstering her blades. I took the moment to strap my own dagger back on my hip. The next time Riven decided to fight me, he would be met with steel. “We allied with Keerabecauseshe is the Blade. Keeping her from using such sway only disadvantages our mission.”
“So we’re settled,” I said, slipping the dual blades into the holster along my back. “Two out of three is better than nothing. Riven, you’re outvoted.”
“Hold on.” Syrra raised her hand toward me. I could see where her scars met her hand. Brown leaves that faded into the sand- colored lines of her palm. She might be the only Elven warrior left in existence. My skin itched with the desire to pull up my sleeves and bare my own. Her proud scars alongside whatever mine were. I tugged my sleeve lower along my wrist. Syrra wouldn’t understand why I carved the names, how I’d tried to reclaim something I’d never even known. She would scoff at my mockery of her order, the sanctity of her skill.
