Flamecaster (Shattered Realms, #1)(110)

She was looking at him, head tilted, questions crowding into her eyes. “More secrets, healer?”

He shrugged. “We are trading secrets, I believe. Just remember to take it with you if you change clothes.”

“I’ll remember,” Jenna said. She dug into the little bag and extracted one of the berries. “Keep this,” she said, holding it out to him. “I only need one.”

“I have plenty,” he said.

They kissed. And kissed again.

Finally she broke away and said, “I have something for you, too.” She crossed to the bed, reached under the straw ticking, and retrieved something. She took his hand and dropped it into his palm, closing his fingers over it.

He opened his hand and looked at it, poking at it with his other hand. It was a pendant on a chain, both corroded by the passage of time. “What is this?” he said.

“It was my father’s,” she said. “It’s all I have of his.”

“Jenna,” he said, his voice thick. “You can’t give me this. Why are you—”

“I want you to have this, for luck,” she said. When he shook his head, she said, “I want to give it to you. If I keep it, sooner or later they’ll take it away.”

“But . . . what about you?” Adam said. “What will you do for luck?”

“I have you, healer,” she said. “That’s all I need. You can give it back to me when I see you again. Now kiss me again, and go.”

So Ash did. Pausing in the doorway, he said, “See you soon.”

“Thank you, healer,” she called after him. He looked back at her and she was sitting cross-legged in the chair, hands resting on her lap, palms up. There was something in her eyes that sent a shiver of apprehension through him.

It was hope.





38


ON THE WATERFRONT


Ash was already sorry he’d brought Lila along. She’d been raising objections and complaints ever since he’d shared the new plan.

“Couldn’t you have picked a less miserable night?” Lila grumbled as they navigated the twisting streets of the harbor district of Ardenscourt. She swiped rain from her face with her sleeve and hunched her shoulders.

“I don’t know how much time we have,” Ash said. “Strangward could decide to sail with the morning tide.”

“Strangward seems to be tight with the weather gods. Maybe he knows we’re coming, and he ordered this up special.”

The hair prickled on the back of Ash’s neck. No. How would he know?

“Do you really think the empress will blame this on Arden?”

“It seems plausible, doesn’t it? Arden sinks their ship and steals their dragon so they don’t have to come to terms.”

“That doesn’t work if what you really want is an army,” Lila pointed out.

“You don’t have to come with me,” Ash said. “I only brought you along because you’re good with a knife. And got us the uniforms. And the explosives.”

Lila snorted. “Sorry I’m not pulling my weight.”

“This may not be your idea,” Ash said doggedly, “but it’s what we’re going to do.”

“Is it? Are you really going to start playing the prince card after all?”

“Don’t start in about my mother the queen, because I don’t want to hear it.”

“All right, then, as your peer and absolute equal, I can’t help thinking this is a really bad idea.” Thunder crashed, and Lila flinched. “Will this stuff even work when it’s wet?” She patted her backpack.

“Jenna says it will.”

“How did she get to be such an expert on explosives?”

“She worked in the mines.”

“At least tell me you’ve changed your mind about the dragon.”

“I made a promise,” Ash said.

“So break it. You break promises to me all the time.”

“Maybe the dragon could help us in the war.”

“And maybe we could set fire to Fellsmarch and hope it spreads south.” Three more strides and she said, “I say, bring back the old, hard-hearted Ash.”

When Ash said nothing, Lila muttered something else that he couldn’t quite make out.

“What did you say?”

“I said I should have drugged you and dragged you back to Fellsmarch when I had the chance.”

“I’m the one with the drugs, remember?”

“Ha.”

“Anyway, since when have you—did you hear that?” Ash spun around, his hand on his amulet, staring back down the street. He glanced at Lila, who somehow had a knife in each hand. They both looked and listened.

“I guess it was the rain or the wind,” he said finally, thinking, It’s never the rain or the wind when you want it to be the rain or the wind.

“Probably,” Lila said, the knives disappearing. “Or Lieutenant Karn and the real King’s Guard, out for a stroll.” She took another long look before she turned and trudged on, shoulders rounded under her heavy rucksack. “What do you know about ships, anyway?”

“Not much,” Ash admitted. “Breaking into a ship can’t be much different than any other burglary.”