Graceling (Graceling Realm #1)(121)
He took a moment before answering. He couldn’t quite manage to keep his voice light. “My mother will cry when I tell her about my sight. To be honest, I dread that as much as anything else.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“No, Katsa, I’ll be all right. I want to face this thing and be done with it. And I don’t want you to change your plans.” Katsa was en route back to Bitterblue City to give fighting lessons to girls. It was a thing she’d decided she wanted to do, in all seven kingdoms, and after the coronation Bitterblue had begged her to start in Monsea. Po had encouraged it, rather insistently, for it gave Katsa an excuse to keep an eye on Bitterblue’s welfare for just a little while longer.
“I’ll be in Monsea a few months at least,” Katsa said. “But I promise the next lessons I give will be in Lienid.”
“So I’ll hope to see you by autumn’s end. I’ll pretend to myself it’s not a long time.”
“I’m going to take the land route west,” Katsa said. She hesitated, then made an admission. “I’m going into the Middluns, Po. There’s one more king I need to face.”
Po released a small, surprised breath. “But you faced him already.”
Katsa sighed. “Yes. But I was scared of myself then. I was scared of him. I’m not anymore. Po – I need Randa to know I’ll come and go as I please. I won’t hide myself like some kind of criminal, and I won’t be afraid to visit my friends. I miss Raff so much already, and I need to see Helda – I want to convince her to go to Monsea. Bitterblue needs her.”
Po’s arms came around her and pulled her against him. His fingers brushed sand from her hair. “All right,” he said softly. “Be careful. I’ll look for you after you’ve faced your king.”
They lay quietly together in the dark. Katsa settled her head against his chest. She heard lapping water and its echo.
She heard the pulse of his blood through his skin.
“You know,” he said, “I wish you could see this cave.”
“What’s it like?”
He paused. “It’s… beautiful, really.”
“Tell me.”
And so Po described to Katsa what hid in the blackness of the cave; and outside, the world awaited them.