The Girl King (The Girl King #1)(90)

“So,” Lu said doubtfully. “How do we get there? Fly?”

Nasan rolled her eyes. “It’s not quite like that. When you get to the gate, you have to be invited in. The place where the Yunians have hidden the city . . . it’s like, we’re here, right? And there are the heavens above us. Well, there’s a space called the Inbetween.”

“And that’s where Yunis is,” Lu finished for her.

“That’s where Yunis is.”

“Have you been in?” Lu pressed.

Nasan shook her head. “Like I said, only to the gate. They come out to see us when they want to meet.”

“Then how do we get them to let us in?” Lu demanded.

“That’s up to you to figure out,” Nasan said blithely. “I just said I’d show you the way.”

“You’re asking a great deal in return for what amounts to mostly talk.”

“Look,” his sister said. “You don’t get what you want, neither do I. Do we have a deal, or not?”

Lu watched her through narrowed, reluctant eyes. Then, she nodded. “We have a deal.”

Nok sighed as the two girls shook on it, not sure whether to feel relieved or wary.





CHAPTER 28


The Inbetween

Nasan turned Omair’s map over in her hands. She frowned and squinted at it.

“It works better if you look at it right side up,” Lu told her, fighting to keep the impatience from her voice.

“The route you two chose was pretty inefficient,” Nasan replied, ignoring the comment. “You must have walked east for three days straight at the Keian Bend, then doubled back again. Stupid.” She folded the map up and handed it back.

Lu slid the folded paper into her satchel and tried not to bristle. “We had to stay off the main roads,” she pointed out. “We chose safety over speed.”

“Should’ve shot for a little less of one, a little more of the other,” Nasan said. “All in all, it looks like you added a good week or more to your travels.”

Lu bit her tongue. They’d done what they had to do, but she couldn’t argue that they were making slower progress than she’d like. As it was, they’d had to spend two extra nights at the Gifted camp to let Nok heal and rest.

They had set out three—maybe four?—days ago from Nasan’s camp. Lu frowned. Time was running together in her head, blurred by the monotony of the trail they struck. Lu had started out the journey trying to track the roundabout route Nasan led them on, but with no way to write it down, she found herself forgetting more and more of where they had begun. It worried her a bit. She didn’t think the girl would betray them—she was Nokhai’s sister, after all—but she didn’t like the loss of control.

Each morning, the three of them rose early, fetched water if a creek was nearby, or otherwise took tiny sips from their skins until they found one. After an all-too brief breakfast of smoked squirrel and stale hotcakes, they were on the road again.

At night, they kept their fires small and discreet and took turns keeping watch in rotation: Lu, then Nok, then Nasan. They slept little, no more than they strictly needed. Most of their time was spent walking.

It was dull going, Lu thought as they trekked down yet another nondescript hillside scattered with stands of towering pines and eucalyptus. An old, narrow goat path—probably created by a Gifted Kith for their livestock long ago—helped them to pick their way through the parched, tall yellow grass here.

Lu spotted a rust-colored rodent darting in and out from one of the burrows that dotted the path like pockmarks. It was slight, no longer than her forearm, with a sweet face like a kitten’s, but it followed them so persistently and with such keen, brazen eyes that she started pulling out her bow until Nok assured her it meant them no harm.

“Just a weasel. They’re curious is all,” he told her.

She frowned doubtfully but re-slung her bow and asked, “Did it dig all these holes by itself?”

“These holes?” He pointed to where the little creature had disappeared. “No, those are from ground squirrels. The weasels move into the abandoned burrows.”

“How do you know so much about the animals around here?” she asked, falling into step beside him.

“I don’t know much about this particular kind of weasel,” Nok replied. “But there were similar ones along the autumn route our Kith took, through the steppe.”

It was the first time she had heard him speak so freely about his childhood home, and his words conjured a memory of her own: “You told me,” she said. “When we were children, you told me about those weasels. You said sometimes the older children would make a game of catching them with their cauls.”

To her astonishment, a smile split across his face. “I remember that,” he exclaimed. “You asked if they were good eating, and I said I didn’t know, because no one ever caught one, far as I saw.”

His words flooded her with effervescent warmth. It churned in her, then burst forth as a laugh. It wasn’t funny, but that didn’t matter. It felt like weeks since she’d had anything to smile about.

“Ay, lovebirds! Keep it down!” Nasan’s voice came unexpectedly close and loud. Lu jumped as the other girl cackled in her ear. “Thought you were supposed to be a skilled hunter, Princess,” Nasan said smugly. “That’s twice I’ve snuck up on you.”