Page 17 of The Queen's Shadow

“Don’t be,” she snapped. “I got us into this mess. I’ll get us out.”

“Just you?” he said, a bit of the familiar sarcasm returning to his tone. “I think we’ve played equal roles in this.”

“If that will make you feel better,” she said, “then sure, it’s all your fault.” She thought she saw his mouth curve slightly.

“No talking!” the angular man commanded. Arphaxad ducked when the man’s hand came toward his head. Cassandra almost launched herself at him at the same time that Karim said, “Quit it, Ankar.” The man scowled but didn’t try swinging again.

Paarsav had disappeared into the cave, and the others lingered outside, casting nervous glances toward the entrance. Most of them had probably seen what had happened inside earlier. She didn’t blame them for wanting to get as far away from the place as possible. She had no desire to go in there again.

Paarsav emerged a few minutes later, the white-haired chanter—Gustav—following on his heels. Cassandra blinked. He was much younger than he had looked from afar, especially with that shock of white hair. He couldn’t be more than ten years older than Cassandra.

“We found these stragglers up on the ridge,” Paarsav was saying, jerking his head toward Cassandra and Arphaxad. “She had these on her.” He showed the chanter the stack of papers Cassandra had removed from the cave.

Gustav’s eyes snapped toward her—a piercing, icy blue, like the peoples of the Alliance in the south—and Cassandra only just kept herself from shuddering.

“They certainly know what we’re doing here now,” Paarsav continued.

The chanter moved toward them, his eyes narrowing as he approached. A heady sense of power clung to him, as well as the deep wrongness of the cave.

“Why did you come here?” His voice was gravelly, as if something had torn through his throat more than once over the years.

“We didn’t mean to, sir.” Cassandra simpered, widening her eyes and trying to drum up as much innocence in her voice as possible. “My fiancé and I got lost in the woods. We saw light coming from the valley and thought we must be near someplace that could help us!” She leaned toward Arphaxad, who gave her a skeptical sideways glance.

The chanter stared at her. “Just a girl and her fiancé, lost in the woods, armed to the teeth and able to wound six extremely well-trained soldiers.”

“That’s right,” Cassandra replied.

“She’s lying!” Paarsav snapped. The chanter cast him a tired glance.

“Where did you get this?” he asked, holding up the letters Cassandra had taken from the cave.

She shook her head. “I have no idea what those are,” she said.

“Of course not,” the chanter sighed. “Who do you work for?”

“She already told you,” Arphaxad drawled, “we got lost in the woods and—”

The chanter waved his hand. “Please don’t treat me like I know nothing. That’s beyond me. And I had hoped it was beyond you.” He leaned forward. “I’ll say it again. Who do you work for?”

“That’s none of your business,” Cassandra said through gritted teeth.

The chanter turned to Paarsav and sighed. “Take them in. We’re going to have to seal this place up anyway. Whether they’re with Medira or Rendra or Ineti doesn’t really matter, as long as they’re not alive to get their information out.”

Fear stabbed through her chest. Seal the place up? What did that mean?

Paarsav jerked his head toward the cave entrance, and Karim pulled on Cassandra’s arm, helping her to her feet.

“How do you know we haven’t gotten the information out already?” Cassandra blurted. “We know who you are, what you’re trying to do. And it’s a coward’s road.”

The chanter turned to face her. His lips curved. “So now you change your tune,” he said. “Not so lost, I think.”

“Not lost at all,” she snapped, shaking Karim’s hand off her arm. He let her go but didn’t move away. “What’s your ploy?” She straightened her shoulders, meeting his icy gaze with more confidence than she felt. “What could Amanakar have promised to make you think overturning the Inetian emperor was remotely a good idea? That teaching these . . . these boneheads magic that they will clearly misuse and destroy the rest of us wasn’t ridiculous?”

The chanter’s lips twisted. “You think you understand us, what we want, what we’re striving for. But you do not,” he said coldly.

“We might if you told us,” Cassandra said. “Medira, Rendra, even Ineti, might help if you asked for it.”

The chanter shook his head, his eyes incredibly cold. “You would like to think that, wouldn’t you?” he said. “That, in my experience, is not the way the world works.”

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