Page 86 of Heir

“A Nevennes sheepdog, really?” Arelia said to Sufiyan as they walked out of the stable. “Quite limited, wouldn’t you say?”

“I wasn’t sayingIfantasize about it!”

“I don’t know, Suf, it was rather too specific for you not to have at least considered it.” Quil’s voice faded as the three led their beasts away.Sirsha put her face in her horse’s coat to get ahold of herself, because quite suddenly she felt overcome with emotion.

“I don’t deserve this,” she whispered into the soft brown fur.

“No,” a voice said behind her. “You don’t.”

Sirsha whirled to find J’yan in the shadows. His face was guarded as it never had been when they were children.

“That was quite a performance you and yourfiancéput on.”

“If you’re going to tell R’z, get it over with.”

J’yan grasped Sirsha’s shoulder, and she had a hand wrapped around his throat before he could move another inch. But his magic surged so quickly her fingers went numb and she dropped her arm.

“I’m not trying to hurt you, Sirsh.”

“Piss off!” She shoved him and he backed away, hands up, staring at Elias’s coin.

“Who did you swear that oath to?” he asked her.

Sirsha tucked her coins into her shirt. “R’zwana sending you to do her dirty work, now that you’re her dog?”

“I kept her from killing you.”

“Quil kept her from killing me,” Sirsha snapped. Her horse whinnied in irritation, and she stroked the mare’s head, trying to calm her. “You were going to make sure no one disturbed my bones, remember? What’s wrong with her, anyway? She didn’t become extra murderous overnight. Something happened.”

J’yan’s face tightened. He said nothing, which told Sirsha she’d hit on something. She thought of Quil’s words the night they’d left Jibaut.The older and more set in her ways she gets, the worse she probably is at it.

“Holy hells,” she whispered. “R’z is losing her magic.”

It happened sometimes. Jaduna who began life with a reasonable amount of power found that it faded with age. There was still a place for them in Jaduna society.

But not as a Raan-Ruku.

“Whoever hired you to track the killer bound you.” J’yan resolutely ignored her assertion about R’zwana. “That’s the only reason you’d come so close to Jaduna lands. How could you be so reckless, Sirsha? Do you even know what we hunt?”

“Do you?” she shot back.

J’yan eyed her with the same knowing he’d had when they were kids. They’d hunted together, after all. The perfect pair. “I don’t,” he said. “That’s the problem. We’ve been on this trail for six months now, Sirsh. Whoever this killer is, he’s like no one we’ve dealt with before. You don’t seem to understand that.”

“I understand I have a better chance of catching the killer than you and R’z.” Sirsha led her mount away. “Which is the entire reason you’re following me.”

“Does your fiancé know what will happen to you if you don’t catch this murderer?” J’yan said. “Didn’t you thinkthatwas worth sharing?”

Sirsha walked away and didn’t turn back.

For the next few days, Sirsha couldn’t escape the feeling of being watched, however desperately she wanted to. Her oath coin had stopped burning because she was fixated on the killer again and fulfilling her vow. But that did not ease the itch in her mind.

Bleeding R’zwana.Perhaps her power was altered, but it was still oppressive. Sirsha jerked awake at night, certain that something malevolent was hovering over her, only to find the massive pines of the Devanese forest serene, the camp asleep, and one of her companions keeping guard.

Sufiyan spent most of his watches pacing and scouting materials for the medic bag he’d been pulling together. Arelia lit a blue-fire lamp and worked on her self-loading slingshot, shivering in the cold night air.

Quil was the only one who appeared to solely keep watch, walking the perimeter of the camp in concentric circles, ever vigilant.

He was also the only one who noticed Sirsha jerking awake, night after night.

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