Page 21 of The Great and Terrible

“Fine,” he grumbled. “Eat.”

“Thank you!” I hurried over and knelt before the treasures. All but weeping with joy, I brought the metal canisterto my lips. Mmmm. What sweet water. I gulped mouthful after mouthful of the cool liquid, unable to stop.

“Slow down.” He forced the container from my greedy grip and thrust a stick of jerky my way.

Starved, I tore off a big hunk with my teeth. Chewy but surprisingly tasty. Next, he offered a handful of berries.

Grateful, I accepted the succulent fruit. As I chewed the first, I moaned and settled on my haunches. “Have you come across any clues about your brother?”

“No.” He canted his head at me, as he’d done upon the dais, those sunset eyes alert. “You hail from the otherworld, yes?”

“I do.” My pulse picked up speed. I wiped the corners of my mouth, realized I was staring, and lowered my gaze. “How many of us have you met?”

“More than a few, less than a bunch. The accent and lack of protocol always gives you away. Also the determination to reach the City of Lux.”

“Have you ever helped an…otherworlder?”

“Yes. I helped a man not bring a storm.”

So more killing. “Since I’m not breaking any more laws, there’s no need to sharpen your ax.” I finished off the sweet berries, then nibbled on the meat stick rather than devour it, all while stealthily studying Jasher through the thick shield of my lashes.

“You hope to go home, yes? You’ve heard of the portal in Lux.”

A portal between worlds? No, I’d heard no such thing until now. “Can that portal take me to the otherworld?”

“Most definitely. But only the Guardian is allowed to navigate it.” Jasher tossed a couple berries into his mouth, chewed and swallowed.

He’d said allowed, not able. The opposite of the bath babes. “I hear he’s great and terrible.”

“Heed my words,” Jasher replied, breezing past mycomment. “You may get what you want, but you may not like what you get.”

A cryptic warning. Yay. Determined to get through to him by any means necessary, I fiddled with the strap around my neck, lifting the compass from beneath my shirt.

He went stiff as a board. “Where did you get that?”

Whoa! Such passion, so quickly. If I had looked at Patch’s serpens-rosa with even half this intensity, I couldn’t blame her for going on the defensive. “It was a gift from a water maiden,” I replied, too afraid to lie. “Why?”

He scowled. “It wasn’t a gift, but bait.”

What, exactly, had Iris given me? A magical amulet of some sort, worthy of tornado-powered a fairy tale? “I’m guessing I have something worth trading now.”

Our gazes met. Held. His lids constricted to slits, and his intense stare bore holes in whatever confidence I possessed, draining it fast. No wonder people weren’t supposed to look at royal guards. Wowzer.

“You do,” he grated.

And confidence returned. Excitement prickled my skin, giving me the strength to break our stare. “What is it? What can it do? And yes, the answers are part of our bargaining process.” I’d learned my lesson well. You had to live with the consequences of your decisions, even if you made them in ignorance.

The muscle in his jaw jumped faster, but he didn’t look away. “It can do nothing but assuage a longstanding ache in me. It was my mother’s. She came from your world and brought it with her.”

Oooh. So much to unpack there. First of all, no wonder Iris had called the compass a ticket home. But how did she know I would oh, so conveniently run into Jasher? Second, he’d offered the information with zero inflection. The same deadness I’d witnessed at the execution, and yet, clearly the piece meant something to him. Third, he’d said ‘was.’ Past tense.

“Your mother died? Here, in this land?”

“She did.” Still no inflection in his tone. “I was a child.”

Sympathy squeezed my chest. “That sucks. I know how bad it is to lose a parent.”

He canted his head to the side in that curious way of his. “You lost one of yours?”

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