Page 53 of Heart of Defiance

"I'm not pushed around that easily." I sit back on my heels to contemplate his work. "Is there anything I can do to help before we have to move out?"

Iko considers his assembled items alongside me and pokes at the lump of vegetation. "I think this lichen is going to be the key. It's growing in patches around the mountain—I'm not sure how much we'll come across after we leave. If you could gather as much as you can find in the next little while..."

"I can do that."

"Here, take a little piece so you know what to look for."

The lichen is bristly against my fingers, with a lacy pattern to its growth and a blueish gray color when I squint at it in the faint lantern light. Iko hands me a small cloth bag to collect my bounty in.

I set off across the rocky slope, heading higher up where the clusters of my comrades won't have disturbed the terrain as much.

It's difficult to spot the patches with no illumination except moonlight. We've left a few lanterns burning to reassure the Darium army that we're still barricaded up here, but I don't dare carry one and risk them wondering what my purposeful movement is about.

Instead, I bend close to the uneven rocks and press my hand to the darker splotches that stand out against the pale gray stone. Sometimes I encounter just gritty dirt, here and there a patch of moss. But on a few occasions I feel the same bristly texture as the lichen Iko gave me. I pry those patches free from their rocky home and drop them into the bag.

After the fourth, my heart starts to beat faster with the sense that the next peal of the hour should be coming soon. I pick my way down the mountainside toward the final stragglers of our camp.

The jangle of a bridle and a dry voice saying, "Hey there, Landric," bring me to a halt. Peering down the slope, I make out a glint of Landric's ruddy hair just beyond the reach of the nearest lantern, maybe fifty paces below me.

He's standing next to Jostein's stallion, who's fully tacked up. The squad leader must have moved on to other business after arranging the steed. But a couple of men from Feldan,guys around our age who I've seen Landric passing time with when Rupert and his noble associates weren't around, are ambling over to join him.

Mattias and Pascal. They were part of our childhood games too, back when we had little more to worry about than how to entertain ourselves.

"I heard you're riding off on us," Mattias says, his low voice traveling faintly to my ears.

I waver on my feet and decide it's better if I don't interrupt. Landric will be on his way soon enough. I sink down behind one of the jutting spires of stone where I can watch the conversation but they're unlikely to spot me in the darkness.

What will he say to them about his mission when the rest of us aren't around?

Landric speaks with impressive calm considering that he might be riding off to his doom. "I'm making sure our latest plan bears as much fruit as possible. If everything works out, I'll see you in Feldan before mid-morning."

Pascal snorts. "So you really are going to chat with the Darium army? What kind of madness is that?"

"Signy's madness," Mattias remarks before Landric can answer. "That crazy bint has gotten us pretty far, but gods above, that's got to be more thanks to the captains and their soldiers than her."

My hands clench at my sides, but Landric's voice simply flattens in its steadiness. "If we'd left it up to Major Arlo and the captains, we'd be handing ourselves over to whatever mercy we think the Darium empire might supply in the morning."

Pascal snorts. "That doesn't mean you have to stickyourneck out farther than anyone else. How'd she convince you to take on this mad quest?"

Landric adjusts his hold on the horse's reins, swivelingaway from his friends. "It was my idea. She tried to talk me out of it. You should focus on your own part—I'd better get going."

Mattias steps back, but he elbows his companion. "You know, the crazy ones can really be something in the sack. I could see angling for a piece of that. But who would have thought Landric would get so desperate he'd go riding to meet an army just to land one lay with a?—"

Even as I flinch, Landric whirls around. I don't see his fist flying until it slams into Mattias's face.

Mattias staggers backward, clutching his nose. Even in the dim moonlight, I see dark streaks of blood dribbling down his chin. "What the fuck was that?" he snarls.

Landric's voice comes out fierce. "That's for you to shut your babbling mouth. I don't know who you insulted more—her for not being worth more than a lay or me for being the type that'd treat a woman like a piece of meat—but if I hear any of it again, I'm not going to stop with one blow."

I think his friends are gaping at him with as much shock as I am. Pascal hisses a breath through his teeth. "You're turning on us over that?—"

"Don't say it," Landric warns. "You don't even know her. You never tried. She lost so much, and you all..."

He shakes his head. "She's incredible, and I love her, and maybe at least I'd have seen it sooner if everyone hadn't made a hobby out of spewing garbage about her. But I know now, and I'm not going to listen to another word against her. Go get ready for your hike."

Mattias sputters something incoherent, but they both stomp off.

I might be worried about what they'll do next, but it's hard to believe they'd expect the Darium force to be friendlier than Landric has been. And I'm too busy staring at him as he tests the girth on the stallion's saddle one last time.

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