Page 10 of A Sky of Emerald Stars

“Maybe I should offer to drive the wagon,” Maez grumbled as we stalked through the grasses. “I’d rather be covered in juvleck goo than ride with you.”

“There’s a bathing chamber on board,” I said, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. My arms wheeled as I tilted to the side, forcing me to stop and adjust my heavy pack again.Did they put frying pans in this thing?“I’ll have a wash and be fine.”

“There’s a bathing chamber?” Maez asked incredulously.

“You’re going to like this place.”

“I certainly will, especially once you avail yourself.”

The massive wagon was easily two stories tall, an intricate network of seating areas and bunks inside, not a single inch of the place gone to waste. The outside had bars of musical notes wrapping around it, words scrawled in every language of Aotreas, and ribbonlike pennants waved from the edges of the vaulted canvas.It was a beautiful space, quirky and artistic, much like the musicians who called it home.

Navin climbed down from the back of the wagon and paused, his eyes locking with mine. His face was purpled with bruises, one eye still so bloodshot his pupil looked to be floating in a sea of crimson. The normal elegance with which he held his body was pinched and angled to one side, probably from his bruised ribs. I trailed my eyes from his russet leather boots to his matching leather suspenders that held up his stiff olive green trousers and up to his knitted cap. He wore a billowy cream shirt and a velvet azure jacket with a high neck and musical notes embroidered around the cuffs. I shook my head. Why had I ever thought I could understand a human musician? I looked at Maez’s midnight fighting leathers and my disheveled garb, still tinged with menace from my bandolier of knives. I was a killer and a Wolf; nothing about me matched anything about him. Even if we’d had a chance to see where things could’ve taken us with a bit more time... there would’ve never been a happy ending between someone like me and someone as gentle and soft as him.

Navin gave Maez a warm greeting, gesturing out his hand to the wagon for her to enter. Maez only gave him a perfunctory nod in return, probably out of loyalty to me.

I wandered over, taking my time. As I neared, I thought of a million things I wanted to say—I also thought about grabbing one of my many knives and cutting out his eyes—but instead I just moved to walk past him.

He didn’t let me, though.

His hand reached out and gently touched my elbow, barely a graze at first, and then a little more confidently those long fingers wrapped around my arm, imploring me to stay. I laughed in disbelief. As if he could ever stopmewith his delicate artist’s hands.

It took nothing to pull out of his grip, and yet I lingered.

“I’m sorry, Sadie,” he whispered as I squinted at the horizon. I made a study of the dragonflies zipping through the meadow and the diaphanous cobalt clouds that promised rain over theocean—anything but him. “I had to protect my brother. There are reasons I can’t explain...”

That piqued my interest. More secrets. I wondered if this secret was related to what Navin knew about Ora’s capture. Was it all interconnected? How much was Navin keeping from us? He was more a stranger to me than I’d even realized. Most of the people traveling with Galen den’ Mora seemed to be people trying to either reinvent themselves or hide from the world. I realized my question from the night before wasn’t so pressing. I shouldn’t be asking what was Navin hiding, but what was Navin hidingfrom?

Tilting my face back into the bracing wind, I vowed I would get my answers from him, whether through persuasion or through the knives on my belt. I would know all his secrets by the time this trip was over.

It felt good in some strange way to know Navin was keeping secrets from us all. At least I hadn’t been the only one who misjudged him. Maybe Hector’s hatred of the man had been more shrewd than the brotherly overprotection and wolfish bigotry that I dismissed it as being. It made my hatred of Navin now feel even more justified, too, and I quietly prayed that he turned out to be an even worse person that we first thought... it might be enough for me to keep on hating him forever.

Muffled on the wind, I could hear Maez’s awed exclamations as she explored the inside of Galen den’ Mora.

“Your wounds seem extensive,” I said tightly, still staring straight ahead as I broke our silence. “Does it hurt every time you breathe?”

From my periphery, I spotted the bob of Navin’s throat. “Yes.”

“Good.”

“Sadie—” He reached for me again, but I climbed up the steps without another word.

Navin didn’t protest further or follow me into the wagon, instead turning to go gather the oxen and begin our journey south.At least I knew his loyalties were pulled in as many directions as my own. I hoped all of it was as senseless and confusing for him as it was for me. Maybe one day I could parse apart why I felt anything at all.

Patience. A little voice whispered in my head. First, I needed to bend him, twist him until the point of breaking so that all his well-kept secrets would come spilling out when I applied enough pressure. Maybe then I’d finally feel settled back into myself enough to understand that nonsensical pull or why he and I ever fell into each other’s orbit.

Sadie

As I showered the grime and stench off me, I watched through the grating below my feet as the cobblestone road morphed to a forest trail. Soon, we’d be passing through the Sevelde Forest. It was a beautiful, haunting sight—a forest filled with golden trees of every hue from honey to dandelion to amber. I thought of Navin driving through this place. On the trip here, I’d sat beside him on the couch, holding his hand, his grip tightening in mine with every turn of the wagon’s wheels.

There would not be a repeat of that today.

I kept looking out the grate. Below the Sevelde Forest lay the gold mines of Olmdere, which had been the only way in or out of the kingdom during Sawyn’s reign. Navin had escaped the blight and famine through the mines underneath us. His father, who had fled with him, never made it out the other side.

I twisted the spigot that controlled the water canister above my head. The sound of the wagon wheels crunching leaves and the clinking rattle of the uneven terrain filled the echoey metal bathing chamber.Chamberwas a bit of a misnomer. It was more like a tiny nook with a giant water canister that you needed to crouch under and grated iron flooring. Still, little warm touches filled the space. There were fluffy towels waiting on the shelf, along with hooks to hang washing. The whole place was warmfrom the metal firebox that sat right above it, ensuring the water at least wasn’t freezing and quickly drying people’s washing. One of Ora’s dresses still hung from the drying hooks, and it made my stomach sour again—an eerie reminder that they’d been abducted, the reasons still a mystery. Did Nero know how close Calla and Ora had become? Or was Ora important in other ways? What purpose did Nero have with the leader of Galen den’ Mora?

I grabbed the fresh clothing that Briar had packed for me and pulled it on. Steadying myself against the wall, I struggled to keep from toppling over as I yanked on my trousers over my still damp thighs. The wagon rocked and I toppled backward, landing flat on my ass. I slicked my wet hair off my face with a growl when I heard another sound...

Humming.

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