Page 66 of Grave Situation

“Wait,” Tia says. “You mean youlay downon the stairs? Not… sat on one and propped yourself against the wall or something?”

“That might have been a smarter idea,” he muses thoughtfully. “Do they teach you stuff like that at the rider academy?”

Tia’s mouth opens and closes twice before she musters the brainpower to say, “Something like that.”

Before the conversation derails any further, I clap my hands. “Coryn, now that you’ve met Tia and Jaimin?—”

“Tia? Who’s Tia?” He looks around again, presumably for a third person. Jaimin shoots me a worried glance.

“That’s me.” Tia gives him a little wave, and he frowns.

“I thought your name was Tavia.”

She nods. “It is. Tia’s for short.”

The frown only deepens. “Why not Tav?”

I can tell my sister’s patience is wearing thin by the vicious way she tugs on the connection between us, but there’s no sign of it on her face or in her voice as she says, “Because my twin’s name”—she points at me—“is Talon, and even when I was a little girl I thought Tal and Tav sounded ridiculous.”

The frown clears up, replaced by that sunny smile. “Ohhhh. What’s it like being a twin? I tried to convince one of my brothers to be my twin, but he didn’t want to.”

Oh steaming holy gods’ turds.

“We can talk about that another time,” I interrupt hastily. “There should be plenty of time if you agree to come with us.”

“Where are you going?” he asks, instantly distracted. “It’s kind of you to invite me, but I have duties here to the king.”

“Yes, I know,” I assure him. “But I’m certain the king will be happy to assign you to travel with us. He knows all about why we’re here.”

“Okay then,” he agrees, and I’m taken aback.

“Okay?”

“Yes. If the king says it’s okay, I’ll come.”

“Don’t you want to know more?” Jaimin asks gently.

Coryn shrugs. “Like what?”

“Where we’re going… why? How long it will take?”

He shakes his head. “I wouldn’t know all of that if it was a guards’ assignment.” He stops. “Well, maybe some of it. My sergeant keeps telling me things that I don’t remember.” He rolls his eyes in exasperation.

Jaimin turns to me with an expression that clearly demands I fix this. Honestly, my inclination is to just let it go. He’s happy to come with us if the king orders it, which he will, and if Haftel and the stone are right, he’s capable of protecting us. This is a win-win. No need for messy explanations.

But Jaimin’s scowl won’t relent, and I don’t like to see it on his face. Plus, the stone is buzzing persistently in my head, so I sigh. “That’s great. I’m glad you’re coming with us. Let me tell you a little bit about the job, so you can protect us better.”

That gets his attention. “How much protection do you need?”

“You, for now. Five days ago, our camp was attacked in the middle of the night by a dozen men.” I leave out the zombie bit. I’ll get to it later. “They targeted us specifically because of our mission. We got word to the king, and he sent an escort of the guard to bring us here. You may have heard about it?”

He frowns. “Was that Pim’s squad? They just got back from escort duty.”

“Yes.”

His eyes widen. “Wait, are you the mage that flipped Clem upside down?”

I’m tempted to ask him how many other mages might have been escorted to the city by the King’s Own Guard today, but I restrain myself. “Yes.”

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