Page 132 of The Threadbare Queen

Maybe Hurst hadn’t thought Carvill had helped his father enough while they were prisoners.

He would have been tempted to kill Carvill himself given the loss of the guards, so he found it difficult to care, either way.

When the prisoners were back in place, and the number of guards were triple what they’d been, he walked over to where Ava waited for the field medics, really just soldiers Dorea had spent a little time instructing, to clean the wounds.

When they were done, she bent over them with her needle and thread.

“What’s she murmuring over and over?” Massi asked Luc, coming to stand beside him.

“‘Healthy, and a beautiful straight scar.’”

Massi looked at him, eyebrows raised. “Why?”

Then she looked down at his arm, the one she’d seen open to the bone, which was now smooth and scar free.

He watched her face change, as she slowly worked out Ava was protecting herself by making sure there was a scar at all.

“Will you take her to Roan?”

He knew he shouldn’t. They had rescued the two Versai healers, and they had surely managed to help the little boy, but he didn’t want to take the chance. “Yes.”

General Ru would have to wait a day longer for them to arrive.

Massi relaxed, as if she was afraid he might have chosen to go straight to Fernwell.

“We need to send someone into Grimwalt with some warning missives.” He’d been thinking about it while he hunted Jatan prisoners in the woods. “Ava has friends and old allies of her family who need to know what’s happening with the Speaker. We can’t keep defending against him. We need to start pushing back.”

“I’m surprised you’re not going in there yourself.” She looked at him sidelong.

“I want to.” He couldn’t hide the fierce longing for blood in his voice. “But General Ru has had to hold things in Fernwell on her own for weeks, and the longer we leave her exposed, the closer we come to undoing everything we fought for the last two years.”

Massi’s gaze drifted back to Ava, who had finished stitching the first guard, and was moving on to the second. “If she’s not exposed already.”

“Yes. Which means I am taking a huge chance by swinging past Versai on my way back, but none of the fighting and loss would be worth it if Roan doesn’t live. That was the whole point of the Rising Wave to begin with.”

“Yes.” Massi sighed. She rubbed the back of her neck. “I’ll go to Grimwalt. The sooner we move, the better.”

That was true, but he didn’t want her to.

It would be dangerous. Very dangerous.

And she was precious to him.

“It can’t be Rafe or Revek. They don’t know . . .” Massi waved in Ava’s direction. “Don’t know exactly what the Speaker’s obsession with her is all about.”

That she was right didn’t make it any easier. Luc turned to her, but before he could speak, he was hailed by Rafe.

“Bartholomew wants to speak to you. My guess is a few of the prisoners we didn’t catch have made it to the Jatan camp.”

Luc hesitated. He didn’t want to let Ava out of his sight.

Rafe gripped his shoulder. “I’ll watch her. No harm will come to her, I promise.”

Luc nodded and without needing an invitation, Massi fell into step with him.

He glanced across at her. “Bartholomew is interested in you.”

She gave a quick, throaty laugh. “So is his boss. Not sure what that’s about.”

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