Page 37 of A Crown of Deceit & Ruin

“Lookouts, I guess,” Leighton suggested, although neither of them seemed too confident about the idea. “There are those window arches, high up on the fortress walls. If you and Efrem could climb up to them, perch from the ledge, you’d be out of harm’s way and could maybe throw some rocks across the room as a distraction while I sneak inside?”

“What do we look like to you, little desert lizards? Efrem’s so clumsy, he’d slip before he was even a foot off the ground. And me—” Micah shoved his hands in both of their directions— “You think these hands have ever seen a callus a day in their lives?”

Kestrel scrutinized them and thought they might be the smoothest hands she’d ever seen. “Unlikely.”

“Exactly.”

Leighton blew his lips. “Oh, I’m sure a callus or twowouldn’t hurt you. The ladies may even like seeing you a bit rougher around the edges.”

“Please, they love me for my charming delicateness.” Micah flashed Kestrel a smile before turning a glare back onto his brother. “I will not be climbing up a stone wall. We’ll have to think of something else. Flanking the fortress and entering from all sides, or something?”

Leighton grunted his disapproval. The two brothers burst into another argument where they considered about a half dozen insufficient plans, each more desperate and hole-ridden than the last.

But while they argued, Kestrel couldn’t help but wonder…

Shewas an avid climber.

Even without having seen the fortress they were speaking about, she knew with certainty that she would have no trouble scaling its walls and being the distraction they needed.

Maybe this was the purpose she had been waiting for. The start of her life. She could help the prince earn his crown, become a hero of sorts in her own right.

Leighton was up and pacing again, a thumb pressed to his chin. “I suppose we could ask around. See if anyone knows how to?—”

Kestrel bounced to her feet, the fox flopping to the dirt. “I could do it! I could be your distraction!”

Both brothers cocked their heads. Leighton looked worried, while Micah seemed caught somewhere between shocked and impressed that she would suggest something so reckless.

Slowly, Micah rose too. “Don’t get me wrong, little bird, you are beautiful. But that’s not the sort of thing that will distract this creature.”

The nickname threw her. It sounded so similar to what Thom had called her all her life, that at first she thought Micah had said LittleFuryand it took her a moment to collect herself.

“I’m not talking about me walking into the monster’s lair with a smile on my face. I’m saying I could be the one to climb those walls. I could reach those windows.”

Leighton still looked skeptical. “How do you know? You haven’t even seen the place.”

As the two brothers continued arguing, desperation bloomed inside Kestrel’s chest. It felt as if her entire future was hinging on this moment. A fork in the road she had never considered. They could leave her there, and she could set out into the realm, alone, with no destination or goal in mind…

Or…

Or her life could change forever. She could make friends with people other than Thom. She could leave this small corner of the realm for the first time in her life. Travel somewhere new. Do something daring and heroic, and for once in her endlessly mundane and meaningless existence actually experiencesomething.

No more fantasizing about stories.

No more daydreaming.

This would be a real adventure.

“You don’t know how high it is, or what—” Leighton was saying, when Kestrel bolted.

“Come on, follow me!”

Before either of the brothers could decline, she was running the short distance back toward Mutiny Bay. The fox and the two princes had no choice but to follow.

When she reached the wall, she tossed her pack in the sand and began untying her boots.

“What are you doing now?” Micah asked.

“Just watch. You’ll see.”

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