Page 90 of Taking Jenny
Longshot, Discord, and Surge had swiped a variety of items from the ball the previous evening, so they would have palace supplies for Jenny. Items that were not from the palace would have been viewed as evidence of cheating. I hadn’t thought of such a thing, so I was grateful they had.
We set a small bowl on a log, and she filled it with water from her canteen, added a couple pieces of fruit, nothing fancy.The few other supply drops weren’t extravagant, so no one would mistake ours for what it was. Once we finished, we heard footsteps. Silently, we dashed into the underbrush.
Jenny, faster than we had expected. She strode up the path, nearly passing our supplies up. I was worried she would miss them, but Discord shone a light against the water, just enough to be mistaken for moonslight glinting off the surface.
Jenny noticed it. First, she looked around for a trap, anything obvious. Then cautiously, she approached the log. She nudged the ground nearby with her staff, then waved the wooden stick over the log, like she was looking for a tripwire. When nothing happened, she walked up to the supply log. But before she drank the water, she touched it with her little finger and rubbed that finger on her bottom lip, waiting.
Discord whispered proudly, “Good girl.”
Jenny waited for a minute, then smiled and wiped her lip with her sleeve. She drank greedily from her leather bag, then dumped the rest and replaced it with the water from the bowl. Then she ate a piece of fruit, as she stowed the other two in her pockets and got back onto the winding trail.
I was utterly confused. When she was far down the path and out of hearing distance, I asked Discord, “What was the lip thing about? She already had water. Why did she dump hers?”
“Because not all supplies are food,” she said in a sly tone, clearly having taut Jenny something I didn’t understand. “Come on, we need to keep going. Oh, one more thing. Your friend Summer is fine.”
“What?” I asked in shock. “Really?”
She nodded. “He had been sent to work in the fields of Grenevar, so I made a call to some friends of mine who grow my coffee there and got him an easy gig working in one of their offices until we can get all this Illiapol nonsense settled. After we save Jenny, I thought you might be able to get him to some otherplanet where he will be safe. I know you make runs with Jac all over the universe and Summer is not a high priority for Justice, so he won’t be hunted—”
I tightly hugged her, and she instantly stiffened up. Grateful and overjoyed by the news, I couldn’tnothug her for helping Summer. I let go and blurted, “Sorry, sorry. I know you’re not the most demonstrative—”
Discord flicked her hand upward to shut me up. “Show me your gratitude by not getting us killed out here, Tiger.”
I nodded and grinned. “I’ll do my best.”
CHAPTER 27
Mal
“This is the worst,” Surge whined.
I rolled my eyes. “I know you don’t like being carried, but it’s the fastest way through here right now.”
The suns were up and climbing, and so were we. The forest was thicker around the steep base of the mountain, and I was carrying Surge on my back, so with any luck, this would be the most arduous part of my day.
“And at leastyoudon’t have to carry someone,” I teased him.
He huffed in annoyance and adjusted his arms around my shoulders. “I know, I know. I’ve always been the slowest. You’d think I’d be used to it by now, but it still irks me.”
I trudged through the brush, my long-legged stride eating up the distance. “When this is all over, we’ll find a planet of ants you can live on so you can be a giant.”
He laughed, trying to stay quiet about it and failing. “Keep that up and you’re going to get us killed.”
“Carrying you is the quickest way, and you know it,” I said. “I don’t want your stumpy legs to be the reason your plan fails.”
He made an indignant sound. “You’rethe one who insisted we take three minutes to help Thyme, and that put us behind.”
I ducked beneath low-hanging branches, making sure they didn’t whack Surge in the process. “And for now, anyway, I’d do it again.”
“Thank the gods it was just some random guard who sewed his lips shut,” Surge said as we approached the hunting ground through the forest.
I silently agreed. “We would have been screwed, had it been the palace magician’s needlework. Do you think you could have broken his spell?”
“Eventually. But it would have taken time we don’t have.” He exhaled, the sound heavy with guilt. “I felt bad about leaving Thyme behind, though. He knew we couldn’t take him. But still…gods only know what they’ll do to him now.”
“They won’t punish him for breaking the threads. You were smart. You healed the internal damage, not the external wounds.” I tromped through a muddy puddle in the utility boots I’d changed into. “To anyone who looks at him, it will seem like he ripped the threads out himself. They won’t check inside his mouth for magician’s work. He’ll be as fine as he can be, given where he is. Hell, at least Thyme has a waste bucket. Lucky bastard.”
Surge chuckled again, this time keeping the sound low. “Strange, the things we find ourselves jealous of, eh?”
