Page 144 of Silverbow
Seeing as she was just now speaking to him again, now didn’t seem like the time to point out she bloody had. “You would have preferred to know?”
She laughed harshly. “Hardly. I would havepreferredto be who I thought I was. I was content to be her, happy even.“ She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I did not particularly like the matchmaking part, but I thought I’d spend my life there, with my family, our lands, our herd. And I wanted that.”
He watched her in silence for long moments. “You did not trust me even though I swore you a vow.”
She pursed her lips. “You would have tried to stop me.”
“True.”
“So I was right.”
“Perhaps. But what if something had gone wrong? What if I had not been there to mask you from the guards?”
“Is that what you did?” When he nodded, she shrugged. “I’m living on borrowed time anyway.”
Oryn’s throat tightened. “You keep saying that. What did you see?”
“An assassin,” she said as if it was of no real consequence.
“Soon?”
She shrugged. “Soon.”
That knowledge shredded his insides to ribbons and Oryn saw another thread in Hylee’s web. He had to clear the tightness from his throat. “And in the meantime?”
“We still have a bargain?”
“It’s a sacred vow. I’m yours, for as long as you want.”As long as you’ll have me.“Perhaps the next time you’re planning something particularly perilous, we could discuss it?”
She flashed him a grin that made his heart leap. “I was fairly confident he wouldn’t incinerate me.”
“Fairly confident,” he repeated.
“I thought he might recognize me, what with the family bonding and my…scent,” she shrugged.
Oryn stared at her in bewilderment. “You turned that into fairly confident? I’m not sure the Silverbow is your real gift, Ansel. Leaping to conclusions-”
“I think he’s angry.” Oryn frowned at that. “Bonded against his will and to a prick like Pallas Davolier.”
“I’m sorry, Enya. For what it’s worth. I never intended to...” Oryn swallowed, unable to find words to convey how truly sorry he was.
She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Perhaps…perhaps a truce. Until we get where we’re going.”
He nodded, an ember of hope flickering in the dark. “And then?”
“And then we’ll see,Your Grace.”
He had until the Vale to make the truce last. “Fine,Your Highness.“ She scowled at him. “Perhaps you could explain exactly how it is you managed what you did?”
With a devastating, devious grin, Enya raised her cup and said, “That’s my little secret, Gargoyle.”
thirty-six
Aiden
The sun had hardly risen over the city walls when Aiden was prodded from bed to ready the horses. They had a real stable boy now, and he was beginning to resent his perpetual place at the bottom of their little court. It wasn’tsobad, he supposed. Colm was a better cook and Bade a better hunter, but Lady Silverbow had waltzed right in and already had a vote for Nimala’s sake. He’d carried bags for twenty-five years before he’d gotten a bloody vote and half the time, Oryn bloody Brydove ignored it anyway.Bloody royalty.
Aiden scratched at his jaw. She couldn’t very well be royalty while someone else squatted on the throne, could she? But she was a Silverbow. And she had pillaged the nests below Blackash Keep. He supposed that was enough to earn a vote. But the boy…The boy was no bloody lost prince of Zeskayra. Why couldn’t he carry the saddlebags?
