The Whitefire Crossing - By Courtney Schafer Page 0,32

around to face the rock. He took a deep breath, and his face settled into the grim concentration I remembered from when he’d first crawled onto the ledge. I suppressed a grin. I’d seen that same determination on Sethan once, as he struggled with ice-coated holds on a difficult route.

The rope inched through my hands, and Kiran disappeared over the edge. The sharp focus I’d needed for Kinslayer hadn’t yet faded, and in that cold, clear light, my half-formed suspicions about him solidified into certainty.

Kiran had an enemy back in Ninavel. Not just some faceless opposing merchant house, but someone specific he’d crossed. Someone Kiran believed didn’t yet know of this little venture—but rich enough that if he found out, he could hire a mage to target Kiran. Maybe a relative, maybe a rival in love...either way, someone Kiran both feared and couldn’t avoid within the city. Kiran hadn’t wanted to leave Ninavel, that much was plain. No, he’d signed on for this trip out of desperation strong as mine.

I knew why, too. Once Kiran reached Alathia, not even a Ninavel mage could touch him—the Alathian border wards were rumored to be impenetrable, an invisible barrier surrounding the entire country that no spell and no foreigner could breach. Gods knew Bren had spent years trying to figure out a direct way through, without success. He was stuck using couriers like me to smuggle a trickle of goods past the Alathian guards at the few border gates. And within the border, all Alathia’s cities lay smothered under a blanket of detection spells meant to alert their Council the instant anyone tried any magic more powerful than simple household charms.

But until Alathia, Kiran would be fair game. No wonder he was jumpy as a scalded polecat, and trying so hard to hide it. I ought to be mad as hell. Only thing was, I had a powerful hunch Kiran’s enemy didn’t need a mage. Bren’s covert instructions made plenty of sense, if he and Gerran had worked a side deal with someone who wanted to both profit from Kiran’s venture and ensure he never returned from Alathia. Now I understood why Bren had been so insistent on my silence. He’d likely known I’d figure out this much. And he’d made it clear that if I warned Kiran, I’d forfeit all my pay.

Gods all damn him, anyway. If it came down to Kiran’s safety against Melly’s, I knew which one I’d choose. But I sure didn’t like it.

The rope went slack in my hands. Kiran had reached the ground. An indistinct murmur of voices drifted up. Then Cara’s yell came, loud enough to shatter stone.

“Dev! Get your ass down here!”

She sounded ready to rip my limbs off. Well, I’d stalled long enough. Time to face the minder.

CHAPTER FIVE

(Dev)

Cara lit into me before I’d even gotten both feet on the ground.

“What the hell was that?” She stalked past Kiran, who flinched back like a man faced with a scorpion. I didn’t blame him. The scowl on Cara’s face could have melted lead.

“A climbing lesson?” I said. No good starting with an apology right off; that’d only rouse Cara’s suspicions. If she realized I’d made a deliberate plan to climb Kinslayer for my own profit, she’d fire me on the spot.

Her fists clenched, and I hurriedly dropped my pack. I had to play it brash, but not so cocky that she fired me out of sheer annoyance.

“I know, I shouldn’t have made the climb. But I was training Kellan, and I happened to spy a route, and I couldn’t resist...” I tried to look contrite, but a grin pulled at the corners of my mouth. I threw my arms wide. “A first ascent of Kinslayer, Cara! Come on, you know you would have climbed it in my place.”

Cara’s gimlet-eyed glare only intensified. “Shaikar take you, Dev! If I’d realized you hadn’t outgrown this kind of shit, I’d never have signed off on hiring you. You’re not on some solo jaunt—you’ve got a responsibility to this convoy! You think because we’re friends, I’ll overlook whatever brainless stunts you pull? You can gods-damned well think again!”

“I got stupid, okay? I admit it. But, Cara...” She was a climber, same as me. Surely underneath her anger, a hint of sympathy lurked. I let the memory of the climb swallow me. Mind and body and stone, locked in perfect unity... “It was glorious.”

I had one instant to realize it was Kiran who showed a glimmer of wistful recognition, not