long. It was nearly two weeks into the trip, and there was no convenient inn between where they were and where they were going; they had taken a shortcut to avoid a bridge with guards. They were setting up a camp, all cheerfully joking about how miserable it would be to sleep under the stars, and David and Ryan were setting out their bedrolls. They placed them a good ten feet apart, and as Taya put her own down on the other side of the fire, she gave them a significant look.
“There’s no need for that on my account,” she told them.
“For what?” David asked, truly puzzled.
She pointed. “The sleeping arrangements. I know things are quite strict in Sephria, but in Miranov it isn’t quite so dire. Frowned upon, certainly, but no risk to life or limb. You do what you like. I always have.”
David seemed, for once, at a loss for words.
It was Ryan who replied, “I thought you were a religious woman.”
“I am.”
“‘And Ashua says every seed is sacred, and let no one waste his seed upon the ground or in an empty hollow,’” Ryan quoted. There was no bitterness to his words, just an acceptance of the philosophy of his day.
“Love her true, worship her right, and she’ll always see you home.” She shrugged. “What kind of a hypocrite would I be, if I judged you when I’ve done the things I have? We just all have to believe that the gods love us whether the children say they do or not. We have to believe they’re more benevolent than that.”
David turned away. “That’s easy to say,” he whispered, “when no one will kill you for playing house.”
Taya bit her lip. “I didn’t mean to compare us, David. I’m sorry. I only meant…I only meant, I don’t tell secrets. That’s all.”
He picked up a piece of wood, threw it into the fire, but the easy camaraderie was broken. “I’ll fetch some more wood,” he said, and disappeared.
Ryan stood, hesitated, and then chose not to go after him, sinking down instead beside Taya at the fire.
“I’m sorry,” she said, miserable. “That was stupid, I didn’t think…”
“Do you know how David and I met?” he asked quietly.
She shook her head, surprised.
“I’m an assassin. Did you know that? Or I were.”
“I didn’t.”
“Does it change how ya see me?” he asked, and Taya couldn’t help but laugh.
“I hardly thought you were a sheep-herder, Ryan.”
He nodded, and though he didn’t smile she could sense the lightening of the tension in his shoulders, which was his approximation of the same. “My name were the Mask of Retribution, and I were the best money could buy. The king hired me now and again—not many what weren’t kings and nobles could afford it. I were hired to kill David, when them discovered he were the rebellion’s choice for king. I tracked him, but he heard I were coming and he ran. I chased. There’s a spot in Sephria, near the sea, nasty swamp with poison plants, rats big as your head. Death to go in there, but in he goes and I followed. While we was inside it rained, the paths swelled, and we was trapped. I figured how to escape, but I weren’t strong enough, needed to tear down some trees and lay them as bridges. So, we made a peace. Worked together. If he were smart he woulda killed me soon as I explained him the plan. He didn’t. We worked together, and then, so close to freedom we could taste it, I got sick as death. Some swamp fever took hold of me. He stayed. Stayed right beside me…”
There was something in his voice that Taya had difficulty comprehending, a depth of feeling that seemed alien to her.
After a pause, just long enough that it seemed he would speak no more, he murmured, “We ain’t been parted since.”
They never spoke of it again, but when David returned to camp, Ryan had placed their bedrolls side-by-side—not quite touching, but close enough that they would be able to feel each other’s warmth through the blankets.
Chapter Sixteen
WHEN LABACI FINALLY APPEARED on the horizon, Taya thought she had never seen anything so grand. Novosk had its walls, that was true enough, but they were rough-hewn things, designed for defense. This city…this city had been old when Novosk was still a glimmer of an idea. It took them two days to reach the walls after they first came into view. They were easily fifty feet high, and