ever find Sa’alu or any of the other soldiers on your unit?”
Tekkyn shook his head. “There was only one other body from Malo descent in the final count. It wasn’t one of them.”
Kira clenched her fists until her nails dug into her palms. “Then they got away.”
“I’ll find them.” Tekkyn stood and bowed before Lee’s grave. “I’ll find Sa’alu and make him pay. I swear.”
Kira’s eyes tingled but failed in their attempt to form tears. She’d thought that by killing Zamara, she’d somehow avenged her brother. Somehow made it right.
Nothing could really make it right. Nothing could bring him back. But that wouldn’t stop her from hunting down his killers and repaying the favor.
“Are you two going to Navarro or not?”
Their mother’s voice rang over the pasture with such clarity that Kira hardly recognized it. She looked over her shoulder to find Inowae waving a dishrag at the oxen tugging weeds on the side of the road. Crates cluttered the wagon they were tied to.
Even from the distance, Kira could tell the difference in Inowae’s skin tone. After only a few days of taking Yesha’s Roanoke herbal remedy, she was like a completely different person—the person Kira thought she’d never see again.
A smile tugged Kira’s lips. At least, after all she’d been through, something good had come of it.
“You’d better hit the road if you want to make the morning rush!” Inowae yelled.
“The morning what?” Kira blurted as she brushed mud from her Katrosi-style pants.
Tekkyn rolled his eyes. “When most people shop at the market. You’re going to be helping me sell our jam, remember?” He offered Kira a hand and smirked. “Let’s not keep your dreamboat waiting.”
The horizon bounced as the wagon tossed Kira around like a ship in a storm. Flooding had worn new paths through the gravel road, making it more uneven than it already was.
Kira clutched the wooden seat beneath her as tightly as Tekkyn gripped the reins on their two oxen. The beasts didn’t seem to mind the uneven road, but Kira knew they’d appreciate being refreshed after the three-hour haul to Navarro.
The land was so empty and flat that she’d been able to see the trade town’s roofs for miles back, when it was just a blur against the sky. Now that she could make out individual structures—the thin guard tower, the unfinished wall that only faced the western forest, and the collection of buildings huddled around the stained-glass shrine to Lillian in the town’s square.
What if he went a different way to our house, like through the forest, and I just missed him? Kira tore her eyes from Navarro in an attempt to calm her nerves. She glanced over the crates in the wagon behind them.
“Yes, the crates are still there. Just like they were the last five hundred times you checked.”
Kira snapped her gaze from the back of the cart. She could feel Tekkyn watching her behind his head wrap that was somehow supposed to keep people from recognizing him. In reality, what would make people not recognize him was the fact that he’d been gone for two years.
“I haven’t seen you this nervous in forever. Is your heart all aflutter?” That stupid head wrap didn’t hide Tekkyn’s stupid grin.
Kira infused all of her pent-up annoyance into a glare. “You’ve done nothing but tease me from the instant we left the Great Hall. I’m beginning to think you’re jealous.”
Tekkyn chortled. “It’s my job as your big brother, Frizz. I have a couple of years to make up for.”
Kira snorted and looked back toward Navarro’s guard tower. “I thought you’d have found a girl by now. How old are you now? Like twenty-six?”
Wait, how old is Ryon, exactly? The thought interrupted her with an odd sense of worry. I should find that out sooner rather than later.
She continued with haste. “Or do you tease every girl you meet as much as you harass me? That could be part of the problem. You might want to fix that, at least, because you can’t do anything about having the face of a slophoof.”
Tekkyn laughed out loud. “Hey, now. I’ve been kind of busy. And I’ve only been around Katrosi women recently.”
“What does that matter?” Kira shifted on the hard wooden seat. She’d heard that people of Malo descent were famed for their beauty in general—especially women—but that didn’t mean anything to Kira. She’d seen plenty of attractive people of Phoeran descent, including Ryon, but then again, she was rather biased.
“It doesn’t, really,” Tekkyn said, “but