The Shadowglass (The Bone Witch #3) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,77

an old saying in Odalia, Your Excellency: before you weigh your neighbor’s hogs, fix your own broken pens.”

“Hey now. We like to muck around in the mud every now and then, but we’re hardly hogs, milady.”

I smiled. “It means that we must fix our own problems before we pontificate on someone else’s. My friends and I are ready and will be set to leave within the hour.”

“I speak not as the first minister but as, I hope, a friend, when I say I wish you all the best, Lady Tea.”

“We got off lightly this time,” Khalad said, breathing a sigh of relief as we returned to the great hall. The place was deserted, give or take a few people still sleeping off last night’s excesses. Without thinking, I sat at the same table I’d shared with the Yadoshans; it still stank slightly of ale. “There was a good chance he’d turn us over to Kion anyway.”

“Lord Besserly has his ear, and he’s well aware of your role in saving his life.” Kalen brushed a stray lock from my forehead. “Are you sure, Tea? If we leave Yadosha, there won’t be many other places to stay. Arhen-Kosho has even stronger ties to both Kion and Odalia. Tresea isn’t the safest option, and we certainly wouldn’t want Drycht. Istera might be our best bet.”

“I’m not sure I want to subject Istera to me either. If some other kingdom is willing to take me in, they’ll eventually gain the elder ashas’ ire and reprisal. Empress Alyx may try to hold them off whenever she can, but the Willows is a small kingdom on its own. It would be easy enough for them to enact their own sanctions independent of Kion.” I gulped, fighting back tears. “Likh and Khalad—they can live incognito if they want to. As long as I’m not with them, I doubt they’d be targeted. But… Oh, Kalen. Maybe I really should be hidden away, tucked into some vast wilderness where no one can harm me and where I can’t harm others.”

“We’re not leaving you, Tea,” Khalad protested.

“You won’t have a choice. You still have a duty to the kingdoms, and you’re not the type of person to turn your back on them. You’ll have hearts to forge, and you’ll find your own novices to train eventually. But without me, you’ll be safer.”

“And can you do the same?” Likh asked shrewdly, stepping into the room. He had forsaken his usual hua and was dressed in dark clothes and thick breeches, his long hair pulled back. “You’re not the type to turn away when you know people need help.”

“I’ll travel if I have to, avoid detection. I’ll visit villages, treat the sick to earn money.”

“And what if another daeva appears? If you take it down with the Dark, then you accomplish what the elder asha want—to have your life drained with every resurrection. And if you bond them like you did the azi, then you may as well shine a beacon revealing your location, because the asha will find you.”

“Let’s not make any hasty decisions,” Kalen said. “One thing at a time. Focus on the Drychta and Kance now, and we’ll weigh the rest of our options later.”

“I won’t let you come to any more harm, Likh,” I said. “But in the end, it might not be my choice to make.”

“Then for as long as we can still make decisions, I’ll go with you.” Likh hugged me, then turned to Khalad. “I would like to talk to you. Do you have a moment?”

The Heartforger cast a furtive glance at me and nodded.

“Did you mean that?” Kalen asked me as they stepped out. “Do you really want to spend the rest of your life living in the middle of nowhere like some hermit?”

“Wasn’t that what you wanted?”

“I meant living in a small town under assumed names. I have enough funds to set us up in moderate comfort indefinitely. Complete isolation isn’t what I—Tea?”

I stared at the wall, awed.

“Tea?”

“Do we have enough time for a detour again?” I asked faintly. “Before we head to Kance’s army?”

“It should be another two days before the Odalians reach Mithra’s Wall. Armies can’t move quickly over that terrain. Why?”

“Because we need to stop by Istera. I want to have a talk with the Gorvekai. The symbol on Sakmeet’s notes—I knew I’d seen it before.” I placed my hands against the wall, where Lord Aden had showed me the faint Gorvekan symbols the night before. “I think the Gorvekai