would rip them out myself, though they are all I have left of my family and my clan, because I do not even have memories of them. But until that moment came, I would fight to keep both. Just as she was, when arguing against sinking the island.”
Nodding, Lizzan sipped from the wineskin.
Ardyl gave her a sideways glance. “Your prince seemed rather eager to sink it.”
Huffing out a laugh, Lizzan said, “He has no love for Koth.”
“And seems to have no love for your king.”
“Aerax has no love for anyone.” At Ardyl’s narrow look, Lizzan amended, “Except for a few. But do not judge him by that—or the king. In truth, Aerax thinks well of him. Or used to.”
A threat to execute her would have changed that forever.
“What sort of man is your king?”
“Sad,” said Lizzan, though that was not the full truth. “All of the royals I have ever seen are . . . large and bright and strong. King Icaro is no exception. But there is a gentleness to him. His brother—Aerax’s father—seemed harder, more selfish. And Aerax hated him. He spoke well of Icaro, though. He told me that his uncle truly grieved his first wife when she died of the red fever, and that he dotes on his surviving daughter, but also truly loves his new wives and their children. And I do believe that Icaro cares for all of Koth and wants the best for all his people.”
“So he lies to them, as he did when you were exiled?” Wearing a disgusted sneer, Ardyl shook her head. “Never would my people be so forgiving. How can you trust a king who would lie to you?”
At a loss for an answer, Lizzan lifted her hands. “I suppose most people want comfort, not truth.”
“So he treats them as we do children? But that is not even the same, for though we might soften a truth, we do not lie to our children. What of you? What would you prefer to hear?”
“I would rather hear truth,” said Lizzan, and the same truth forced her to add, “Though when I speak, I often give comfort, instead.”
“Well, do not give any comfort to me,” Ardyl said wryly. “I am no babe, though you saw me sucking a teat.”
So she had. With a snort, Lizzan tilted her head back against the tree again and closed her eyes. By the gods, after all the times that Aerax had kissed her breasts, she was fair glad that a little tit-sucking did not turn anyone into a child. And neither did giving comfort. She would save Aerax pain, but that did not mean she was treating him as a child. Truly, it didn’t.
Truly.
* * *
* * *
Ardyl had spoken truth about the noise. By the time they made camp, every sound from the jungle seemed to be rattling around inside Lizzan’s skull and trying to bludgeon its way through her skin.
At supper, the scent of roasting meat turned her stomach. She sat sipping from her wineskin, aware of Aerax’s steady gaze on her though she wouldn’t meet his eyes, while the conversation around the fire seemed to amplify every other sound. When Lady Junica implored the Parsatheans to tell them of their favorite legend, as she had told them of Varrin, Lizzan could bear no more. Though she wanted to hear the tale of the demon Scourge that had ravaged the Burning Plains, the hoofbeat rhythm of the song began to sway in her stomach until she feared she might vomit.
At the edge of the clearing, she laid out her bedroll but knew better than to hope for sleep. Shivering in her cloak despite the heat of the evening, she turned away from the fire and closed her eyes against the dizzying dance of light and shadow on the canopy overhead.
Tension gripped her when she felt someone approach. Then solid, muscular warmth stretched along her back, and she turned toward Caeb to bury her face against his chest. Tears of relief trickled from beneath her lashes when his rumbling purr didn’t add to the cacophony of noises, but instead drowned all the others out.
She must have dozed. She woke with her head pillowed on Caeb’s right foreleg and with his ruff tickling her nose. No more firelight danced against the ferns and leaves; instead only a soft glow touched the canopy. No voices could she hear beneath the unending chorus of the jungle, as if everyone had gone to bed.