“Is she already asleep?”
A little spike of pain shot through Lizzan’s head when she sat up, but at least her shivers had eased. She rubbed the sleep from her face and as always, her gaze went first to Aerax, who was drawing his mail armor over his head. With him were Ardyl and Seri . . . who had asked him to accompany them so that they could draw near to Caeb, Lizzan realized. She didn’t know if he’d already snarled at them or if they had simply known to take precaution.
Ardyl grimaced. “We did not mean to wake you.”
Eyeing Aerax, who next removed his linen tunic, Lizzan shook her head. “I would have woken, anyway, when Caeb left on his hunt. You need the corpse vine?”
“Is it too dark to find any?”
“Not with Caeb’s nose to help us. That will be your first hunt this eve,” Lizzan told him. “We will pretend you are a hound.”
Gracefully the cat rose, lashing his tail into her face. With a grin, she swatted it away, then gripped handfuls of his ruff to haul herself onto her feet. From her bedroll, she collected her boots and dragged them on.
“We will return with torches,” said Ardyl, before leading Seri back to the campfire.
“You come with us?” she asked Aerax when he drew nearer, wearing only his fine brocs and boots, and the leather braces on his forearms that sheathed his short knives.
He nodded, his gaze searching her face. “I would ask that you join Caeb and me on our hunt, but you do not look full well.”
“Then I look as I feel,” she said with a sigh. “But I am only tired.”
“And you’ve had nothing to eat this day.”
As if he had watched her to know. “Tomorrow I will.”
Though she might puke it up. But she could eat nothing now . . . or go on this hunt and protect him, as she’d been tasked.
Throat tight, she told him, “Lower your head to me.”
Brows drawing together, he did—then began to shake his head and argue when she lifted her father’s medallion from her neck.
“Quiet yourself,” she told him. “Only this morn, I demanded that you take care while you hunt this unfamiliar land. This is how you will.”
A muscle worked in his jaw. “You also said that you will be a stranger to me. Do you give your father’s medallion to all strangers?”
“Only the ones who foolishly run into the jungle,” she said, ignoring the ache in her heart. “Because it is Vela’s law of the road that strangers should help each other.”
His hand caught her wrist with the chain dangling from her fingers. “You will have no protection.”
“I have my sword. This camp is full of Parsathean warriors. And I can run faster than any of the Kothans, so if we are attacked by ravening beasts, they would be eaten first while I get away.”
His lips twitched. “Is that also the law of the road?”
“That is the law of the bitter, exiled soldier.”
Amusement gleamed in his dark gaze, but still he shook his head. “Caeb will be with me.”
“And if you are hurt, who will protect him?” Eyes narrowed, she lifted her chin. “Do not deny me this.”
Though his jaw clenched and his gaze demanded that she relent, after a moment he bent his head. Moving close enough to feel his breath on her cheek, she looped the necklace over his head and ran her fingers along the chain, her skin brushing over his as she searched for kinks and twists that might weaken the links. But there was only smooth silver from his nape to where the medallion hung just above the pouch that held her braid.
She looked up, and his intent stare stole her breath. It was in a whisper that she said, “Return it to me when you are done?”
Eyes burning into hers, he nodded.
Heart pounding, she stepped back. Her racing pulse made the drumming in her head beat all the harder, but barely she noticed it past the throbbing that overtook every span of her skin.
On a shuddering breath, she looked past him, to where Ardyl and Seri waited a short distance away. “Ready, then?”
CHAPTER 17
LIZZAN
Ardyl’s long glaive with its curved blade served better than Lizzan’s sword at hacking through the foliage from their path, so she and Seri forged ahead with Caeb. Lizzan took Ardyl’s torch and followed behind them with Aerax at her side. The giant ferns of the jungle south of Oana had given way to