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"Wait," Jared said "If you were planning to let us go, why didn’t you tell us at the inn? Why did you buy the wagon at all? No, look" He gripped her shoulders Rehtened his hold "If you’d told us then, there were five of us who could have ridden the Winds and you would have had plenty of e for the others"
She searched his face and, after a nesshere I can’t explain it better than that I didn’t sense it until ere all together In a way, Istill can’t sense it, but"
"Go on"
"At first I thought it was the illusion webs Thera and I were using, but it’s more, Jared, and I can’t pinpoint the source It’s like catching so able to see it when you try to look directly at it I couldn’t risk bringing that wrongness into Dena Nehele I couldn’t risk having so freely aether and let them think they were still slaves until I could find the source"
Jared leaned back ‘"You let Polli go"
Lia took a deep breath, let it out slowly "I told Talon about the wrongness He’ll takeprecautions" She smiled bleakly, her eyes so full of shadows "Besides, the wrongness is still here"
He didn’t say anything for a couple of minutes Then he stood up "Come on," he said "You’ll sleep better on a mattress in front of the fire than on a hard bench out here in the cold"
"No" Lia hunched her shoulders "I’ll stay here"
"No, you won’t"
There was more snap than shadow in her eyes now "You can’t--"
"I’e"Checkht as he smiled at her When a Queen’s escorts weren’t available, anotherafter the Lady Since it was a teement, Queens rarely refused a male’s claim--especially if his Jewels happened to outrank hers
She muttered and sputtered while he bundled her up and carried her out of the wagon Her co their noses into personal concerns becaent after he asked her if she needed to use the privy hole
"There were extra mattresses, so I put down a double thickness for you," Jared said as he carried her to the building
"I don’t need--"
"Thera got a double mattress, too"
That shut her up so he didn’t mention Thera’s reaction to Blaed’s proprietary courtesy, or that Thera had tried to bite Blaed when the young Warlord Prince tucked the covers around her No point giving the little witch ideas
The , but no one spoke, no one stirred Subdued by their presence, she let him settle her on the mattresses and fuss with the blankets Her only response when he snugged his mattress up to hers was to turn her face away fro a little, but he stretched out beside her and tried to ignore it
A fewtold him everyone else was asleep
Jared propped hi he would be free once they reached Dena Nehele felt like a different kind of slavery He couldn’t run now, couldn’t escape, couldn’t go home Her explanation had been fine as far as it went, but she hadn’t known about the wrongness when she bought him--which oing to the salt mines of Pruul How could he walk ahen she needed his strength?
He couldn’t As o home, he couldn’t leave her now
As he blinked back tears, he slipped his hand under Lia’s blanket, searching for her hand She ers curled trustingly around his
Lying there, watching her sleep, he was torn bethat he wanted to do and what he had to do He no longer needed any tangible proof that the Invisible Ring existed, because the Ring no longer mattered There was only one choice he could make now and live with Until this journey ended and Lia was safely ho, Jared settled down and closed his eyes
My father would say you haven’t grown into your skin yet
He’d barely had tith when he’d been tricked into slavery So ht about that And if thatwas true
Had being enslaved somehow frozen him in that transition between youth and man? If he’d reressive nature of an adult Red-Jeweledslowly so that what he felt inside was justmore instead ofother ?