Chapter 2

Rhea’s POV

The hoofbeats stopped all at once, and in the quiet that followed I could hear my own breathing and a slow creak from the wreck behind me.

There were twelve horses at the edge of the trees. I counted as the riders came down off the road, four through the thin trees on the left and the rest swinging wide around the fallen cart.

Maisie still had both arms locked around Tessa's waist. Tessa kept her hand flat on the back of the child's head, and neither of them made a sound.

I got my shoulder blades flat against the cart boards and put the knife out in front of me, low by my hip.

The nearest soldier dismounted and came close enough for me to see the salt line of old sweat dried along his jaw.

The leader came up the middle and stopped several paces beyond my reach.

He had not drawn. I noticed it, but it did not make me feel one bit safer.

"Tell your men to put the crossbows down," I said, and kept my voice steady.

The horse under the nearest rider shifted its weight. The man holding a crossbow tightened his grip on the stock.

The soldier on foot glanced back at him. I caught his coat and pulled him toward me, bringing the knife up beneath his jaw before he could turn back.

"Put them down," I said, "or I'll cut him."

"Lower the crossbows. Step back," the leader said, not loud at all.

The riders lowered their weapons and backed toward the trees, leaving more room around the cart.

Then he looked at me over his horse's ears and asked me what I wanted.

"Whose men?" I asked.

"Blackwood," he said. "You're on Blackwood ground."

I had heard the name twice before: the buyer in the transit yard saying we would be walking into Blackwood country before the thaw, and the tally man saying it again over his chalk.

"You were in the cart. You were awake," he said flatly. "Who came out of the trees, how many, and which way did they go with my goods?"

"Three horses," I said. "Good ones. Ones that can run, and now. Once you've arranged it for me, I'll tell you."

He looked past me at Maisie with her face pushed into her sister's coat, and I tightened my grip on the soldier's coat, afraid of what he might ask for next.

"Three horses," he said. "And the little one rides how? In front of you on the same saddle, for how many miles, with that arm?"

Heat rose up the back of my neck. I had asked for three horses without thinking how Maisie would stay in the saddle. I looked at her with her sister's coat balled in both fists, and then I turned to him. "Then a wagon. As far as the next town. I'll answer your questions."

"I can have all three of you in a room at the healer's house tonight," he said. "Nobody separated, nobody sold on. That I can do before dark."

"Tonight." I repeated the word slowly. "And after tonight?"

He sat his horse without answering. I pressed the blade against the soldier's neck until he went very still.

"Tell me what I need to know, and I can promise longer than tonight," he said.

Behind my shoulder, Tessa said Maisie's name, low. Maisie did not answer her. I wanted to turn and look at her, but did not dare take my eyes off the men in front of us.

I let go of the soldier and threw the knife into the mud halfway between the leader's horse and my boots. The soldier stepped away. I put my hand back against the cart and steadied my feet beneath me.

He turned his head, and the riders went back to the edge of the trees, reins in their fists. Then he looked at me again.

"You stay together. All three of you, under one roof, until I've spoken to the healer. Longer if the healer says you need it."

Then he swung down, unfastened his cloak, and came over to crouch in front of Maisie with the wool gathered in both hands.

He wrapped it around her, one corner and then the other, and tucked the end in at her throat.

The cloak was green, gone black at the hem with wet, and when he came up out of his crouch, Maisie made a small sound into the wool.

He started to turn away. Then he looked back over his shoulder and said something. The world began to narrow at the edges.

"Say that again," I said.

I did not know I had hold of his sleeve until I felt the cloth bunched under my fingers.

I had it in my fist, and when I tried to straighten, my weight pulled against his arm. I could not make myself let go.

He bent closer and repeated it in a low voice. This time I heard him.

"Tomorrow will be the same. You'll stay together. That's all I can promise."

My feet had gone numb some time back, and I had been on them since the cart went over. I kept telling myself I'd be sitting down soon.

The knife stayed in the mud where I had thrown it, and I did not go back for it.

I kept looking at it until Tessa said my name from somewhere behind me. Then I turned my head toward her.

I held on to the man's sleeve for as long as it took me to hear her properly.

Then I opened my fingers one at a time and let go of the cloth. Someone reached to catch me, but before I felt their hands, the light went out all at once.