Anji gave Molli a final glance over before stowing the brush on the saddle. She strode around to sit opposite the Hawk, wincing at the pain in her back. “A million Rhoda,” she said, and snatched up the meat and bread. She crammed the lot into her mouth, ignored the cramp in her jaw as she chewed and continued, “Never understood how little slips of paper could pass as money. Silver I understand—it’s valuable by itself. But paper? Doesn’t feel as real, somehow. I escaped with twenty-four Celdia. Took me three years to stash it all away. Even as I left, I knew it wasn’t enough to get to Conifor.” She picked up a stone and tossed it into the dirt. “Should have waited till I had a full Rhoda at least.”

The Hawk sniffed.

“Suppose it’d have been easier to hide from you. Could’ve folded it up and hidden it in my shoe or something. What are you going to use all that money for?”

“We’re not here to get to know each other.”

“It’s a long trip. Might as well talk to pass the time.”

“I don’t make friends with assassins.”

Anji guffawed, and a sliver of gristle shot onto her knee. She flipped it off. “If I’m an assassin after killing one man—one who deserved it, I might add—what does that make you?” She pointed to the pair of swords sheathed at the Hawk’s belt. “How many throats have you cut with those?”

“You know nothing about me, girl,” said the Hawk. “I’m through with all that nonsense.”

Anji rattled her manacles. “Could have fooled me.”

“I think that’s enough out of you.”

There’s the crack, Anji thought.

“Shame we don’t have any arrows to hand. You’ll have to skewer them the old-fashioned way.” She widened her eyes. “But no, I forgot—you quit. You’re through with such violence, aren’t you?”

“I’m warning you, girl.”

“Of course,” Anji said, clapping her hands together, “you’re a walking storybook. A wise old warrior, so tired after a life of gutting peasants and chasing after criminals … but you’ve hung it all up, right? Now you’re sailing straight. You’re better than all that now.”

“That’s none of your—”

“Oh, this is perfect,” Anji went on, cackling. Pain lanced through her nose when she laughed, but she ignored it. “A washed-up bounty hunter coming out of her well-deserved retirement just for me. It must be so difficult for you, after swearing off torture and murder for good, to kill four people just to bring me all the way back to—”

“I said shut your mouth!”

The Hawk rose to her knees, chest heaving, knife drawn at her side as the shout echoed across the lake.

“Ah, ah,” said Anji, manacles clinking as she patted her chest. “Worth more alive, remember?”