“I love you,” I said, careful to keep my eyes on her face. She deserved to see the truth in my face. When she would have spoken, I held up my hand. “I am not saying that because I expect something from you. Unless you are a lot stupider than I think, you already knew how I felt—but I needed to give you the words. I intend to ask you to marry me, and if we survive until next week, I’ll do that. Again, I don’t need an answer. But I did need to tell you that.”

Silence hung over my final words. I couldn’t tell anything from her face, and when she finally spoke, it wasn’t, directly, about what I’d told her.

“What’s happening?” she asked.

I told her about Jakoven, the Bane, and what I intended to do. She heard me out and then said, “Who else will you take?”

“You know the country better than I,” I said. “How many do you think I could take and not risk alerting the king’s party?”

“Just how many people do you think Jakoven has?” she asked.

I shrugged. “Not many, I’d guess. At least ten, but not more than twenty, probably fewer than that. His wizards and a few guardsmen he’d trust to keep his secrets. Maybe a few more guards that he could eliminate before they have a chance to tell anyone what they’ve seen.”

She swore softly to herself. “Gods, Ward. With such a small party, he’ll be able to hear approaching groups easily. We’ll have to be mounted, or we’ll never catch up to him, and that will make us noisy. Not more than ten, I’d say.”

“So I thought,” I agreed. “We’ll need Axiel. He has some knowledge of magic—it might make the difference between survival and not.”

“I’ve seen him fight,” she said, nodding in approval. “I can find him for you—and Tosten, too. He knows which end of his blade is which.”

“I know where Garranon is,” I said. “I don’t know if he’ll leave his wife now, but I thought he deserved a chance to avenge Buril if he wants it.”

“Lys is tough,” said Tisala. “She’ll pull herself together if he needs to go.”

“If he doesn’t come, I’ll talk to Duraugh,” I said. “I don’t want to. If I don’t make it, Kellen and Beckram both will need his experience, but it will take more than four people. Rosem would be nice, but I don’t want to try and take him without Kellen.”

“What about Oreg?” Tisala asked.