Which, really, was why she and Kat were out here. The Queen wouldn’t make a page go out in this muck, no matter how urgent her cravings were. But Kat knew how badly she wanted that fruit jelly—Kat had Mindspeech and a touch of Empathy—so Kat had volunteered, and the Queen wasn’t about to let Kat go down there alone, even on her Companion. So it had to be at least one bodyguard from the Royal Guard or Abi, and Abi would be a lot less conspicuous. Having a Trainee accompanied by a Guard pretty much shouted Oh, look, the Princess! Having Abi along looked as if two Trainees had been sent on an errand down into Haven.

Kat was armed, and perfectly capable of using those arms . . . but Abi was armed to the teeth, and before Kat, for all her training, noticed that something was not quite right, Abi would already have decided what weapon to use, whether to be lethal or nonlethal, and dealt with the problem.

Another trickle of cold water made it inside her hood, sending a shudder down her body. I should have let the Guard come after all. Or borrowed Trey’s cloak.

“Maybe we should turn back,” Kat said, giving Abi a sidelong glance. Abi gritted her teeth, and shook her head.

“No, we promised your mother her jelly, and by the gods she’ll get her jelly,” she replied stoutly. “It’s just a leak in my hood, it’s not going to kill me.”

“Yes, but I’d rather it didn’t make you sick,” Kat protested. Kat’s Companion Dylia nodded her head in emphatic agreement.

“If Rolan thought I was going to be sick from this, he’d have already said something.” As the Companion to the King’s Own, Rolan was able to make anyone hear him, even those, like Abi, without Mindspeech. And he hadn’t said a peep. “He hasn’t said anything to you, has he?”

Rolan cocked his head back at her a little and snorted. Kat smothered a laugh.

“What?”

“Rolan says you are nowhere near sweet enough to melt in the rain,” Kat choked.

Abi stared at the Companion’s one blue eye looking at her. Was he smirking? He’s smirking, she decided. “No pocket pies for you, horse,” she told him. He snorted again, knowing very well that he could cozen all the pocket pies he wanted out of virtually anyone in the stable. After all, he was the King’s Own’s Companion, and what he wanted, he usually got.

He made a noise that sounded exactly like a smirky laugh. Kat laughed too. Abi decided not to ask what Rolan had said.