But still, they would be safe in their deception. For no one would know that Katsa and Po searched not for the grandfather but for the motive of his kidnapping. No one would know that Katsa and Po knew of Murgon’s involvement and suspected Leck of Monsea. And no one could even guess how much Po could learn by asking the most mundane questions.

He rode well, and almost as fast as she would have liked. The trees of the southern forest flew past. The pounding of hooves comforted her and numbed her sense of the distance stretching between her and the people she’d left behind.

She was glad of Po’s company. Their riding was companionable. But then when they stopped to stretch their legs and eat something, she was shy of him again, and didn’t know how to be with him, or what to say.

“Sit with me, Katsa.”

He sat on the trunk of a great fallen tree, and she glared at him from around her horse.

“Katsa,” he said. “Dear Katsa, I won’t bite. I’m not sensing your thoughts right now, except to know that I make you uncomfortable. Come and talk to me.”

And so she came and sat beside him, but she didn’t talk, and she didn’t exactly look at him either, for she was afraid of becoming trapped in his eyes.

“Katsa,” he said finally, when they had sat and chewed in silence for a number of minutes, “you’ll get used to me, in time. We’ll find the way to relate to each other. How can I help you with this? Should I tell you whenever I sense something with my Grace? So you can come to understand it?”

It didn’t sound very appealing to her. She’d prefer to pretend that he sensed nothing. But he was right. They were together now, and the sooner she faced this, the better.

“Yes,” she said.

“Very well then, I will. Do you have any questions for me? You have only to ask.”

“I think,” she said, “if you always know what I feel about you, then you should always tell me what you’re feeling about me, as you feel it. Always.”

“Hmm.” He glanced at her sideways. “I’m not wild about that idea.”

“Nor am I wild about you knowing my feelings, but I have no choice.”

“Hmmm.” He rubbed his head. “I suppose, in theory, it’d be fair.”

“It would.”

“Very well, let’s see. I’m very sympathetic about your having left Raffin. I think you’re brave to have defied Randa as you did with that Ellis fellow; I don’t know if I could’ve gone through with it. I think you have more energy than anyone I’ve ever encountered, though I wonder if you aren’t a bit hard on your horse. I find myself wondering why you haven’t wanted to marry Giddon, and if it’s because you’ve intended to marry Raffin, and if so, whether you’re even more unhappy to have left him than I realized. I’m very pleased you’ve come with me. I’d like to see you defend yourself for real, fight someone to the death, for it would be a thrilling sight. I think my mother would take to you. My brothers, of course, would worship you. I think you’re the most quarrelsome person I’ve ever met. And I really do worry about your horse.”