“Come this way.” I turn toward the shed. “Be careful not to touch anything. I’m rosemarked, and I don’t take precautions within my own home.”

Chapter Nine

My crows have gotten a lot more…exuberant in my absence. When I woke in the middle of the night to find Slicewing in the shed with me, I could have kissed that bird square on her crooked beak. Sending her off with a command to bring Gatha had seemed a good move at the time. But when I’m woken hours later by what can only be described as a crow screaming contest outside, I’m no longer so sure. It’s morning now, and I sorely hope that the Amparans have already left. I make a mental note to work with my birds on subtlety—that is, if I make it out alive.

I open my mouth to quiet the dratted crows, but my parched throat only produces a croak. My limbs creak from being in the cold all night, and I have rope burns on my wrist. My ankle’s swelled to twice its size.

Then I hear human voices under the crows. They’re speaking Amparan, but it doesn’t sound like soldiers. One voice sounds blessedly familiar.

The door swings open. I squint up at the light to see the healer at the door. Behind her stand Gatha and Tal.

Gatha looks down at me with a mixture of curiosity and amusement. “Well, Dineas, I worried when you didn’t return, but I never imagined finding you on the floor of a healer’s shed. I sent you to Dara to build bonds, not to pull a blade on a passerby.”

I bow my head, an awkward act since I’m trussed up like a pig. “Sorry.”

But I can’t help wonder. If Gatha spent a year in the Amparan dungeons, would she still be willing to let her freedom hang on the goodwill of a Dara stranger?

“It is I who must apologize,” says Tal. “I should have kept the messenger away from you.”

I glare at the ground in front of me. My warlord’s disappointment is hard to take, but I don’t need a Dara man defending me.

“Did the Amparans give you trouble last night, Tal?” Gatha asks.

“I had one of my men release some livestock and stage a robbery. The soldiers seemed to believe Dineas was simply here to raid our stores. The entire contingent left this morning.”

Decently quick thinking on his part. Gatha nods her approval and turns toward the healer. “I’m still trying to understand what happened. What do you mean you subdued him with a snake?”