Then doors groan open, sending a shower of dust upward. The human says something cheerily, addressing the horse in the stall. The humans’ language is heavy, like boots stomping. The four of us watch and wait as the human shoves a saddle and bridle over the animal’s body and head. I loosen the hold on my axe. He’s leaving. I ease back over to the barn’s side and peek out between the slats, checking for light or movement inside the house.

The human finishes readying the horse, then rides off. When the beat of hooves on the earth fades entirely, I get up.

“There’s no one in the house,” I say quickly, hands trembling with anticipation—or hunger, it’s hard to tell. “There will be food in there.”

Sethran adjusts the sword at his hip. “Are you sure it’s empty?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then let’s go.”

As we crawl out of the same entrance we came through last night, the salty air settles on my skin in a fine mist. Sethran reaches the house first and tries the door, but it’s locked. Rowan walks around the back and finds a window that’s unlatched. After climbing in, she comes back around and opens the door for the rest of us.

Inside, the house is dark but blissfully warm. A clean table rests upon a worn rug with some mud tracked onto the edges and beneath the chairs. A bowl of yellow and green apples beckons from the kitchen. I grab one and hold it reverently for a moment before sinking my teeth into it.

Ox opens his satchel, and Rowan puts the fruit inside. It doesn’t sit right with me that we’re stealing, especially having seen so much muddy, empty farmland on the way here. Still, we have to survive. There’s half a loaf of bread on the table, too, beside bits of cooked meat and cheese, and a few empty cups. I could eat it all by myself, but Ro dutifully divides the portions into fours. Ox goes through the rest of the kitchen for good measure.

“That’s all there is,” he says.

“No, it’s not,” she replies. Her eyes are fixed on a small cup on the table.

Ox strides over to her. “What?”

She holds out the cup. Inside is a flower with six petals, each a blazing red.

24

SHIRENE

“Is that everyone?” I ask Lyreina, wiping beads of sweat off my brow.

She looks up from the scroll laid out before us. “It’s as close to everyone as we’ll be able to get. The Keep is full.”