“I can feel it, which is a vast improvement. Thank you again, for helping me.” He’d thanked her a hundred times already, but he figured she’d be less likely to kill him if he was gracious. He still remembered the way she’d kept her blade close the last time she visited and how it had sliced through his flesh like butter in his dream. Fortunately, her hands were otherwise engaged at the moment, as she rummaged through her pack.

She pulled a full waterskin and some more food out and gave them to him. “I’ll take the empty waterskins and fill them before I go.”

“Is there a water source close to here?” Jaren couldn’t rely solely on Leelo, and having access to water would be reassuring.

She nodded. “There are spring-fed pools nearby.”

“So the poison in the lake doesn’t get into your drinking water?”

Leelo’s eyes flicked up to his. “I suppose it doesn’t.”

“Right. Or you’d all be dead,” he said, then immediately regretted it. “Any luck on finding the boat?”

She shook her head. “No. The day after tomorrow is my day off. I’ll be able to search then.”

Jaren drummed his fingers on the floor. He knew he couldn’t offer to help. He doubted he could keep up, and there was too much of a risk of his being seen. But he also didn’t just want to sit in this hut for days, doing nothing.

“This might be a strange question, but do you think you could teach me how to read music?” he asked.

Leelo blinked, clearly caught off guard by the request. “Why would you want to do that?”

He fished the little songbook out of the pile and handed it to her. “I found this. I’d like to learn the songs. Just as a way to pass the time.”

She snatched the book out of his hands as if he’d stolen it. “You shouldn’t have this.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

He watched in dismay as she tucked it into her satchel. “This is an Endlan songbook. It’s not for outsiders.”

Leelo was clearly angry. She was looking at Jaren the way she had when they first met: with suspicion. “I’m not from Bricklebury,” he said, desperate for a change in subject.

“So?”

“So, I mean, yes. I am an outsider. But I’m an outsider to Bricklebury, too. I don’t know a lot about Endla.”

“You know about our music, though. You know how dangerous it can be. Why would you want to read it?”