“Something about the boy’s story doesn’t quite add up, but never mind. I suppose we all have secrets we’d rather keep hidden. He’ll make a good warden if we survive this breakneck journey. Getting shot at today was a shock. One of the reasons I joined the wardens was because it is the best way to stay out of princely feuds. Wardens serve the empire, not a faction. Here.”

She held out her bowl toward Elen.

For a moment, Elen was confused, until the gesture fell into place. No time like the present to test the temperature of these new waters. “Xilsi, I’m not a menial.”

The warden blinked in surprise, then grinned. Oddly enough, the moment wasn’t even awkward. “So you aren’t. I’m not used to the gagast doing that work yet. So accustomed to Hemerlin and his crew. They’d have come by and taken the bowl without me asking. But I don’t mind the extra burden of fieldwork. I can even cook! I don’t need to be waited on, not like some.” Her head tilted toward Jirvy, but she didn’t look at his sleeping figure. Instead, she got to her feet. “I’ve got last watch. Lucky you. Simo says you get to sleep all night as your reward for a task well done.”

“I’ll take the sleep with thanks,” said Elen in an exaggeratedly vivacious tone.

Xilsi laughed like it was a great joke between friends.

Elen cleaned out her own bowl and spoon and got out her bedroll. The haunt remained standing at the edge of the firelight. Was he listening for bells in the night?

Kem, Ipis, Luviara, and Xilsi settled onto ground cloths, wrapping themselves in cloaks and blankets against the chill. Jirvy lay at their center like the stone in a ring. Maybe it was because she was so tired, but Elen could have sworn the injured warden was still limned by that misty veil of sparkling gold. But no one else gave him a second look, and that made her wonder if only she could see it.

49 A DOUSE OF ICY WATER

Elen woke at dawn to find Jirvy up and eating voraciously. Xilsi was standing behind him, hands propped belligerently on her hips.

“I thought you were dead,” she said in a low voice.

“You wished I were dead,” he said between bites of flatbread.

“I didn’t wish anything. Well, not anything that would delay or harm the mission. Anyway, you’re not the center of my life, even if you wish you were.”

He cast a glance at Xilsi, and it was still too dim for Elen to catch the look’s nuances. His tone mingled anger and something else, maybe shame. “I said I was sorry, but that will never be enough for you, will it?”

“I used to think you cared enough to know.”