“And what if I had admitted to being a spy?”

He braced his hands on the tree on either side of me. “Then I would have told you you’re the most beautiful spy I’ve ever seen.”

“Ah. But only the second most beautiful girl in Varenia.”

He was so close I could feel his breath on my skin. “About that.”

“Yes?”

“I lied.”

All it would take was one exhale from either of us for our lips to touch. It was like the moment before you opened an oyster, when you almost didn’t want to, because for an instant, anything was possible. I closed my eyes, waiting...

The sound of hoofbeats on the road broke the tension. “They’ve caught up to us,” I said breathlessly.

Talin straightened and bit his bottom lip, and I couldn’t tell if he regretted that we had almost kissed or that we hadn’t. He took my hand and began to lead me back toward the road. “I have more questions.”

“So do I.”

He dropped my hand as Grig burst through the brush into the clearing. “There you are. We got caught up in the storm or we would have been here sooner.” He glanced from Talin to me, then back to Talin. “Everything all right?”

“Of course. We were just waiting out the rain. We’d better get a move on if we’re going to make it to the inn before nightfall.”

Ceren’s guards glowered behind Grig.

Talin ignored them and boosted me onto Xander’s back. “We’ll canter for a bit to make up for lost time.”

But when his eyes met mine, I could tell that he didn’t consider the time we’d just spent together lost at all.

* * *

I collapsed into bed exhausted that night, but my mind wouldn’t stop replaying those moments with Talin, when we’d been so close to kissing I could almost taste him. He trusted me now, but I’d had no time to tell him about Sami. And I wasn’t sure I was ready. He might try to stop me, insisting it was too dangerous to defy Ceren that way, especially with Ceren’s guards nearby. But now that I had made it this far, I couldn’t imagine not seeing Sami. I would have to get away at some point and hope Talin would forgive me after.

We rose before dawn in order to make it to the market by noon. We would only have a couple of hours there before we needed to head back to the inn, and Talin had legitimate business there. The Ilarean traders who came to the floating market for the pearls handed them over to Ceren’s guards at the port market. I prayed that Thalos had been with my people for the last month. I couldn’t imagine returning to Ilara with a poor crop of pearls when the king lay dying in his bed. For all we knew, he could already be gone.

We were about five miles out from the market when Talin turned to me. “What’s the matter?” he whispered.

“Nothing.”

“Your forehead has been creased with worry for hours, and I’m afraid if you continue to chew on your lip that way, you’re going to have nothing left. And that would be a damn shame, my lady.”

“I’m fine,” I said, tugging at my leather corset, which Ebb had tied exceedingly tight this morning, mumbling something about needing to look my best for the prince.

“Watch yourself for pickpockets in the market,” he said.

“I have nothing for anyone to steal.”

“That won’t keep them from trying.” He glanced down at my corset and tight leather breeches for emphasis.

I blushed, remembering how I’d looked when we first met. He’d seen far more of me than I had of him, but there was something seductive about not knowing what a person looked like beneath their clothing. It was surprising how alluring leather body armor could be.

“Just be careful,” he said, and there was a territorial tone to his voice. As if I wasn’t going to marry his own brother.

Thalos. Talin was my future husband’s brother, and I had nearly kissed him. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. I needed to focus on getting to the market and finding Sami. Talin and the guards had the advantage of knowing their way around the market, but I had only ever seen it in my imagination. Look for the kites, I told myself. And above all, pray for wind.

Soon, other riders joined us on the road, as well as wagons weighted down with goods for sale. Despite my worries, I couldn’t help marveling at the people pouring into the market. They weren’t just Ilareans. There were refugees from Southern Ilara here, their clothing tattered and worn from days on the road, and Galethians leading their glossy-coated horses, and even people from across the Alathian Sea.

“You’d best close your mouth before the flies get in, milady,” Ebb teased.

“Have you been here before?” I asked.

“Once, when I was a girl. It’s a wonder, isn’t it?”

It was indeed. It was loud and vibrant, alive with sounds and smells and every color of the rainbow. A man with half a dozen cages full of green and yellow birds flung over his back passed us, whistling as he walked. A woman and her child carried a bushel of red flowers each. Poppies, for tea and smoking, Talin explained.

Some of the stalls were covered in bright fabrics, while others were open to the sky. I scanned the tops of the stands for kites, but we were approaching the market from the bottom of the hill it stood on, making it harder to see anything above the stalls.

Grig and Ebb agreed to stay with the horses on the edge of the market. They had talked almost nonstop since yesterday, and I envied the flirtatious glances between them, the fact that they could converse in public without arousing suspicion. They could fall in love and get married, if they were so inclined. Even Zadie had been able to choose.

I had sacrificed all of that to come here, and I would be damned if it had all been for nothing.

Talin and I entered the market together. The sheer number of people would overwhelm me if I let it, so I tried my best to shut out the smell of cooking meat, overripe fruit, and unwashed bodies. A parrot screeched in my ear on one side as a small child tugged at my hand on the other, his filthy face upturned to mine. I glanced helplessly at Talin, who handed the boy a coin and ushered me farther into the market.

“What do you want to look for?” Talin asked me. “Anything in particular you were hoping to see?”

The idea of lying to him was painful, but I shook my head. “Nothing in particular. I just wanted to experience it for myself.”

As I rounded a corner into another aisle, a short, stocky man in leather armor stumbled into me. From the smell of him, he’d been drinking heavily.

“Are you all right?” Talin asked as I bumped into a fruit stand.

“I’m fine.”

“You should watch where you’re going,” Talin said to the man’s back. “You nearly knocked this lady down.”

When the man turned, I recoiled instantly. It was Riv, the mercenary I’d met when I first came to Ilara.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Riv said as he took in the sight of me. I was wearing riding leathers, and my tan had faded slightly from weeks in the mountain, but he definitely recognized me. “The little Varenian princess.”

“Apologize, Riv,” Talin ordered sternly.

Riv ignored him. “I’m surprised your brother didn’t marry her right away, so he could—”

One of Ceren’s guards pushed me behind him at the same moment Talin reached for his sword. I watched them for a moment, my heart pounding, before I realized this was my chance. They were all so distracted they weren’t even looking at me. I backed up a few steps until I was in the aisle I’d been in before, and then I turned and ran.

      28

I ducked between stalls and darted around carts until I came to a small clearing, where women were selling necklaces and other decorative baubles on blankets. There were no canopies here. I looked up and smiled at the sight of a large orange and yellow bird kite swooping overhead. I shaded my eyes against the sun and tried to follow the string down, but it was too bright.

“Where is the kite stand?” I asked one of the women selling jewelry.

She held out her hand, never raising her eyes from her blanket.

“I’m sorry. I don’t have any money. I just need to know where the kite seller’s stall is.”

She flicked her eyes up to me and scanned my body. Satisfied that I had nowhere to hide a purse, she scowled and pointed across the clearing.