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We’re all quiet now, aimlessly traversing the road. I’m not even sure which direction we’re headed anymore. In Lirasu, Icould always use the mountains to tell which way was south. I miss that. Such a simple thing, but it grounded me always.

After a few seconds, Kellyn says, “We can’t go to Galvinor anymore. You guys would never make it through another city, nor is there any hope you could hire a crew without being recognized.”

“Then what do we do?” I ask.

Kellyn purses his lips, shakes his head, lets out a loud breath—like he’s arguing silently with himself. “I know a place we can lie low for a while. We’ll be safe. We can rethink everything then.”

I want to believe him, but we haven’t been safe anywhere. Not with our father’s mother, not in the big cities, not on the road. Everywhere we go, there’s danger.

The safest we’d ever been was honestly in that prison cell.

I freeze in place as an idea comes to me.

“Kellyn, I think I know what to do with the sword. I might know how to keep it safe permanently. I—I need access to a forge.”

“Great. There’s one in Amanor.”

“Amanor?”

“Where my family lives.”

Kellyn explains that Amanor is a small village in Prince Skiro’s Territory. “It isn’t located off any main road. It’s not on many maps, either.”

“How do you know we’ll be safe there?” I ask. “Kymora knows you’re involved. Won’t she be able to find your family?”

“I don’t see how she could. I don’t advertise where I’m from. I haven’t told anyone where my family resides, let alone that I have one settled somewhere. Excluding you, of course.”

“What about your surname? Derinor. Can’t she ask around? Is there any chance at all she could track us to Amanor?”

“There’s always a chance. But Derinor is a common surname. And she’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who could point her to Amanor. Besides, if my family is in danger from her, I should be there to protect them.”

We’re only on the main road for another few days before we veer down what looks more like a deer trail than a road. If I thought the forest looked thick from the main road, it’s nothing compared to how it is now that we’re wrapped in it. The trees are so close together that the only path we could possibly take is the already-made trail.

“I don’t like these woods,” Petrik says. “There are bears in these woods.”

“Right, you’re from Skiro,” Temra says.

“The capital,” Petrik explains. “There are no bears there.”

“The capital is right next to the mountains,” Kellyn says. “There are cougars. You prefer those to bears?”

“Definitely,” Petrik answers. “Cougars are afraid of people, and they hardly come into the city. It’s too loud.”

“Not if they’re hungry enough.”

Kellyn takes a strange delight in teasing Petrik. It makes me want to give him a taste of his own medicine.

“Bears are a perfectly natural thing to be afraid of. Unlike vulnerability.” A jab at our earlier conversation.

Temra laughs. “He’s not afraid of bears because he can swinghis sword at them. But Kellyn doesn’t know how to protect his feelings.”

We giggle, and Kellyn glowers good-humoredly at the two of us. “Perhaps you should learn to swing a sword, bladesmith. Then you’d be less afraid of people.”

I scoff. If only it were that simple. If only my fear was of them physically hurting me. No, it is my mind that needs to be protected, and I don’t think there is any guard against that.

“Trying to get the attention off you by putting it on me isn’t going to work,” I say.

“Nope,” Temra agrees.