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“You mean, you talked to him again?”

“On the contrary,heprevailed uponme.”

Sometime during the night, Nicu had given this knight another talking-to? It must have happened during a brief time when I’d actually slept. It sounded like the young man had spoken his mind effectively. Considering Nicu’s talent for buttering me up, persuading me to take him on my trip, I didn’t doubt his skill for wheedling. His creative way of twisting words stunned but also hooked people, I was sure.

So Nicu had done half the job. Maybe I could do the rest to finish Aire off.

“His family will have him back.” I said. “But if you shackle me, I might not get—”

I might not get my mother back. Our life back.

Aire’s gaze fled toward an unseen place. Was he listening for company? A change of wind?

Was he listening to me?

Recalling the grave that I’d disturbed, and the words Aire had whispered to Nicu about loss, I pushed a button. “My mother’s sick. I could lose her.”

A sharp but unknown emotion made Aire’s throat contract. “The day is breaking, the troops are nearing, yet you’ve touched on something that I cannot easily reject. Prove to me this isn’t a falsehood.”

I weighed my options, finding only one at my disposal. A mortifying one. But, well, my woodskin had already done him in, so what was one more shock?

“You won’t laugh?” I asked the knight.

He swung toward me. “Laugh at you? Why?”

My gaze vaulted skyward as I thought of the first lie I could. “I’m skinny.”

My evil nose shuddered. I felt the bridge stretching like an achy limb, the tip of my schnoz popping, lengthening an inch.

Aire lurched from the tree. “Seasons!”

I squeaked. My hands flew up to cover my nose. The uneaten pear toppled off my lap as I whipped away from the gobsmacked knight and kept my back to him. “I can’t lie, okay? When I do, this happens.”

He hissed, “How the devil—”

I spun around and barked behind my palms, “It’s not devilry! It’s part of my woodskin. I don’t know why it happens, it just does. Whenever I lie, it grows.”

He closed his mouth. Thankfully, he didn’t request a second demonstration. Having my nose mistaken for a branch hadn’t been fun at seven years old, while standing amongst a group of children. It wouldn’t be fun now, in front of a knight.

My nostrils hurt like a son of a bitch.

“If I can’t lie without my nose doing this, then I can’t lie to you about my mother,” I pointed out. “Where I’m going, there’s a chance I’ll find an answer to help her. Come with me if you have to. Guard me if you insist, but let me find what I need, and then...” I shoved the promise from my mouth, “...then you can chain me, bring me back to the castle.”

Not a lie. He could take me. I’d go with him.

I just wouldn’t go easily.

The critters fell silent, including Punk, who watched from above. I held my breath, realizing that I’d forgotten to eat the pear on the ground.

It didn’t matter. I wasn’t hungry anymore.

The fog broke, sunlight poking through, and the gourds stopped glinting.

Aire’s voice drifted my way. “If you would do me the courtesy of looking up.”

I peered over my hand, expecting a repeat of yesterday’s rejection. His attention leapt from my fingers to my eyes, disbelief and something calmer banked in his gaze.

This time, he gave me a new answer.