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“The orders were to leave Dimitri in Fernwell, so I had to deal with her on my own and drive the cart. It would have done us no good if she’d escaped.”

“You could have tied her up with normal rope. That is hardly difficult to think of.” The man put the cup to one side.

“She’s coming back into focus,” Sirna said, his voice pitched at a whine.

“Only because I got to her in time.” The man straightened, looming over her. “There’s no way I can take her with me on the horse in the shape she’s in. That alone is going to earn you a black mark in the Speaker’s book.”

That sounded like the plan was for him to take her with him on the massive horse she could now see hobbled beside the cart.

She couldn’t be sorry that wasn’t possible, but she was sorry about the reason for it.

“She might be better in the morning.” Sirna sounded more hopeful than convinced.

“I’m not waiting until the morning. I need to leave now. I was expected in Taunen today, and it’s a hard three day ride just to the border as it is. You took longer than we thought to trap her, and I’ll be facing the Speaker’s temper as it is.”

“She was in the palace, surrounded by guards. I did well to get her at all.” Sirna was angry now, and a little afraid; she could hear it in his voice. “And we traveled through a war zone just to get to Fernwell.”

“I’ll tell him, but it won’t save you from his anger about overusing the rope. Even if you don’t use it on her again, she’ll barely be whole by the time you get to Grimwalt.”

“Evelyn and I were going to go east, through Venyatu and home. Not to Grimwalt. That was the agreement.”

“The agreement was you would be well-paid to secure her, unharmed, so I could take her to Taunen. She is not unharmed.”

The woman, Ava guessed she was Evelyn, spoke for the first time. “Weren’t you going to hold her in front of you on your horse anyway?”

“Not as a dead weight.” The man was beginning to get angry. “And that plan was conceived when I thought you’d bring her out over a week ago. Even using the Focus, which I got for you at great risk, not to mention cost, you still got her late, and you kept her in the rope. I don’t have time to ride with an unconscious hostage all the way to Taunen, late as I am already.”

“Fine. I’ll take her to the Grimwalt border. No further. Not all the way to Taunen.” There was a defiant thread to Sirna’s voice.

The man thought about it. “All right. For your own wellbeing, that might be wise. But if you use the rope on her again—”

“I won’t use it.”

“Good. You’ve been warned, Sirna. If she’s damaged when you get to the border, there will be consequences, and I won’t protect you.”

“It’ll take at least a week, maybe more, in the cart. She’ll be fine by then.”

“She better be.” The man bent to pick up his cloak and swirled it over his shoulders. “You’d be wise to keep him straight, Evelyn. You might just be included in whatever punishment the Speaker deems fit if she’s not able to sit up by herself.”

“Leave Evelyn out of it. She helped you, didn’t she? Pretended to be your captive in Bartolo. What’s the Speaker want with this one, anyway?” Sirna stood, brushing crumbs off his shirt.

“I don’t know. I don’t want to know.” The man loosened the ropes hobbling his horse and fitted the saddle back on. “I suggest you be just as incurious.”

None of them knew?

Ava had thought Sirna was the one who’d made the spoon, fork and rope, had enspelled Eckhart, but clearly not.

If he hadn’t known how much damage the rope would do to her, that made sense.

She didn’t trust he wouldn’t use it again, though.

He would do whatever he thought he could get away with, as long as it made his own life easier.

Maybe Evelyn would stop him, although she still didn’t know how the woman fit in.

The man seemed to come to the same conclusion. “Maybe I should take the rope with me. Its owner wants it back as quickly as possible. And the net.”

“And leave me with no way to keep her quiet if things get dangerous?” Sirna’s whine was back. “You don’t think they’ll be sending someone after her?”