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The burst of amusement left her feeling light and energised.

A shadow darkened the tent’s entrance, and she forced the smile off her face and turned.

Gregor poked his head inside.

“It’s not leaking?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“I can’t keep watching the abuse, Avasu. I need to get you free of them.” His voice was low.

She held the blanket tight around herself and rose to her knees to face him. “If you hide me in your cart, or try to separate me from Sirna, hewillretaliate. Maybe you’ll beat him, but maybe he’ll hurt a few people before that happens.” She lifted her shoulders. “If Reckhart stands with him, it’ll be you against the two of them. Madame Croter and Vanin Gruger won’t be much help against them. They’re just liable to be hurt. And Sirna will keep following me. There’s too much on the line for him not to. I can’t risk going across into Grimwalt, not with the people waiting for me there, so you’ll have to leave me in Kassia at some point, and as soon as you do, he’ll grab me again. I don’t currently have the strength to outrun him.”

“There are plenty of places to hide in the forest. You wouldn’t have to outrun him.” Gregor’s face showed that her words of caution about a direct confrontation with Sirna were something he’d already considered.

She hesitated. “I will either have to outrun him, or find the item he used to capture me in the first place. The Grimwaldian who hired him to grab me called it a Focus. It can track me somehow. It’s in the cart.”

“That’s what you were looking for yesterday?”

She nodded. “If you want to help me, wait until dinner, send Melodie to find me, and have her proclaim me missing. Help search the camp for me, and watch closely to see if Sirna takes anything out of the cart to come looking for me in the forest.”

“Will you be missing?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I’ll have ‘collapsed’ by the stream. I don’t have the stamina yet to outpace him. I need to get rid of the Focus, then I can disappear.” If her magic was up to it. If it wasn’t, she was in serious trouble.

Rain was running in rivulets down Gregor’s face, plastering his thick dark hair to his head and dripping off his beard. He nodded, eyes sparking at the notion of finally doing something.

He withdrew, but Ava had barely settled back onto the pallet when Melodie crouched in front of the tent. “Can I come in?”

Ava nodded, sitting up and scooting over to give her space to sit next to her. She turned, so the little girl sat close, with her back to Ava. She tucked the blanket around them both and began to comb her hair with her fingers.

Since she had braided her own hair, she felt an urgent need to do the same for Melodie.

“Are you going to put magic in my hair again, like you’ve put into your?”

Ava paused. “I’m glad you see the magic in my hair. The rope took a lot of my magic from me, so it’s good to hear it’s coming back.”

“It looks strong,” Melodie told her, voice serious. “And pretty.”

“I hope what I put in your hair will be just as strong and pretty.” She focused on protection in both braids, though, trying to think of everything Sirna, Evelyn and Reckhart could do to her and protecting against it.

When she was done, they sat quietly for a while, listening to the rain on the canvas and the rumble of thunder.

“Da says he’s going to send me to get you from the tent at dinner and you won’t be here, and I’m to make a big fuss.” Melodie sounded excited, and Ava felt a lurch of fear.

“Yes,” she whispered back.

“Why?”

She thought about her answer. Decided to be truthful. It’s what she’d recommended to Gregor in his handling of his daughter. She would be a hypocrite not to do the same.

“I’m still not strong enough to run away, so I’ll have to escape Sirna by hiding in the forest. But I can’t do that until I get rid of or damage something he has that can find me no matter where I am.”

“Something magic?” she asked.

Ava nodded. “I heard the man who gave it to him talking about it. It’s something they took from my home in Grimwalt and then spelled to find me.”

“So you want him to be forced to use it to find you tonight so you know what it is?” Melodie was quick.