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Thea followed his gesture to a patch of the distant valley that was discernible from the rest. ‘Yes.’

She heard his deep intake of breath. ‘The immortal Warsword I mentioned on the way to Delmira… He lives up there.’

Thea frowned, dread prickling in her gut. ‘I thought you were going to take me? When I mastered my magic. I haven’t done that.’

‘No, you haven’t.’

‘Then why are you telling me?’

‘So you know, just in case.’

‘Just in case what, Wilder?’ She bit out the words, her chest suddenly tight. What did he know that she didn’t?

Wilder didn’t respond. Stubborn bastard.

Thea heaved a frustrated sigh. ‘This immortal, he won’t fight with us? He won’t answer Tver’s call for aid?’

Wilder shook his head. ‘He’s no longer an active Warsword. There are only three of us left, remember?’

‘Not for long,’ Thea said.

‘No, not for long.’

‘But in the meantime, he won’t do anything? He won’t help us?’

‘No.’

Thea shook her head in disbelief. ‘He took a vow…’

‘We all take vows, Thea.’

Her heart hammered. ‘Are you saying they’re worth nothing? That the word of a Warsword is fickle? Thatyourword is fickle?’

‘That’s not what I said.’

Thea’s eyes narrowed as she took in the warrior, fierce and unflinching in his saddle. Gods, she had never intended for him to mean so much to her, but he did. Wilder understood something deep within her, and somewhere along the way, he had become a part of her. But he had grown distant again, his gaze trained forward. It made her chest ache. How could he not see what he was doing to her, tothem? She preferred the furious fighting and fucking to this.

Wren joined her with a frustrated sigh of her own and Thea felt the first patter of rain break from the clouds above.

She looked from the greying sky to her sister. ‘This you?’

‘Yes,’ Wren said between clenched teeth.

‘Well, would you mind? I’d rather not arrive in Tver looking like a drowned rat.’

‘I was trying to open it up just on the Bear Slayer.’

Thea’s brows shot up in surprise. ‘Your control is that good?’

‘I managed it in Thezmarr.’

‘And now?’

‘Well, as you’ve so acutely pointed out: now it’s just raining on all of us, isn’t it?’

Thea was sure she heard a huff of laughter from behind them, but she didn’t dare look back, lest it infuriate her sister further.

‘Are all Warswords this aggravating?’ Wren hissed.