Page 68 of Quicksilver

“I was unconscious for ten days. Are you planning on carting him around on the back of your horse for days on end?”

“No,” he said simply.

“What do you mean, no?”

“I mean no, I'm not planning on doing that. You were on the verge of death. That's why you took so long to wake up. And we won't have to ride any further to get where we're going, so your friend's career as a saddle bag has already come to an end.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“Home.”

“Andwhereis home?” I pressed, my frustration levels rising.

He took a deep pull from his beer, the muscles beneath the tattooed skin of his neck working. “The place where I was born.”

“Urgh! Do you have to be so difficult?”

His eyes danced. “It isn't mandatory, but I do enjoy it.”

“Kingfisher!”

“I'm taking you to the borderlands, Osha. A small fiefdom at the very edge of Yvelian territory. A place called Cahlish.”

Cahlish? I'd heard the name mentioned multiple times. Everlayne had wanted Ren to take Fisher back there before he could be discovered in the Winter Palace. Belikon had said Fisher could stay in the palace for a week before he had to go back there.

“Is that wise? The King was sending you there, anyway. Won’t he just show up there, looking for us?”

Fisher shook his head. “My father and Belikon had a long history. He saw what Belikon was planning long before hemurdered the royal family and stole the crown for himself. He took precautions and warded his lands so that neither Belikon nor any of his supporters could cross into them. He was powerful, and his wards were strong. They remain as solid as ever. Belikon can travel to the borders of Cahlish, but he can’t enter. As long as I live and carry on my father’s line, he never will.”

Well, that was great news. But therewereother things to worry about. “Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that Cahlish was a battlefront,” I said.

“It is.”

“No. But. An actual war zone.”

Fisher fished a fleck of floating debris out of his beer. “That's right.”

“So you make a big speech about keeping me safe in order to save your friends,” I said slowly, “andthenyou tell me you're dragging me right into the middle of an open conflict?”

“Sound like fun?”

“How the hell am I supposed to stay alive in the middle of a war zone, Fisher?”

When he laughed this time, the sound was hollow. “By sticking close, Osha.Reallyclose.”

I drank three beers and fed Onyx most of the meal Fisher ordered for us under the table. The smoked meat stew made my mouth water, but I could barely swallow it down. Carrion Swift was in the barn outside. Carrion fucking Swift, when I had wanted Hayden. I was locked into a blood oath, and I hadn'tgotten what I'd bargained for in the slightest. Best case scenario, my brother was still trapped back in Zilvaren, hungry, thirsty, and looking over his shoulder every other second for Madra's guardians. Worst case scenario, he was already dead because of me, and there was nothing I could do to make it right. So yes. My appetite was non-existent.

Ren showed up two hours after our bowls of stew were cleared away. I saw him enter, his tall frame filling the tavern doorway, his long sandy hair wet from the snow. A wave of relief slammed into me. At last, a voice of reason.

Belikon's general saw me first, still tucked away in the corner by the fire, and the tension between his brows instantly lifted. When he saw Kingfisher's back, the cowl of his cloak still concealing his features, he broke out into a smile so full of relief that it made my chest ache. My expression must have matched Ren's when I’d thought for those few moments that Fisher had brought Hayden back with him. Those few blissful moments when I'd thought my brother was alive and safe...

Gods.

Kingfisher turned to meet his friend right as he arrived at our table, a broad, genuine smile on his face. He stood, and Ren pulled him into a tight hug, clapping him on the back. When the general let him go, holding him at arm's length, he huffed sharply down his nose and patted Fisher's cheek. “You, my friend, are officiallyfucked.”

“Everlayne’s spitting mad. She's never going to talk to you again. What were you thinking?” Ren had his own beer now,which meant I had a fourth sitting in front of me, too. I didn't feel remotely drunk. I was tired, and sore, and irritated beyond comprehension, and I wanted my bed back in the Silver City. Wanting was a fool's game, though, and Ren had come with news, so I pulled myself together and leaned in close to listen to the hushed argument that was taking place between the two males.

“We had a plan,” Ren hissed.