Page 81 of Witchshadow

“If uniting us is all that matters,” she asked slowly, “then why did you let Iseult leave?” She had already asked this question; he had already given answers. Yet now, those answers seemed inadequate. False, even. Andnowshe had enough of her magic to prove it.

She advanced on Leopold and thrust her face close to his. He was a graceful, beautiful man, but not a tall one. Safi’s nose almost touched his. “You let Iseult go.Why,Polly?”

He drew in a long breath, but did not back away. Did not avert his eyes. “I told you—” he began.

“Tell me again.”

“I could not risk being caught.”

“Why?”

A slight twitch on his cheeks. He preserved his silence.

“If you expect me to travel with you across Cartorra, Polly, then I need to trust you. So far, you have helped me—I won’t deny that. But nothing you’ve done has given me reason to believe anything you say. You are manipulative, you play games, you were trained by Henrick to bejust like him.”

Still, Leopold said nothing. As the heartbeats passed, a coldness settled over him. His jaw hardened, his eyes turned flinty.

“Make me trust you, Polly.Please.Or I swear I will leave without you.”

His nostrils flared. He spoke at last: “I will not and cannot deny anything you’ve said, Safiya, but may I remind you of a few pertinent details?” He dipped his head closer. His voice dropped low. “I am the reason the Bloodwitch monk did not catch up to you in Nubrevna. I am the reason Iseult escaped Tirla alive. I am the reason she escaped the Monastery and reached Cartorra—reachedyou. AndI, Safiya, am the reason you have that Truth-lens draped across your neck.

“Did all events unfold according to my plans? No. I did not foresee the internal war at the Carawen Monastery. I did not anticipate Henrick’s decision to imprison your uncle, I did not expect Henrick to noose you, and I certainly did not thinkyouwould be so foolish as to attempt noosing him. But when I say that everything I do is for you and Iseult, I am not lying. You know that I am not.”

With stiff, angry movements, he hooked a finger beneath Safi’s collar and withdrew her Truth-lens. The brass casing scraped across her chest.

“This tells you I speak the truth, does it not?”

“It tells me you do not lie.” Safi’s words were as quiet as his had been—and just as razor-sharp. Fourteen years she had known Leopold, yet this was the first time she’d ever trulyseenhim. He was lethal, he was cold, and he was accustomed to having his way.

“I do not lie.” He released the necklace, though his hand continued to hover near her throat. “And I do not lie when I say that I will transport you to the Solfatarra.Safely,even if it means I must give up my own life along the way.”

Safi held his eyes for several long moments. She did not breathe; nor did he. The quartz and threads across her collarbone still did not hisslieto her—and she was, as he must know, out of options. She needed to leave the palace, she needed to reach the Solfatarra, and it would be infinitely safer, infinitely easier if she had Leopold at her side.

“I have trusted you this far,” she said at last. “And I will continue trusting you to the end.”

He finally lowered his hand. “Good.” His lips bounced with a barely perceptible smile. “We will leave tomorrow night, then. Be ready and say nothing to the Hell-Bards.” He didn’t wait for Safi to acknowledge this command before he turned away from her and resumed his forward stride.

It wasn’t until hours later, however, when Safi was in her own room once more and nestling into bed, that she realized Leopold had never actually answered her question. He had given her a list of reasons to trust him, but he’d never actually saidwhyhe had let Iseult go.

Oh, he was clever.

He had tricked her magic very handily indeed, and she had swallowed every word like a good child taking her medicine.

She would have to be careful once they were on the road.Very safe, very alone.

Iseult and Owl traveled for hours, following the weasel wherever she led. A steady pace, occasionally slowed so Owl could catch her breath or Iseult could check the Hell-Bard map. But they always quickly resumed as silver Threads came near.

Though never so near that Iseult or Owl had to sprint. Never so near that Iseult could sense what the creature actuallywas.It always remained just on the edge of her sensory awareness and moved only when she and Owl did. For some reason, that made it far more terrifying. Clearly it was sentient, clearly it was calculating.

While Iseult and Owl half walked, half jogged, Iseult told more stories.Long ago, when the gods walked among us,she always began breathlessly, before moving on to whatever tale she could remember best. Sometimes they were Nomatsi, sometimes Cartorran adventures that Safi had shared, about ghosts and ancestors and secret royalty stolen by kings. Iseult liked those stories best. She could almost pretend it was Safi sharing them. Safi hurrying by her side.

And those stories became Iseult’s grounding stone as much as they were Owl’s.

But as midmorning light began to suffuse the towering forest, the second sunny day in weeks, Iseult could no longer ignore two important truths. First, the unknown monster still trailed. And second, she and Owl could not continue this journey forever. Owl grew clumsier by the minute, the pain in her Threads seeping brighter, brighter, until all that remained was a thunderous, pulsing gray.

“We are almost to safety,” Iseult told her after checking her Hell-Bard map for the thousandth time. The crescent lake was only a mile away, and surely,surelythey could find some way across. Some way that the silver-Threaded creature could not follow. “It’s like when Moon Mother and Little Sister got trapped in the storm. Do you remember that story, Owl?”

A muffled yes. A flare of interest in the child’s Threads.