48. Kira
Chapter 48
Kira
KIDNAPPED
“ W ho in the hells are you?” the woman demands.
She probably means to sound tough, like she’s the kind of woman who knows how to use that tiny knife she’s holding. But she just sounds like what she is, a terrified noblewoman running from wolves in the middle of nowhere.
“I’m here for Reznyk,” I say.
She lowers her knife and frowns at me. “Why?”
I open my mouth. Close it. Open it again.
That’s a very good question, and I have no idea where to begin answering it.
“I— I owe him,” I stammer. “I came here to warn him?—”
“About the Towers?” she asks.
I blink. I know what she’s going to say. There’s no other reason why a carriage would be tearing through the Daggers in the middle of the night like all the nine hells were chasing them.
“I’m too late,” I whisper.
The woman slips her butter knife back into some secret fold in what was once probably a very expensive dress.
“The Towers took him,” she says.
Her voice trembles as she speaks. That little tremble cuts through my clothes like the north wind off the mountains.
She loves him too. She must. I feel so empty that the realization just bangs and bangs around inside of me. Reznyk must be The One for her too. She was the bait, just like Fyrris said in the Towers.
And that means Reznyk sacrificed himself to save her.
“Shit,” I say. It comes out as a whimper.
I close my eyes as a wave of exhaustion washes through me. I’ve been running since I told Benja I needed to visit the orphanage, and for what? Did I really think I could beat the Towers?
“He’s still alive,” the woman says. “They chained him, but they didn’t kill him.”
She pushes her hair back from her face and stares at me like she’s trying to evaluate what level of hell she’s going to have to wade through next. She looks tired, this woman Reznyk loves. Tired, cold, and very far from home.
“I have a plan,” she says, like she’s measuring her words with a silver spoon, “although I may need some help.”
Damn it. I so dearly wanted to hate Lady Lenore Castinac. I wave my hand in the air, telling her to go on. She smiles for the first time.
“All I need,” she says, smoothing down the front of her ruined evening gown, “is to get to a town.”
The expression on my face must reflect some of what I’m feeling, because she frowns.
“I am a daughter of Lord Castinac,” she declares. There’s an edge to her voice that implies I should be impressed by this. “Anyone living along the Ever-Reaching River will recognize that name.”
“Right,” I mutter. “No offense, but you don’t exactly look like a lady at the moment.”
She huffs, then tosses her head back. There’s a twig tangled in her long hair.
“I’ll tell them what happened,” she says, as though that’s obvious. “Anyone from any respectable family will leap at the chance to help the Castinacs.”
“What happened?” I say, although I’m certain I already know.
The Towers said they had the bait. Clearly, the trap worked.
“I was kidnapped,” Lenore says, with that same little tremble in her voice.
Her eyes grow wide. For just a moment, I can see exactly how she would look on the marble floor of some nobleman’s house. A beautiful woman in a ruined gown, holding back tears as she explains how desperately her very rich family must want her back.
“Great,” I reply. “And why the fuck do you need me, then? Am I your kidnapper?”
“You’re my handmaiden,” she replies.
I laugh. Lenore pouts, like she can’t understand what fault I could possibly find in her brilliant plan.
“You’re kidding, right?” I say. “You got kidnapped with your maid? Who in the nine hells is going to believe that?”
Lady Lenore clears her throat, then crosses her hands demurely in front of her waist.
“I would love to hear your plan,” she replies.
I sigh, then sink my teeth into my lower lip. Moonlight shines off the granite face of Desolation Peak. Somewhere up there is Reznyk’s cabin, maybe with the door bashed in and the windows shattered.
And Reznyk is in a carriage racing toward Silver City. And the woman he loves is here, asking me to help her get back home.
“Great,” I mutter again.
Some numb, distant part of my mind lurches toward the inevitable. Climbing to Reznyk’s cabin won’t help him now. But maybe, if I can make it back to Silver City, back to the Towers, I can do something. And hells, if Lenore’s plan doesn’t work out, I still have a dagger and a pile of shills.
I’ll think of something.