“He went to a lot of trouble to get all that Curare,” Janco said. “I don’t think he’s worried about being civil.”
* * *
The rest of the evening passed without incident. When Yelena woke him for his watch shift, lines of strain marked her face.
Concerned, he sat up. “What’s wrong? Do you need something for the pain?” He kept his voice low so he wouldn’t wake the others.
“I already dipped into Leif’s goody bag,” she whispered.
“That bad?”
She waved off his comment, which meant it had been bad and she didn’t want to worry him. Too late. He’d never not worry about her.
Yelena settled next to him. “I’ve been thinking about Owen. He’s too smart to hire a couple of locals to transport the Curare vine from the hothouse to the river. Locals get curious, ask questions, gossip in the taverns. All things he avoided. Otherwise we would have gotten wind of his operation before.”
“You think he paid the brothers to bring us out here? Pretend they didn’t remember everything?”
“Yes.”
It made sense. “We knew it was a risk coming here.”
She agreed, but something was off. He studied her. Her movements were stiff, and she held herself as if she’d break. His own cuts throbbed, so he could only imagine how much more pain she was in. Despite that, he sensed another problem.
“You liked them,” he said.
A brief, wan smile. “Yes. And, even though I didn’t completely trust them, I relaxed and wanted to believe they were genuine. Did you know they lied?”
“I suspected, but thought finding one of the glass houses was worth the risk.”
“I know I should trust no one, but...it’s exhausting.”
Ah. The real reason for the melancholy. “You’ve been relying on your magic to assess people you meet and now that’s blocked, so you’re at a loss and probably second-guessing yourself. Right?”
She nodded.
“Then I’ll teach you how to read body language. Most people give themselves away when they’re lying.”
“Most people?”
“I’ve only encountered a few who can lie to me.” Eventually, he would discover the ruse, but, at the time, they’d convinced him.
“Who?” she asked.
“The Commander. Onora. The others are...gone.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Gone?”
“I don’t like being fooled.”
“And the Commander?”
Valek glanced at Onora. Curled up on her side, she appeared to be asleep. “The Commander’s lying is a more...recent event.”
“But he didn’t tell you about Owen.”
“Oh, he’s kept things from me before, but he’s never looked me in the eye and lied.”
“What changed?” she asked.
What indeed? “I suspect a few things.”
“Such as?”
“Not here, love. Janco’s far more interested in our conversation than his dreams.”
“Am not,” Janco said, not in the least embarrassed he’d been caught eavesdropping. “Besides, I don’t have dreams, I have nightmares.”
Before Janco could launch into a detailed description, Valek said, “Then we’ll let you get back to them.” He stood to allow Yelena to take his place under the blankets.
She untied his short cape and handed it to him. They’d have to buy her a new cloak to use during their trip to Ixia. Once there, she could reclaim her own cloak and give the new one to Reema. Too bad she didn’t have it with her before. The special resistant fabric of her garment would have stopped many of the smaller shards of glass.
Valek added a few logs to the dying fire. The air had grown quite cold. Then he moved away from the light, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness. He did a sweep of the surroundings and, when he was satisfied no one lurked nearby, Valek found a spot to watch over the camp until dawn.
When the sun rose, he woke the others. Janco grumbled. Onora said nothing as usual. Yelena sat up and winced, pressing a hand to her side. Valek insisted she drink a cup of Leif’s wet-dog tea. He checked her bandages. With a bit of sleight of hand, he rubbed a couple drops of the watered-down Curare along her injuries before applying fresh bandages.
“I saw that,” she said.
“No, you didn’t.” When she opened her mouth to protest, he said, “We have a long day ahead of us.”
They packed up and headed northeast, returning to follow the Sunworth River. At the first decent-sized town, Valek sent a message to Leif, warning him of the booby trap inside the glass houses while Yelena informed the local security forces about the dead gardener.
As they continued east, Janco asked him, “Are we going to keep searching for more of those hothouses?”
“No. Owen’s probably cleaned them all out. We’ll let Leif and Devlen hunt for the rest of them. We need to rendezvous with my team and locate that other tunnel into Ixia.” His team had expected him days ago, and he’d have to eventually report his detour to the Commander. At least they had collapsed the hidden tunnel located near Lapeer. Owen had been making a tidy profit by allowing smugglers to use his tunnels for a fee. Valek loved it when criminals turned greedy. It made his job of catching them so much easier.
“Then we should cross to the north side of the river,” Janco suggested. “The other tunnel was on that side near the Ixian border.”
“Ari said they traced the smugglers to the foothills of the Soul Mountains. We can travel faster on the road than in the forest.” Valek considered. The intel from Ari and his corps had only pinpointed one location. Janco had discovered the Lapeer tunnel by accident. It might be possible there were more. “Actually, you—”
“Don’t say it,” Yelena said.
Affronted, Janco asked her, “Would it kill you to give a guy a bit of praise?”
“If that guy is you, then yes. Humility is not one of your personality traits.”
“You’re just mad because now we’re going to travel through the woods, which means sleeping on the ground and not in an inn.”
“I can handle it better than you. Your joints crack and pop every time you stand up, old man.”
“Old man! I’m only seven years older than you.”
“Are you sure it’s not seven dog years? You have a lot of gray in your muzzle,” Yelena quipped, referring to Janco’s salt-and-pepper goatee.
“Every single one of these gray hairs is directly linked back to saving you or being involved in one of your schemes.”
“Oh no, you don’t. I distinctly remember the time...”
Valek ignored the rest of their bickering. Usually Yelena avoided verbally sparring with Janco, but, by the glint in her eyes, she enjoyed needling their friend.
Instead, Valek concentrated on the terrain along the northern bank of the Sunworth River. Not far from their location, the waterway turned southeast and became the actual border between Ixia and Sitia near the Soul Mountains. There wouldn’t be any bridges along that segment. Plus, the forest had been cut down for a hundred feet past the bank, so anyone attempting to cross