He passes me a bowl made from pressed, dried leaves. It’s filled with rice and meat. I take careful bites and wait for Tovian to formulate his response.
“I wanted to see you again,” he says simply. “When I arrived at the encampment, Ephram told me you’d gone off to lead a mission. He didn’t trust me enough to tell me more than that, so I got myself some modern clothes and went to Oceanside. It didn’t take long for one of the pirates to assign me to a wagon train. I went along for the ride until I saw you in the marsh. I made sure you weren’t spotted.”
“I hate to think what might have happened if you hadn’t been there.”
He kisses my temple. “You’d have survived, Sunshine. It’s what you do.”
“Doesn’t feel like it,” I wince. Great golden goddesses, how did Lorcan put up with this kind of physical abuse, day in and day out, for years?
But I’m not thinking about him. “How long can you stay?”
Tovian glances at his hands.
“Not long. What’s your next move?”
“I need to check in with Saskaya and Raghnall.”
“Who?”
As succinctly as possible, I explain the new Covari leadership structure. With Cata dead in a plane crash, her sister has taken over the tribe—except that Sas is trapped in the Sun Temple with Lorcan’s comatose body. It’s not safe for her to try and get home, even if he could be left alone. “I call her every few days to check in.”
“Did Saskaya approve of your mission today?”
“She didn’t know about it, but she won’t care as long as I came through it alive. Covari don’t give a shit about injuries. She’ll be happy to know we’ve got more machine guns and ammunition now, even if nobody knows how to used them yet.”
Lorcan did. Cata did. The Royal Guards were trained to use modern weapons, too, but nobody has heard from them since the night of the invasion, either. Were they able to get to the stockpile locked in the castle?
Seems unlikely.
It does not look good for Zosia and her father, but I refuse to give up hope. We need her. Symbolically. Politically. I cannot lead this country alone. That’s supposed to be her job.
Ineed her back. I’ll be heartsick if I never get to see her happy and at peace after what she’s been through. Every day that goes by without word from her is making me more anxious.
“We’ll talk in the morning about your next steps,” Tovian rubs my forearms. “Get some rest, Sunshine.”
#
At dawn, I roll out of the wagon still feeling stiff but otherwise much better. Stumbling to the first wagon in our caravan, I discovered Tovian consulting with Luza over a pile of maps.
“We’ll have slowed the pirates down substantially,” she says with satisfaction, “It’ll take them forever to move their cargo across the river now.”
“You know what would take them even longer?” Tovian pointed to a narrow spot where the estuary becomes the Great Rielka River. “Disabling the ferry.”
“But that would make it difficult for us to get across, too.”
“What if we hide it?”
“The entire ferry?” Luza frowns.
“We could ride hard to the ferry, take it apart, make it look like sabotage, and replace it with a rope-and-barge system a bit downriver.” Tovian points to the map, further down. “It’s not as efficient to cross that way, but we’ll have the advantage for as long as we can keep its existence a secret. A rope and platform could be hidden in the reeds.”
Luza props her chin on her fist, considering. “The next ferry is forty kilometers upriver. It’ll take the invaders at least three days to regroup and make their way up the eastern side.”
“Longer if we can strafe them from the Boscage.” Tovian grins. I can’t help but match it. He’s so drawn to all things modern. It’s cute.
But it also makes me wonder if I’m only interesting to him because I represent access to a world he wants to experience. My smile fades.
I duck my chin.
