Present

Koida was not used to exercising so strenuously, much less with food in her stomach. After less than twenty minutes of first running, then jogging, then sort of shuffling along, she vomited up the berries Hush had given her. The silent woman slowed her to a walk, patting her arm when Koida apologized.

Pernicious was less gracious. He trotted circles around her and bumped her shoulder with his enormous nose as if to ridicule her inability to sprint endlessly. Each time she tried to retaliate, he triggered his Darting Evasion, shaggy black fetlocks flaring with orange Ro flames, and danced out of her reach.

In spite of her frustration with the half-demon, Koida was looking forward to Hush finally indicating that they should climb up on Pernicious’s back and ride the rest of the way. Even ignoring the exercise, she was exhausted. The only sleep she’d managed the night before had been broken by nightmares and interrupted by every sound the forest made. She felt as if she were about to collapse.

Instead of the silent order to mount up, however, after several minutes of walking, Hush nodded to Koida and broke into a run once again.

Pernicious tossed his mane and whickered an almost human chuckle.

“You foundered nag,” Koida muttered before throwing herself after Hush.

They went on that way for the rest of the morning, running then walking then running again. Hush always seemed to know just when Koida was about to drop. Unfortunately, the silent woman also seemed to know just when Koida was able to breathe normally again, too.

When the sun stood directly overhead, its rays piercing the yellow leaves, they stepped out of the forest and onto a riverbank.

Lysander sat waiting for them, roasting a series of fingerling fish over a fire no bigger than a soup bowl. Slowly, he twisted the stick between his fingers to rotate the tiny fish over the flames. In his free hand, he held his flask.

Koida collapsed on a flat boulder while Hush slipped down to the river and splashed some water on her face, wetting the cloth mask and the fine hairs at the edges of her face.

“Haven’t given up training yet, princess?” Lysander asked, his tone an open mockery of a commoner addressing his betters.

She glanced at his flask. “Haven’t passed out yet, foreign devil?”

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Lysander laughed and toasted her. “They’re both just a matter of time.”

Koida braced herself on her elbows.

“Did I offend you or is it only that you’re a mean drunkard?” she asked, her words icy. “Should I expect you to get worse throughout the day?”

“I’m going to remain the same level of grouchy because my friend is going to remain the same level of dead. All for a spoiled child who thinks she deserves deference and special treatment despite never doing anything in her life but going to feasts and dressing for court.” Lysander squeezed the centermost fish on the stick appraisingly, then returned it to the fire. “A thousand apologies if I don’t prostrate myself in awe of your decision to train to kill anyone who wrongs you. I’ve seen the end of that path, princess, and you do not possess the stomach, the skill, or the never-emptying flask for it. I give it another hour before you’re asking me or Hush to kill your cousin for you.”

Rage scorched the inside of Koida’s chest like Pernicious’s Burning Heartcenter. Hush’s soft hand landed on her shoulder, but Koida shrugged it off and stood up. Glowering, she left them both behind and stalked down the bank to hide what felt suspiciously like building tears. No one had ever spoken to her so hatefully before, not even Shingti at her most brutally honest. Koida was furious and humiliated, mostly because she feared what Lysander said was true.

The river water was icy to the touch. Koida scooped a handful to her mouth. Was this still the Horned Serpent that they followed, the river that flowed down from the mountains past the Sun Palace? How many lifetimes ago she had spent the night by its twin waterfalls with Pernicious watching over her?

Her lookout point, hidden high on the cliff, had always felt the most natural place to be, high above the lights of Boking Iri. Watching but apart from. Seeing but not affecting. The perfect pursuit for a second princess with a crippled Ro. How in blade and death had she, of all people, become the only one who could repay Yoichi for his crimes?

Because Raijin saved me.

He should’ve saved Shingti. Batsai. Father. Anyone else. Anyone would have been better suited for this task.

“Don’t linger by the water too long, kid,” Lysander called after her. “There’s a rake gar under there waiting for some inexperienced child he can pull down for dinner.”

Koida scowled down at the water. Part of her wanted to stick her hand under and wait to be yanked under just for spite. Then something huge and dark moved in the deep blue hole just feet from her. She stood and left the water slowly, trying to show as little fear as she could manage.

After a meal of a few fingerling fish apiece, Lysander doused the tiny fire, burying its ashes with wet mud and rocks, then mounted up, this time riding Hush’s chestnut and leading his roan.

Koida knew what was coming before Hush indicated it. Her muscles were stiff from the time spent sitting and eating, and her side still hurt like a Ro Flying Knife had landed between her ribs, but she forced herself to stand and run.

That foreign drunkard could chatter like a monkey all he wanted. Lysander didn’t see her sister’s face every time he blinked. He didn’t hear Batsai’s death cry. Lysander didn’t feel the hatred for the half-brother she had once looked up to flowing through her veins like poison. If Lysander had, he would understand that she would never let someone else take the revenge that belonged to her. Wherever this path ended, she would reach it.