"You're hiding her?" Gabe released me and let out a low whistle. "Things just got more interesting. Does she have a name?"
"Not yet."
Gabe circled Kestra, taking her in. He didn't seem to recognize her, and nothing in her appearance would give her away. Her dress was beneath what the poorest girls of Antora would wear. Her hair had been combed out with her fingers. It fell loose over her shoulders, which a Dallisor would have considered unacceptable. She also had my knife again, and was holding it in a tight grip.
But if Gabe knew any details of the mission, it wouldn't take him long to guess at who she was.
"I won't defy the captain," Gabe said. "Sorry, Simon. Not even for you."
"I'm not asking you to defy him." I shuffled forward, aware of the bruising on my ribs. "I'm only asking for time to talk to him. Please, Gabe."
He smiled at her again. "Is her name Alice? She looks like an Alice."
"Call her whatever you'd like. Just help me."
Gabe hesitated, and Kestra groaned, losing her patience. "He won't help. I'll find someplace to go on my own. All I want is the ... item I came for. After that, I'll leave. Tell Tenger that."
"Tell him yourselves," Gabe said as Tenger's horse approached along with three other riders and one cart. Trina was on the captain's right flank, and the cart was pulled by the man Kestra had stabbed that first night, Pell. His glare was murderous, but it was nothing compared to Tenger's icy expression. In response, Kestra's knife twisted in her hand, ready for action.
Tenger's eyes barely brushed over me before they settled heavily on Kestra. "Take her," he ordered his men. "Our business with this girl is not finished."
I had thought I was prepared to face Captain Tenger, but something in the set of his jaw stopped my heart. My grip glove was on his right hand, which deepened the pit in my stomach. Beside me, Simon went tense too. He shouldn't have, not if he still considered himself a Corack. Did he? I tried reading Simon's stony expression, but failed. He wasn't giving up any secrets here. Neither would I.
Tenger's men jumped off their horses with disk bows in hand. Some of the disks they held were far more dangerous than the silvers, and illegal for anyone but Dominion soldiers. Simon probably wouldn't draw his sword against other Coracks, but I had a knife and a simpler morality about using it. If they started a fight, I would finish it.
"She came here to talk with you!" Simon called. "Not to be attacked."
"What attack?" Trina asked, still on her horse beside Tenger, and wearing her usual charming glare. "We just want to talk without her waving a knife at us. Drop it, Kestra."
"Kestra ... Dallisor?" Gabe turned to Simon. "You brought a Dallisor here? Are you insane?"
Maybe he was. Or from everyone's reactions, I was beginning to wonder if I was the one who'd gone mad. Tenger's smug posture only irritated me further.
"You left Simon for dead." I raised the knife, mostly in defiance of Trina. "I saved him. I also gave you the Olden Blade, as we agreed. In exchange, I want my servants back."
"Ah yes, you want Celia and Darrow." Tenge
r looked around him with an amused expression. "Did we bury her driver yet? I can't remember."
"Is Darrow alive?" I knew how desperate I sounded, and that giving away my emotions weakened my leverage to negotiate. But I was desperate, and could never pretend otherwise. "Is he?"
"Barely." Tenger became serious again. "I doubt he's well enough to travel. Perhaps we can find you a comfortable place to stay until he gets better."
A comfortable place to stay? Was it comfortable behind Corack bars? Because I suspected that's what Tenger had in mind.
Keeping the knife where everyone could see it, I said, "Provide me with a wagon, and Darrow and I will leave tonight."
Tenger clicked his tongue. "What a pity. I'm afraid we've recently run out of wagons. But if you'll talk with me, answer my questions, then by the time we're finished, I may be able to locate something with wheels. Perhaps also some food and blankets for your journey ... home."
That last word was meant to injure. Home was no longer an option for me, and he knew it.
"Let me speak to Darrow," I said. "After that, you and I can talk. It's that simple."
"That simple?" Trina raised a brow. "We don't trust you."
"But you do trust me." Simon shuffled forward. "I promise I will not let Kestra do any harm to the Coracks."
It was a carefully worded phrase. He hadn't promised to tell them who I really was, or even that he and I had become something more than ... whatever we had been a few days ago. Simon had only made the promise he knew he could keep. Because I wasn't here to hurt the Coracks, or to add to my list of enemies. But I wouldn't leave without Darrow.