“That’s obvious.” She folded her arms. “It’s because you’re arrogant, and can’t trust anyone but yourself, and because you’re a fool.”
A smile crept onto my face. “Well, I wouldn’t have worded it exactly like that.”
She was less amused. “I came because you can’t be alone here. You need help, even if you don’t understand that yet.”
“If that’s true, then I don’t want that help from you. You should have trusted my decision!”
Imogen’s face reddened. “You dare speak to me about trust? I appreciate your looking out for my safety back at the castle, but the way you did it is inexcusable. Why couldn’t you have trusted me with the truth?”
Unfortunately, there was a very good reason for that. I lowered my eyes and said, “It’s because I needed you to believe me too. I needed you to go and never look back.”
She fell silent and her lashes fluttered while she considered how to answer. Finally, she said, “I did believe you, until Amarinda and I began discussing the assassination attempt. Knowing you as well as I do, the rest of your plan became obvious then, as did your reasons for sending me away so cruelly.”
“Forgive me.” She probably couldn’t, and I wouldn’t blame her for that. “Everyone was supposed to think I was going into hiding.”
“But anyone who knows you would never believe it.” She paused and read the question in my expression. “You never run, Jaron. Not from Conner, not from a sword fight, and certainly not from your own castle. You wouldn’t run, so we knew you must be using it as an excuse to come here.”
That stoked my anger. “If you knew all that, then you knew I was trying to get you away from the danger. And yet here you are in the center of it! Aren’t you afraid?”
“Of course I am. But not for me.” She knitted her eyebrows together. “Amarinda thinks you’re going to try stopping the pirates on your own. Exactly how do you plan to do that?”
I stuck out my jaw but refused to answer, mostly because the details of that plan were still a little vague. Instead I said, “As your king, I order you to leave this place.”
“I’m already under orders. I’m not to leave here without you.”
“Amarinda’s orders?” That was infuriating.
“She asked me to do whatever I could to help you be safe. She said you wouldn’t listen to anyone else, but maybe I could get you to leave before it’s too late.” Imogen arched her neck. “If you force me to choose which order to obey, it’ll be hers. Because she’s right. You shouldn’t be here.”
No words could describe the anger I felt. I’d known Amarinda and Imogen had become friends, but this felt nearly as disloyal as Gregor asking for a steward.
Imogen reached out, but I turned away from her. Then it occurred to me that too much time had passed since I left Agor. “If you’re here to help me, then I need the meat cleaver from the kitchen. And if anyone asks, you’ve got to say that I stole it.”
Imogen rolled her eyes, then opened the door to leave. I grabbed her arm as she started to walk out and said, “This isn’t over between us.”
“No,” she said with equal ferocity. “It’s not.”
I returned to Agor a few minutes later and handed him the cleaver. In my other hand was a warm roll. He grinned. “Did you have any trouble?”
“The cleaver was easy. Getting past one of your girls was a little more work.”
“Leave them alone, or it’ll be the last thing you do here. Follow me.” Agor led me into a small, dark hut. I paused in the doorway, seeing several other pirates already crowded into the room. Erick was there too, but he barely looked at me. That wasn’t a good sign.
“Sit.” Agor pulled out a chair in front of a small table.
I sat. My hand brushed against my belt where I hoped my knife or sword would have magically appeared, but of course they weren’t there. I wished I’d kept the cleaver, but Agor had it and held it in a way that made me uncomfortable. Had Erick failed to convince them to accept me?
o;Where are we going?” I asked.
“Erick insists you know where Carthya stores its treasure. But if you have access to all this gold, why come to Tarblade? You know you’ll lose all of it to us.”
I smiled. “It got me here, didn’t it?”
“Do you think you can handle the life of a pirate?”
“I’d suggest you ask whether the pirates can handle me.”
Agor cocked an eyebrow, but still looked doubtful. “You claim to be a good thief. I want to see that for myself.” He pointed to the jail. “Go back there. Let’s see if you can steal the keys from the vigil and get your friend out without anyone stopping you.”