Gia laughed. “Can you even imagine? What do you think her face looked like?”
We both dissolved into giggles, clinging to each other as we staggered between the tents. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two young people I didn’t recognize watching us with a disdainful expression.
The sight of them sobered me instantly. If I didn’t recognize someone around my age, they must be nomads. And it made sense that the delegations would have brought apprentices of their own, just as we had.
Gia stubbornly refused to care about her position, but I couldn’t help feeling sensitive on her behalf. I straightened up, but since Gia was pointing out our tent, she didn’t seem to notice. She disappeared straight inside with a happy cry, while I lingered, throwing a backward glance at our audience. Neither of their expressions had changed, so I glared at them and slipped through the canvas opening myself.
Inside, it took my eyes a minute to adjust. As soon as they did, I caught sight of Karielle sitting on one of the beds. She beamed up at me.
“Isn’t it gorgeous?” She ran her hand over the soft material draped over the sleeping pallet. “Much nicer than I was expecting for a tent.”
Gia was rummaging through one of the bags, so I took a seat on the pallet across from Karielle.
“I certainly wasn’t expecting anything so fancy for myself. Are you sure I’m meant to be here, Gia?”
“Of course you are,” she called back without lifting her head out of the bag. “I insisted on having both of you. Father said my tent had to be here, in the center of camp, but I said I got to choose my tent mates.” She emerged at last, triumphantly holding a pair of soft shoes which she exchanged for her boots with a soft sigh of satisfaction.
“Thank you very much,” Karielle said. “I appreciate being included. This is much nicer than the tent the other female apprentices are sharing.”
“I was picturing this trip being a lot of work,” I admitted, rubbing my feet over the thick carpet that had been laid over the ground. “But it looks like the servants will be doing it, not the apprentices.”
“I think we all had a rough enough morning to deserve a little break,” Karielle said.
I turned to her. “How did you all go in the last barge? We were worried.”
She gulped, shaking her head. “It hit so fast. Out of nowhere. We nearly lost Blake over the side in the first few seconds, but Master Drake caught her. I’ve never seen him move so fast. After that we all got hustled into the cabin. Only Carissa was allowed to stay on deck to help the elements mages.” She swallowed. “I was sure we were going to sink.”
“I’m glad Drake was there.” I looked toward Gia. “Your parents aren’t going to move him to the front barge, are they?”
She shook her head. “They wouldn’t do that. Any future attacks are likely to come from that direction, and they won’t leave everyone else exposed.”
I nodded, breathing a little easier.
“I thought we didn’t know it was an attack?” Karielle narrowed her eyes at Gia.
The princess shrugged. “Something attacked us, regardless of whether it was directed to do so by another person.”
I rolled my eyes but didn’t protest the semantics. That was the life of royalty. How you talked about things mattered.
“So what now?” I asked.
“We’ve stopped early, so we get the afternoon off.” Gia looked delighted at the prospect.
The tent flap moved, Blake sticking her head inside.
“There you are, Kari! Master Augusta wants us all. Apparently we’re going to have normal afternoon lessons since we’re not still on the river.”
She wrinkled her nose while Gia grinned unsympathetically. But her smile dropped away when Blake’s gaze moved in her direction.
“You too, Gia. Master Drake is gathering the elements apprentices.”
“That’s outrageous!” she protested. “We just fought alongside the mages, didn’t we? We deserve some time off!”
“Maybe he wants to check you’re all right?” I suggested. “And discuss strategies in case it happens again.”
Gia gave me a dark look but subsided without further complaints, filing out of the tent behind the other two. From the glance she cast over her shoulder as she slipped through the opening, she considered me the lucky one.
But left alone in the tent, it didn’t feel that way. What was I going to do all afternoon?
A brief visit from Evermund lasted only minutes. He wanted to reassure himself that the reports from Annora were true and I was unharmed. As soon as he’d completed that duty, he was off again. No doubt he was wanted in urgent meetings with the king and delegate heads.
His visit, short though it was, reminded me of my true purpose in coming along on the tour. Ashamed for forgetting my sister, regardless of the extenuating circumstances, I resolved to search for her immediately.
Lying on the bed, I let myself take only a moment to enjoy the softness before closing my eyes and stretching out my awareness. Sweeping around the camp, I skimmed over each of the mages, servants, dignitaries, and guards.
I took an extra moment to linger around the nomads, trying to familiarize myself with their abilities so I would be able to detect any intruders. I didn’t stop too long, however, itching to begin the more important task of looking for any hint of Airlie. But after a full circle around the area, pushing to the far limits of my reach, I had to give up.
Sitting back up, I reminded myself that I hadn’t really expected to find anything. We were traveling south along the Viridian River, away from Calista. I was far more likely to find my sister after we had traversed the southern coast and started north again, up the Celadon. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to check each day, just in case.
Wanting a distraction, I left the tent, wandering through the camp aimlessly. Several large open-air tents without walls had been set up to house the cooks, who were already hard at work. The delicious smells drew me in their direction, but Zeke appeared from between two tents before I reached them.
“Cadence! I was wondering where you had gotten to.”
“Were you looking for me?” I frowned at him. “I thought Augusta was holding lessons for all her apprentices this afternoon.”
He grinned at me. “She is. But naturally I was needed for important nomad business.”
I raised an eyebrow, but his grin didn’t slip.
“You are important business, Cadence. For all of us.”
“I’d like to feel flattered, but somehow I don’t,” I said flatly.
He chuckled and grabbed my hand, pulling me between the tents. I let him lead me, wishing I wasn’t so aware of the warmth and strength of his hand in mine.
“It’s past time you tell me everything that’s been going on,” he said, as we ducked into a tiny group of trees on one edge of the campsite. “I am your influencing mage, after all.” He gave me a mock stern look.
I groaned. “I don’t even know where to start.”
“How about with a raider woman appearing in Evermund’s suite and then dropping dead?”
“How was that less than a day ago?” I rubbed my head. “It feels like a week, at least.”
Zeke gave me a look, so with a gesture of surrender, I told him everything that had happened since then. It was a relief to unburden myself of all my recent discoveries about my ability, and Zeke was an appreciative audience for the theories I had formulated.