His uncle studied her for a minute. “Will’s right. If anyone looks at her close up, they’ll know right away. Even at a distance, her walk will give her away.”
“Because of her butt,” Sammy declared gleefully, wiggling her hips.
“Samantha, would you like to do the wash a day early?” warned Erisa.
Sammy ran out the door. “Nope!”
Johnathan rubbed his beard. “There is one other option. There are some women in the camp. If we dress her like one of them, she might not seem out of place.”
Erisa shook her head. “I still have a dress that would probably do, but trust me, even if they didn’t suspect her, she would draw far too much attention that way.”
“What women?” asked Will. He’d never seen any in the Terabinian camp, aside from Selene and Lord Nerrow’s daughter.
There was a brief silence, then his uncle answered, “The comfort women.”
“Comfort women? I don’t think we had those at the camp I was in. What do they do?”
“That’s because Branscombe was right there,” said Johnathan.
“And how would you know that?” asked Erisa sharply.
His uncle held up his hands. “Don’t look at me! I’m a married man. I’d never do that to Doreen.” He stopped then, a look of pain on his face as he remembered he wasn’t married any longer. “I’ll go make sure Sammy isn’t getting into trouble out there.”
Will felt bad for asking. He’d figured out the general meaning from his uncle’s remarks, but it was the reminder of who they had lost that made him guilty. Erisa patted his shoulder. “It’s not your fault. These things just take time—a lot of time.”
Chapter 59
They left soon after that. Night was falling, and the sky dimmed rapidly after the sun dropped behind the mountains. Will was wearing his mail, and he stopped as soon as they were out of sight of the house.
“Don’t stop,” said Selene. “I won’t be able to see my feet in a few minutes. We need to hurry before the light gives out and we’re lost in these woods.”
“I can see in the dark,” Will reminded her.
“I thought you were bluffing. You know the spell?”
“There’s a spell?”
Selene sighed. “Yes, but I don’t know it.”
“I thought you trained at Wurthaven for years,” he replied, putting on a posh tone.
Selene hid a faint smile. “We don’t sound like that. I told you your acting was terrible. And no, I don’t know the spell, it’s a complicated one. I’d have to study it a while.”
“But you memorized the cleaning spell?”
She put her hands on her hips. “Which one do you think is used more often? I have yet to need a night vision spell, until today. Living in that army camp I needed the cleaning spell every day.”
“What do you do in the dark then?” he asked.
Selene put one hand out, and a brief collection of runes rushed together. A second later a gently glowing ball of golden light replaced them. She extinguished it a second later. “A simple light spell, but we can’t risk that tonight, can we?”
“Definitely not,” he agreed. “But don’t worry, as I said, I can see. I’ll guide you. There’s a game trail here, but the terrain is tricky.”
“All right,” she said after a second.
The path they took sloped downward—sharply in places—as it twisted and turned through brush and trees. Once the light had gone, Selene began to have trouble. She tripped several times and began to slide on particularly steep spots.
Will caught her wrist and anchored them by grabbing onto a scrubby bush. “Careful.”
“Can’t you teach me the trick to whatever you’re doing?”
“You just concentrate some of your turyn around your eyes and then shift its phase until you can see properly,” he told her.
She stared blankly at the spot she thought his face would be, though he was actually a few inches farther to the right. “How do you concentrate turyn in a particular part of your body?”
“The same way you do near your hand when you’re forming runes for a spell.”
“But…” She didn’t finish her sentence. Instead she remained silent, and he could see a look of concentration on her face, though her turyn didn’t seem to be moving. “I give up,” she announced.
“You might have to go through all the other weird shit he put me through first before you can do it,” Will theorized.
“Did he teach you that?”
“No. One of the fae did.”
“Are you going to explain that?” she asked. “In fact, we still haven’t talked about how we got here, or what that thing in the cave was.”
“Are you going to tell me who you were talking to the other night?” Selene remained silent. “How about this, are you going to report anything I tell you to whoever that was?”
In the dark, he could see her biting her lip. “Yes.”
“Then we’re done talking about those other things, but thank you for being truthful—this time.”
She growled, “I’d smack you if I could see where your face is.”
“At least we’re being honest with each other now,” he said brightly. “I don’t share any of my secrets, and you don’t tell me a thing about yourself.”
“You don’t trust me at all, do you?”
Will helped her around several bushes. “Actually, I trust you a little—now that we’re being honest—but I don’t trust whoever is pulling your strings.”
“You would trust him, if I could tell you.”
“Then tell me!”
“I can’t.”
He wanted to shake her, but he restrained himself. They had a mission to accomplish, so he held his tongue and continued leading her down the game trail. A few minutes later she spoke again. “I can’t tell you for two reasons. One, I’m bound by an oath, and two, once you know we won’t be able to be friends anymore.”
“You said I would trust him. Trusting and being friends goes hand in hand.”
“Not where I come from.”
He could see the lights from Barrowden beginning to show through the trees, though they were probably still too far away for Selene to see. Will stopped. “We’re close. You said you could make my armor quiet, right?”
Golden runes appeared over her hand, flowing together into a spell composed of around fifteen parts. Once they had connected, she reached out and pressed it against his chest, where it immediately fizzled out. As far as Will could tell, it hadn’t done anything. “Can you please stop doing that?” asked Selene.
“Oh, sorry.” He made a conscious effort to stop absorbing turyn. “Try again.”
She repeated the spell, and this time it sank into his armor and clothing, spreading out over his body. “It will last about an hour,” she told him. “During that time your clothing won’t make any sound. That includes your boots but doesn’t include your hands or any other part of your body that’s exposed.”
“Why not?”