Aren stepped closer to the training soldiers to say something to the woman leading the exercises, and Lara leaned forward to catch what it was. When she did, a piece of debris slipped off the roof of the barracks, landing with a soft thud on the ground.
Aren turned on his heel, one hand going to the weapon belted at his waist, the other shoving back his hood.
Lara froze. Dressed in black clothes, she was hidden in the darkness atop the roof. Unless someone held up a lantern to investigate a noise.
With the toe of his boot, Aren nudged the fallen bit of branch and leaves. Lara silently willed him to look away. It’s nothing. Just foliage knocked loose by the wind. Happens a hundred times a day. But even as she did, she could relate to the sixth sense that was telling him something wasn’t right.
“Someone bring a lantern over here. And a ladder. I think we’ve got snakes on the roof again.”
Pulse roaring in her ears, Lara eased backward, her fingers clutching the slimy stone of her perch. He’d hear even the slightest noise, but if she didn’t move fast . . .
A horn sounded in the distance, and the Ithicanians—Aren included—stopped what they were doing and turned in the direction of the water. Another horn sounded, this one closer, and Aren gave a sharp nod. “Amaridians are on the move.” He started shouting out orders, but Lara couldn’t afford to stay to listen. Dawn was approaching, and she needed the cover of night to get back into the house undetected. And she needed to be inside by the time the sun was up, or her absence would be noted.
Easing around the back of the barracks, she jumped, catching hold of a tree branch that really needed to be cut back. From tree to tree, she climbed, then dropped into the shelter of the jungle. Using the route she’d established on her first night, she cut over to the path leading up to the house, moving as fast as she dared on the muddy earth.
Gorrick and Lia were guarding the exterior, and she silently circled until she found a place out of sight of both of them, then scaled the wall, crawled over the roof, and dropped into the courtyard. Easing inside through her cracked window, she swiftly scrubbed the mud from her boots and clothes, putting everything back in the wardrobe where it could dry undetected.
A knock sounded at the door, the lock rattling. “Your Grace? It’s dawn.”
Taryn. The woman was like damned clockwork. Since her perceived failure to watch Lara while they were staying at Nana’s house, Taryn was intent on redeeming herself by monitoring Lara like a hawk. She slept in the hall outside Lara’s door—would’ve slept right next to her bed if Lara hadn’t gently noted that Taryn’s snoring rivaled the thunderstorms for volume.
If she didn’t answer, Taryn would likely break down the door. “Coming!”
Throwing on a robe and wrapping a towel around her hair, Lara trotted across the floor and opened the door. “Is something wrong? I heard horns?”
“Amarid,” Taryn replied vaguely, then her eyes narrowed. “Why is there mud on your face?”
“I was just washing it off. Certain muds are good for the skin. They cleanse the pores.”
“Mud?” Taryn gave her a dubious frown, then shook her head, passing a weary hand over her eyes before stepping into the room, giving it a once-over. “I’ve told you not to leave your window open. You’re asking to wake up with a snake under the covers with you.”
“I only opened it just now,” Lara lied. “It was stuffy in here.”
Taryn checked under the bed. “The storm’s blown over, so you can go outside if you want fresh air.” Then she flipped back the cover and swore, stepping back several paces. “What did I tell you?”
A small snake, black with yellow bands, was coiled in the center of the bed, hissing angrily at them. Muttering under her breath, Taryn stepped in the hallway and shouted for Eli, who appeared moments later, a long stick with a loop of rope at one end. He deftly caught the creature, the loop tightening around its neck, then departed as quickly as he’d come, snake in tow.
Apparently, Lara needed to add check room for snakes to her routine when returning from a reconnaissance mission.
Though there wasn’t much more to be gained from the roof of the barracks. Or from Midwatch, for that matter. It was a nearly impossible nut to crack unless her father could get someone on the inside. Ideally, that would be her, but she fully intended to be long gone before Maridrina invaded, her life as much in danger from her father’s soldiers as it would be from the Ithicanians once they realized she’d betrayed them. Which meant she needed to find an entry point other than Midwatch for her father to exploit.
“I’m going to nail your window shut.” Taryn stepped aside so that Eli’s aunt could enter with the breakfast tray, which was deposited on the small table. “Or else start locking Vitex in here with you at night.”
The thought of sleeping with the enormous cat watching gave Lara the shivers. “I’ll keep it shut. I promise.”
Sitting at the table, Lara loaded two plates full of food and then gestured at the other woman to join her, both of them drinking deeply from their steaming coffees. They’d grown increasingly familiar in their time together, Taryn easy to be around in a way that reminded Lara of her sisters. “Has Amarid attacked?”
“Not yet. They know they no longer have the element of surprise, so they’ll look for points of weakness.”
“Is Aren . . .”
“He’ll be on the water, making sure we have no points of weakness. Why?” Taryn smirked. “Miss him?”
Lara gave a snort of amusement that could be taken either way, but the wheels were turning in her head. Aren gone meant there was no one on Midwatch to tell her no. “I wanted to ask him something . . .”
“Oh?”
“I want to get used to being on the water.”
Taryn paused in her chewing of a mouthful of ham, then swallowed. “War Tides isn’t exactly the ideal time for sailing aimlessly about, Lara.”
Lara gave her a gentle kick under the table. “I know that. I was thinking I could sit in a boat in the cove. Then perhaps by the end of War Tides, I’ll have adjusted to the water enough that I might venture further without subjecting everyone to my vomiting.”
Taryn took another bite of meat, her brow furrowed. “There’s a lot of comings and goings right now . . .”
“Is there another location that would work better? I don’t want to be in the way.” And if there was another landing point on the island—perhaps one with fewer defenses —it might mitigate her need to find another entrance to the bridge.
“Nowhere with a proper beach.”
Lara exhaled in disappointment. “It’s only that I feel so trapped. I want to see more of Ithicana, but with my seasickness and my . . . fear, it seems impossible.”
Trapped the way Taryn felt trapped. Limited in where she might go and what she might do by circumstance and necessity. Lara watched her words strike home, the other woman setting down her fork, eyes distant as she thought. “I suppose we could try it for an hour and see if anyone takes issue.”
Lara grinned. “Let me wash the rest of this mud off my face, and then we can go.”
Three hours later, the two of them sat in a bobbing canoe, Lara trying to keep track of the goings-on in the cove while periodically leaning over the side to empty her guts.