They dismounted. Lina swung her right leg over Chewy's back, then hesitated, clinging to the saddle with her feet still short of the ground.
Hands closed around her waist. She startled, fingers tightening on the leather as Galdreth lowered her until her boots met solid earth. For a moment, his grip remained. When he finally released her, his hand brushed along her arm, paused, then abruptly withdrew.
"Lina?"
She turned. Frown lines creased his forehead.
"Yes?"
"Are you all right? Your skin feels like ice."
Lina placed a hand on Chewy's neck and jerked it back. The warmth shocked her, as though she'd plunged cold fingers into boiling water.
"Must be the travel and exhaustion," she mumbled.
She rubbed her arms. A cool, prickling sensation rippled beneath her skin. Pale threads of light flashed along her forearms, gone before she could look closely.
Something was wrong. Not just with the world, but with her.
Fin drew a blanket from his saddlebag and handed it over while Sofia approached a guard.
"Thanks."
Lina wrapped it around herself, grateful for the shelter from the breeze, though the chill beneath her skin remained.
"Is there an inn you recommend?" Sofia asked.
"Only one. Between the apothecary and the lord's manor. The Waning Moon. Might not have many rooms with the harvest festival on."
"Strange name for a place like this," a second guard called. "Always thought it should've been Harvest Moon."
The first guard looked at Lina.
"Is she ill?"
He took a step back.
"No." She offered a watery smile. "Tired from the long ride."
He eyed their dusty clothes and tired faces before returning his attention to her. His mouth opened as though he meant to ask another question, then he cleared his throat.
"Go on. More people coming in."
A group pressed behind them, waiting to speak to the guards. Lina bowed her head politely and followed Fin. The guard's attention lingered on her ashen skin and the dark circles beneath her eyes. As she passed, his mouth twisted into something that wasn't quite a smile.
Merchants called from their stalls, offering apples, wheat, and fresh cuts of meat. Fin shook his head when a woman held out a bag of flour for a silver coin.
Lina hugged the blanket closer. She could still feel the guard looking at her, as though he'd been searching for something she hadn't known to hide. Sofia noticed her rubbing her arms but said nothing.
I need a new warmth rune.
Galdreth followed with Chewy and his own horse. Lina considered asking for the reins, then decided she'd likely lead the mare over someone's foot. She turned back toward the market.
Carts rattled along the hard-packed road. Farmers sat on sacks of grain, hats pulled over their eyes as they slept in the morning sun. Around them, voices competed for attention.
"Something happened in Eryndor's capital."
"Council's involved."
The bond tightened in her chest. The sensation came before she'd made sense of the words. She pressed a hand to her throat. Was she afraid for her safety, or afraid of what they might discover? She couldn't tell which was worse.
What happened in the capital?
If Raithe heard, he didn't answer. He'd been silent since they entered Briarwood.
"Long road in?" asked a passing woman in thick skirts.
"Long enough." Lina managed a smile.
The woman paused in front of her, looking more closely. Lina brushed the hair from her eyes and met her gaze. After a moment, the woman nodded and stepped around her, a little too quickly.
Lina frowned. It had been a simple answer. Yet something in the woman's expression had changed, as though she'd said the wrong thing.
The Waning Moon stood farther along the street, its painted sign worn pale around the edges. Lina reached for Chewy's reins, intending to lead her into the stables, but Galdreth placed a hand over hers.
"I'll handle it. You need to rest."
His hand lingered. Then he seemed to notice and pulled away.
"Sorry."
He hurried toward the stables with the horses. Lina flexed her fingers. The warmth of his touch remained, almost uncomfortable against her skin. She pressed her own hand to her forehead, but it told her nothing.
Am I falling sick?
She followed Fin and Sofia into the inn. People crowded around tables and stood over mugs of ale; only a few seats remained.
Conversations dipped as they entered. Not silence, just a lowering of voices that made Lina more aware of them. A man glanced up from his mug, then quickly away. Another watched her over his stew. Someone shifted a chair back as she passed, leaving more room than she needed.
"We don't stay longer than we have to," Fin said.
"Long enough to find out what's got this town jumping at shadows," Sofia replied.
"I brought enough coin for separate rooms. Doubt they've got them, with this lot."
"Where are you thinking of going after Briarwood?"
"Thought you'd tell us."
Sofia laughed. "All these years asking you to join us, and now you'll go?"
They talked around Lina instead of to her. Could she leave them and go her own way? Where would she even go? The question knotted beneath her ribs. Surely she had the right to choose, though every road seemed to lead somewhere someone else had decided.
She let their conversation fade and listened to the whispers.
"They let him in."
"No resistance."
"Walked straight through the gates."
Lina took a shaky breath. For a moment, she wasn't in the inn. Stone lay beneath her armored boots. A blade rested in her hand, and a man trembled before her. She knew what came next.
She shook herself.
Fin was speaking to the innkeeper. Sofia stood beside her, eyes narrowed.
"You're not looking at the same room we are."
Lina met her searching gaze, unsure what to say.
"Enough," Fin interrupted. "I have a room for us."
Upstairs, Lina set her bag beside the fireplace. Fin watched her movements without comment.
You shouldn't stay, Raithe said. They're starting to notice.
Notice what?
She waited, confusion tightening into frustration. What was happening to her? And why did she believe his warning so easily, as though the certainty had begun inside her own mind?
She remembered what he'd told her in the garden.
You said this connection didn't seem harmful.
No answer came.
Lina went to the window. Colored cloth hung between buildings, and people were stringing lanterns overhead. Faint music drifted up from the street.
The festival should have soothed her. From the second-floor room, she could almost pretend she was simply a traveler with an afternoon to spare.
"He looked normal."
"What if there are more?"
A woman sweeping the inn's front step lowered her voice.
"How would we know?"
The women gathered around her glanced at passing travelers. When someone approached the entrance, they moved well aside. A man stepped out of a stranger's path and remained there after the stranger had gone.
Lina ran her fingertips along the windowsill. Even the wood felt unusually warm.
"We should leave tomorrow," Fin said.
"Not before we understand what's happening."
"You can find that out tonight."
"During the festival?"
"Half the town will be too drunk to think. You could probably ask the lord himself."
"Fine. I'll send a letter to my contact. But if we don't learn anything, we stay another day. Undead in your inn, a royal messenger here in Briarwood—I don't want to go farther without knowing what happened."
Fin huffed.
Neither asked Lina what she wanted. She kept her fingers against the sill, listening to them decide. Even if she left on her own, she wasn't sure she'd escape the feeling that something had already chosen a direction for her.
Below, the villagers' whispers grew more fearful. The thread in her chest tightened, then loosened.
Fear tinged the air, sharp and metallic against her tongue. Yet beneath it stirred something she didn't understand.
Anticipation.
Lina drew her hand from the warm wood.
What was coming for her now?