Page 77 of The Stolen Heir

“And yet they are mine,” he says.

I nod quickly, unsettled. “Very well. You throw first.”

We stop walking. He squats down and clears off the twigs and fallen leaves from a patch of grass. It feels like being children, like playing. It occurs to me that so many awful things in my life happened before that moment, and so many awful things in his life happened after.

The fox tumbles onto the ground, falling on its side. No points.

He looks over at me and raises his eyebrows.

I pick it up and throw, holding my breath. It falls on its side, too.

He reaches for it and I think he’s going to throw again, but he sets the fox on its back, with its legs pointing up. “You win.”

I shake my head, incredulous.

“You win,” he says again, more firmly. “Ask.”

Very well. If he is going to give me the game, I would be a fool not to take it. “Lady Nore asked for me in trade for Madoc, didn’t she?” I brace myself for his answer, or for whatever he does in place of giving me one. “That’s why you’re really bringing me north.”

His surprise is evident. “Is that what Bogdana told you?”

I nod.

He sighs. “No wonder you ran.”

“Is ittrue?” I ask.

He frowns. “What did she say, exactly? So that I may answer without evasion.”

“That Lady Nore offered to trade Madoc to the prince in exchange forthe very thing he is bringing north. A foolish girl.”

“Well, it’s accurate that Lady Nore offered to trade for what the storm hagthinksI am bringing north,” Oak says. “Mellith’s heart. That’s what she asked for, and if I’ve managed to convince Bogdana that I have it, so much the better. Maybe Lady Nore will believe it as well. But what the storm hag told you—she meant to trick you with the way she put together those words.”

I think over the tangle of what Bogdana said and what she didn’t. Not simplyLady Nore offered to trade Madoc for you.If she’d been able to say that, she would have.

“So youdon’thave Mellith’s heart and you’renotgoing to give me— or it—to Lady Nore?” I need him to say the words.

He grins. “I am not planning on handing you over to anyone. Lady Nore did not ask for you in trade. As for Mellith’s heart, I will show you what I intend when we reach the market. It’s a nice bit of trickery, I think.”

I stare into his fox eyes and feel relief so acute that I am dizzy with it.

I look up at the sky overhead, the intense blue that follows a storm, and let myself believe I am not in danger. Not right then. Not from him.

I pick up the gaming piece, and when he doesn’t seem to notice or demand it back, I slip it into my pocket. Then we resume walking.

It’s not far before a riot of colors shows through the trees. That must be Undry Market. In the wind, I hear the scrap of a song.

“What if,” he says, mischief in his eyes, “in the interest of saving time, we pretend that we’ve played twice more and I won once, so you owe me a dance. But you won the second time, so if you have anything else to ask me, you may.”

Those are teasing words, and I am suddenly in a teasing mood. “All right. Tell me about your girls, then.”

He raises his eyebrows.“Girls?”

“Tiernan says there were two ladies in particular that you wanted to impress. Violet, I think. And Sibi. But he also says you fall in love a lot.”

That surprises a laugh out of him, although he doesn’t deny any of it. “There are certain expectations of a prince in Court.”

“You cannot be serious,” I say. “You feelobligedto be in love?”