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Barking dogs alerted Dorso to our approach. A
long, solid line of men bearing spears and blades formed outside the town. Nearly
two-hundred, I thought. “Kymber, do you see the welcome we’re about to get?” I
called ahead.

“I do. I’ll take Laiia and Malina with me to
talk to them.” She reined Fitz to a halt and dismounted, unbuckling the baldric
holding Promise and slipping it from her back when she hit the ground. She
surprised me by laying her weapon in the wagon beneath Tibbi’s feet.

“Is that wise?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but I don’t want to antagonize
them,” Kymber answered. “Malina’s father came from this village. They should
know her and Laiia by sight.”

“You’re leaving a lot to chance.” I stared at
the men, with their pinched faces and their spears held aloft.

“I don’t know what else to do.” She followed my
gaze. “I don’t want to approach them armed.”

“Your choice. I’ll be too far away to help if
they attack.”

“Not that it would matter anyway. There are too
many of them.” Kymber furrowed her brow. “Surely they can see our group is
mostly comprised of females.” She glanced at Laiia. “Do you recognize anyone?”

Laiia shaded her eyes with her hand. “Not at
this distance, but don’t worry. We’ll take Malina with us. She looks like
Xanio, her father. It will be all right. You’ll see.”

And with that, the three women stalked off
across the open meadow.

I held my breath and watched several Yasri men
step out of line and walk to meet them. I didn’t truly relax until I saw a few
tentative smiles, finally slumping with relief when they lowered their spears.

After several tense moments of hand waving, one
of the men embraced Laiia. Kymber turned to me with her own happy smile.

Apparently, we’d passed inspection.

“I
am Laiia, wife of Xanio. Surely, you remember
your
epash
Xanio?”

“Cousin,” Malina whispered in my ear. I nodded.

“Xanio is dead these many years. He lived in
the small village near the mountain.” The tall man gestured with his spear.

“He did, and I was his wife. Malina is his
daughter. You remember Malina?” Laiia pointed at the girl by her side.

The man stared; his eyes widened. After a tense
moment, he whooped, lifted the diminutive Laiia in his arms, and whirled
through the wildflowers.

And just like that, we were one step closer to
an audience with Queen Nalhai of Dorso.

Laiia and Malina chattered with the advance
party of men in their own language. I walked back to Magnus. We’d cleared the
first hurdle and were now facing the second.

“What did they say?” Magnus asked when I reached
him.

“They were suspicious at first. They tried to
force us to leave, but Malina told them we just wanted to see the queen.”

“Queen?” Magnus scrunched his brow. “The Yasri
goat herders have a queen?”

“The village of Dorso does.”

“Then what happened?”

I inhaled deeply, still shaking. “Laiia recognized
one of them as her dead husband’s cousin. Once he realized who she was, he
literally opened his arms to her.” I gave a short laugh. “They’re not sure of
us though. We’re
frodjo
.”

“What does that mean?”

 “Outsiders. City dwellers.” I shrugged.
“That’s fine. Laiia can help us plead our case, and then we’ll be on our way.”

“You hope.”

I remounted Fitz. “I have no reason
not
to hope. Will you make sure everyone stays together behind me? Laiia’s cousin
said we should all go to the center of the village to see the healer. They want
to make sure no one has body vermin or anything else that might be contagious.”

“Will do.” Magnus handed me Lady Gray’s lead.

I urged Fitz forward. “See you there.”

D
orso’s healer was a
middling-aged woman named Koram. She spoke the common tongue, though her accent
was thick and difficult to understand.

 She was brown as a nut, her silky brown hair
piled high atop her head and held there by an impossible number of bone pins.
Giving orders firmly but with a kind smile, she sorted the girls out according
to the severity of their injuries, then made them sit in a row along a tile and
rock fountain. We were all given leave to drink and splash in the fountain,
which alleviated some of the tension. It was delightful to hear the children
laugh. I hadn’t heard much laughter in the past three days.

Magnus was positively adamant that the healer
see Mia first. Koram took one look at her hand and agreed.

Hoping to keep Mia calm, we allowed Tori to
accompany us into the healer’s hut. She was, after all, the only family the
little one had left.

Koram had Magnus lay Mia down on a small cot in
the cool shade of the hut, crooning to her while she gathered the things needed
to examine her. “What they do to you, poor baby? Does your hand hurt, little
chipana
?
Koram will fix you right up, good as new.”

The healer had a nice touch and a soft voice, a
woman born to care for others. I felt nothing but relief. Mia’s hand was now a
sickly shade of greenish-purple. I knew it had begun to heal during the time
we’d traveled. A good thing, if the bones were in the right position, but I was
certain they weren’t. Mia’s thumb stuck out at a strange angle; the knuckles
were lumpy and swollen.

Magnus put his arm around my waist. I leaned
into him and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “She’ll be all right, love. You’ll
see.” I didn’t know which one of us I was trying to convince.

“I know,” he whispered.

Koram sat Mia up and held a vial of clear
liquid to her lips. Mia drank it willingly. “Children quick to heal, Mister
Magnus. Thankfully.”

“What was that?” Magnus asked tersely. “What
you gave her to drink?”

“Help to sleep,” Koram answered. “I need to
push and press, and I don’t want to hurt her any more than I have to.”

Soon Mia’s eyes drooped and her head lolled to
one side. The healer began at the child’s wrist, deftly moving her fingertips
over every inch of skin, occasionally looking up at the ceiling when a certain
spot caught her attention. She hummed a tune as she moved up Mia’s hand and out
each fingertip, a thorough process which took so long that Tori laid down on
the floor and fell asleep, clutching a cornhusk doll she’d found propped up in
the corner.

The healer finally laid Mia’s arm across the
child’s stomach and turned to us. “Broken, as you suspected, but not so bad as
it could’ve been. Thumb is a mess and has already begun to heal. I will need to
break again and push bones into right place. Three other fingers broken, but
bones in good position to grow together.” She nodded at Mia. “Child sleeping
now. Good time to do it, but I must ask you to go and take the sister with
you.” She scowled. “This is not a pleasant process.”

Magnus went white and staggered a bit. I
steadied him then knelt down to awaken Tori. “Thank you from the bottom of our
hearts. We have an audience with the queen anyway. Will you send word when
you’re finished?”

“I will.” Koram gave us a firm nod of
dismissal.

I caught Magnus’s gaze as we turned to leave
the hut. His eyes glistened. “Kymber, I can’t leave her.”

“You can. You will. You’ve done as much as you
could. This is what Mia needs. She’s in capable hands now.” I reached up and
brushed away a tear clinging to his lashes. “I love you, Magnus. You’re a
terrible bonehead sometimes, but you truly do have a big heart.”

Q
ueen Nalhai was frosty
with us at first. She sat stiff on her biriwood throne, every inch a queen,
wearing deep blue, purple, and gold robes. She was an older woman, still
beautiful, but it was her eyes that caught me. Her pupils were a rich golden
brown surrounded by a thin ring of moss green, as unique as mine.

I was only half-listening to Laiia and the
queen speaking in their native tongue, when Laiia gasped and turned to me. “She
wants you and Magnus executed.”

“What?” I tried not to shout. “Why?”

Malina’s mother leaned to whisper in my ear.
“The guards we met misunderstood what I said. It’s my fault. I was speaking a
pidgin mix of the common tongue and Yasri. They, in turn, told Nalhai that you
were the ones who’d beaten and abused the girls.”

“Oh.” I covered my face with my hands. “Now
what?”

“Don’t worry. My old mother is setting her
straight.” Laiia pointed at Tibbi, who was chattering furiously at the scowling
queen. Charin was by her side, nodding his head in agreement.

I didn’t understand a word of it, but I was
relieved to see the queen’s face shift from fury to astonishment.

“
You
save Yasri girls?” The queen looked
at me and spoke in the common tongue. “You and that man?”

If I’d known she understood our language –
could speak it, though her accent was as thick as the healer’s – we might have
avoided this misunderstanding. Still, I bowed low, swatting at Magnus to do the
same. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

Nalhai eased back on her throne and tapped a
finger against her chin. “You did good. Yes?”

“We thought so.” Not wanting a single thing to
go wrong, I remained bent at the waist.

“Why you do this thing?” She gestured at me
then Magnus. “Girls nothing to you.”

I straightened, a chill wind blowing over my
soul. My first instinct was to say something noble about helping others, no
matter the cost.

Instead, I threw my shoulders back and looked
straight into Nalhai’s eyes. “I was held captive by the king of Pentorus for
eight years, Your Majesty. I never want another woman to suffer the way I did.”

Laiia translated what I’d said in Yasri, so my
meaning would not be lost.

The queen nodded slowly, taking my measure with
those fascinating gemstone eyes. “You strong. I see it. Proud. Bad king took
nothing away from you. He gave you much though, eh?”

An interesting way to look at the time I’d
lost. I wasn’t sure, but I nodded politely anyway.

 She waved two fingers at Magnus, who was still
bent at the waist. “He your
tilà corani
?”

Tibbi began to laugh. I shifted a glance to
Laiia. “What?”

Her cheeks were the color of a summer plum.
“The queen asks if Mister Magnus is your hard cock.”

I grinned. “Yes. He is.”

Laiia relayed the message. Nalhai returned the
smile. “He big man. Strong. He love you.”

I bowed again. “I think he does.”

“I certainly do love her,” Magnus growled.

“It good.” The queen visibly relaxed. “They our
girls, ones you save. We take them here.”

A man shouted outside the queen’s hut. He was
still shouting when he burst into the tent, moving straight for Nalhai. She
rolled her eyes and covered her brow with one hand.

He was older than the queen, not terribly tall,
and as bald as an egg. He chattered at her – an unhappy, one-sided
conversation, I thought – while waving his hands in the air.

Before Laiia could translate, the queen lifted
an apologetic gaze to me. “This my hard cock, though not so hard anymore. He
worse than old goat, bleating all the time. Sometimes I think of push him in
the fountain and hold him down, but he pretty good cook, so I don’t.”

I fought the urge to laugh. “This would be . .
. ?”

“The queen’s husband,” Laiia murmured.
“Tokani.”

“Is Tokani angry?” I asked.

Laiia tipped her head to listen. “He isn’t
terribly happy about taking the girls. Too many mouths to feed, he says.”

I stiffened. “Ask him if he’d be this upset if
I’d delivered nearly three dozen strong male warriors instead.”

Twisting her fingers, Laiia haltingly asked my
question.

Nalhai smirked, but Tokani turned red. “Who
this big mouth, pale
frodjo
?” he asked.

“My name is Kymber Oryx. These girls have
nowhere else to go. Their village was burnt, their parents killed, and they
were about to be sold as slaves.” Tokani continued to stare, wide-eyed at my
impertinence. “They’re your blood, and they are homeless. If you won’t take
them, who will?”

Nalhai turned the smirk upon her husband. “They
goat herders, same as us. Should we send them away to the city to marry
frodjo
men who will only weaken the blood of their children? I say no. They our daughters.
We take them, yes, and that’s the only answer I want to speak or hear today.”
She leaned to one side on the throne. “You have other to say, husband?”

He circled one ear with his index finger and
spoke in Yasri. Nalhai gave a short bark of laughter. “Maybe so, but I still
queen here. Decision is mine. Go find something and do it, before my patience
gets lost.”