Forged in Fire and Stars by Andrea Robertson

Author:Andrea Robertson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2020-05-04T23:00:00+00:00

* * *

An hour passed before Nimhea joined them. She was uncharacteristically quiet as she began to pack. Itching to know what transpired between the princess and the rebels, Ara expected the three of them to immediately fall into conversation. Instead, Eamon held his tongue, not even greeting his sister. Impatient as she was to know Nimhea’s mind, Ara followed his cue and kept her questions to herself.

The princess still hadn’t spoken—apart from terse one-word answers to practical questions about the imminent journey—when the time came for them to leave the inn. Ioth met them at the back door, and Ara was surprised that he was alone. In Rill’s Pass goodbyes took forever, at least a quarter of an hour, even if you’d be gone only a single night. She assumed that Suli, Xeris, and Edram had taken proper leave of Nimhea when their meeting ended. But did they hold Eamon and Ara in such low regard that they wouldn’t deign to give them a few parting words?

“It’s not an affront,” Ioth said, reading Ara’s expression. “We always stagger our departures. I’m the last to go.”

“Oh.” Ara cast her gaze down, humbled by having assumed the worst about the rebels.

“Don’t fret,” Ioth told her. “We’re all still getting to know one another.”

Ioth escorted them to the appointed safe house. Ara wondered if they’d return to the house she’d been in with Teth the previous day, but his directions took them to another part of Silverstag entirely.

“I leave you here,” said Ioth. “Know that the hopes of the rebellion go with you.”

“You have our thanks,” Nimhea replied.

When Ioth was gone, Eamon stepped up to the door and gave it several sharp raps just as Ara said, “Wait!”

Eamon looked at her quizzically, but Ara felt quite sure that one didn’t knock at a safe house; she was baffled when a plump middle-aged woman in a frilly bonnet and apron decorated with blue ribbon opened the door.

“Welcome!” she exclaimed. “Come in, come in.”

The cherry-cheeked woman ushered them through the door and into a room where chairs had been arranged near a cheery hearth fire.

“I have tea and spice cakes for you.” She motioned for them to sit. “Make yourselves at home.”

She scurried from the room, and the sound of clinking dishes soon reached them.

“Who was that?” Eamon asked.

“I have no idea,” Nimhea replied. “Did she even tell us her name?”

“I don’t think so,” said Ara.

The stairs separating the hearth room from the kitchen creaked under the weight of footsteps, and a second woman joined them near the fire.

“We do love having guests,” the woman said, not bothering to introduce herself. She looked to be of similar age to the first woman and had the same soft, rounded shape and warm bearing. She likewise wore a frilly bonnet and apron, this time decorated with a red ribbon.

Nimhea stood. “We thank you for your hospitality, Goodwoman . . .”

“No names, no names,” the woman said with a tinkling laugh. “A good bit of advice, dear: do not use names unless you absolutely must.

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