“Where did you learn to forage?” Zander asked. “You’re quite wonderful at it.”
“My mother,” Yarrow said, smiling. “She was a healer of sorts. Not officially, but that’s what people knew her as. Every time someone had a cut, or a rash, or a bump on the head, they came to my mother. She used to take me and my brothers out with her to forage for medicinal plants, but we always came back with dinner, too. She believed the land would always provide what we needed to live.”
Zander’s stomach growled again, and he hoped their dinner of wet salad and herb broth would be enough to keep the three of them alive long enough to find Ace.
“That sounds like a nice way to grow up.”
“It was,” Yarrow agreed. “She did well, my mother. Raised us well. But once I’d grown, a quiet life in the country wasn’t enough for me.”
“What came next?” Zander asked, eager to know more about his friend, who rarely talked about their past.
Yarrow looked sidelong at him, and Zander thought perhaps they wouldn’t answer. Finally, they smirked and continued talking.
“I went to Paris. Spent a year or so being young and reckless. Drinking, sleeping around. Then I met Nicolette. My first love.”
Yarrow gazed at the stream as they spoke, as if Nicolette’s face was projected on top of the water. Zander stayed silent, waiting for them to continue, his hands frozen midway through tearing away a handful of watercress.
“Nicolette opened up a whole new world to me. She was part of an underground group of intellectuals. They became my friends.”
Yarrow paused, then looked at Zander. When they didn’t go on, he made an impatient gesture with his hands. “Well, go on. You can’t just casually mention some underground society and not tell me more.”
Yarrow chuckled and continued scrubbing at the roots. “They used to meet in secret in the back of a tavern. It was a dark, smoky room filled with the greatest minds I’d ever encountered. Poets. Philosophers. Scientists. They would gather and talk of revolution. Of progress. Some of them had traveled across the world. Others sat in the halls of kings. Still others made dark inventions—some for the pursuit of justice, others for their own amusement.” Yarrow’s mouth tilted up at one side.
“I learned much from my new friends. But I soon grew sick of talking about ideas in the back of a dingy tavern. I wanted to spread my wings, to apply my new skills elsewhere. There was something else out there, something calling to me. I could feel it in my bones.”
“What was it?” Zander asked.
Yarrow looked up and smiled, shaking droplets from the now-clean roots grasped in their hand.
“It was Theo.”
A gunshot rang out, then another, and the two of them shot to their feet in alarm. Yarrow took only a moment to ascertain the direction of the noise before they took off running. Zander followed close behind.
When they found Theo, he was clutching two dead rabbits in his fist, a wide smile on his face as he walked casually toward them.
“I found dinner!” he announced, lifting his hand to show off his catch. Each one had been shot directly through its head, leaving the rest of the meat intact.
Yarrow’s shoulders visibly relaxed, and Zander chuckled in relief knowing Theo was safe, and that he wouldn’t have to live off watercress and broth for the night. He held out his hand, gesturing for Theo to give him the carcasses.
“I’ll take care of those,” he said.
As he hunched over the rabbits a little while later, his dagger making quick work of the soft hide, Yarrow tended to a fire. His mind ruminated once again on all the horrible scenarios they might encounter when they found Ace, in part to avoid reliving the very real violence of the past few days. He paused, taking a deep breath to keep his hands from shaking.
Theo was busy sharpening sticks to skewer and roast the meat. He nodded at Zander, his eyes casting down at his blood-stained hands.
“You’re rather quick at that,” he said.
Zander nodded, his catastrophic line of thought momentarily ceasing. “Well, tanning was the family business, but we didn’t stick to cow hides. Me and my siblings used to catch rabbits all the time. My dad taught me to skin them so we could preserve the hide with the fur still on. They caught a decent price at market if you had enough of them. We ate a lot of rabbit stew growing up.”
Zander winked, his crooked smile a welcome sight to Theo and Yarrow, who’d traded several silent glances during their journey pertaining to Zander’s well-being. Alas, the two of them had watched him pull himself apart many times in the pursuit of his soulmate, in many different lives, though they didn’t remember that now. Still, on top of the deep worry they felt over Ace’s well-being, they shared a growing dread that should they fail to save her, Zander would unravel yet again.
After Zander skinned and cleaned the rabbits for cooking, he used his dagger to scrape the hides, rinsing it after every pass in the stream. As he sat on the ground by the water, the sun quickly dropping toward the horizon, he watched the water jump from the rocks up ahead, falling in a long wave to the stream below. He could make out the miniscule droplets that crested the top of the waterfall from where he sat, leaping outward before falling to the stream below. They looked like tiny little people jumping from the edge, waiting to see if they would fall or fly.
When he was satisfied with the hides, he cleaned off his dagger and moved to sit by the fire. He wasn’t sure what he’d do with the rabbit hides, but there was no use in wasting them, so he laid them out on a large stone near the fire to begin drying overnight. As he sat, Theo handed him a skewer of rabbit meat. Zander accepted it gratefully, then took a handful of watercress and stuffed it in his mouth.
The three companions ate quietly for a while.
“We’ll make it to Almogia tomorrow,” Yarrow said eventually. “We can gather supplies there, and information about Ignacio’s recent comings and goings.” Yarrow looked at Zander. “If Ignacio has returned home, he’ll have docked in Malaga, then passed through Almogia on the way to his estate. When Ace’s parents were alive, they did a lot of business in Almogia. I have an idea of who to talk to. If we’re lucky, we’ll make it to the Sanz estate before they have a chance to settle.”
And before they’ve had a chance to hurt her, Zander thought hopefully.
Yarrow tossed their empty skewer into the fire and tented their hands, their elbows on their knees.
“From Almogia, we’ll cross the limestone valley, keeping away from the main roads leading to the Sanz estate. We can camp in the valley until it’s late enough, then approach from the south, where there are no roads leading in. There’s a hill behind the estate that will serve as a lookout point until we’re ready to strike. From there, we’ll need to split up. There will be at least one servant entrance in the back, on the south side. The stables lie to the east, and storehouses to the west. Our best chance of escape will be to the northeast, on the main road leading in. We’ll need to find a way to position the horses near the road if we’re going to flee fast enough.”
Zander looked at the ground near Theo’s feet, where he’d drawn a rough approximation of Yarrow’s instructions in the dirt using his empty skewer. “I thought you’d only been there once?” Zander asked, looking at Yarrow in disbelief.
Yarrow looked at him as if the question was completely irrelevant. “I have.”
Zander looked at Theo, who shrugged as if he was used to Yarrow memorizing the exact layout of every place they’d ever been to. The firelight threw the bruises on his face into stark relief. Zander didn’t fail to notice how he winced when he shrugged, nor that he’d been clutching his shoulder since they sat down to eat. Worry churned in his gut, but he made a note of it and set it aside. There wasn’t much he could do for Theo now.
“What else should we expect from Lord Sanz?” Zander asked.
“One of two things,” Yarrow said. “One, he’ll be so wrapped up in the victory of finding Ace, so focused on extracting from her the location of her parents’ famed treasure, that he won’t expect us to come save her. If he’s as arrogant as I remember, this is likely. It should make it easy to cause a distraction and get her out of there. Two, he’s grown up slightly and realizes Ace is capable, as are her friends, and he will be prepared for us. In that case, our job will be more challenging.”
“The last time we saw Sanz, his estate was crawling with servants and guards,” Theo said. “You’d think he was a goddamned prince or something. By the looks of the ship he arrived on to fetch Ace, he’s given into the delusion and built himself an army. There’s a chance his men sailed away after they brought Sanz home. Maybe they’re looking for treasure, or small children they can steal candy from. Or, perhaps, they’re surrounding his estate as we speak.”
Zander heaved a great sigh, tossing his empty skewer in the fire atop the other two. He looked up at the dark night sky as if the answers to his questions were twinkling in the blanket of stars above his head. Seeing no revelations, he looked back at his fellow pirates.
