Cassia kept her gaze forward. Askari's glare burned into her. He thought she was being stubborn. She was. But it was either be stubborn or be defeated, and the latter wasn't an option.

Not as she limped, barefoot and broken, through a drenched forest. Mud sucked at her, slipping out from beneath her feet and making it a struggle to keep up with the pirate. He moved between the dripping trees like a ghost, the branches that clawed at Cassia barely seeming to touch him.

Infuriating.

Cassia wheezed in a breath, one arm cradling her ribs as she hunched farther to the side in an attempt to brace the broken bones. From the corner of her eye, she watched as Askari shook his head. Before she could wave him off, he called, "Stop."

The pirate and Soo-jin turned back, a small smile twitching at his mouth. Cassia sent him a glare, straightening her spine even though it made her ribs scream. She knocked away Askari's reaching hand. "I'm fine," she said, ignoring the tremble in her knees.

"You are bleeding," he hissed, grabbing her by the shoulders and forcing her down onto the mossy trunk of a fallen oak. "Your ribs are broken and you sound like a camel with lung sickness."

Cassia tried to stand, but he loomed over her, expression unforgiving. She raked her wet hair back, the strands sticking to her face. Calix had been right. The island's wetness was a new kind of misery.

She stared down at her numb feet. The shredded lengths of cloth she had used to bind them were caked with mud, hiding the slow seep of blood from the soles. "We need food, Askari." Her stomach rumbled to prove her point. "We need shelter and clothes that aren't torn and soaked. We need to be dry and warm."

"Some of those are simply things you want."

She shot a dirty look at the practical Sorian. He knelt down in front of her and began unwrapping her feet, making displeased sounds at the filthy bandages. Cassia yanked her foot away, retying everything he had undone. "If you change them, they'll just get muddy. No reason to sacrifice any more clothes."

Her own shirt—the first victim in the quest for bandages—barely came down to her navel, the cut edges fraying away. 

"If we don't, the wounds may fester." Askari reached for her leg again, but she spun over the trunk and stood, wobbling only slightly.

Askari gave her a look that said she was being ridiculous.

She cast her eyes over the drenched forest, rain trickling down between the branches, the gloom of the storm casting the trunks into shadow. The pirate leaned against a leafless elm, arms crossed, that little smile still on his face.

Cassia used her sleeve to wipe the water from her face, just for more to rush down after it. Askari looked half-tempted to leap over the tree and beat some sense into her. She tried to take a deep breath, regretted it, then turned to Soo-jin. "Do we intend to walk forever through this godsforsaken forest, or do you perhaps have a destination in mind?"

A thrill of unease trickled down her spine when Soo-jin exchanged a glance with the pirate. He shook his head before turning away and stalking through the forest. The Sorveti woman kicked into a jog to catch him, putting a hand on his shoulder. He spun, knocking her hand away and spat something in Brunian. 

Soo-jin sighed, shoulders sinking as she responded. He shook his head, blond braids swinging behind him with the force of his denial. He pointed to Cassia, then threw his hands in the air, voice rising with every word.

"Then where do we bring them?" Soo-jin's sudden switch to Sorveti was jarring to Cassia and it took her a moment to translate. She darted a quick look at Askari, who shook his head. Apparently the merchant didn't speak the eastern language.

"We've discussed this." His icy eyes raked over Cassia. "I won't take her there. It's too risky."

Soo-jin snorted. "Risky? For who, oerobi?" She ducked her head and heaved a sigh. "They're alone. Everyone else is dead. We have all the power, and they have none."

"Well, not none, Soo-jin." He took a long step toward the slight woman, grabbing her by the shoulders. He began speaking in Brunian again, but Cassia could guess the topic of conversation from the look of pure hatred he threw her.

Soo-jin shook her head, turning to look over her shoulder at Cassia. "I swore to protect her life. Not her freedom. She's still a slave. There's nothing for her here. Not here."

The pirate stared down at her, incredulous. He cradled Soo-jin's face. "You're too clever to be so stupid."

He turned, stalking toward Cassia. Askari shot to his feet, planting himself between them. The Brunian yanked a knife—the only weapon the sea had left him with—from his belt and turned it toward the Sorian.

"If you touch her again, I'll be forced to kill you." Askari let out a weary sigh. "And, frankly, I'm much too tired and cold for that."

"You could always keep out of it," the pirate suggested, heavy brogue pouring over the soft words like honey.

Askari blinked. "No," he finally said after a long pause. "I couldn't."

The Brunian leaned to the side, eyeing Cassia with something like curiosity though too hostile to really call it that. "Did you extort his loyalty as well?" 

Cassia kept her expression smooth, even as she pondered his words. She didn't dare look at Askari, but the question rang in her head. If she had...how had she managed it? It was an uncomfortable situation for her. She appreciated the benefits of Askari seeming to owe her, but since she did not know what he owed her for, she did not now when his magnanimity would run out. 

She did not know when she would be left surrounded by nothing but enemies once again.

"You still haven't answered my question." Cassia stood, brushing mud and moss from her pants. When it became obvious that it was a wasted effort, she stopped, looking at the pirate around Askari. "It's not only us. You're just as cold and wet and hungry as we are. You need food and shelter too."

The pirate gave her a crooked smile that would have better suited an angry wolf. "Perhaps. My island won't kill me like it will kill you." 

Cassia resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Cold would kill anyone. And gods it was cold. 

The stare-down continued, the muscles in the pirate's jaw fluttering. Cassia focused on her breathing, letting her mind focus on the pain that sparked her ribs. Better to be quiet and let the pirate come to that conclusion on his own. 

Surprisingly, it was the pirate who broke the silence. "We can make it to La'hagh."

Soo-jin's face went oddly blank, her lips pressing down into a thin line. Cassia took that as her cue to ask, "How far away is La'hagh?"

The pirate shot her a nasty sneer before turning his back and slipping between the trees once again. Cassia bit the inside of her cheek, then walked over to where Soo-jin still stood, staring after the pirate as he disappeared into the mist and pine needles. Cassia touched her shoulder, Soo-jin knocking her hand away.

"How far?" Cassia asked, voice soft. 

"Assuming we are where I think we are," Soo-jin started to walk away, "three days. Maybe more."

                                                                                        ***

By the time they made camp that night, Cassia knew she wasn't going to last long enough to see the town of La'hagh. 

Everything hurt and a fever was starting to build. She could feel its heat beginning to simmer under the skin of her cheeks, the flush that crawled along her neck and down the column of her spine. The small portion of roasted squirrel she had eaten wasn't sitting well in her stomach and chills that had nothing to do with the cold were beginning to chatter down her limbs. 

She lay beneath the shelter of pine boughs that she and Askari had put together while Soo-jin and the pirate had gone hunting. Cassia turned her head to look at where those two were huddled together beside a small fire.

It had finally stopped raining, but it hardly made a difference. 

The squirrels they had eaten had come to camp speared perfectly through the chest. Cassia genuinely hoped Soo-jin was the one gifted at knife throwing. The Sorveti sat with her head resting on the pirate's shoulder as he leaned forward to toss a few more small branches onto the fire. 

"What are you thinking?" Askari's voice sounded next to her ear, making her flinch.

Cassi turned her head, looking at the Sorian where he lay beside her. 

"Nothing," she whispered back.

"You used to be better at lying." He rolled onto his side, pillowing his head on an arm. His too-sharp eyes reflected the firelight as they swept over her. "You need to be thinking of something. Not nothing."

She wrinkled her brow, taken aback. "Thinking of what, precisely?"

"Of how to make yourself useful."

"To him?" Her lip curled. 

Askari shook his head, expression faintly disgusted. Or perhaps disappointed was more accurate. It was difficult to tell the difference between the two with him. 

"To me. I can only do so much. You're the talker. You're the one with words and ideas, Cassia. Find a way to use them because I don't really care for the idea of dying in the mud." He grabbed her hand, pressing it to his chest. Under the clammy material of his shirt, she could feel the warm seep of blood.

The wound on his chest had opened again.

"I'm not healing. Neither are you." His eyes flashed. "Find a way to get them to take us to whatever place Soo-jin was talking about before, because I don't think either of us are going to make it two more days."

With that, he rolled over, putting his back to her.

Cassia slowly turned her head so she was once more looking at the pine boughs stacked above them. The one with ideas. Yes, she'd thought that once. Ideas and plans had always been her weapons, even when they fell flat. 

But here, in this primeval forest with a man who wanted her dead more than anything and two others bound to her by some kind of debt, Cassia found herself wondering if there was really any way for her to come out on the other side unscathed. Or even alive. She closed her eyes, Askari's last words ringing in her head.

She didn't know when she'd fallen asleep. All she realized was when she opened her eyes, the light was soft and grey and there was no pit-pat of water falling to the forest floor. She sat up, looking down at Askari still asleep beside her. The front of his shirt was stained brownish-red with dried blood. He was pale, with deep circles beneath his eyes and lines of worry carved into his forehead even in sleep. 

She got to her feet with care, not wanting to wake him until it was necessary. Cassia turned, finding Soo-jin asleep beside the remains of the banked fire. The pirate was nowhere to be seen.

Throat dry, Cassia turned, eyes searching the spaces and shadows between the trees. 

There.

A flash of blond braids whipping around a box elder. Cassia traced her fingers over the hilt of the knife she had taken from Soo-jin. Going after him would surely be stupid. The protection of her claim over Soo-jin's life was tenuous at best. The Sorveti woman was honorable, but she was also very far from home. Cassia had no idea if the idea of a life debt carried the same weight in Brunia as it did in Sorveti or Metus. 

She licked chapped lips, still tracing the knife handle.

It startled her when her fingers slipped down off the handle onto the blade. The sharp steel sliced open the pads of her fingers, and she stuck the stinging fingers into her mouth.

Go after him.

It was better to risk it than stand here tormented by indecision. Better to meet him on her terms. Cassia pulled the knife from her belt, holding it close to her side as she began moving toward the place she'd watched him disappear into the trees.

Calix had only managed to teach her the fundamentals of tracking, but the soft ground made it easy enough even a novice like her could manage to follow his trail. She looked around with each step she took, waiting for him to launch himself from the underbrush. Waiting for a knife in her side or fingers around her throat.

"Have a death-wish, do we?" Gooseflesh erupted on her skin when his voice floated through the trees ahead of her. "Are you giving up, Metian? Would you rather I put you out of your misery?"

Cassia watched the trees for a moment, hoping to catch a glimpse of him. When nothing came to her attention, she took a careful step in the direction of his voice. "I'd rather we just talk." 

"Talk when we could fight?" He laughed, the sound vicious. "Does that mean I've made a mistake? Are you not truly Metian after all?"

She sighed, her free hand automatically coming up to cradle her ribs. Her mind felt blank and useless. What was she doing? Why was she here? She couldn't talk to this man. There was absolutely nothing she could offer to make him listen.

"Go back." His voice was fainter, moving away from her.

Something in her chest lurched, pushing her forward. Cassia wound between the trees, branches scratching at her face. "I want to speak with you about La'hagh."

The trees disappeared and so did the ground. A strangled scream ripped Cassia's throat as she plummeted down just to be jerked to a sudden stop. A hand was wrapped around her wrist, a river cutting into a rock bed far, far below. Her ribs creaked in protest, every breath agony as she gasped.

Slowly, the pirate dragged her over the edge of the cliff, leaving her lying on the slick, dead grass. Cassia stared up at the pearly sky overhead, trying to get her breathing under control. Her heart beat in her throat as she pushed herself up to her hands and knees. Shaking, she crawled to the edge, peering down at what should have been a fall to her death.

"Why?" she whispered, fighting against the urge to vomit.

The pirate didn't answer and she sat back, looking to the side. He stood at the edge, looking toward the north, the short hair on the sides of his head turned silver in the pale morning. Cassia clenched her teeth to keep them from chattering. 

"Is that enough for you to release Soo-jin?" He didn't turn as he spoke, and she could see the tension of fury pulling at his shoulders and the line of his throat. "I prove I'm more interested in keeping you alive than killing you and she goes free?"

"You're not," Cassia croaked. "And now I know Soo-jin will keep her vow."

Now he did look at her, shaking his head in attempted denial.

"Otherwise you would have let me fall." The thought brought bile to the back of her throat. Cassia swallowed and stood, taking one last look at what should have been death. Then she raised her eyes to look over the mountains spread before them. 

Her mind was spinning now, pulling and weaving this information into...into something. 

The true problem was Cassia didn't really know what she wanted, beyond not dying at the hands of this pirate. She would also prefer not to have her body left to the forest. One needed a proper burial to enter Eternity. 

She turned to face the pirate, openly studying him. He scowled at her in turn, but didn't move away. 

"Which do you want more?"

He blinked, icy eyes flashing with surprise. "What?" he said after a long pause.

Cassia turned back to the ledge, looking over Brunia. Looking to the north. Calix was there. He was there in the north hunting witches. She rolled that over in her mind. The Heir wasn't supposed to seek help. They could accept any freely offered, but they could not ask.

Wars weren't fought by oneself. Wars took armies. They took soldiers.

They needed generals. 

"What do you mean?" the pirate pressed. "Why ask what I want? You are in no position to give anything to anyone."

Cassia's lips parted on a frosted exhale. She lifted her eyes to the clouds above. Does that count? she asked. Is appearing before him the same as asking? He is sworn to me. He is my heart, his blood is mine. Heirs have taken their sworn warriors with them before. Does the tie still hold, even now when the binding has been forgotten and weakened?

Her heart leaped when a shrill cry rang out over the mountains. She turned, eyes searching the skies, hands clasped together.

There.

Tears blurred her vision as the falcon swung a wide circle over them, shrieking a warning before it wheeled and darted across the canyon. As it winged north, toward its home.

A soft laugh gusted from Cassia and she fell to her knees, thanking her goddess. 

"Explain your words. Now." Even a knife at her throat couldn't dampen her spirits now. Not when she finally had an answer. Besides. He didn't mean it.

Cassia let her head fall back so she could see him. His hideous frown was even worse upside down. She smiled at him.

"Which do you want more? Your revenge on me? Or Soo-jin-ah's life?"

"Don't call her that," he snarled. "You have no right."

Cassia turned from the knife, the razor edge opening a small, stinging cut on her skin. She stood and turned, taking a long step toward the pirate until she was mere inches away from him. He craned his neck to look down at her.

"I have no right, but I do have an answer." Cassia nodded. "Very well. I suppose we can always bargain over it."

"B-Bargain?" the pirate spluttered. "Bargain? What is it you believe you have to bargain with?"

"Dull." She let her smile slide into a sideways grin. "Let's not pretend."

A soft pull in her gut warned her not to push so hard. Cassia let her smile drop and stepped away. She crossed her arms, trying to alleviate the new pain throbbing in her side. Bargaining was about getting just enough of what you wanted without giving up too much.

She only had the one coin to barter with. And there was so much she wanted. Cassia eyed the pirate up and down, from his worn boots to his tangle of braids. He opened his mouth, but she cut him off. "Soo-jin's freedom. I'll relinquish her from her vow."

He snapped his mouth shut and stared at her, deep wrinkles carving into his forehead. His eyes were wary and dangerous. A cornered wolf deciding where it wanted to bite first.

Cassia fought with herself. Choices. This all came down to the right choice. Ask for too much and she and Askari would die in this forest. Too little and she would never see Calix again. 

Choices. Could she bear the consequences?

"Why?" the pirate asked. "Why would you offer that?"

Cassia bobbed her head to the side in a way she'd seen Corax do a million times. Casual, dismissive. Quietly interested. "You want something, pirate. So do I. Nothing comes from nothing."

He narrowed those dangerous eyes. "And what is it you want?"

She looked back to the north, pursing her lips. Considering. Weighing.

Choices.

Cassia gently dug her thumbnail against the cuts on her index and middle fingers. Pain danced up her arm, blood dripping from the cuts. Her mouth was opening before she'd made the decision. "First, neither Askari nor I will die in this damned forest." He raised a disbelieving eyebrow, but she pressed on. Holding up her two bloodied fingers, she said, "Second, I will not be a slave."

Now he laughed. When he didn't deny her, though, she knew the one coin she held was worth more than its weight in gold. 

"Third..." She frowned, debating. How much was too much. 

Choices.

"After Askari and I recover...you will release us. You won't chase after us or attempt to kill us." Cassia extended her bleeding hand. "Swear, and I will release Soo-jin from her vow as soon as we are ready to part ways."

The pirate eyed her hand. Cassia barely dared to breathe. He lifted his knife and she tensed, but all he did was slash the blade across his palm before he grabbed her hand. His frozen eyes bored into hers as he jerked her forward. 

His blood was hot against her cold skin. 

"Deal, Metain. I can swear I won't kill you." He grinned as he let her go, patting his bloody hand against her cheek. "I make no promises for anyone else."

With that, he turned and disappeared into the forest. Cassia blew out a long breath, turning to look north again. 

A promise gained. An asset lost. 

Cassia had made her choice.