Page 77 of Last Rites

But if everything went to plan, the houses we’d be burning would be empty.

Quiet settled over the camp. Rosie finally relaxed as sleep took her, and Penny wasn’t far behind.

The four guards remained awake, discussing watch rotations on the other side of the fire while I fought a doze of my own. Once they settled on who would take first watch and three of them retired to their bedrolls, I glanced over to the right where Isla was still sitting up.

Her gaze met mine for a split second before she looked away to dig through her pack for the tea stashed within. It would taste almost identical to the tea she’d been brewing them for days, she’d told me back in Ashpoint. Easy enough to miss the difference for someone without a discerning palate.

“Almost forgot your tea,” she said as she rose and moved to the fire. “Can’t have you dozing off before all the action.”

The guard on watch didn’t so much as crack a smile.

Once she had the tea brewed and the mug handed off, she returned to her bedroll and settled in to feign sleep.

Too much time passed before the three guards succumbed to sleep. Then, the watchman’s head dipped and his shoulders slumped and a faint snore rumbled out of him as he joined them. We waited several minutes past that before I carefully extricated myself from Penny and pushed up to my feet.

Isla pulled my knife from its hiding place beneath her skirt and held it out to me. When I took hold of it, she didn’t let go right away, her fingers curled tight around the hilt until I met her eyes.

“Be careful. And get back before he wakes up.” She canted her head to indicate the sleeping guard.

“I’ll do my best.” I glanced back down at Penny, and the air caught in my chest. “If⁠—”

“Don’t,” she whispered. “Don’t think it; don’t say it. Just go. You’re wasting time.”

I wanted to linger, to watch Penny rest a while longer, to make sure I had every bit of him memorized before I risked it all, but Isla was right. Time was short.

There were lives to save.

I slipped out of camp without rousing anyone. Once I got far enough away, I broke into a jog until I made it out of the trees. Forstford sprawled out before me then, and I made for Ben’s house first. In case people wouldn’t listen to warnings from me, I knew they’d listen to him.

But despite pounding on the door for almost a full minute, he didn’t answer. So, I struck out for the market and his butcher shop in hopes to find him there.

I was almost to the square when a voice from the shadows drew me up short.

“Kit?” Ben stepped out into the street. The moonlight caught on the silver in his hair and made it look white.

“What are you doing out so late?” I asked.

His brow crinkled with confusion. “The messenger arrived about two hours ago with your warning.”

Apparently, the confusion was catching. “What? What messenger? What warning?”

“Some man from Brightwell came galloping in here in a big hurry. Said you sent word that bad people were coming and we needed to leave. We assumed since the warning came from you, it was the Bone Men. Most of town has evacuated. I’m gathering up stragglers.” He glanced around and looked mildly relieved at not seeing anyone else.

“But Kit,” he added hurriedly, “you can’t be here. We sent for the militia.”

I had no idea where Brightwell was, or who the supposed messenger had been. Thoma had planned to head out to Eastcliff with Liam the day after we left, but there was no way they’d have made it here before us.

…But we had made an unexpected stop, where Penny had been all too eager to lend his strength to the guard to fetch more grain for the horses after our supply mysteriously dwindled.

Had he sent the warning under my name so the people here might heed it?

A last-ditch effort to save Forstford, even after I’d told him I’d given up on the possibility?

I’d have thanked him then and there if I could have, because it made my job that much easier.

“I’m not going anywhere, Ben. We have orders to burn the town in an hour or two, and I’m not leaving until I know everyone is safe. I’ll help you gather up the last few people and get them out of here, and then I’m going to haul as much water as I can from the well and start dousing houses. I doubt it’ll do much, but it might help mitigate the blaze.”

“No,” he insisted, grabbing my arm and trying to physically turn me back the way I’d come. “I don’t know when the militia will get here, but I don’t doubt they’ll sweep you up with anyone else who came with you. I don’t know that your warning will buy you as much grace with them as it did the rest of the town.”