Free Huntress by Malinda Lo

her. She took a breath and said: “I think we should continue the way we planned. The rumors are… they’re just rumors.”
    “They’re rumors, yes,” Con said, “but, Taisin, I traveled north with Tali last fall, before the worst of the winter storms. The things we saw there were—well, they make me inclined to believe these rumors.”
    “Nobody seems to have been hurt by this child,” she said with studied nonchalance.
    “That’s true,” Tali agreed.
    “Then we might as well travel through Ento,” Taisin said. “It will be inconvenient to avoid it, and there is no guaranteed benefit.” She saw Kaede watching her with interest. She could tell that Kaede wondered why she was so adamant about this, for she had never indicated her opinion on their route before. She still couldn’t explain it; she only knew that she needed to see this creature, whatever it was. She lowered her eyes, trying to hide her excitement. Tali would be suspicious if she appeared too eager.
    Shae said: “She has a point, Tali. And we’ll only be there one night.”
    He relented. “All right. Ento it is.”

    A little over two weeks into the journey, the rhythms of travel had settled into Kaede’s body. She woke early, met Pol in a stable yard or at an empty patch of dirt near their hostel, raised the bow, and loosed arrows until breakfast. Her arms and shoulders grew stronger, but still she could not strike the target. They rode all day, stopping only for a noon meal at the side of the road, eaten cold. She came to know her horse, Maila, who was both sweet-tempered and energetic. She grew accustomed to falling asleep with the sound of others breathing nearby, and at times she wondered how she had ever lived another way. She thought of her small chamber in that great stony Academy, and her parents’ luxurious Cathair home, where she had entire assortments of rooms to herself, but she did not miss them. She realized that she loved the road: Every day was new and unexplored.
    Kaede especially enjoyed talking to Shae, who told stories about her training as a guard; about learning to fight and to ride with a sword. Her life was so different from Kaede’s years at the Academy that she was always eager to hear more. She began to wonder if she could join the King’s Guard when she returned from this journey. Then she would never have to face the dreary politics of court life; she could be on a horse all day, going to places she had never been before.
    Shae always included Taisin when she told her tales, even if Taisin was pretending to study, as she often did. It was noticing Shae’s kindness that caused Kaede to gradually become aware that Taisin watched her, often, with hooded eyes. She would look away as soon as Kaede glanced at her, so initially Kaede wondered if she were imagining things. But as the days passed, she began to watch Taisin, too. Her classmate was quiet, reserved; she spoke when spoken to, but rarely entered into any conversations on her own. Con tried to draw her out by joking with her, and sometimes Taisin seemed to appreciate it, but she quickly retreated back into a state that seemed to hover between anxiety and frustration. Once, when Kaede caught Taisin looking at her, she had the odd impression that Taisin thought of her as a problem to solve, but she did not know how to do it.
    The day they were due to reach Ento, Kaede spent nearly the whole afternoon puzzling over the enigma of her classmate. She had just resolved to speak to Taisin about it directly when they caught sight of the town gates in the distance. They hung open as though abandoned, and as they approached they saw there was no one in the gatehouse.
    “You’re sure you want to stay here tonight?” Pol said from his perch on the wagon seat.
    Tali said: “We’ll just sleep here and make an early start in the morning. Let’s go.”

    They were the only guests at the hostel that night, which meant that, for once, there were enough vacant rooms for