Free River Secrets by Shannon Hale

not believe what Enna had just said. But she conversed in a friendly manner with Enna, eagerly even, and did not seem the least aware that she was talking to Tira’s great enemy the fire-witch. He discovered his hand was gripping the hilt of his sword and he slowly let go.
    Enna said something Razo did not catch, most likely some disparaging comment about him, and Dasha smiled. The way the sun hit Dasha’s eyes, they were so light in color, they appeared translucent. Razo stared.
    “Are you all right?” Dasha asked. “Your face looks pained. Did you bite your lip or something?… No? Well, we should return. It was a pleasure, Enna, Finn, tree rat.”
    She walked away.
    Enna and Finn looked at Dasha and then at Razo.
    “Did she just call you tree rat?” asked Enna.
    “Did she?” said Razo.
    “I think she just called you tree rat.”
    “No.”
    Finn nodded. “She did. She called you tree rat.”
    “Why would she—” Enna started.
    “Because of squirrels, I guess,” said Razo, still watching Dasha walk away. Negotiating the sand, she took small steps, and her hips kind of swayed. He found it curious.
    “Squirrels?” asked Enna.
    “Rats in trees,” Razo said distractedly. Dasha seemed to find her walking rhythm from the sound of the surf, almost as if she were not a girl but water upon the sand. His soul whistled an easy tune.
    When she had disappeared into the group of Tiran, Razo looked back at Enna and Finn. Both were staring at him, mouths agape.
    “What?” he said.
    Enna laughed and started back up the beach. “Razo, you’re a picture.”
    “I am?” He turned to Finn. “Is that good or bad?”
    Finn shrugged. “I’m still trying to figure out
squirrels.
”
    On the ride back, Razo contemplated being a picture, and being a tree rat, and the way Dasha had walked up the beach, and the rustling of the ocean. He was feeling pretty good, which made the scene at Thousand Years all the more abrupt.
    It was a hornets’ nest.
    Clusters of Tiran citizens mobbed outside the palace gates. When they saw the returning Bayern soldiers, the excited shouting turned to anger. Fists pounded the air.
    A mounted Tiran guard rushed through the gates and toward the Bayern. Razo loosed his sling and urged Bee Sting closer to Enna and Finn, saying, “I’m sorry,” because he had promised his horse that he would keep her out of another war.
    Lord Belvan rode at the head of his own group of soldiers, holding up his bare hand. “Quickly! Captain Talone, let’s get your people into the safety of Thousand Years.”
    Talone cantered his horse forward, shouting, “Follow Lord Belvan!”
    “What’s happened?” Conrad asked.
    No one answered. Lord Belvan’s soldiers surrounded the Bayern, separating them from the citizens on the streets, and led them through the gate. The sun, glaring above the horizon, fumed in its sizzling spring heat.
    Inside the grounds, sentries stood with drawn weapons and courtiers and palace workers with unsheathed glares. The Bayern rode past the stable where Razo had followed Enna the day before. Amid a throng of watchers, three men carried something heavy wrapped in a blanket. One man was jostled by the crowd, and he leaned to the side to catch his footing. From beneath the blanket a blackened leg dropped into view.

10
The Captain’s Spy
    Razo could not catch his breath, and his jaw tightened as if he would throw up.
How can she do
this?
    Lord Belvan’s men led the Bayern to a back stable, where they tumbled off their mounts and fled into the palace. They ran down a corridor, Belvan barking commands, splitting the Bayern into smaller groups, stuffing them into various rooms and posting guards “until it quiets out there.”
    “What do you think’s going on?” Enna asked.
    “It’s pretty clear,” Razo whispered. He would not look at her. “Talone and I found the first two, Enna. Or were there more? I should’ve been watching better, but I never could stop you. You’d run off a