Page 53 of The Winner's Kiss
But it was not soothing.
Although the day had not been without comfort, Kestrel kept the last potent moment of it in mind. She decided that Arin was the opposite of relief.
Chapter 14
Arin was gone again. He left Kestrel A note that announced his departure but gave no reason for it nor an indication of how long he’d be away. She assumed it had something to do with the war, and that he hesitated to explain anything in writing, which begged the question of why he hadn’t spoken with her, which in turn reminded her of how she’d flinched from his touch.
She understood the note. But she didn’t like it.
She asked Roshar where Arin was and why.
“Nosy, nosy,” said the prince. His tone was arch. Friendly enough. Still, it drew a clear hard line that warned she’d waste her time pressing for more information.
They were playing Borderlands in the parlor. The windows were open and a storm was brewing, but the rain hadn’t come yet. Dark clouds knotted on the horizon. The wind that stirred the curtains smelled raw. Roshar shifted, and shifted again, eyeing the game pieces.
Arin hadn’t taken Javelin. No horses were missing from the stables. She’d counted them.
Roshar glanced at the darkening sky.
“Is he at sea?” Kestrel asked.
“Dear one, what do you care?”
“You’re nervous.”
“I’m nervous about you. You’re going to beat me.”
“I thought you were at war. You should have better things to do than stay here and play Borderlands with me.”
He lifted one brow, but merely said, “Your move.”
She made it. It had been a plea sure to discover that she remembered how to play. How was not a problem for her. She knew how to do things. Play a game, play the piano, ride a horse, speak a language. If there was anything she no longer knew how to do, she wasn’t conscious of it.
The issue was what. Her memory was a gaming set where she could see the board and knew the rules of the game yet didn’t recognize all the pieces.
She said, “Who commands the Dacran-Herrani alliance?”
“Need you even ask? Do I not exude an air of irrefutable authority?”
“What’s Arin’s role?”
“That,” he told her, “is a good question.”
The wind billowed a curtain. She moved her engineer, keeping her eyes on the board. “I’m surprised your people support the alliance.”
He shrugged, muttering something short and irritable in his language.
“Dying for someone else’s people is not usually how war works,” Kestrel said. “What exactly does your queen want from Herran?”
“That deadly little invention of Arin’s, for one.”
“You have that already. He’s given you the plans.”
“The empire must be kept at bay. If they take this peninsula, it’s only a matter of time before they take the east.”
“Is your sister intelligent?”
He gave her an impatient look. She saw his answer. “Then she must want something more,” Kestrel said. “Does Arin know what she wants?”
