When we reach the entrance hall, there are three guards waiting by the open door, and at first, I can’t see who’s behind them. Yet when the sound of our footsteps echoes in the large, open space, the guards turn, and my eyes widen at the two figures standing there.
Rissa and Polly.
I stop in my tracks, mouth slightly open in surprise.
“Well, are you just going to stand there?” Rissa asks, delicate blonde brow arched up. “Or are you going to invite us in?”
I wasn’t sure where to bring them, so I settled for the drawing room on the second floor. I haven’t been in here before, but it has plenty of seats and a nice view of the river through the window.
Polly is glaring daggers at me from her spot on the chaise where she sits next to Rissa. Her black dress is covered in mud at the hem, as if she walked through the rivers, straight up to Brackhill’s door. It seems like it’s hanging off of her too, her curves far less noticeable than they were before. Her blonde hair is lackluster and tangled in a braid, but it’s the circles under her bloodshot eyes that are the most shocking. That, and the state of her peeled lips and cuticles. As if she’s been picking at the skin there, shucking them off strip by strip. Polly has always been beautiful, but right now, she’s rundown and almost sickly looking.
“What are you looking at?” she snaps, and I jerk my eyes away from her.
I turn to Rissa, and although she too appears as if she’s lost some weight and looks travel-worn, she doesn’t look worse for wear.
“I didn’t expect to see you,” I tell her.
Rissa looks around the room, eyes lingering on the green striped wallpaper. “Yes, well, when we left Ranhold, I had every intention of taking a cart and getting out of the city, but Polly was in a bad way.”
Polly’s eyes tighten, her head swiveling. “I was fine.”
Rissa presses her lips together. “You were not fine.”
“Well, I didn’t want to go!” she snarls. “You had no right—”
“I took you out of that place before you could kill yourself on dew. As your friend, I had every right.”
Polly turns away, cheeks lifted with color as she stews in her anger.
I watch this exchange in anxious fascination. For years, these two were thick as thieves, always laughing and talking, always so drop-dead gorgeous and put together. It’s almost like they’re two completely different people.
Yet I can somewhat relate. The aftermath of leaving Midas’s grip hasn’t been easy for any of us.
I have snippets of that night with them, of Rissa coming to collect Polly, and my stomach twists. “I forgot,” I admit. “I forgot to tell you to go to the army. How did you know?”
“Some woman with daggers shaved into her hair,” Rissa tells me. “She helped us get out of the castle, too.”
Relief surges through me. I need to remember to thank Lu the next time I see her.
“So you stayed with Fourth’s army?” I ask. “They didn’t give you any trouble?”
Rissa tightens her hands into balls in her lap. “Nothing I couldn’t handle. The hairy giant brute came in and grunted some words every so often, but aside from him, it was fine.”
“Hairy gi—Wait, are you talking about Osrik?”
Rissa sniffs. “Yes.”
An unruly laugh escapes me. “Please tell me that’s not what you called him to his face.”
She blinks her crystal-blue eyes at me. “Of course I did. He wants to behave like a lumbering boor, then I’ll call him as such.”
I cover my mouth with my hand, trying to suppress more amusement. “I can only imagine how well you two got along.”
For some reason, her own cheeks turn pink, and she looks away. “Yes, well. We’ve just arrived, and it was a long, long journey.”
“Of course,” I say soberly. “Did you want to…rest here?”
Rissa says yes at the same time as Polly turns and snaps out a no.
I look between them.
A trundled, weary sigh escapes Rissa. “Polly—”
“No,” she says, lurching to her feet. “I’m done. Done, Rissa. You just dragged me out of Fifth Kingdom, across the Barrens, past disgusting, rotted swamplands, all the way to this stupid kingdom, and I’m done!”
Her chest heaves, her voice shrill.
“I was trying to help you—”
“Well,” Polly seethes, eyes alight. “I didn’t want your help.”
Rissa looks stricken.