“Yes, musicians and crew,” Ora murmured.
The Rook walked down the line of us, looking each of us up and down. Mina clenched her sister’s hand as the Rook paused in front of her.
“What’s your name?” he asked her.
Her gray eyes grew impossibly wide as she signed her name back to him.
“Mina,” Malou interpreted for her and in that moment the twins looked so different I wondered how I could’ve ever mixed them up. Malou was sharp and fierce. Mina was gentle and shy. Both were beautiful and talented, but never once had I seen that wide-eyed fear of Mina’s expression on Malou’s face, nor the gruff distaste in Malou’s pinched mouth on Mina’s.
The Rook arched his brow. “A musician who can’t hear?”
“She can hear,” Malou said, her tone tipping the balance from sharp to mean. “There’s more than one reason to use the language of signs.”
The Rook twisted toward her so quickly it made her rock back on her heels. He twirled his hand scythe again and Malou had the good sense to stay quiet.
He snickered at her surprise, but kept walking, apparently satisfied with her reply. I kept my gaze downcast, watching as his boots appeared before mine.
“And your name?” I knew he was asking me without looking up.
I wasn’t sure if it was better to lie or not. Now that people knew about King Nero’s renouncement of Grae, maybe they’d know my name, too.
“Vellia,” I said.
“Vellia what?” the Rook asked, tilting his head so his eyes pierced into me from under his heavy brow.
Grae sidestepped closer to me.
“Vellia Sortienna, my Lord,” I said, bowing my head. Vellia of the Golden Trees. It had been the first word that popped into my mind. “I’m a singer.”
“You’ve probably heard of our little songbird from Queen Ingrid’s masquerade?” Ora flourished their hand toward me. “It was the talk of Taigos afterward.”
“I’m not much of a music-lover,” he said with a spit. But the Rook didn’t move for the longest time after that. With each passing moment, my pulse grew louder, wondering if he recognized me somehow.
Finally, he spoke. “All right, it’ll be ten crovers to pass the border.”
“Ten?” Ora exclaimed. “Borders are normally one.”
“We’re charging per person nowadays,” the Rook said, turning toward Ora. “And extra for you lot wasting our time.”
Ora looked like they might protest, but Grae grabbed the coin purse off his belt.
“Here.” He hastily chucked it at the silent Rook waiting behind his commander.
The Rook looked at the heavy bag of coins, tossing it up and down in his hands. He nodded to his commander, clearly more than ten crovers inside. The other Rooks disembarked the wagon, shaking their heads at him—they’d found nothing.
Navin’s eyes narrowed, assessing each of the Rooks, though their covered mouths and deep hoods made it hard to discern their features. I knew he was searching for his brother again. I wondered if his heart leapt into his throat every time he saw these cloaked figures—if he hoped that, this time, he’d finally find his family member.
“Safe travels,” the head Rook said, gesturing to his comrades with his hand scythe. They all turned toward the thin trail back up to the lookout.
Mina nudged Hector when he didn’t move and he turned to follow the rest.
We filed back into the lower seating area, dragging snow across the rough hessian mat. We crammed into the couches and took off our boots, leaving them to dry along the back grate.
“That was stressful,” Sadie said, resting her woolen socks on the low table in a mirror to Navin. Their trousers just touched each other and I noticed the little smile that played on Navin’s lips at the action.
“At least now we’re in Olmdere,” Hector said.
“No, actually we’re not.” Malou snorted. “We’ve got another day’s descent before we reach the border.”
Hector’s brows dropped. “But didn’t we just pay a border tithe?”
“One of many.” Malou crossed her arms and leaned back against the patchwork couch. “We’ll be paying greedy Rooks at least two more times before we get into Olmdere, and then, who knows. There might be roadblocks in every village.”
“There aren’t,” Navin said, and everyone’s eyes darted to him. “There aren’t enough travelers passing through, and those that travel within Olmdere have no money to extort.”