A Court of Heart and Fealty | Rhysand

Chapter 20: The Interrogation

"Not entirely alone." For a moment, she thought Amren meant Azriel, as she had also been thinking. "You had to have been running from someone."

Galadriel's knees bumped into the fence where it enclosed the edge of the garden. Amren kept walking, not even glancing back as Galadriel stumbled to climb over the low pickets. Smoothing out her dress skirts as she fought to catch up, Galadriel panted out, "What makes you say that?"

"Because nobody runs on a frozen lake with thin ice unless they deem the threat behind them far worse."

The conversation was taking a turn that she didn't particularly desire to venture down. "I didn't know the ice was thin," Galadriel muttered.

Angling her head, Amren glared at the sky as though warning the sun to take shelter behind the clouds lest it face her wrath. "You were a child on the run—I wouldn't have expected you to check." That definitely wasn't a question and it both irritated and frightened Galadriel how right Amren was. She had been running. Had been too young to think to test the ice.

Defensively crossing her arms over her chest, Galadriel asked, "Did Rhysand send you?" Her voice went tight at the mere formation of his name in her mouth.

"Rhysand?" Amren snorted. "He told us to leave you be."

"Really?" She was dubious, to say the least.

"Don't be fooled, girl. Azriel probably knows your toilet roster by now."

Galadriel blushed at that. Hard. "I wouldn't expect less," she half-gritted out. "It's his job to know where all potential threats may be, especially in this city."

Cocking her head, Amren's beady eyes thinned. "You consider yourself a threat? Interesting." And Galadriel knew she indeed found the fact as such.

Squinting, she examined the lane they walked down. It would lead them eventually to the bridge and to the other side of Velaris where most of the people lived and the shops. "Not me directly," she mumbled. "But... The threat I am. I know you might have forgotten with so many other matters to handle, but I do have a bounty on my head. If people know I'm here then—"

A sudden, cold hand on Galadriel's chest had her halting mid-stride. Amren, despite being quite a few inches shorter than Galadriel, seemed to be staring down at her with more venom than a fanged viper. "Let me get one thing straight, girl. This city will never be found by those outside of it. They won't know you're here, they won't come for you, and you don't bring any of that shit in here."

Galadriel couldn't tell if that was a warning or reassurance. "I don't want that to happen," seemed the appropriate answer. Satisfied, the hand fell from her chest and Amren turned back around, walking like she had never stopped. "Does... Does Rhysand usually do this?" She couldn't help but ask. "Bring strays home?"

"No," Amren clipped. "Which makes you all that more intriguing."

"I'm not that interesting," she asserted. "Truly, you can ask Azriel anything you need to know about me. You don't need to come down all the way here to interrogate me." As she said that, Galadriel realised that an interrogation was exactly what was happening, and she had fallen right into its trap. Amren had drawn her out without even needing to dangle the carrot.

Amren gave a small, indignant sound. "Azriel," she drawled, "won't tell me anything about you."

It surprised her enough that she didn't speak for a little while longer and Amren didn't try to fill in the silence. Galadriel wasn't exactly sure why Azriel wouldn't mention anything of her to Amren. He hadn't said much to Mor or Rhysand or Cassian either, but he swept that away with an excuse about leaving introductions to her. But it didn't seem right that he wouldn't give more information to Rhysand's Second even after their first meeting. Unless Azriel didn't trust Amren. That was something to keep in mind.