Borderlands by Skye Melki-Wegner Page A

to sit beside me. ‘Anything wrong?’
    Maisy shrugs as she slips onto the boulder. She reminds me of a little bird even more than a mouse – light and skittish, always ready to flitter away. We sit in silence for a while, gazing out into the trees.
    â€˜I have to tell you something,’ Maisy says.
    I force my face into a politely interested expression. Really I’m burning with curiosity, but you’ve got to take it easy with Maisy. ‘Yeah?’
    â€˜It’s about Lukas.’
    Well, that’s not what I was expecting. ‘What’s wrong? Is he all right?’
    â€˜I think so.’ Maisy looks at her knees. ‘But Danika . . . I don’t think he told us everything he saw today.’
    â€˜What do you mean?’
    Maisy hesitates. ‘I was watching him when he told us what the eagle saw. He didn’t look comfortable – he looked like he was still hiding something.’
    â€˜Of course he looked uncomfortable. He’d just seen his father’s army bunching up around the Valley we want to get into!’ A note of defensive irritation slips into my voice, and Maisy shies back. I give an apologetic smile, and force myself to speak more calmly. ‘Sorry.’
    Maisy looks back down at her knees. ‘I watch people, Danika. I know how to listen when other people are talking. I know when someone feels guilty about something – when they’re hiding a secret.’
    I move to interrupt, but she shakes her head and keeps speaking. ‘And that’s not all. At dinner tonight, he . . .’
    My mouth feels dry. ‘At dinner he what?’
    â€˜When the rest of us were eating porridge, Lukas excused himself early. Everyone was too tired to pay attention, but he was going through the supplies, Danika. I saw him. He was looking through the hunters’ packs, sneaking things into his pocket . . .’
    The words hit me like a slap. ‘Are you saying Lukas is stealing from us?’
    â€˜No, no!’ Maisy shakes her head, looking terrified by my reaction. ‘No, not like that. Just a few basic supplies, that’s all. I think . . . I think he’s going to leave.’ She takes a deep breath. ‘I think he saw something else when he borrowed that bird’s eyes, and it’s scared him into running away.’
    Another silence. I stare at Maisy, at a loss for what to say. If you collected all the tense silences in this conversation, you could erase half the noise in Taladia. Finally, I manage to cajole my tongue into working again. ‘You’re wrong.’
    Maisy doesn’t look up from her knees. ‘I hope so.’
    â€˜I know so,’ I snap, too affected by her words to even soften my tone. ‘What do you think he is, some kind of traitor? Just because he’s the king’s son? It’s not his fault who his father is – people can’t choose their relatives.’
    Maisy looks up, and suddenly she’s not a timid little mouse. Her eyes blaze with all the power of her Flame proclivity, and this time it’s me who shrinks back. ‘I know that,’ she says. ‘I know you can’t choose your father.’
    It takes me a second to realise what she means, and then my stomach twists. Maisy’s father was a ruthless businessman who tried to marry her off for money. That’s the entire reason the twins left Rourton – why they traded a life of richie opulence for this dangerous trek through the wild.
    â€˜Sorry,’ I say.
    Maisy stares at me a moment longer, then nods. ‘I hope I’m wrong, Danika. I just thought you should know. Just in case . . . I hoped it might hurt less if you had some warning.’
    She slips from the boulder and pads away. I want to call her back, to apologise again, but she’s already snuggled back down beside her sister. So I stare after her, blink, and then turn back towards the