Excerpt: Three of Swords

“Why do you not tell her? She shall find out soon enough,” said Bryce. Taryn sat still as stone, pretending sleep, suddenly very interested in the conversation. Was the “she” they were speaking of Taryn?
“Yes,” Rick was saying, “and until then, she need not know more than what I have already told her.”
There was a pause. Then, “Is it a matter of trust?”
“Of distrust, actually.”
“Of the girl?” Taryn tried not to frown; certainly they meant her. “Surely…”
“Not, not of her, nor her companion, should we find him again,” said Rick. “It is the rest of the world I distrust; the night has a thousand eyes, and the woods a thousand ears. The less I reveal out loud, the safer we are. I have kept hidden for years, Bryce. I am not about to waste those years now.”
Sir Bryce shifted his weight; she could tell by the scraping of rock against rock as he changed positions on his stone seat. “I thought you stayed away for your own safety.”
Rick sighed. “There was more to it than that. There are certain – luxuries – afforded to those who remain undetected. The longer I remain so, the better. Besides, I like my proper name very little; you should know that.”
“I do. But that does not make you the less suited for it.”
“No, the blame for that belongs to me and my blood-kin.” Taryn wondered at the open bitterness in his voice; clearly, the royal family had an interesting history. She made a note of it to find out more in the morning. She heard Bryce utter a single syllable, as if to protest, but Rick cut him off abruptly. “But enough of this – I am going out to scout. Do you sleep?”
A note of weariness crept into Sir Bryce’s voice. “Not at all, my lord.”
Rick paused; she imagined a sympathetic look on his feline face. “Then will you mind too terribly if I ask you to keep watch this night?”
She looked over, through her lashes at them, just for a moment, and caught a brief glimpse of what almost amounted to a smile spreading across Bryce’s stone lips. “Not at all, my lord.”