Juna counted the seats again, finding one fewer than the number of girls wanting the cushion beside Hajin.
The royal carriage was a lacquered box on six wheels, gilded at every corner and rattling south along the road. Ferra pried the brass lock off the outside on the first morning, so the door swung freely on its hinges.
Elise sat on a folded blanket by the door, hands in her lap. "I have slept on worse floors, my lady, please do not fight over me."
"Nobody is fighting over you."
"Then I have been treated very well indeed," she said gravely.
Juna planted her feet on the cushion, "Pack leader sits beside the Idiot, that is simply the law."
Vella sank between them with a sigh, "The oldest sits in the middle, and these legs cost the kid Soul Energy, so I'm using them."
"Window's mine," Ferra said without looking up from her gauntlets, "I reforged his weapon."
"You hammered one chain, I've bitten three men for him."
"Then you've got a very small number to be proud of."
