Or was it simply me?
“Another hour until we reach the last inn,” Dimas observed, pushing his horse to ride astride Kye and me. We’d been practicing sharing our thoughts over the course of the trip, and he tossed a sideways glance at me, brow raised.
How much time is left in the day?
I glanced up, gauging the lazy winter sun.Forty-five minutes.
“We’ll need to hurry,” Kye said, straightening the silver-tipped black fur that laid over his shoulders. “We have half an hour, maybe, before dusk sets in.”
“That sun’s not setting for at least another hour,” Leal piped in, riding to my left. Kye glanced at me.
Yes, but those clouds to the south are coming this way—
“Those clouds to the south are coming this way—”
And they’ll bring night sooner than a clear sky.
“And they’ll bring night sooner than a clear sky.”
“Don’t pretend you can read the sun-damned skies, Laurier,” Leal snipped. “Ten fraggs says those clouds don’t shift over our heads until after nightfall.”
Kye’s eyes bounced to mine. I gave an imperceivable nod. He clasped Leal’s outstretched hand.
An hour later, Leal grumbled as he dug his coin purse from his saddle bags in the driveway of the inn.
We stopped somewhere just below Pirou. Diara’s home. I craned my neck in the late dusk for a hopeful glimpse of her father’s estate somewhere in the hills above, wishing we could stop and see her. I’d sent a letter ahead, informing her that we’d be passing through. I wondered how she was faring with Hadrian. The thought sank my teeth into my lip.
All roadside inns looked the same to me. Structures carved from wood, many of them stacked logs, built into a hillside to protect them from vicious wind in the absence of a town. This one burrowed deep into the mountainside, or at least the drifts of snow made it look that way, draping over the inn’s roof to look like one long white rope of garland. Smoke puffed from various chimneys across its gables, the scent of beef and carrots and salt waking the sedentary mind of my belly.
Inside the inn’s tavern, Aitne ate her hot stew in silence, Selena beside her.
Leal flopped into the closest seat, dropping five coins on the table in front of Kye. “Rotten cheater,” he muttered.
Kye scooped the fraggs up. “How would I possibly cheat?”
I stirred a breath into my steaming stew and said nothing.
Aren’s white furry dog, Fox, sat at his side. He leaned back in his chair, pointing his spoon at Leal. “Are you not eating?”
“The sun-damned crown’s stolen all my money.” Leal tossed a small pouch of peanuts on the table and plucked one out, twisting it at the center to break the shell.
“Oh, for Aalto’s sake,” Kye shoved the coins back at the man.
“I don’t want your dirty money,” Leal said, plopping a small peanut into his mouth. “It’s tainted with the evil of immoral deeds.”
“Get yourself some fucking soup.”
“I don’t like soup.”
Aren leaned forward on his elbows. “Then quit griping and let the rest of us eat in peace.”
For a moment, the only noise came from the great fireplace beside our table and the gentle clinking of silver utensils against ceramic bowls. For an inn built in northern Calder without a city, this one was particularly glamorous, its ceilings high and walls sparkling with lacquer, the rooms spacious and the carpets lush.
Leal chewed in silence, tongue working between the grooves of his teeth. “Ever notice how when you’re eating peanuts, you’re still eating peanuts long after you’ve stopped eating peanuts?”
Kye scooped a bite with a thick hunk of bread. “How many times can you fucking say peanuts in a sentence, Leal?”
“More than that if I tried.”
