The Stormcrow Cycle [Slow-burn Slice-of-Life Tragic Fantasy Romance]

Chapter Forty-three: Small Resolutions

02/01/2022: Changed two lines to reflect the events of "Idle Chatter" more accurately!

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Ba'an slipped into the empty bedroom, waiting for the servant to pass her in the passage; she listened until the girl entered Ba'an's own room. By her movements, Ba'an surmised that the girl was replacing the water at the wash stand and checking the chamber pot. It wasn't suspicious, but Ba'an knew she would likely report back to either Gaios or Nikias as to Ba'an's absence; she rather suspected Gaios, if only because Nikias could track her in the same way she was tracking him.

The man was still at breakfast, along with everyone else, and Lukios was at the stables, soul bright and sparking against the mellow glow of horses and a goat.

Ba'an could hear his song and Mai'ra's, close together; he hadn't been lying about checking on her. She hastened through the passage then out the courtyard, keeping track of soul-songs and their positions relative to her own. Briefly, she considered hiding from Nikias; if she muffled herself to match the plants around her, her presence would vanish.

No, it was a terrible idea. Disappearing would alert him to her additional tricks, and it would alarm him, besides that. Better to be blatant, and if he had a problem with it, so what? It was not as if he did not know Lukios spent his nights with her already.

She sensed more souls about the courtyard. She ducked behind a pillar, then waited until the souls with their chattering voices turned the corner before walking quickly to the stables. There were servants around, but she made sure to angle herself to keep from view; she heard the stable-boy just in time as he came out, calling over his shoulder, "I can get an apple! Or maybe a carrot? Just a moment, kyrios!"

Ba'an ducked below the topiary, waiting for the boy to go. Then she stood, dusted herself, and burst out laughing; she quickly muffled the noise with her hand.

This was absurd. This more than absurd; it was hysterical.

Why was she hiding from stable boys when she already knew the girl who had changed her water would tell Gaios Ba'an was gone from her room?

It was idiotic, and Ba'an was clearly losing her mind.

Lukios stopped moving. He had heard her.

She walked to the entrance and peered inside. Lukios was crouched inside a stall so only the top of his head and his back and bottom showed beyond the stall. Ma'ra bleated, and she heard Lukios' fingers in her fur, giving her a good, firm scratch. Mai'ra bleated again, and Ba'an heard a rustling noise as the goat butted him playfully.

"Hey," he said. "Watch it, little lady—or you really will be dinner."

"She will not." Ba'an shuffled forward so she was inside the stable. A horse snorted in her direction, but then went back to watching the goat and the human speak nonsense. Ba'an cleared her throat. "I do not think she will make a good meal. She is too skinny." And adorable, but she did not think it would be wise to say so.

Lukios did not turn. He only continued to scratch Mai'ra behind the ears.

Ba'an fidgeted, feeling very much like she had the morning she had learned he had been a slave; it was the same sense of distance, the sense of being unmoored and stranded in the shifting sands with no landmark to guide her.

She and Thu'rin had never argued over discretion. He had understood her place in the saa-vuti vur, just as he had understood his own. She put her hand below her heart to soothe the sudden, sharp pain in her chest.

No. That was not the full truth; Thu'rin had not liked it, sneaking around, but he had loved Ba'an more than his pride, and so he had bent to fit her until her position—and his—was secure, until those of the low-vuti became accustomed to Thu'rin-and-Ba'an, Ba'an-and-Thu'rin, and did not think to dispute it.