Shadow Weaver (Back on Wattpad 2020!)

Chapter 18

Jakut watches me curiously.

"What was that?" Tug asks.

"You were making her nervous. She needed some assurance a human exists beneath your beast face."

Brin snorts.

The Prince reaches forward to serve himself. "How did you know about the bracelet?" he asks.

"Tug was staring at it," I say. The Prince frowns. Perhaps he thinks I understand Tug too well.

We eat in silence and I am suddenly struck by something. Though I'm dressed as a boy, and my hair is a long tangle like Brin's and I am in the company of men, the Delladean woman did not hesitate in calling me Miss, even before I spoke and my voice gave me away. When Tug and Brin first saw me in Blackfoot Forest, when they took my skinny rags and bones to the Pit, people assumed I was a boy. I have fattened up in the last week. I may have to stop eating so much.

Afternoon sun leaks through the closed shutters. I wake on the bedroom floor with tears in my eyes and the sense of Kel so close, my swollen heart feels ready to burst. While Deadran still sleeps I take off my shirt and wash using a jug of cold water, noticing my rib bones aren't sticking out so much and my breasts are fuller.

I decide to skip eating until later, and spend the next couple of hours inside the innkeeper Addy Mulburry's mind, scouring tedious memories of days that bleed into months, and months into years that all look the same.

By late-afternoon, stars twinkle in the deep night-blue sky. I stretch my legs and stare out the window at the pigs, my thoughts numb from so many hours of Addy's kitchen-hand drudge.

The sound and smells of pigs snuffling and squealing drifts up. In the stables, a horse whinnies.

"I never knew pigs could be so fascinating."

I turn. Jakut stands in the doorway, tufts of hair falling into his eyes. Half his face glows from the candle in the wall sconce, while deep twilight gives the other half of his bronzed skin a silvery tint. He reminds me of the portrait paintings of elegant noblemen and women hanging in the boarding house dining room. His breath is ragged from riding which means he has come straight here after leaving his stallion.

I point to Deadran on the bed, then cross the room. Jakut retreats into the narrow corridor. I join him, clicking the door shut behind me and stand crushed against it to create a little space between us. At least I have washed.

"How have you been getting on?" he asks.

From his casual tone, it sounds like polite conversation, but I sense he is already testing me. "I know the names of every cook, serving girl, butler and footman. I am familiar with the running of Lord Tersil's fort and the names of his wife and children. But my information is fifteen years out of date."

Jakut stares as though he's listening to something other than my spoken words. The sincerity in his eyes tilts me off balance. I think of Tug's words in the forest. I should not need to be warned to distrust the Prince. A child would know this. Yet instinct betrays me.

"If that is all," I say, fumbling for the bedroom door handle.

"Mirra, please, take a walk with me." I grope for an excuse, but he turns before I find one and I am left to follow him through the dark hall.

Outside the moon is bright, lighting our way as we cross towards the stables. This is some consolation as I wish to check on my mare.

"Tomorrow, we will dine in Lyndonia," he says. He ambles with his hands in his pockets, shoulders relaxed. I fleetingly wonder where he and Tug have been for the last two hours. "Deadran has instructed us together, but I will need as much help as you can give me. I will not recognize my uncle or aunt or the guards or anyone from the fort."