It took me a moment to remember where I was as I stared at the domed ceiling. Aiden’s place. The windowless room had little light of its own, but the sunlight that pierced the cracks of the door told me it was day.
I rubbed my hands over my face.
Maz showed me the water basin and soap last night, so I was at least able to scrub most of my skin clean. My hair I simply tied in a knot. It would have to keep until I could have a proper bath.
He’d also handed me more of Aiden’s salve for my ribs and jaw. And praise be Viridana, my beating from Renwell was healing much more rapidly than any other injuries I’d ever had.
Good enough to dance, certainly.
I rose and poured fresh water into the chipped basin. After splashing my face and pulling on my boots, I opened the door.
Maz sat at the table, eating an apple with his sleeves rolled up over his massive, tattooed arms. But Aiden was gone.
Spotting me, Maz smiled and waved to a chair. “Take a seat, lovely, and have some breakfast. Courtesy of Sophie.”
I slid into the chair and snatched up a thick slice of brown bread. “Will I ever get to meet this amazing woman?” I devoured the bread in two bites, my stomach already crying for more.
Maz chuckled. “Undoubtedly. Hardly a soul around that doesn’t know Sophie. But be warned, she’s as suspicious and protective as a mother bear.”
I barely remembered to chew the three hunks of pale yellow cheese I grabbed. So creamy, so nutty. Gods, food was the best.
“I’ve never seen a bear,” I mumbled through a full mouth.
Maz’s ice-blue eyes brightened. “Of course, having lived in a gods-forsaken palace all your life. But you should see Dagriel one day. The snow-tipped mountains, the rapid rivers full of fish, the pine trees that smell sweet in the rain and spicy in the sun...” He trailed off with a dreamy look on his face, juice from his apple dribbling down his wrist.
I swallowed. “Will you get to go back one day?”
He refocused on me, the light in his eyes dimming. “Gods willing. But I carry home with me wherever I go,” he added, gesturing to his tattoos.
“Like the mountain on your back?”
His voice softened. “Yes. The mountain is a symbol of our people, across all clans. Of our strength, of our endurance. The mountains have been our home since the first dawn and will be until every age has passed.”
Before I could ask him more, the Temple bells rang. He took a final bite from his apple and tossed the core out the window. “Best hurry along. Can’t be late for your first rehearsal.”
I listened to the bells ring the eleventh hour while cramming bits of dried salted pork in my mouth. I washed it down with a mug of water from a green bottle, which I sniffed first to be sure it wasn’t mead again.
“Where’s Aiden?” I asked as Maz stood up and unfurled his shirt sleeves to cover his tattoos.
“Busy.” Maz flashed me a smile, as if to make up for the curt answer. “But I assure you, I’m an excellent guide.”
“You mean guard.”
He pursed his lips. “I don’t see it that way.”
“Aiden does,” I muttered, brushing crumbs from my mouth and pants as I stood up.
“Be patient with him, lovely. He has good reason not to trust so easily.”
“And you don’t?”
Maz stroked his bearded chin. “I suppose I would rather treat someone as a friend until they prove otherwise. Aiden tends to feel differently. He would rather not be surprised when someone betrays him. In my experience, the more times one is betrayed, the more one comes to expect betrayal.”
I frowned. The idea that I was more like Aiden in that regard was discomfiting. And that he was not wrong about me. But who else had betrayed Aiden? And what had happened to them?
The food soured in my stomach. Maybe I didn’t want to know.
The moment we stepped outside, I thanked the gods I’d left my cloak behind. The humidity immediately enveloped me in a sweaty hug. Mynastra’s storms hadn’t cooled the air but rather thickened it.
