“Or perhaps you just haven’t been around me long enough for me to spin a proper web,” I countered. To pretend to be innocent and weak would not win me any favors. The Lysian guard appeared to respond to honesty, as did I. I would use that to my advantage to win his favor. He was right to be wary, but I would try to show him he could trust me, that I was not a threat to his kind.
The Lysian lifted a single golden eyebrow as he contemplated my words.
I crossed my arms over my chest as if squaring off with the beast before me. “And are all Lysians like you? Large and inquisitive?”
He smiled, canines flashing. “You should only be so lucky to have one like me tasked with keeping an eye on someone like you.”
The Lysian was likely not wrong with that statement. I doubted anyone else would come off as almost welcoming to theirprisoners of war. Erik certainly did not have such a hospitable experience when he was a captive. Suddenly suspicion set in, and I wondered whether the Lysian was tasked with making me feel comfortable in an attempt to find out potential secrets should I divulge them. If that were the case, then he had met his match. A Lysian like him likely believed he had nothing to fear from a Bavadrin woman, for he could easily overpower me with his size and strength. Lucky for me, I could rely on something far stronger than physical strength for protection.It was enough to help me keep my chin lifted and spine straight.
“I don’t even know your name,” I pointed out. We traveled together for two days and nights, if you also counted the night we left, a majority of it done so in silence. Still, it was a great deal of time to spend with someone and not know what to call them.
“Kole,” he answered casually, his crystal eyes focused on me expectantly. He wanted me to introduce myself, though I was certain that he already knew my name.
“Kole, I am Ariana,” I offered, and then glanced back to the open balcony door.
“You do not fear us, Ariana,” he said, blue eyes not once drifting from me.
“I do not doubt that if you wished to harm me, you could easily do so.” I stroked his ego with my words. “But you have yet to show that you are a threat to my life. I am cautious, but fear would not serve me well here.”
“You do not fear the unknown? You are in a new world right now. You have no idea what we have planned. For all you know, you may be on the dinner menu tonight. Yet you do not fear that possibility?” He seemed genuinely curious, but his lips curved skywards. He was toying with me, trying to gain a fear response.
I wanted him to like me, not to see me as someone to entertain his boredom at my expense.
“Fear of the unknown does not serve me. I fear the things Iknow, the monsters who are clear to me.” I explained with a trail of breadcrumbs for him to pick up.
“What monsters?” he asked, so diligently picking up those carefully placed crumbs.
Good boy.
“You should only be so lucky never to know.” My words were teasing. The suspense building, and then my stomach growled loudly.
Kole’s gaze drifted to the open balcony. “Food should be brought to you any moment now,” he informed me before retreating into the common room. Our conversation ended. I wondered what he made of it, disappointed that he did not ask more.
I took the time to explore the room further. The bed was extensive, with a thick wooden headboard, and a dresser with a mirror made of the same wide and sturdy wood stood alongside one wall. A leather chair was pushed against the wall in a corner of the room with a small square table next to it. I ran my hand over the table, feeling the lumber underneath my fingertips. It was smooth, with soft ripples of the wood running through it. While the dresser and bed frame were simple, the table was not. The sides and legs were carved with intricate interwoven designs, the craftsmanship unlike anything I had ever seen.
Kole had been true to his word, for food arrived shortly after he left me. A Lysian woman brought a tray and handed it to Kole, who then brought it to me. My mouth watered from the smell of pheasant and warm bread. There was also jam and sliced cucumbers. Accepting the tray, I proceeded to devour everything in record time while sitting on the edge of the bed. Kole remained in the other room, though with the door open, we had a direct view of one another.
“Are you not hungry?” I asked the Lysian when I finished my meal. He had yet to eat anything in front of me. He must havebeen starving. Surely his massive size required equally massive meals for upkeep.
“We do not need to eat as often as you Bavadrins,” was his only response. He had withdrawn from me, no longer wishing to play with words.
The sun lowered over the horizon, darkening the sky. I retreated entirely into my temporary room and tried to calm myself enough to sleep. My thoughts were on a never-ending rotation, pushing one worry out and another took its place over and over until the entire pattern began from the beginning. My mind drifted between my people, Edda, Landin, and Willis, and what I had done by giving up our Leader Superior.
After bathing and finally washing the grime of travel from my skin, my mind must had settled enough to drift to sleep.
In the early hours of the morning, I huffed an audible breath. The soft white sheets were tangled around me, evidence of the restless night. Nightmares tainted what little sleep there was.
“You may want to get up and get dressed,” a voice said from within my room, only a few feet away.
The hair on the back of my neck stood on its ends, and I sat straight up at the unknown presence, finding Kole casually standing by the balcony doors. He peered outside, consumed by whatever he saw in the distance.
“Seems that his highness is returning sooner than expected,” Kole said before taking an audible breath and turning to me. “It appears as though you do fear,” he commented lowly, his icy gaze pinning me before he finally walked out of the room without a sound.
My heart to thunder in my chest. I had no doubt the Lysian heard it, and I also suspected he smelled the panic that surged through me at the sudden realization that I was not alone. I sat there a few more seconds without moving a single muscle, too stunned to respond.
How long had the Lysian been standing in my room without my knowing? A shiver ran down my body. Kole could have been there all night, watching me as I slept. He was soundless.
Lysians were made of massive muscular bodies, yet they were so agile, capable of moving in complete silence. With skills like that, they could easily sneak up on an enemy and slaughter them before any form of alarm could be sounded. If things tumbled into war, the Bavadrins would need to see the Lysians coming, for we would not hear their approach.
