“It’s nothing,” she insisted. She’d have to change her training time; Jayme was a little too suspicious. It was already hard enough to sneak past all the warriors at their new postings ever since Sehra had tightened security after Vi had run away.
“You’ll feel better with some food in you.” Ellene handed over a long skewer, filled with fire-roasted meats and vegetables.
“I’m sure I will.” Vi smiled and made quick work of eating, busying her mouth long enough that the conversation shifted.
“So what did we miss while Martis was wrapping up?” Andru asked, selecting his own skewer. He stared into the basket. “Other than you two completely consuming every last morsel.”
“Clearly not every last morsel. Otherwise, what are you eating now?” Jayme rolled her eyes.
“We were dying.” Ellene flopped back, tousling her mass of dark curls. “Dying!”
“Dying?” Vi quickly swallowed a half-chewed mass of food to ask.
“Yes, dying,” Ellene groaned. “We have, what, a week or two left before your mother is supposed to arrive? I did not intend on us spending it like this.” She sighed heavily. “There’s nothing to do. We’re cooped up here all day, every day… I’ve forgotten what the sky looks like out from under these trees. And if any of you dare suggest carcivi or balls and mallets again, I will pommel you with said mallet.”
Vi looked over her shoulder and back toward the wall that surrounded them once more. She wasn’t the only one who was feeling far more trapped.
“It’s to keep us safe.” Andru rested the end of his half-eaten skewer on his knee. Vi didn’t feel as hungry anymore either. “And carcivi is fun.”
“That’s because you always win,” Ellene muttered.
“We’re safe, while everyone else is out there dying. It’s worth it.” Jayme rested her palms on the ground behind her, leaning back. The movement was nonchalant for such a grim statement.
“No talk of dying.” Ellene glared at her. “That’s the rule as long as Darrus is out there, remember?”
“Sorry,” Jayme mumbled.
“He’s still working for the clinic then?” Vi asked nonchalantly—at least, she hoped it sounded that way. The topic had come up naturally and she couldn’t have hoped for a better opportunity.
“He won’t listen to a word I say on the matter. There’s no way, he says, that he’ll accept my offer for him and his family to stay in the fortress,” Ellene said softly. Usually, she’d rise to anger. Vi braced herself for whatever was the source of the introspection—she already knew she wouldn’t like it. “Especially not after his cousin was taken to the clinic.”
Vi fought a wince and failed.
“Not surprised he won’t,” Jayme said softly.
“Oh?” Andru finally placed his half-eaten skewer back into the basket. Vi took the last bite of hers and did the same.
“Common folk have solidarity. We’re not used to special treatment… so when we get it, it feels… wrong. Unfair. As though we’re turning our back on our kin,” Jayme elaborated.
“I invited his kin.” Ellene propped herself up on her elbows.
“I mean the greater kin of us poor folk against you nobles.”
“Against?” Andru hung on the word, but Vi focused on something else.
“You don’t feel like we’re kin?” Vi asked, shocked.
Jayme gave a small laugh. “I’m not the best example. Half of my life has been spent around you two and your families.”
“Regardless of why, Darrus won’t. That’s all that matters,” Ellene grumbled, keeping them on the topic of conversation—her suitor. “I just wish that if he was going to stay out there, he wouldn’t take unnecessary risks and work at the clinic.”
“It may not be an unnecessary risk,” Andru mused hopefully. “Westilldon’t know how it spreads, right? Maybe it has nothing to do with proximity.”
“And he’s working to figure out how it spreads,” Jayme offered hopefully. “He’ll know first, so he’ll know how to protect himself.”
“Or he’ll be exposed first.” Ellene was inconsolable on this matter.
“When does he work with the clerics?” Vi worked to stay focused, to guide the conversation in the direction she needed it to go. Perhaps she could have Ellene summon him the next time he was free. Then Vi could try to get a message to the Western woman through him… or, at the least, find out if she was even still alive.
