Silence
Silence woke with a groan,sitting up slowly. It was the first time he’d felt comfortable doing so without help. He looked around and was a bit surprised to find his room empty. Before now, someone had always been there, tending to him. That and Ant had remained close, resting on the floor or a couch, but was gone now.
Strong, slanting beams of sunlight shone through the large windows. That made him smile. A beautiful, sunny day always lifted his spirits. But then, so did simply being in this bed, in this place. His smile widened just thinking about the impossibility of having been chosen for a Noble House. He thought he’d reached the limits of his smiling, but then he recalled who he was here with and his smile grew again.
Legs.
He fell back into his pillows with a sigh. Then felt a thrill at the memory of his encounters with her. He loved everything about her: those large, russet-brown eyes, that soft, wavy hair, her wide cheery grin, the slight up-turn of her nose, and so much more. He couldn’t think about the rest without a specific part of him growing stiff and uncomfortable.
His smile faded at the thought that he wouldn’t see her for a while. She’d left Hedgewild. Though, in all fairness… he was just happy she was alive.
She’d come to see him yesterday. He’d been a bit feverish, but lucid enough to recognize her and understand that she was truly alive. Before that, others had told him she’d not only survived the mistweaver but defeated her! He hadn’t believed them. He’d thought their words the kind lies that you tell someone who’s suffering so as not to worsen their condition. But then… there she was, alive and radiant! She’d been happy to see him doing well and hugged him. That had been the delight of his day. She’d hedged a little and said there was something she needed to talk to him about, but he hadn’t paid much attention to that, simply reveling in her aliveness, not to mention her body pressed to his. Later that day, she, Maverick, Amber, and Sparrow had left. They’d been waiting until they knew he would be well. And he was now, though his memory was fuzzy on everything that had happened since the palace. He remembered the terror of the mistweaver, and Legs’ bravery, staying behind to aid his escape with information Elista would need. But… after that… things were a blur.
He heard the door to his room open, and someone came in, whistling. Jack appeared around the corner from the entrance hall and was completely naked, of course. Not who Silence wished to see naked at that point, though he couldn’t deny that the tall man had an exquisite physique with long, slender muscles. Jack was carrying a tray of food and sauntered in to set it on Silence’s bed-side table.
“You’re up? And you look well. Good. Have something to eat and we’ll talk.”
Silence sat up again and carefully lifted the tray over to his lap. Jack sat on the side of the large bed.
“What do you remember?” Jack asked. “From… the palace?”
“Not much, everything’s a bit fuzzy.” Silence then bit into a thick, warm slice of bread and savored the soft texture.
“Good, very good.”
“Amber did that, didn’t she?” he said around his mouthful. “There’s something you don’t want me to remember?”
Jack nodded. “Exactly. And you don’t want to remember it either. Trust me. But since you’ll probably always be curious, I’ll tell you what you need to know. You were caught by the Vauphani and tortured. But their prince, who is our ally now, stopped them and brought you home. You were in a bad way but you’re better now, that’s all that counts.”
Silence nodded. Now he knew the facts without remembering the experience, and could see the benefit in that. Still… a chill ran through him. He recalled the pain and his long recovery well enough, even if he had been delirious. He’d make it a point never to be captured again.
“When do you think you’ll be up for a trip?” Jack asked.
“A trip? Where are we going?”
“The capital.”
Silence raised a brow. That’s where Legs and the others had gone. He’d love to see her again. “Anytime, I’d love to catch up with the others.” He bit into a piece of bacon from the tray, crisp and smokey.
Jack grimaced and shrugged. “We’ll see. We might see them, if things work out, but we’ve got a different mission, you, me, and Foggy. We’re going to do some spying.”
Silence shuddered, remembering — what he did recall — of the last secretive mission. “What about Vauphan?” he asked. Jack had mentioned something about their prince being an ally, but Silence wasn’t sure how that could be possible.
Jack sighed. “Ah…yeah, the situation there has changed a little.”
Silence raised his other brow at that. “Oh?”
“We’re now friends with Vauphan. After Legs defeated the mistweaver, she subdued their prince and brought him back here.”
She’d done thatafterhaving fought the mistweaver? “All by herself?” Silence asked around some dried fruit and hard cheese.
“No, Amber helped. Anyway, it turns out we had the whole thing backward. Vauphan was planning war, but only as a counter-attack. Apparently, someone in Elista has been taking their northern territories without telling the rest of Elista. We also figured out that our being sent to Vauphan was probably a ruse, to frame us for the death of the king and queen. Oh, and you probably don’t know, but the mistweaver we captured here was a fake, probably to get us to drop our guard and send Legs on that mission to Vauphan, so she could be killed.”
That was a lot of information to take in, and Silence sat for a long moment simply trying to absorb it.
“So… someone in Elista is behind all of this… even the war?”
Jack nodded. “Exactly. Which is why we’re being sent to spy… on our own Nobles.”
