“It’s okay, Aiko. You can admire them. They are quite handsome.”
“I… am not used to feeling this way for males…”
“Is it disagreeable?” I asked.
He raked his eyes over Rilen’s form, and then blinked when he realized what he had just done. “They’re very pleasant to watch.”
“You should find out how pleasant they are together in bed.”
My words were a little shocking to him, and he scrubbed a hand over his face. “It’s just… I’m not used to a lot of these feelings, and then throw in this attraction to Master Rilen—and frankly, can you be attracted to Master Rilen and not Master Roran—and I’m just settling into it.” He looked at me, and a crooked smile appeared on his lips. “None of it is disagreeable.”
I chuckled and watched the rippling of the twins’ muscles as they continued to row for the shore. Belshazzar sat flicking something on and off his fancy, other-world gun, while Dorian stared at the back of my head.
The dinghy dragged on the sand a moment later, and Aiko and Belshazzar leapt out to pull the boat up and beach it hard. The twins stored the oars and climbed out just after Dorian and me.
Aiko pointed to a road just about one hundred strides from the water. “That will be the Burning Lands road. It will take us straight into Lick. I should be able to find the resistance cell without too much trouble. There was a large one since that was how half the population didn’t starve for want of food.”
We all started following him over the terrain toward the road ahead.
“The Burning Lands,” I said. “That sounds pleasant.”
“It’s actually beautiful,” Rilen said. “They call them the burning lands because, during the autumn, the tersan wheat turns bright orange and then red then dark burgundy before it’s harvested.”
“I’ve never heard of tersan wheat,” I said.
“It’s eastern wheat,” Belshazzar said. “Red in the east and golden in the west.”
There it was again. The gold and the red. Separated, but complementary. I glanced at him in the dawn light, but he was looking at his feet as he walked. This wasn’t the time or place to start asking such questions.
There was no one on the road as we walked, and Lick was on the horizon in a little over an hour. It probably could have been quicker, but we were all tired. No matter how much blood or sex there was, we actually all needed real rest, which wasn’t going to happen in the foreseeable future.
“Do you have an idea where the cell is?” Rilen asked.
“Some,” Aiko said. “My sister lived here. She used to send me information on what people were saying around the town. Enough that…”
“Enough that what?” Dorian inquired.
“Enough that, eventually, Savion acknowledged my letters and sent a contingent of soldiers to kill the cell leaders,” Aiko stated.
Dorian and Belshazzar stared at him openly. I cringed while Rilen and Roran clearly wanted to take out their swords and take his head off.
“Wait,” Roran said. “We’re going to ask help from the people you sent soldiers after to murder?”
“They didn’t know who I was, but they figured out the leak was Kumi,” Aiko continued. “The raid was how she became Savion’s mistress. She met him here when he showed up to squash the food smuggling.”
“Gods and Savior, Aiko.” Rilen sighed. “You could have mentioned that earlier.”
“What good would it have done?” he asked. “They don’t know me. There’s no other way to try to find the queen if we don’t get the information somewhere.”
“Dammit,” Roran said.
Dorian folded his arms. “I told you we shouldn’t trust him.”
“You said no such thing,” I answered, rolling my eyes. “And right now? He gets a better portion of my trust than you, Dorian.” I turned and nodded at Aiko. “How do we find these people?”
“There was a meeting spot near my sister’s apartment. Right under her window, I believe. She used to hear snippets of conversation as they walked by.” Aiko nodded at the first large road that led off the one we had followed into town. “That’s the way,” he said.
Belshazzar grabbed his arm before we could walk far at all. “What’s the chance that they haven’t moved?”
