There’s never beenanythingto laugh about…until now, with you.
“Maybe that will change,” he replied vaguely, and I didn’t know if he meant thathewould change it, or that fixing our world with the resources beneath the Domus would change it.
“Maybe,” I echoed, not really believing it. Life was too hard for laughter to belong here.
His hand lingered for two more heartbeats, and then he released my arm and walked to the doors. I stood rooted to the spot, still in a bit of wonder that he’d had me giggling like a damn child after a heated argument.
“Are you coming?” he called over his shoulder.
Jolting into action, I caught up to him in the hallway. “Coming where?”
“To the stables.”
“Are we going somewhere?”
He glanced at me as we descended a staircase. “You’re learning how to ride a horse.”
I’d nearly forgotten about his promise all those days ago. Between the trip to Josenne and my training, riding a horse was the last thing on my mind. Excitement bubbled at the idea of flying over the ground on horseback. Of being able to ride for myself when we traveled.
“Who’s teaching me?”
“Jac. You might remember him from our trek here from Koerlyn’s Territory,” he answered, and I felt a twinge of disappointment that it wasn’t him.
Which was silly.
He wasPrinceps.He obviously had more pressing mattersthan teaching me how to ride. And he wouldn’t assign someone to teach me who didn’t know what they were doing.
“And while I did say that this is somethingnicefor you, I should warn you that you might hate me for this within a day,” he cautioned.
“I’m not sure I follow.” How could I hate anyone for teaching me to ride a horse?
We stepped outside and approached the stables.
“There is no soreness like that of learning to ride a horse, which means you might not be able to train as much as you’d like. And you’re going to need as much training as possible if you have any hopes of beating Callen,” he answered, and my excitement began to ebb.
How did he even know about the bet? “I have a month. I’ll be able to beat him,” I stated with a confidence that was slowly dwindling. First Stefano had voiced his doubts, and now Harthon.
We stopped just inside the stables, the scents of horse and sweet hay melding into something that wasn’t entirely terrible. A man with deeply tanned skin acknowledged us from where he took a saddle off the wall. It was the same man who’d thanked me for saving Joris and given me something for my neck. He had to be Jac.
Harthon greeted him before turning to face me. “I sure hope so. Your name is rather pretty, and I’d hate to replace it with that nickname, even if only for a month,” he said before leaving me in the stable with Jac.
As Jac beckoned me over, all I could think was that Harthon found my name to be pretty.
* * *
The familiar stone stairs rose before me, disappearing around a corner as they spiraled up.
It was the fourth time in the same number of days that I’d been drawn to the tower. Each time, I’d come and climbed it, and only at the south-facing window did the compulsive feeling relax.
Today would be the same. At least the soreness was more bearable than in my past two visits.
Harthon hadn’t been jesting when he warned me of the pain that came from learning to ride. While I was getting a hang of the technique rather quickly, my muscles weren’t used to so much squeezing and squatting, and I’d hardly made it through my last few morning training sessions with Callen. With Stefano, the pain had limited me to punching technique only.
Callen was all too pleased with my temporary impairments. We both knew I couldn’t afford to lose a day in training to beat him.
With a sigh, I looked beside me at Ana, who’d decided to accompany me to the tower. She’d joined me for meals the past few days, teaching me more about Fourth, checking in on how I was, and generally making conversation. I received nearly daily reports from her regarding the mission to get Merelda and Marsik—a mission that was slow-moving, thanks to Koerlyn’s heightened patrols in his Territory that made a stealthy passage difficult.
She might be Harthon’s minister, a wealth of knowledge and political skill, but she was rather easy to be around. Fun, even. She was trying to befriend me. It was slowly beginning to work.
