Thom scuffs his boot across the floor, sighing despondently, “I told Elian that the king would make him a sword, so that he could practice being a knight, just like us.”
“I will take your request to the king myself,” she says firmly, and their posture straightens a bit. “I have no doubt that the king will craft another sword for your new friend.” Awri loosens the strings at the top of her sack and pulls out two small wooden swords, handing them to Thom and Fandry. “Until then, perhaps you two can share with your new friend?”
The boys nod eagerly as they take hold of their new treasures. The swords are well made, carved from a wood much lighter and softer than those I’d been trained with at their age. Unlike the one I’d been handed as a child, these will not break bone if the boys get too carried away.
“And when the king comes back, you’re sure he’ll carve one for Elian too?” Thom asks, not the least bit shy.
I’m shocked by his question. Not because of his forwardness but by his assumption that the king himself carves the toys. I may have never ruled anything, but I imagine kings lack time for such things.
“I am sure of it. Now go play with your friends and I’ll see you next week.”
The boys wave to Awri as they run out the door, their shouts and laughter lost among the myriad playful voices coming from the woodland outside. My feet are moving before I know where I’m going and Awri follows me to the back of the building where a large window looks out over the yard. Children weave between the bases of the giant pines, chasing each other in a game of tag, while others swing on benches tied with long rope to the branches of a wide maple.
“What is this place?” I wonder.
“The orphanage. It is a place where children without families can live until we are able to find them good homes.”
“You find them homes?” I say, marveling at the notion.
“We do, and until then, they stay here. The crown supplies them with clothes and food, and they attend school, just like every other child in A’kori.”
I feel my cheeks flush. She isn’t shocked when it is obvious I’ve never seen an orphanage in my life, she must know that we have no such thing in La’tari. Not that our parentless children lack choices. They are always welcome to join the military. There they receive three meals a day, a roof, and a uniform, just as I had been given when Leanna found me.
The mixture of both feyn and human children playing with one another twists my stomach. What will happen to the humans when another war erupts between the continents? A war I am likely to start. Will they raise them to fight their own kind or simply slaughter them?
I force a smile at Awri and begin toward the carriage. Every day I spend with this female produces a hundred irritating questions I lack answers for. The general opens the door of the carriage, and I step inside. Awri stops just outside, snatching a heavy sack of coins off the bench and turning back toward the orphanage.
“I almost forgot. I’ll be right back,” she says, closing the door behind her and striking up a conversation with Lias after she hands him the coin.
I settle back against the wall of the carriage and stiffen when I find the general pinning me with a stare.
“What do you think?” he asks.
“About what?”
“About the orphanage.”
Again, my cheeks begin to heat. “It’s charming.”
“You think it a novel idea to feed and clothe helpless children?”
I can’t help but glare at the male. “I think you’ve never traveled to La’tari if you believe it has the resources to feed and clothe every child orphaned by the rippling impact of the war.”
I want to suggest that his king send supplies for the human children in La’tari but I won’t gain any favors implying that his king hoards resources.
“It certainly has enough resources to feed its ever-growing military,” he says flatly.
“And the military is always an option for any of the parentless children on our shores. They don’t turn anyone away,” I say.
He sneers, “Such a small price to pay not to be left to die of starvation. Groomed as a child into a life of indentured servitude to the crown.”
I laugh at him then. “You would lecture me about grooming children when I’ve just seen those boys handed play swords sent to them by their king?”
Hypocrite.
“How can you justify the same actions you condemn?” I say heatedly.
His eyes widen and he clenches his jaw, as he growls, “It is not the same thing.”
