“Have tea in your own flat,” Kai suggested.“Problem solved.”
Ione rolled her eyes.“Mother has a headache.”
“It’s best to stay away,” Cynthia added sagely.
“And it’s not just about tea,” Ione griped, leaning on her hands over the counter.She pointed at him.“These people – your people – are a nuisance.They’re loud, and crude – ”
“Preaching to the penitent.”
“ – and they’re distracting me – ” Here Ione laid a hand over her heart, looking forlorn.“from my training.Which, I remind you, is important.”She hung her head in a dramatic sigh when someone else broke a glass.“Gods help us, I’d thoughtyouwere intolerable.”
It was as close to a compliment as anything she’d ever given him.
Cynthia and Ami added to her complaints, stories of late-night card games turning violent, crewmen scamming sellers at the market out of their wares, nothing Kai had never heard of.Behind them, Lina kept her head bowed, flinching at any rise in volume from the sailors.
She had been even dodgier than usual since the Leviathos docked.While she’d never warmed to Kai, she at least spoke up now and then, managing to find strength in her lady and her friends when they were near.Now, she was like a ghost.
She was hiding something.Kai knew it now more than ever.
He waved at the other three to shut up.“The Leviathos will ship off soon,” he said, although he wasn’t sure anymore whensoonwas.“Suffer it for now.If it helps, I’m suffering right along with yous.”
The far door creaked open.Etan lumbered in, captain and fearless leader; the noise and energy rose like smog as his men greeted him, invited him to sit for a round of cards.
Suddenly alert, Lina cleared her throat, whispered to Ione, “I’m not feeling well.I think I might lie down.”
Ione touched her hand.“Do you need a healer?”
“Will I find Mikau?”Ami asked.
Lina shook her head, paling when Etan shouted something at one of his men.She curtseyed clumsily and all but fled, leaving the rest of them bewildered.
“Huh.”Kai scratched his jaw, thinking.“Your one’s afraid of Etan.Why’s that?”
He would’ve been shocked if Ione told him anything, but from the way she frowned and gazed after her, he surmised she didn’t know, either.
“Obviously,” Ione said, petulant, “she is just as uncomfortable as the rest of us with men like yours nesting here.Make them leave.”
Kai barely heard her, his mind still on Lina.
Whatever she was hiding might be worth checking into after all.He was going to leave it, monitor it, but having his brothers here put him on edge, made him paranoid.He hated what his brothers did to him, but as long as Saros liked them, they were untouchable.Kai couldn’t do a thing about them.
But he could do something about a suspicious attendant.
Lina apparently felt well enough to leave her room in the acolytes’ building the next day.
She was shockingly easy to follow.She kept her head down and did nothing out of the ordinary, far as Kai could see, which was both frustrating and somehow even more suspicious to him.As Ione’s attendant, she did have tasks to manage – a surprise to Kai, who had thus far only seen her sewing and unconsciously encouraging Ione to doss around.He listened in on messages she conveyed to priests, watched her pick up a box of Ione’s favourite tea cakes or buy a bouquet of flowers for the sick child of a priestess.
“Lady Ione only specified daisies and carnations,” Lina said to the florist, putting far more thought into this than Kai ever would.She riffled through her coinpurse, oblivious to Kai’s presence just on the other side of the market stall.“But I’ve more to spend.How much extra for some sunflowers?”
Kai muted his magical signature as much as he could, his pulse spiking when she briefly faced his way with the bundle of flowers.A couple ofLeviathosiswaggered past her, cadets buying some supply for the ship; Lina did not break her stride, but she did hide her face behind the bouquet.
What are you running from?
Kai couldn’t help but daydream – his daydreams were nearly as vivid as his nightmares these days – as he spied on her the next day from beneath a willow tree.He envisioned finding some unforgivable sin of hers, something to bring to Saros, to exchange for renown.It had been months (probably; Kai wasn’t quite sure anymore, time was funny) and Ione still treated him like a bag of spiders, so to hell with that plan.Perfect Etan and formidable Nalu were too close by, ready comparisons, more impressive counterparts.The ward wasn’t enough.Nothing Kai did was ever enough.
It was harder to tail her after she’d visited the library.She started up the hill towards the plaza, a narrow, seldom-used dirt path lined with trees that forced Kai to stay far behind and hope she didn’t hear whenever he nearly tripped on a root.Which he did.He clamped a hand over his mouth and let himself fall against a tree for support.
He looked ahead.Good: Lina didn’t turn, hadn’t heard him.He looked behind, then, half-expecting to see River, the good seleneschal, a spy spying on a spy.Nothing.The disappointment surprised him, made him feel like laughing.
