“Yes,” I continued. “Let us promise to think before we speak to each other. I believe when we both do that, this is not that hard.”
He rubbed a hand over his mouth and then said,“I promise you I will.”
“And I promise you.”
His eyes roamed over me and he opened his mouth to speak, but closed it. He was forever doing that when he was with me, hedging his words.
Perhaps my idea was poor and I should have made him pledge to speak without thinking about it ever again. On impulse, I said, “I know you will think this treasonous, but Iamsorry for you. You should not have had to marry me or pay for all of our belongings and our citizenship. It was a terrible sentence.”
He blinked at me and his eyes dipped to my figure and then to the ground. “You are not terrible, Edith.”
A laugh erupted from me. “Such a sonnet. I thank you.”
He shook his head, again that softness around his mouth, not quite smiling. “May I walk you back to the keep?”
I desired that, I thought to myself. The two us, perhaps in stilted conversation, but engaged in one another, striding up the moonlit stone streets and steps, petals on the night breeze. I desired that very much. But I shook my head. “I want to catch up with Quinn. I worry for her.”
“She is upset?”
I nodded. “She— I cannot say why, but she is.”
“You know it is not illegal here. As it is in your home country.” He paused and then said, “Anwyn and Vincent… they are that way. They live in a house together.”
“How do you know about River and Quinn— oh, the glowing stream.”
“I had to listen. In case you tried to escape. I am discreet. I will not say anything.”
“I appreciate that. Then you know that Quinn is also from Perpatane and it is not a country that is fair to women, especially certain kinds of women.”
He said, “I feel for her. And for you, if you were mistreated there.”
I said nothing, but my face was open to him. We look at each other for a moment and then the brewery doors burst open and Arbis, Anwyn, Thatcher, Perch, Luka, Tristan and four other Procurers came into the street, yelling.
“Captain,” called Perch. “Come! The night is young.”
“Oh but he be with his bride!” Arbis cried, eyes flashing between Alric and I.
“Then we should rescue her from his company,” said Anwyn.
Thatcher laughed loudly.
“Enjoy yourself,” I said to my husband, amused at his dour expression.
“You cannot kiss the man goodnight?” called Arbis as I turned to walk up the street.
As I walked away, over the songs of fiddles, I heard Alric say, “I told you to let her be.”
And Anwyn said, “See what I mean? So protective.”
51. Bleeding
Alric made every effort after that to be a considerate spouse. He brought in a wooden chest for his clothing and boots and gave the entirety of the wardrobe to me. I protested, but I could tell he wanted to be seen as accommodating and so I relented. Days passed without my seeing him as he came to bed late and got up early, but I would find things in the room some mornings when I woke. Once, it was decorative bookends carved in a dark wood in the shape of starfish. Between them he had stacked both his books and mine. Another day, he had had my vial of lightleaf refilled. A third instance, I awoke to find, on the desk, a copper double-sided comb with teeth close together on one side and farther apart on the other. Down the center was the engraving of a fern, much like the ones inked onto my forearm. Whenever I tried to thank him, he grunted and changed the subject. His father was right. He was difficult. But never again was his difficulty directed towards me.
He rose before dawn for the first phase of the Procurer trials. Anyone who defeated him at a challenge was allowed to stay for the second phase, which he explained to me was a series of physical feats each man had to pass. It sounded grueling to me and then he would be called into the king’s chambers or Jeremanthy’s offices after dinner to meet with the king, prince and heads of armies to discuss Perpatane’s attack on Sealmouth and how they had gotten away with it. As it was a coastal town, it was part of the proud Tintar border that led out to the sea, The Flavored Three islands and an eternity past the horizon, the Cloudlands. There was no evidence of which way the Perpatane army had gone, which led Hinnom’s war council to think they had gone seaward. Their lost tracks were baffling and troubling. Only Tintar and The Flavored Three had ships, made from Ruskar’s saltwater oaks. Tintar had the only navy on the continent. A Tintarian naval ship had been dispatched to Ruskar to investigate about timber being bought by any other country, but they had no explanation to offer as they only sold their oaks to Tintar, Sibbereen and Vyggia.
These issues and the Procurer trials did nothing but run my husband ragged. Even on the tenth day of the week, days set aside for rest, he could not be found in our rooms. I found myself wanting to know where he was and hoping he was at his family’s forge and not working. As discreetly as I could, I would, through the earth temple antechamber window, watch him fight men half his age in the clay of the training yards. Only four men had bested him thus far and they remained at the keep, awaiting all of the other contenders’ results. The numbers kept thinning as boys gave up and went home. One of his victors had drawn first blood in a sword fight and I came in from a late bath one night to find him trying to bandage his arm with one hand and his teeth. I assisted him in this and reprimanded him for not visiting the keep’s infirmary. I had a suspicion that medicine in Tintar was perhaps not as advanced as Eccleston, but he need not tend to his own wounds. He stared at me in surprise as I scolded him about this, but I ignored him.
We rarely spoke if we saw each other, but we were agreeable. Over the next moon, there were a handful of times we were both awake in bed. I would ask him how the trials went. He would give me short answers, exhaustion in his speech, but then solicitously ask about my day in the earth temple.
