“They should stand out like a sore thumb though, wouldn’t they?” Shae gestures to Arthur’s tunic, bright white and emblazoned with the golden sun. Even travel-stained and mended, the garment is recognizable. “You lot aren’t exactly subtle.”
Arthur laughs at that. The sound is a welcome brightness. “You’re right about that.” He tugs Duchess away from inspecting the foliage at the edge of the road and starts moving again.
“Do you guys usually patrol so far north?” Shae asks. “I don’t think any paladin order had a presence here last time I passed through.”
“We don’t,” Arthur says. “I think this is the same group that rode through Hannick. The shopkeeper there told me they were riding through fast.”
Shae frowns, suddenly unsettled. “I don’t think you told me about that.” The words come out sulkier than he wanted them to.
After feeling so in-tune with Arthur, it’s strange to remember the man still has his own life and priorities outside Shae. It shouldn’t be strange, though. Arthur’s been in the Radiant Order for seven years now, while he’s been Shae’s bodyguard for a couple of weeks. Whatever relationship they have together now, Shae doesn’t come first.
“I thought I had,” Arthur says with a shrug. Then he grins at Shae, a wicked gleam in his green eyes. “Maybe I was distracted by something.”
That smile is deadly to Shae’s composure. Against his will, his lips twitch in an answering grin. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Then I’ll have to show you.”
Arthur leans down for a kiss. His hand slides to Shae’s waist, holding him steady as he steals Shae’s breath. Shae closes his eyes, trying to burn his worries away in the heat. The sensation of stubble scratching his cheek, another man’s pulse quickening under his fingers.
It even almost works.
?
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Arthur
Beyond Lanwatch’s sharp-slanting wooden roofs, the occasional blue light of the Northern Barrier flickers in the sky. On paper, the town isn’t much smaller than Andell, but half the population lives in smaller settlements in the surrounding woods or along the river. The actual center of town feels like a hollow shell, with too few people in too many buildings. There are plenty of taverns, but only one working inn.
“Why don’t you wait out here while I rent us a room?” Arthur asks, hitching Duchess outside.
He means it as a favor—it’s no secret how little Shae likes any other person they’ve encountered—but Shae’s face goes cold at the suggestion. “That’s a good idea,” he says, even though his stiff posture indicates the opposite. “Go ahead.”
“You don’t have to,” Arthur says, frowning. “I just thought you’d prefer it.”
“No, you’re right.” He twists one of his rings. “Better I stay out here. You go on.”
“I’ll be right inside if you need anything.” He wants to lean in for a kiss goodbye—he wants any excuse to kiss Shae, now that he knows he can—but Shae doesn’t seem amenable to that at all right now. There are enough random passersby around, and Arthur doesn’t know how Shae feels about public displays of affection. They haven’t talked about that at all.
They haven’t talked about a lot of things, really.
Unease settles into Arthur’s stomach as he heads into the inn, though he tries to shake it off. Maybe Shae’s just annoyed to be around other people again. He’s been prickly on and off since they ran across the Riverswords on the road.
Jessop the innkeeper doesn’t have any more information than Georgia Oakven about the paladins nearby. Just confirmation that they tore up the town searching for someone, then headed west. As he negotiates for a room and meal, Arthur wonders if he should ride west to meet them. It’s selfish—he has his duty to Shae—but he misses the sense of belonging and companionship. The certainty of following orders and knowing that all he does is Vara’s will.
“Light guide you,” he says to Jessop as he leaves.
***
Their room for the night has a single bed, covered in an abominably bright green and yellow quilt. That and the orange curtains nearly disguise the fact that the furniture is all dull and chipped, the walls more yellow than white.
Shae goes to the window and pulls the curtains open. He leans with his hands on the windowsill, and the late afternoon sun streams in around the narrow lines of his body. “Lanwatch looks the same as it used to. I thought it would seem smaller or something.”
Arthur sets his sword on the table and their packs on the floor, then sits on the edge of the bed and starts taking off his boots. “You’ve been here before?”
“On my way south, after—yes.” Shae plays with the edge of the curtain. “It was the biggest city I’d ever seen.”
Arthur laughs. Stretches his toes out, rolls his sore ankles. “All of Lanwatch could fit in the district I grew up in.” He’s exaggerating, but not by much.
