Page 19 of Ruling the Green

The wolf-dog and I eyed each other, both unsure.

I pressed a hand to my chest, then gestured to the dog.

“Yeah, you can pet him,” Jet said, waiting for me to carefully approach then reach out my hand. I got a sniff, then a bow, which I took for permission. His fur was silky-soft as it slid through my fingers. “His name is Knight.”

I pulled back, waving at the sky with a quizzical brow, then waving an invisible sword, then holding out my arms in question.

“Like a soldier,” Vishen said, giving me a little smile. Then Vishen reached toward me, pressing a hand to my shoulder as he said the wolf-dog’s name, then a string of words in a tongue I didn’t understand. At my confused look, he said to me, “I’m telling him to protect you too. I don’t know how much he understood. But I figured it was worth a try.”

I pressed a hand to my chest in gratitude again even as my head started to throb harder.

“Well, I will leave you to get settled. Should I bring more water?”

I nodded frantically at that.

“Okay. Lots of water,” Vishen said. “Anything else?”

I shook my head, then watched him leave.

“My wardrobe is through here,” Jet said when we were alone, walking over and opening the door, then coming back out with a new set of clothes for himself. Still all black, but in a lighter material and a looser fit. “I’ll use the water closet first to change,” he said, taking his clothes into the other adjoining room.

Alone, I sucked in a deep breath before walking into the wardrobe. Unsurprisingly, everything was black. From his undergarments to his night clothes.

I pulled out the largest tunic. Given our height difference, I imagined it would fall around my knees, if not lower. Modest enough, since there was no way his pants would fit me.

Clutching the tunic to my chest, I walked past Jet as he came out of the water closet, then locked myself in.

Even this space was unnecessarily large for its purposes, but the walls still seemed to pinch in. I’d never spent much time indoors. My life was my lake and the forest around it. The world was wide open and thrumming with life. The castle was suffocating and still.

I moved over to the tub—deep enough to fully submerge—and couldn’t help but wonder how many servants would have to carry how many buckets up to this floor to fill it.

There was another area I wasn’t familiar with, a squared-off section with a large bucket and some sort of tube that fed up to a spout with dozens of little holes.

Unsure what it was, I moved over to the mirror instead, pulling off the tiara, the veil, and then the gown.

I unstrapped my flask from my thigh and stashed it way in the back of the cabinet under the mirror and wash basin.

I would attach it to myself again. But it didn’t seem likely that I could escape until I got more of a lay of the land than I currently had. So there was no reason to try to sleep with it on my leg.

Finished with that, I slipped into Jet’s tunic that smelled like cedar wood that must have been something the laundress used to clean it.

Making my way back out, I held the tiara toward Jet. He took it from me and tossed it onto a dresser as if it wasn’t likely priceless.

“Did you find everything you needed?” he asked.

I held up a finger, then moved into the doorway, waving him over. He humored me, making his way over. I gestured toward the niche, bucket, and spout, then shot him a questioning look.

“That is one of the things humans got incredibly right. That is the best that could be managed without the plumbing humans have. It’s called a ‘shower.’ The water comes up from the bucket, into the tube, then pours out the shower head. You can bathe without sitting in the water. It washes over you.”

I held up my arms then waved my fingers as I moved my hands downward.

“Yes. Like rain. But a heavy rain. You can try it if you want tonight.” I shook my head. “Or tomorrow. It’s an option. Have you tried to speak again yet?”

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.

“It’ll wear off eventually,” he assured me. “Then we can talk it out. Vishen brought you water,” he told me as he moved back into the bedroom.

I followed, finding no fewer than six pitchers and a single water glass. I filled one and gulped it down, feeling a slight ease of the pounding in my head.