Page 17

Brynla

Andor was right. Solla Kolbeck seems sweet, but now I know I can’t underestimate her.

After he passed me and Lemi off into her hands, I focused on surveying the castle, looking for my exit. The odds of escape were low, but I hadn’t seen a single guard since we pulled up to the castle. In fact, I’d seen no one except his uncle and Solla.

As we climbed the stairs, Solla behind me, we passed by a window that was open enough for me to squeeze through. I could get away and Lemi could shift back to the road, then come find me.

But before I could back-kick Solla down the stairs, the window slammed shut as if by an invisible hand. Lemi ran past me up the stairs and I felt a force at my back, as if that same invisible hand was pushing me along. I moved my feet fast to avoid tripping.

I got to the second floor and whirled around to look at Solla, but she only had a quiet smile for me.

“You must be exhausted from the journey,” she said as she took me down a wide hall, past tapestries and paintings of forests and waterfalls on the walls.

“As much as you’d like to run away, I think you’d feel a lot better with a warm bath, a change of clothes, and something to eat, don’t you think? ”

And even though I yearned to run away, the idea of a hot bath was too indulgent to resist. Besides, even if I had made it out the window, where would Lemi and I have gone?

We’re in a new realm, in a new climate, with untold dangers that I have no experience with.

Even if I could find my way back to the docks, which was doubtful, then what?

Smuggle myself onto a ship and hope it’s going to Esland or the Midlands, where no one ever goes?

So I let her lead me into a large bathroom, where she gestured to a flush toilet in the corner and a large copper bathtub in the middle.

“We have indoor plumbing, thanks to my younger brother,” she said.

“If you turn the tap with the C , cold water comes out. If you turn the tap with the H , hot water comes out. There are bath salts and herbs and different soaps to choose from. Take your time. I’ll give you privacy and lay out some clothes for you in the room across the hall.

They’ll be my clothes—I don’t think anyone would be too happy about you wearing my mother’s—and they’ll be too big on you but I’m sure you’ll make do. ”

Then she looked at Lemi. “Would you like me to feed him? I assume beef would suffice?”

I told her he’d love that but I wanted him to stay with me. He wouldn’t go off with a stranger anyway, no matter how kind she was being.

And now she’s left, closing the door behind her. I quickly go after it and lock it to make sure no one will walk in on me in the nude. Then I lean against it and survey the room.

I let out a loud breath. My knees start to shake.

The adrenaline of the journey is starting to wear off, like I’ve been holding on to a cliff for too long and my hands have finally let go.

Part of me thinks I should just curl up in the bathtub as is and take a nap—it’s certainly big enough.

But I remind myself that it can wait. I need to get through the rest of the day before I figure out what my options are.

“Well, Lemi,” I say to him, and his tail thumps against the rose quartz floor in response. “How about I take a bath, then you’ll take your turn?”

I swear his warm brown eyes narrow at me. He is not a fan of baths but he needs the Midlands volcanic stink and itchy salt of the voyage off him, not to mention the dried suen that’s been sun-baked into his coat.

I slowly walk around the room, taking it all in.

I’m sure to the Kolbecks it’s just a bathroom, with the toilet in the corner half-hidden by a gauzy partition, the tub in the middle with wooden steps leading up to it, and a shelf that houses a bunch of glass jars filled with salts and herbs and liquids.

But I’m also seeing the polished pink finish of the floors and the energy that flows through them, the copper-tiled ceiling that matches the bath, a long marble sink below curved mirrors lined with dragon eggshells, the gilded arches above a stained-glass window.

I peer through the blue stained glass—a motif of stars in a daytime sky—and open it a crack, the gold hinges creaking.

Cool air flows inside and I breathe in deeply.

That scent of the umberwoods and clear, fresh running water fill the room.

The sun is gone now, hidden from this side of the keep, and the scenery looks surreal.

All those tall green trees, the flowering fields, the rushing waterfalls, and the craggy snow-capped mountains in the distance look as if someone enchanted painted them, a world that I could have never even imagined.

Even when teachers at school would talk briefly about the other realms, the idea of a forest when all we had in Esland were prickly shrubs, scrawny nut trees, and the occasional palm that dotted the capitol buildings, was beyond anything I could have dreamed.

Lemi whines from behind me and I when I look back at him he’s gesturing to the tub with his muzzle.

“All right, I get it, I stink,” I tell him.

I walk over and turn on the taps and then while the bath takes time to fill, I try to decide on what to put in it.

Solla had mentioned salts, and I remember my father used to put salts from the mines outside Lerick in his bathwater after he had a long day fishing.

Said it helped the muscles. Would probably be nice when my womb is having a flare-up, though it seems to be behaving for now.

I dump in a fistful of salt from one of the glass jars on the shelf, some dried flowers with fragrant yellow and dusk-blue blooms, watching them swirl on the surface, until I think the water is high enough. Then I disrobe, discarding my dirty armor on the floor. I’ll need to wash that too, after.

Gingerly I climb up the steps and then balance as I dip my toe in the water. It’s hot but not scalding, and the combination of the rising steam with the cool air coming in through the window makes me quickly sink into the water.

It’s heaven. Or some version of it, anyway.

I can’t remember the last time I had a proper bath.

Of course we bathe, even in the Dark City, but water is scarce, sacred even.

Occasionally we’ll have a warm bath, but more often than not, Ellestra will meet me at the shore after I’ve returned home from a raid, and we’ll dip into the ocean, using bars of fat soap to get clean—even though the salt only makes you itchier after. But it’s better than nothing.

At the thought of her, my heart squeezes as if my chest has grown too small.

She’s in the caverns of the city right now.

She’ll be worried, she’ll be asking around if anyone has seen me, dangerous questions that might attract the wrong people.

Then what will she do? Make peace that her niece is gone, the last connection to her brother, my father?

Will she seek vengeance? She’s a fiery one, not unlike me.

She might do something stupid. In some ways I hope she just forgets me.

But I know that won’t be the case, not when she went through so much trouble to sneak me out of the convent.

And if Ruunon notices my absence and finds her? Then what will happen?

It’s enough that it feels like I can’t get air in my chest. I close my eyes and sink deeper into the water, breathe in and out through my nose until I feel remotely in control again.

I used to have these moments of panic right after I escaped the convent, and it was my aunt who taught me how to calm myself down, even though she never used this technique on herself.

There’s no point thinking about these things right now when I can’t do anything.

I have to do what Andor says, whether I like it or not—at least until the next ship leaves and we can get to Esland, like he promised.

I will hold him to that promise. By any means necessary.

I don’t care if I have to kill him to get my way.

After I finish washing my hair with the peppery-smelling liquids in the jars, the water is no longer so hot.

I get out of the bath and then coax Lemi in.

He does so reluctantly, though he seems to relax a little once I start rubbing the liquid soap on his coat.

By the time we’re both done with the bath, it’s black from dirt.

I wrap a large fluffy bath towel around me, my hair wet and loose around my shoulders, while Lemi shakes, water flying across the room. I suppose we have left it a bit of a mess.

When I’m walking over to the wooden rack to grab more towels, there’s a knock at the door.

I freeze, hoping it’s not the creepy uncle as I hold the towel tighter around my chest. “What?”

Silence for a moment. I suppose I’m not acting with the best manners.

“It’s Andor,” he says. “Are you decent? Can I come in?”

I glance down. There’s not much showing except my arms, legs, and cleavage.

“Yeah, I’m decent,” I say. On the outside, anyway.

I warily move over and unlock the door and open it.

His eyes immediately go to my chest and widen.

“You said you were decent,” he stammers, and I swear I see a flush of color above the stubble on his jaw.

I shrug. “Good enough. Can I help you?”

“I can come back,” he says quickly.

I roll my eyes and open the door wider. “Just come in, then.”

He hesitates, then strides inside the bathroom. I close the door behind him. If I’m supposed to feel some sort of shame or wariness about being around him while practically naked, I don’t feel it. For some reason, I can’t imagine him hurting a woman in that way.

At any rate, Lemi would be on him in a second.

“Now that you’re here, does your sister have the ability to, say, move things with her mind?” I ask.

He gives me a crooked smile. “That’s putting it mildly.”

Fascinating. “Do all you Kolbecks have special powers?” Then I pause, realizing.

“Oh, but of course you do. You’re in the suen business.

” Of course, there are some people in this world who are said to have magic passed down through their blood, even though that magic originally came from their ancestors’ ingestion of suen.

Usually mages and witches. But I highly doubt that this applies to the Kolbecks.

“As are you. So what is your power, Brynla Aihr?”

“I seduce men and rob them,” I answer sweetly, batting my eyelashes. It’s a half-truth.

For the life of me I can’t read the expression on his face, but his eyes are darting everywhere except my chest. I clear my throat. “So what’s so important that you couldn’t wait until after my bath to talk to me?”

“Oh,” he says, scratching at his jaw as he takes a couple of steps closer. “Nothing really. Just wanted to tell you something before I forgot.”

“What?”

“Dinner is in an hour. You’ll be expected to be there.”

“Do all your prisoners have dinner with you?”

“You would be the first.” He pauses as if he’s about to say something else, then shuts his mouth. “I suppose I should, uh, warn you about my father.”

“Is he anything like your uncle?”

“Worse,” he says with a sour smile, and my stomach sinks a little. “He’s not all that enthused about my plan.”

“Ah, at least I’m not the only one. I’ll be sure to tell him that too.”

He stiffens slightly. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

There’s an edge to his voice that I don’t like.

I swallow uneasily and try to ignore it. “Well, at least I don’t stink anymore,” I say, throwing my arms out.

A chain reaction is unleashed.

Andor suddenly leans in and brushes his nose to my shoulder and inhales.

The feeling of his breath against my bare skin makes my eyes roll back in head.

Sends a shiver rolling through my body.

Which then causes my towel to suddenly unravel, leaving me completely naked, the towel pooled at my feet.

I shriek.

Andor pulls back and meets my eyes, an apologetic twist to his lips.

But then in an instant his eyes drop to my chest. To my stomach. To below .

“Gods!” he swears, quickly spinning around to face away from me while Lemi starts barking, perhaps confused at the panicked way I ungracefully bend over and pick up the towel, holding it to my chest and letting it drape in front of me.

“All right, anyway, dinner in an hour. I’ll send Solla or one of the handmaidens up to get you,” Andor says, talking a mile a minute as he strides over to the door. This is the first time I’ve seen him flustered.

“You smell nice, by the way,” he says before he closes the door.

I look down at Lemi, who is watching me with a tilt of his head.

And I smile.