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I sigh and decide to release her. I expect her to walk off again but she stays where she is, only a foot between us. The air smells like basil and sun-baked stone, but there’s something else too, sweet like honey, that seems to radiate off her. For some reason I have a hard time taking in a breath.

“This is…personal,” she begins, squinting at me warily.

“You can tell me. I won’t tell a soul.”

She doesn’t look like she believes me.

“I promise,” I go on. “I would never. I keep my promises.”

“It’s sort of embarrassing,” she says, her eyes flicking over to Lemi at the fountain, though I have a feeling she’s just avoiding my gaze. I stare at her anyway, coaxing her to continue.

She sighs and rubs at her forehead with the heel of her palm.

“I get pains every month. In my lower abdomen. Sometimes it lasts for a few days, sometimes it can last a week. Sometimes it comes in the middle of the moon cycle for no reason, to kick me when I’m down.

I haven’t had any while I’ve been here but… I know it’s coming. It always comes.”

I frown. “Have you been to a doctor?”

Her face twists into a wry expression. “What do you think? Yes. I’ve been to a few doctors.

But doctors are expensive to visit, even in the Banished Land, and they can’t help me.

Only one doctor suggested surgery, but so far we’ve been unable to find a surgeon to do it for a price that I can afford, let alone one that will actually take it seriously.

They dismiss it as a woman’s problem. If you know what I mean. ”

I nod. “Is it something to do with the way you bleed once a month?”

Her head jerks back, as if I’ve said something scandalous.

“What?” I go on. “It happens. I know about it. I’ve even been with a woman when she…”

Her eyes widen and her cheeks bloom with color.

I clear my throat. She doesn’t need to hear about the women I’ve slept with. “Regardless, I know. Sure, it’s not talked about often, but I know. So the pain is associated with it.”

She nods, rubbing her lips together anxiously. “I guarantee what I suffer through is far worse than what other women must.” She swallows and looks away. “We shouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“Why not?” I frown, folding my arms.

“Because, as I said, it’s personal, and I know ladies’ issues aren’t usually discussed with men.”

“Ah, but you’re a thief, Brynla, not a lady.

” She gives me a faint smile and I go on, gravity coming through in my tone.

“Either way, I need to know. You asked for my help in healing you, and I’ll do what I can.

Perhaps I can’t make it stop for good, but I might be able to take the pain away.

Though I do think we should discuss this with Steiner.

He has poppy resin that should help. He might even have some sort of elixir to, uh, stop those cycles from happening. ”

“I’ll try,” she says, exhaling loudly. “But I’ve had poppy resin before.

I have to take so much to get rid of the pain that it will put me asleep for a week.

I can’t afford that, not in my line of work.

And I’ve been taking a doctor’s tea for years now, every month, and every month it keeps the bleeding at bay.

So that’s one less hassle to deal with. But it doesn’t take away the pain.

When we go back to get Ellestra, I’ll have to get more of it. ”

“If you tell Steiner what’s in it, I’m sure he can re-create it. You’ve seen the greenhouses he has at the side of the house, just outside his lab. He has everything and he loves a challenge.”

“I’m not sure how comfortable I am telling your younger brother all of this.”

“You’re comfortable telling me this,” I point out. “What’s the difference?”

She studies me for a moment, her gaze flicking over my mouth, my nose, then my eyes. “I don’t know,” she says slowly.

“Could it be that you trust me?” I ask, trying to keep my tone playful and nonchalant, trying to hide the true hope in my voice.

Her expression falls, a hardness coming over her eyes. “No. I don’t think I’ll ever trust you.”

Then she brushes past me, her shoulder knocking into mine, and walks away, leaving the scent of honey in her wake.

—

After dinner I decide to pay my younger brother a visit. The door to Steiner’s lab is slightly ajar and I poke my head in to see that the back door that leads out into the raven’s roost, greenhouses, and garden is wide open, the cool breeze of the evening coming in.

“Hello?” I call out, walking across the lab until I see Steiner appear halfway in the back door, an excited look on his face.

He steps in farther and I see Moon perched on his arm, her feathery form stark white against Steiner’s black clothing. Brynla’s lavender head pops up behind them, though she looks more anxious than not.

“Moon returned.” I point out the obvious. “Hopefully with good news.”

Steiner nods and looks at the bird. “Tell him, Moon.”

I met with Ellestra Doon , the bird says, her formidable beak staying partially open, though Moon’s voice appears inside my head as it always does. I gave her the message. She tried to beat me with a broom first. Eventually I got her to listen. She says she’ll be expecting you in a few weeks.

“Thank you,” I tell the raven.

She makes a rolling sound with her tongue, then hops up onto Steiner’s shoulder and flies out the door, Brynla ducking her head just in time as she soars into the night to roost.

“I told you Moon would come back,” Steiner says to her with a satisfied raise of his brow.

Still, Brynla doesn’t look too convinced.

“So how does Moon talk like that?” she asks as Steiner shuts the door.

“Ravens are highly intelligent,” he says. “More than you’d think.”

“Yes, but the whole speaking inside your brain part.” She pauses. “You gave the bird suen.”

He shakes his head. “I haven’t, though I suspect she might have had some before I found her.

She had fallen from a nest, not old enough to be a fledgling.

It’s possible her parents brought some to the nest somehow.

But other than Lemi, I’ve never seen cases of suen working in animals, so it’s possible that the bird is just… magic. Somehow.”

“So you didn’t teach her,” she says, adjusting the neckline of her dress, her breasts jostling on display. I try not to stare.

Steiner laughs, oblivious to her cleavage. “Oh, I’ve taught Moon everything I know. She absorbs knowledge like a sponge. But I’m a scientist. I’m not a sorcerer.”

“I don’t know,” I tell him. “Sometimes they seem like one and the same.”

He shrugs and heads over to his desk.

“By the way, Father is asking for you both to join the rest of us in the great chamber,” I tell them.

Both Steiner and Brynla let out a tired sigh in unison.

“Hey, I don’t want to be there either,” I tell them. “But you know how he gets after a day of hunting. Wants to drink and make sure we all know to worship at his feet.”

“I made it through a dinner filled with barbs from your father, your uncle, and occasionally Vidar,” Brynla says. “I’d rather not be subjected to more if I can help it.”

“I know. I’m sorry,” I tell her. “One drink and then I’ll sneak you out at the first opportunity.”

“What about me?” Steiner asks.

“You’re on your own, brother,” I tell him.

Then I reach out and press my fingertips at the back of Brynla’s yellow dress.

This is one that our seamstress had custom made for her, along with her armor and other things.

The neckline at the back and the front are low and the material is thin and delicate, enough that I can feel the heat of her body through the fabric.

It would be so easy to rip this dress right off her , I think.

Then I’m hit with a pang of want, so sharp and violent that I feel my fingernails dig slightly into her, enough that she tries to step out of the way.

I swallow audibly and press my hand there again. “Come on,” I say to her, heat flaring inside my cock, getting absolutely turned on for no good reason. She glances at me over her shoulder with a bewildered expression, as if sensing the change.

She lets me guide her out into the hall before I finally let my hand fall, my heart going fast against my ribs.

“Oh, by the way,” I whisper as we walk past the kitchen.

This is where Lemi pokes his head out. He’s taken to spending a lot of time with the cook before and after dinner, and he stays put, having no interest in joining us.

“If my father brings up the plans for the next raid, don’t mention your aunt. ”

She looks back at me in surprise. “Why not?”

“He doesn’t know.”