Page 16 of The Pactbound Angel (The Soul Mirror Duet #1)
The pouch could hold a great deal, but it was closer to capacity than I preferred. “It can hold whatever you require.”
“Yay! I’ll get rations, then.” She stepped up to the counter, and the fey grocer turned to her.
“You are in need of food as well, miss?” he said, taking out another scrap of paper.
“Yes, I’d like everything my sister just purchased.” She rolled her head back to smile at me. “My food will fit too, right?”
With another sigh, I searched for the coin pouch I just had in my hand. “You might want to alter the order. I didn’t get any meat.”
“You still don’t eat critters, eh?”
With an absent shake of my head as a reply, distracted with pulling out coins, she leaned in and bit my hand. Hard.
I recoiled with a shriek, more in surprise than pain, then brought my hand close to my face to make sure she didn’t break the skin. “Raewyn! Are you feral? What the-”
She deadpanned blithely, “What? You eat like a rabbit. I like to eat rabbit. Seemed logical to me.”
Don’t laugh. It’ll only encourage her.
But pursing my lips, clenching my jaw, and biting my tongue couldn’t stop the laugh from coming out.
In-between chuckles, I stuttered and rubbed my watery eyes with my unbitten hand, “You are a gods-damned brat.”
The landscape changed quickly, from miles of blowing purple grass to wetlands.
It was another two days before the scenery changed again to full-on swamp.
Thankfully, Georgina had survival capabilities built into the automaton.
He managed to find drier ground so our feet wouldn’t get sucked under.
I grumbled about the cleaning my greaves would require, keeping my unladylike cursing to thoughts only.
To pass the time, Georgina told a few snippets she’d heard regarding Jorin Swamp. To my surprise, as she’d mentioned keeping to cities, she delved into a story about a special bog mine within the swamp that produced some of the strongest iron known.
“I’d heard that the fey don’t like iron. Is that true?” I barely avoided falling into a deceptively deep puddle that everyone else had somehow managed to ignore.
“They don’t like cold iron, specifically.
” At my confused look, she explained. “Cold iron is iron that’s alloyed with silver, but it’s not common.
It’s hard to get the ratio of iron to silver right.
If you’re off, it’s either a soft hunk of metal that’s good for nothing or not real cold iron.
We won’t find cold iron here in the Feylands. For obvious reasons.”
She’s quite pleasant when she talks about her work.
In fact, everyone was pleasant, even Raewyn.
We all seemed to take the situation in stride.
Literally, as we had no transportation or horses, though Georgina had to sit on top of M.A.L.C.O.L.M.
’s shoulders to keep out of the water and muck.
. Eventually, we developed a strategic marching order.
The automaton led the way, with me taking up the rear in case we were attacked from behind.
Raewyn walked behind M.A.L.C.O.L.M. to avail herself of the least traversed path possible, which meant Ramiren was directly ahead of me for the entire time we were traveling.
My time was spent looking out for dangers, at least that was my intention.
But then Ramiren’s dark hair would come into view, and I’d remember how soft it felt.
In my hands, between my thighs, against my skin.
Then my thoughts flitted rapidly between everything we did.
A few times, Raewyn smirked over her shoulder and accused me of daydreaming.
I conceded the point and tried to go back to watching the grayish-green landscape that had the pleasant scent of petrichor rather than the sulfurous smell I was used to with swamps.
But then Ramiren would look back at me with his red eyes, and the process would start all over again. My Academy instructors would call it dereliction of duty. I called it inevitable.
His words, hands, and tongue had made sure of that .
On the third day at dusk, we made camp, this time on a small rocky hill that overlooked the mire of the swamp.
As everyone was setting up their bedding for the evening, I decided it was time again. Grateful of my years of practice on maneuvering an acceptable tent bath with bowls of campfire-warmed water, soap and clean clothing felt like a luxury from the grime of the day.
It took a full year to figure out a system. That first year was extraordinarily unpleasant, to me and everyone who had the misfortune of standing downwind.
Ramiren was exiting his enormous tent as I waved to him.
Earlier, I’d watched, fascinated, as he took a tiny tent out of his pouch, noting he too carried an Extended Pouch.
Miniature in size, it looked like it belonged in a little girl’s ornate dollhouse.
When he set the tent on the ground of our clearing and uttered a strange set of syllables, the tent enlarged, bigger than some small houses.
Ramiren entered the new structure with a pleased grin.
Desperately wanting to know where he got it, I went back to set up my old, mundane tent.
Even Georgina had shelter and bedding, which were somehow folded in or out of M.A.L.C.O.L.M.’s ribcage with the push of a covered red circle near his neck.
Shooting a look over my shoulder, suddenly wishing my large, but threadbare tent had been replaced before leaving the fey city, I motioned to it with my hand. “Evening, Master Ramiren. I’d like to invite you for a light supper and discussion, if you’d be agreeable.”
"I would. And thank you for the offering." Ramiren noticed my green-eyed perusal of his tent and smiled. “A gift from a client. I’ve only used it a handful of times, but here it will be wildly convenient.” Peeking inside the open tent flaps, my gaze ran over a desk, two plush chairs, a chest and…
My envy nearly felled me.
Is that a feather bed ?
With a small bow, I led him to my tent, walking side by side. The tent flaps were tied back to reveal a squat folding table covered in the fresher items I’d purchased in Dulponi.
Puldoni?
Donpu-
Whatever. I’ll get it eventually.
Motioning towards a sitting pillow on one side of the table, I sat down on the other. “Please. Join me. I admit, I’m being a bit presumptive, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to get to know each other a little better. Again, if you are agreeable.”
Ramiren looked over the table as he sat, his eyebrows raised. "I appreciate the gesture, and I would be agreeable to that. There may be questions that I cannot answer, but I'd be happy to share what I can."
”Let's start with, I suppose, the obvious one." After pouring from a wineskin into one of the ceramic goblets on the table, I began, "Where are you from?"
He took the goblet from me and raised it in thanks.
"I'm not actually certain where I was born.
My family was always on the move, all across Laeth.
We would stay in a town for a few days or weeks, circle back to previous haunts within a year, or never.
" He turned wistful. "I remember the big cities the most. Evraka, Loril in Tivandir, Balingua next to the Pouroe Desert, Rowin in Camlynn, even the former capital city of Pidantar in Kibel.
I'd call all of them, any of them, home, I suppose. "
Leaning back with my own goblet, I took a sip, the tart fruit of the blackberry wine spreading over my tongue. "I hope I don't ask a question that is painful or too invasive. That, I wanted to say, is certainly not my aim here." I raised my wine to indicate it was his turn.
He thought for some time after popping an almond into his mouth.
"Not painful. Pidantar is lost to the orcs, but the dwarves have a new home now in Fomona.
I find that where people are from reveals less than what they want or need.
This would be a harder question for me to answer, if you asked it in return, so I understand if you do not wish to answer a question that I might not.
What I am curious about is, if there was one thing you wanted to do right now, more than anything, what would it be?
" He looked at me over his goblet as he took a drink.
My eyes turned downcast, and my back straightened.
Interesting question, Ramiren. Should I fib?
I thought about just enjoying the meal, but his question spiked instant arousal. Anticipation. Desire. Want. When it hit during my song at the carnival, this need was foreign. Now, after so many days of being around him, it seemed almost normal.
Is this something I’m meant to learn? To recognize and be comfortable with it?
Lying would gain me nothing, I decided, and it might tarnish what we were trying to accomplish.
My thumb rubbed on the side of my goblet, and the rough hand-thrown texture of the ceramic scratched the pad.
"There are many things I want to do. Surface desires, you know.
Eat and talk with you. Then, there are deeper ones.
Ones that would require us to use that place of yours, that you mentioned before. "
My eyes lifted to meet his as I went on, “If I were to ask the question back to you, I'd be pleased if talking or a lesson was your choice.
You are a witty and brilliant conversationalist with an.
.. actual personality." Unlike the men from my kingdom.
"But I also recall your promise to me last time. "
Ramiren put his goblet down and requested for me to do the same. "That would be something in line with what I planned for our next lesson, a core part of the theme, actually." He lifted his hand and snapped his fingers.
A blink later, my eyes opened to see we were somewhere else. It was a bedroom, exactly like the room Ramiren stayed in at The Forever Inn, with every detail accounted for, from the velvet cushions to the fruit on the table.
His classroom.