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The last of Ekolay’s provisions were eaten quite quickly but it was a jovial meal, the smiles it brought probably needed just as much as the warm food that Flir had watched Kanis inhale.
And for a moment, he was less charming than exasperating.
Once everyone had eaten their fill and the Ice-Priests sought their rest, shuffling out across the creaking floorboards, Ekolay finished the explanation he’d started before the meal. “That chest is full of the new currency. Circle Member Wodka wanted you to consider it both an expression of gratitude for your work with the dark creatures you have killed but also to assist the search for bones.”
“And he knew we would be here?” Pevin asked. The flickering fire lit his face where he’d leant back in his chair.
“Not truly. I was eventually sent after you and I thought setting up camp here would be better than chasing you to the Lake.”
Flir nodded. “Because you saw the travel-stone.”
Ekolay nodded. “Not that I knew what it was at first.” He chuckled. “But once I’d used it and gotten over my shock, I thought you’d return to it sooner or later.”
“Is that all?” Kanis asked as he toyed with a saltshaker someone had found in the Stakista’s pantries.
“You mean, according to the Circle?”
“I was more curious about you, actually.”
The archer grinned. “That’s a fair question. How about I start with the Circle? I think it’ll be quicker.”
“Please,” Flir said.
“I was told that, should Black Thorn Lake be a dead end, I was to direct you to another possible place to investigate. It seems their archivist located something else.”
“Another myth?”
“Perhaps. Supposedly, islanders to the west once worshipped a great whale – yet for generations they have been fairly closed-off from folk on the mainland. And there’s the Chilava there, too, of course.”
“Which is why the Conclave would want a pair of dilar to venture forth to investigate,” Kanis said as he folded his arms.
“Can’t say I blame them,” the archer replied with a cackling laugh.
“And you, yourself?” Flir asked.
He spread his hands. “Well, that might take a little longer but I’d like to accompany you to Anaksar, whenever you return.”
She frowned. It was not a difficult request but it was unexpected. And unusual. “I assume there are enough ships passing between the two nations now that you shouldn’t need me.”
“The cost of passage is a little out of reach for a wanderer like myself.”
“That’s easy enough to believe, but why?” Kanis asked.
“There is someone I am seeking,” he replied, all hints of good cheer gone now. “I’ve come to believe they in fact fled west some years ago.”
Flir met his gaze. Ekolay was still holding back yet there was something beyond that secret also. On the surface, it seemed an honest enough request but that honesty had perhaps been tempered by news of the Conclave... they expected Ekolay to follow her west, whenever that time came.
What remained hidden, despite her new gift – or remained obscured by the archer’s burning desire to continue his hunt, was why the Conclave had sent him to watch. The simplest possibility was to protect their investment in any bone... perhaps Ekolay was supposed to snoop around now, to see if Flir was hiding bone from the lake.
But exactly who he was hunting was unclear too, that secret weighed heavily upon the man.
Revenge.
Ekolay wanted revenge against someone, someone who had stolen something precious many years ago, during their youth. Flir leant forward. It had been upon the steps of a grand temple to the south, during an unusually warm summer... and then it was gone.
The man’s jaw was clenched. “Well, what do you say?”
“That we will need to know who you seek before we consider your proposition,” Flir said.
“The man who killed my son.”
Flir held his gaze, and she did not need to ask – it was the truth, though again, Ekolay held back the details; they were simply buried too deeply. “Truly?”
“Aye.”
She glanced to Kanis and Pevin. “We will give you our answer tomorrow.”
“I appreciate that, dilar.” He rose with a smile. “And I think I’ll take the first watch, just in case. Until tomorrow.”
Flir murmured her thanks and turned to those remaining – Kanis and Pevin of course, but Aren too. Grav had already sought his bed, the poor fellow, but his master remained.
“What do you think about that then?” Kanis asked.
“I believe him,” Flir replied.
“About everything?”
She nodded. “Everything he told us, yes. But I saw more than he intended to reveal. The Conclave expects him to spy on us also. I think he has simply taken his chance to combine that task with a personal one.”
“And you know this due to the Sea God,” Aren said.
“Yes.” As ever, the man was guarded himself, though she received no sense that he was anything more than what he claimed – a Custodian of the dilar, one perhaps more driven than most when it came to preserving the knowledge.
Kanis shrugged. “Then we can take him, I suppose. The real question is, take him where?”
“You don’t want to check the islands?” Pevin asked.
“I don’t know,” Kanis said. “It seems a long shot, especially considering that we actually know where a Sea God is right now.”
Aren nodded slowly. “For all we know, they may have held on to bones from a different Beast for many generations.”
“True,” Kanis said with a frown. “Flir?”
“There is a more pressing concern – we need to warn Seto about Chelona.”
“That would take weeks,” Kanis replied. “Shouldn’t we find more bone? It’s the only thing that can stand against her, isn’t it?”
Flir glanced to the floor, where somewhere below waited the storeroom and travel-stone. “Perhaps not. I think I can use my new ‘gift’ to discover how to make the travel-stone that’s here take us to Anaskar. Then, we could easily return to this search if need be.”
Kanis grinned. “Well, that would make things easier.”
“And we’d bring Ekolay?” Pevin asked.
“I suppose so.”
“There’s still one question that I wish an answer for, dilar,” Pevin said. “How did the Conclave come to give him the task of watching us? Why a wandering archer with a hidden quest for revenge?”
Aren nodded. “You think he was a spy since Ithinov?”
“Perhaps. Best we keep an open mind.”
“I will find out,” Flir said. “But tomorrow. For now, I need to rest – we all do.”
“Fair enough,” Aren said as he rose, bidding them good night.
Pevin followed and Kanis slid the saltshaker across the dining table before doing the same, glancing over his shoulder. “Are you all right? You know, now that you’ve eaten the eye?”
Flir nodded. “Well enough. It might actually be useful.”
“What if it’s also poison?”
“I’d know by now, I think.”
“Probably,” he replied, a trace of relief in his voice. “Good night then.”
“Night, Kanis.” Flir hesitated, nearly adding something else, but he had already left the dining room.
Instead, she followed a little slowly, her own limbs weary, and found her room. It was not too distant from the one he had chosen. Once more, she paused but opened the door and sought her bed. There was no window but she’d left a candle alight, enough to avoid her pack and the stool before a basin. She sat and unlaced her boots, working on her tunic and pants next, until she was down to her undergarments, a slight shiver her reward.
She slid beneath the heavy blankets then and stared up at the dark ceiling.
What was Kanis doing, mere rooms away? “You fool.”
Thinking about Kanis was unavoidable... her weariness should have been enough to dampen any passion but she had already thrown back the covers before she could berate herself further. Her heart was beating quicker and she groaned. Like a young woman sneaking into her lover’s room for the first time, giggling about it on the inside?
But she didn’t stop either, opening her door carefully then flitting to Kanis’ room, the floorboards cold beneath her feet. She reached out... was it a mistake? No. And didn’t she deserve to make at least one decision for herself?
She opened door then closed it quickly behind her.
Starlight poured into Kanis’ room, illuminating him clearly enough as he sat up with a frown, his bare chest clear, the old scar upon his shoulder still visible where he’d once caught an arrow. “Flir?”
She strode to the bed and climbed upon the soft mattress before smiling. “I have not heard you think of much else since we left the mountains.”
He cleared his throat, then smiled. “You could tell?”
“Yes.” Flir had already straddled his warm stomach and she caught his hand where it trailed up her leg. “Slow down.”
His smile became a grin. “You don’t seem so tired anymore.”
“I’m not,” she said as she leant in to kiss him, the scent of his skin a dim memory that suddenly burst into life.