Adeya slumped, bleary-eyed, at Kyen’s side. An empty broth bowl sat next to her. The light coming from the hole in the ceiling streamed down strong and bright.
Kyen lay in a deep, easy sleep, sprawled out underneath his blankets.
Nella pushed open the mat with a fresh broth in hand.
“Good morning!” she said. “How’s the invalid? Managed another bowl in the night, did he? Is that his third or fourth?”
Adeya drew in a deep breath, but it turned into a long yawn.
“Morning?” She blinked up at Nella. “It’s morning?”
“And going on well towards noon, too,” said the marm. She placed a hand on Kyen’s forehead. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say his fever’s broken. He doesn’t look quite so pasty either.”
“Really?” Adeya felt his forehead, too.
“Surely now, won’t you take a little rest? You’ve been up all night.”
“I don’t think I could sleep if I tried.”
“Then how about a bath? A little something to refresh you?” Without waiting for an answer, Nella stuck her head out the doorway.
Outside, Wynne was striding by with a hand on her hilt.
“Wynne, will you please take Adeya to the bathing pool?” asked Nella.
“No.” She passed by without even a glance.
“If you do, I’ll bake you a loaf of bread,” Nella called after her.
She stopped.
“The soft, white kind of Veleda that’s your favorite.”
Wynne glared back.
“A whole loaf.” Nella smiled.
“You won’t make me share?” She looked suspicious.
“All for you,” said the Veleda marm. “But you have to take Adeya to the bathing pool and back, and see to all her needs like a good host.”
Wynne growled to herself for a moment. “Fine! Come with me, mainlander!” She stomped off across the common hall.
Nella pulled Adeya to her feet. “You can come right back once you’re cleaned up.
“But—” Adeya began.
“I can look after Kyen plenty fine for a span or two.” Nella ushered her towards the doorway.
“But—”
“Refreshing yourself will help you nurse him back to health. Now go on!”
“But—”
“Go on with you!” Nella gave her a final nudge out the mat. “Besides, you’re filthy. You’ve not had a good bath in days. And I can’t abide filth.”
Adeya looked down at herself. Dried blood smeared her clothes; mud, pine needles and sweat tangled her hair that had long since fallen out of its tie. “Ugh! You’re right…”
“Wynne?” Nella called.
“What?” She yelled back from across the common hall.
“Get her a fresh pair of clothes, too?”
“Fine! But I’m not sharing mine!”
* * *
“Hurry up, mainlander!”
Adeya, puffing, labored up the steep footpath. It wound from her heels down the mountainside to meet the valley of the city. Wynne stood on a crest above, hands on her hips, watching her. She staggered up next to Wynne. Doubling over with her hands on her knees, she panted to regain her breath.
“Soft!” Wynne sneered at her.
Adeya, straightening, opened her mouth as if to say something, but a massive yawn came out instead. She rubbed a hand in her eyes.
They’d arrived at a shelf in the mountainside that held a little pool. Cedars and evergreen bushes crowded around it, and moss fuzzed over the rocks at its edge. Clear water pattered down from a stream on high, filling the pool, before cascading over its lip and away down the mountainside.
“This is the bathing pool?” Adeya asked.
“Be quick about it.” Wynne threw her a clothes bundle.
Adeya fumbled it, and it fell at her feet.
“But—but, we’re in the open!” she cried. “Anybody could see!”
“So?”
“What do you mean ‘So?’ I don’t want anybody looking at me in the bath!”
“Well, nobody’s here right now. What’s your problem?”
“At least,” said Adeya. “Stand guard. Make sure nobody comes up.”
“Fine, if it gets you moving.”
Adeya snuck away to undress, hidden behind a thick patch of bushes. “You keep your back turned, too!”
“I should have asked for two loaves.” Wynne sat down cross-legged on a rock. She’d just settled when a loud “Eek!” made her leap up and draw her sword.
“The water is so cold!” cried Adeya’s voice from behind the bushes.
Growling, Wynne slammed her sword back into her scabbard. She plopped back down, shouting, “What did you expect in the mountains? An Eope hot spring? Mainlanders!” She took out her knife and began trimming the nail of her pinky finger.
The splish-splashing of water carried through the bushes.
“I sure hope Kyen is back on his feet soon,” said Adeya.
“I hope he dies.” Wynne held up her nails to examine them then trimmed the nail on her thumb.
“Why do you hate Kyen so much?” Anger bristled in Adeya’s tone.
“I don’t hate him,” said Wynne. “He just makes me retch.”
“What’s he ever done to you?”
“Nothing.” The swordswoman laughed. “He shames Avanna, just being what he is—a dull, cowardly throwback. As soft as a mainlander—no, softer!”
“Kyen’s not a coward.”
“You think so, do you?” Wynne grinned and sat back. “Since we wore swaddling clothes, he’s never spoken a single word to me. Not one—to me—and we’re betrothed!”
Droplets pattered off the mountainside into the pool; not a ripple came from Adeya’s hiding spot.
“I even tried to beat it out of him once. Couldn’t get a single word out of him no matter how much I bloodied him,” said Wynne. “Heh! And I bloodied him good!”
“You’re Kyen’s... fiancée?”
“I kept trying to talk Father out of it,” said Wynne. “I nearly had him convinced to change my marriage oaths to Ennyen, but ‘Be patient,’ he always said. ‘Kyen will harden up.’ Keh! Blind old fool. I’m glad he went down with Avanna, so I can do what I want.”
“An arranged marriage?”
“Is it not so on the mainland?”
“No. Well, I suppose. My father is always trying to find me a suitor,” said Adeya. “But he’s never bound me to someone by oaths.”
“Does he try to marry you to idiots, too?” asked Wynne.
“Not idiots. Just no one I felt I could love as I should,” said Adeya. “I’m to be a summoner anyway. Summoners never marry.”
“I’d never do that,” said Wynne. “Women of Avanna gain great honor by marrying before their thirtieth year and bearing new warriors for our people. Mother always said raising Avanna children is harder than besting any enemy in swords!”
“Why do you want honor, even though Avanna is gone?”
“Avanna still lives because we live, mainlander. Why do you understand so little?”
“Then,” Adeya’s voice sank, “you’ll marry Kyen?”
“Please! I’d kill myself before I’d marry Kyen!” Wynne looked disgusted. She tapped her chin with the dagger point as she thought for a moment. “Inen’s not a bad choice, but he doesn’t look at me sideways. Odallyan is strong, but he’s also an idiot. He’s not smart like Inen. I don’t know what’s got into Ennyen’s head. He’s too unpredictable nowadays, and I won’t marry a man I can’t beat in a fight. I could never marry a mainlander. I hate soft men worse than fiends. And I hate fiends a whole lot!” She brandished her dagger and bared her teeth at the very thought. “Are you done yet?”
“Yes, can you hand me the clothes? I forgot them.”
Wynne took up the bundle and chucked it at the bushes.
Adeya squeaked as it crashed atop the leaves. Her hand dragged it inside while she muttered under her breath.
“Are you saying something, mainlander?” Wynne glared at the bushes.
“Nothing.” A long yawn punctuated the word.
“Hurry up! Or I’m going to leave you here.”