No, not Emma. Sasha.
“Good morning. How are you today?” she said, yawning.
He spoke more to the ground than to her. “I’m fine.”
“Just fine?”
“Yeah I’m fine, really, I am.” She was giving him a knowing look.
“You thought I was Emma, didn’t you?” she asked softly.
“I’m sorry Sasha. How did you sleep?” And moreover, how did she know what he was thinking?
She smiled at him. “Why are you sorry? I’m sure she misses you too.”
“Do you think so? I mean, she said that she loved me, but I don’t know. Now I’m gone and I bet she has her eye on others. I don’t know.” He chuckled a bit. “Listen to me, I sound like a moron. You don’t want to hear my sob story.”
She laughed, and this caught him off guard. “You don’t know anything about women, do you?”
Now it was his turn to laugh. “Well no, I guess not.”
“I don’t think you’re a moron, I’m happy for you. It’s cute the…”
“Oh no, don’t start that ‘cute’ stuff. Emma says that crap all the time when I get all soft,” he said pointing a finger at her in a playful way.
“It is cute, and I’m sure she misses you a lot. She even talked to me about you, so there’s a sign.”
That was definitely a sign. Emma didn’t talk to Sasha; none of the girls in town did. They talked about her for sure, but it wasn’t kind.
“She did? What did she say? What did you tell her?” She had his attention now; he didn’t want Sasha to think he was soft, but this was too good. She sat down opposite him and held her hands out over the growing fire. They didn’t even notice Arkin looking at them.
“Well, she came up to me in town and offered to buy me tea. I knew something was up because her parents don’t want her to talk to me. We went to the tavern and she started asking all these questions about you. She thought that you and Legon talked about your relationships all the time.”
“I want to make one thing clear: We never…” Kovos started.
“Yes, I know you’re men. Gods forbid you show emotion. Anyway, after a bit she was trying to get me to tell Legon to tell you to propose to her, so I would say she likes you, even loves you. When you go back home she’ll say yes. And then her dad will probably kill you,” she finished with a smile.
She wanted to marry him. This was great! But something didn’t make sense.
“Sasha, I’m confused.”
“I’m sure, you’re a man.”
“Ha ha. If she loves me, why didn’t she say it or have you tell me to marry her? Why Legon?”
There was a sympathetic look on her face, the same his mother gave him whenever he did or said something stupid but tried to do the right thing.
“She dropped lots of hints.”
“Like what? She never dropped a hint. I’d have noticed.”
“She asked you to pick out linens and table cloths,” Sasha said with a hint of exasperation.
“Yeah, so what?”
“For your new home together.” She was spoon feeding him something but still it didn’t click.
“No, it was for her aunt, not our house.”
“Oh my goodness Kovos, are you really that thick?”
It clicked.
“What!? That’s stupid! Why did she do that? If that’s what she wanted why didn’t she just say it?”
Sasha rolled her eyes at him. “We don’t say it, we hint, and apparently you guys don’t get it.”
“If you guys want something and don’t tell us, then it’s not our fault, it’s yours.”
Sasha chuckled in a bit of a menacing way. “Ha! It’s our fault you aren’t bright enough to figure it out?” Kovos was about to talk but was cut off by Arkin.
“Kovos, she likes you and that’s what matters. Sasha, men are dumb.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“And so are women,” Arkin finished, walking to his tent before Sasha could retort.
Keither thought he heard a debate heating up outside-no doubt Sasha and Kovos talking about relationships. That never ended well. It was a good time to keep quiet. Not that he talked much anyway. The conversation cooled down after breakfast, and Kovos seemed to be in a good mood about Emma liking him.
Keither was happy for him in a way. Except for once, Keither hadn’t ever really liked anybody. That one didn’t matter though; he hadn’t had the balls to talk to her, and the queen’s men had taken her earlier in the year. She had been nice, though. She was one of Sasha’s friends. Come to think of it, her only friend. It’s too bad people were terrified of what they didn’t understand.
Keither left his tent and tried to help break camp, but his side was killing him and Legon told him not to do anything.
“I can help,” he insisted.
“I know you can, Keither, but your ribs need to heal, and the fastest way for that to happen is for you not to do much for the next few days. Don’t worry. Once you can help, you will,” he said with a smile.
“Trust him on this one. He knows what he’s talking about,” Kovos added.
Odd. His brother was being nicer to him than before. Maybe he felt bad about what had happened. It didn’t matter; the change was welcome. He knew that Kovos cared about him and only wanted him to be safe and happy, so he didn’t really hold it against him when he was mean. Still, this new way was easier to take. When they were ready to leave Sasha walked Murray over to him.
“I want you to ride Murray for a few days while I work with Pixie, and then it will be your turn to be trained, ok?”
“Ok. Sorry I’m not good at this stuff. Thank you for your help.”
“Don’t be sorry. We all have to learn, and you’ve never had a reason to.”
She was so nice to people. Why on earth was she like that? It didn’t make any sense. These thoughts left him as they rode. They were coming over the hill now and that meant Salkay would be in view. He was excited; one of the traveling merchants that came to town said that Salkay was growing due to the new mills they had built over the last few years. Mills. Now that was where it was at. He had never seen one, so this was going to be good. Most people didn’t appreciate what mills could do.
As they came over the hill, Salkay came into view. It was larger than Salmont, but not by much. There was a big wall surrounding the town and a road leading to the river, which was wide here. The road split in two, each path leading to the river where it then became a fortified mill bridge. The bridge closest to them had five large wheels underneath. On the left on the bridge and closest to the town were two buildings, both with tall roofs and no smoke. Downriver a bit were a larger bridge with seven wheels and two more buildings, both producing huge amounts of smoke.
“Are those mills with fortified bridges?” asked Kovos.
“Yes they are,” responded Arkin.
“What’s with the one with the dome thing by it?” asked Sasha.
The dome thing; Keither hadn’t noticed that. He looked harder. “No way.”
“‘No way’ what, Keither?” Sasha asked.
“Arkin, is that a sanitizer?” he asked excitedly.
“Very good, Keither. Why don’t you tell the others about the mills and the bridges?”
Why had he spoken? Now he was going to have to try to explain this and they were going to think he was a moron. “Come on,” prompted Arkin.
“Well ok, bear with me. I will explain each in turn.” He paused, gathering his thoughts.
“You see that first bridge, the one with five wheels?” They all nodded. “The bridge is fortified because those wheels are the most valuable part of the town. Without them the town will bust, so they need to be protected.” He held up his hand, forestalling questions.
“Let me finish and then you can ask away. Ok, here’s how it works: those wheels are turned by the river’s current and in turn they lead to a gear building. From there the building turns shafts that lead to the structures on
