She shook her head. What else was there to do? “I just don’t knowwhat to do.”
“Unbelievable. You could let me go. There’s idea number one.”
“Nothing like this has happened to you before?”
The light from the newly made campfire flickered in his eyes ashe looked at her without expression.
“I’m not letting you out, and I can hear snoring in there, so I’mguessing you don’t have many people to talk to at the moment.”
He sighed. “Why would you want the advice of someone who’s beenhypnotized? Advice I’ve already given you, by the way, and which you clearlydid not attend to.”
“I attended enough to know it was sex advice, which I do notneed, by the way.And if you have been hypnotized, it would only work if they manipulated alittle of your memory, enough to make you trust Calla and perhaps mistrust mewhen the time came.”
He pointed at the ground, his eyebrows up. “And that’s now,right? You didn’t need Calla’s help, then.”
Thana’s irritation rose, and it felt nice to be angry at someonebesides Sylph. “I bet that if I asked you to punch her, you couldn’t.”
His jaw dropped. “No, I wouldn’t, you ass, because why would Istrike an innocent person on nothing more than your say-so?”
And he was right, but so was she. “You couldn’t do it even if you wanted.” Maybeshe could prompt Calla to attack him, and then…
No, that was madness. She was getting too tired to thinkstraight. “I’m sorry.”
His smile was brittle. “Nothing says apology like freeing yourchum from prison.”
She chuckled and reconsidered for the hundredth time. Maybe shewas wrong. It would take a master of mind magic to tinker with someone as shesuspected. But it wasn’t impossible, according to the lore, and the academy hadmany masters.
And Gunnar wouldn’t speak with her, it seemed. She couldn’t blamehim. She went and sat by the newly made fire, trying not to drown in all theassumptions she’d made, hoping this didn’t spell the end of their friendship.She’d never hoped that someone had been hypnotized before.
If Calla was the enemy, Thana hoped her reinforcements would cometo her. If she was supposed to lead the Order to them, Thana might be waiting along time, and she couldn’t keep the Order locked up forever. She and Sylphwould have to sleep eventually. There were so many ifs and too few people shecould trust with pyramids thrown in the mix.
No wonder so many people disliked pyradistés. She wasn’t feelingvery charitable toward them at the moment.
Sylph settled beside her, and Thana hoped she wasn’t going tocompare nobles and peasants again. That would definitely lead to a fistfight.
“You’re tired,” Sylph said, and Thana wondered how she looked ifher fatigue was that noticeable in dim light.
“I can’t sleep.”
“I wish I knew how to make a bold, romantic speech,” Sylph said.“A way to invite you to spend this time in bed with me, not sleeping.”
Thana gaped, unable to believe what she’d just heard. “Well,you…say exactly what you said, but you flower it up a little.” Her cheeksburned, and to deny her own lust would have been a lie, but she raised a hand.“Please don’t try. I wouldn’t be able to concentrate, and I wouldn’t want…” Herface grew even hotter.
Sylph smiled. “To give less than your best?”
Thana rubbed her forehead. “Is there any way to make this moreembarrassing, so I can just die?”
“I know we can’t…do anything,” Sylph said. “Because of thedanger.”
Thana bit her lip. She didn’t want to start another fight, butshe couldn’t remain quiet, either. At least she wasn’t embarrassed about thepoint she had to make. “For more reasons than danger. I don’t know what youwant from me, Sylph. Am I your teacher? Your servant? Your partner in crimeagainst the crown?” She gestured at the stone prison. “All of those? None?Until I have the answer, I don’t think I can be your lover, too.”
Sylph’s eyes were steady, her posture as correct as always, andThana braced herself for LadySylph or a frosty exit, but she said, “You want me to be someone I’m not.”
Thana resisted the urge to shake her, to say she could change.But Thana hadn’t exactly been willing to do the same. “Do you want arelationship with me or just a fling?” She put a hand on Sylph’s arm before shecould look away. “Don’t look into the future. Tell me what your gut says.”
That got a little smile. “My abdominal organs don’t usuallyspeak.”
“Well, summon some indigestion, and tell me what it says.”
“I have to think about the future.”
“Not right now.”
“Always.”
“Why?”
“Because!” Sylph leaped to her feet, facade cracking. “Property,peasantry, money, crops, connections, the future of a noble is always aroundus. If we don’t plan, people may starve, land can be lost, and laws can gounrevised. Each decision affects every other, don’t you see?” The pain in hereyes cut Thana to the quick, and she had to admit, she’d never considered mostof what Sylph said.
She stood slowly. “And despite all that, when I asked you whatyou wanted us to be, you felt something inside here.” She tapped her own chest.“Some answer. You don’t need fancy speeches to tell me what it was.”
When Sylph breathed out, it was half sob, and Thana resisted theurge to embrace her. “The thought of being without you is like…a hole in mychest. That’s what I felt. A void. I would survive, but all that you’ve broughtout in me, feelings I have never considered, would fall into the void and neverbe seen again. I won’t say I love you because I’m not sure what that is, butmy…abdominal organs would miss you all of my days.”
Her gaze was earnest, even if some of her words were ridiculous,and Thana had to kiss her gently before she could point out their differencesagain. “Then I’ll make you a deal. You try harder to enjoy the time we havetogether now, and I’ll think about the ways in which we might have a future.”She raised a hand before Sylph could protest. “I’ll keep in mind that you willbe a duchess and not a pyradisté, and I will be a pyradisté and not a
