Mistress Sabin, in her plain gray travel costume, helped blot out some of the garish display around her, and Ravi hurried to her side for some soothing familiarity after Yan took their cloaks. They might not have been the best of friends on their journey, but she was the closest they had to an ally in this group and the most normal of all of them.
A large table, draped in more patterned cloth and filled with plates of food, dominated the open area in front of a stone hearth. The gaudy wizard sat at the head of the table in a pink-and-purple cushioned chair, while the priest from earlier and his blond friend sat on a bench along the far side. Their guide, Yan, moved to the wizard’s side, bent, and kissed the man before taking a seat on the bench next to the others.
“Daks and Ravi, may I present Lyuc, the leader of our little group here and temporary town leader until a new Elder is chosen for the clan,” Yan said.
“I’m glad to finally have a chance to meet the infamous Daks,” Lyuc replied with a grin. “Your partner has made quite an impression on us.”
Ravi followed Daks’s gaze as he lifted his eyebrows at Mistress Sabin.
The mistress grimaced apologetically at the wizard. “Shura was rather, uh, displeased when she woke up to find she’d been carried away from Traget. She refused to rest or let anyone tend her until Lyuc and Tas graciously agreed to scry for you, to make sure you were all right.”
“She wouldn’t let anyone else rest either,” Lyuc added wryly.
The familiar, proud, cheeky grin Daks threw at the wizard eased some of the tightness in Ravi’s belly, and he found himself smiling too.
“You scryed us?” Ravi asked a little nervously, not quite knowing what that entailed.
The wizard’s green eyes twinkled at Ravi.
“We did. I thought it an excellent opportunity for Tas to practice working with Singer… and without him. But don’t worry. We didn’t give her details, only that the two of you were quite safe and, uh, comfortable.”
Lyuc winked, and Ravi felt his face heat. Daks’s grin faded as he scooted closer to Ravi.
“Why don’t we all dig in?” Yan asked, breaking the awkward silence. “I’m sure our guests have to be starving after their long day. We’ll talk when we’re finished.”
“I told Shura I wouldn’t be gone long,” Mistress Sabin said regretfully.
“We can fend for ourselves,” Daks offered. “We’ll fill you in later if you want to get back to her.”
Daks said it with his usual confidence, and Mistress Sabin smiled gratefully at him. She gathered a heaping plate of food to take with her and hurried out the door, leaving Ravi and Daks alone with a group of strangers who were a lot stranger than most. Strangers he already resented for not even allowing him a minute to process the fact that Daks had told him he loved him.
Under the table, he sought out Daks’s hand, and Daks immediately threaded their fingers together. When he looked up, he caught the wizard, Lyuc, watching them with a small smile on his face before he turned to glance at Yan, his smile warming.
Well, at least I shouldn’t have to worry about any of them trying to poach Daks. They all seem pretty firmly paired up.
That probably should have been the least of his worries, with a pain priest sitting right across from him, but he’d take what he could get.
“Please, help yourselves,” Yan said when no one moved after the mistress’s departure.
Daks apparently didn’t need to be told twice. He reached for a large pitcher on the table, filled his mug, and downed half the contents without putting the pitcher down. When he caught Ravi looking at him, he said, “I was thirsty. Want some?”
He poured for Ravi before topping his off again; then they both joined the others in filling their plates. Ravi wasn’t particularly hungry. His Vision hangover hadn’t subsided yet, and he had a lot to think about. But he knew better than to ever pass up a free meal. Who knew when the next would come. Plus, putting this conversation off as long as possible wasn’t a bad thing, except that it meant he’d have to wait that much longer before he and Daks could finish their talk.
Their respite couldn’t last for long, though, and sure enough, only about halfway through the meal, the strange red-bearded wizard in the garish, comically patched robes speared Ravi with his gaze. “You made quite an entrance earlier. Do that often, do you?”
The hum of murmured conversation between the others stopped dead, and Ravi caught Yan giving Lyuc an exasperated frown.
“Not really,” Daks replied somewhat hostilely while Ravi struggled to swallow his bite of food.
Thankfully, Lyuc turned his intense gaze to Daks, because there was something off about that man, something in the depths of his eyes that made Ravi shiver. He really wished he hadn’t allowed Yan to take his cloak now, so he could hide inside it.
“But it has happened before?” Lyuc pressed.
Daks pursed his lips as he leaned back in his chair and straightened his legs under the table. “Why don’t we start by you all sharing a bit more information about yourselves before we get into any of that? Shura was hurt, and Fara was obviously distracted, so as far as we’re concerned, you’re all strangers, not even counting who and what you are. Why should
