“I asked that you come here after your arrival,” he smarted. “It has been over an hour.”
“We traveled for near five days without having the opportunity to bathe. I thought you’d not want to smell my stench or have it cling to your best capes,” she replied, crossing her arms over her chest. “What did you want? Why here?”
“I wanted a report for how the mission went,” Rhaif replied. “Did you rid this land of the creature?”
“We did,” she answered. “The Venari was helpful for once. His instruction on how to kill the creature was thorough.”
“And our brother? Where is he?”
“On his way with the Venari to the villages. I told him I would send an escort to come back with him in a few days so that he was not riding across the Hills alone.”
Rhaif gave her a nod, and then he started crossing the room slowly towards her. “You know, my men were hurt by your words before you left.”
“Which words?”
“When you called them useless.” He paused just in front of her, his fiery eyes searing through her. “I think you should apologize.”
She balked at the word. “Apologize? For what? For doing their job for them?”
“Why should they have thought the Venari was telling the truth after years of their not being helpful and betraying this crown?”
“If they cannot heed the orders of our three crowns, then what good are they? There are plenty of Belwarks out in our streets that would love to be part of the royal guard.” She took a step back and shook her head at him. “I will not apologize to them because they are ignorant.”
His nostrils flared, but he did not say anything in response. Instead, he took in a long look of what she was wearing, and his brows knitted together once more. “Is that what you’re wearing to banquet?”
“It is.”
His jaw tightened. “I’ll have Willow’s head. This is the second time this week she has failed.”
“Willow has only ever done as you’ve ordered. Just because I refuse to wear the dresses you have her put out for me does not mean she has not done her job.”
He gave her another deliberate once over then, and she raised a brow at his blatant stare.
“Spit it out, brother.”
A deep exhale left him, and he straightened up, pushing whatever it was he was thinking about to the back of his mind. He extended an arm to her. “Come. We will be late.”
CHAPTER SIX
THE BANQUET WAS grander than she’d expected.
She was weary of the extravagance, cautious of whatever it was her brother was up to. Something didn’t feel right in her bones. She felt him watching her most of the night, and she only began to forget about his gaze when she was reprieved by one of the Ambassadors of Scindo Creek’s daughters. Aydra found herself immersed in conversation with this girl as she told tales of her own village, of the journeys she’d taken with her father to the Village of Dreams and to the Hill towns. It seemed the woman had had a life of travel that Aydra found herself envious of, and Aydra invited she and the Belwark who had accompanied her back to her room later that night.
Aydra retreated to her room not long after her exchange with the Belwark and Dreamer, eager to have a few moments to herself before the true festivities of the night. Willow had drawn her another hot bath, this time with salts and lavender flower, to which she was grateful for. Her muscles ached of the long journey on horseback. She sank into the warm water and allowed the scent of the purple flowers to fill her nostrils, relaxing her stresses and murmuring her into a trance.
She tried to think of greater things than the shake of the Infi being pulled back into the ground, of whatever it was her brother was up to. Even going as far as to pull herself beneath the water, letting her breath catch and struggle before emerging back into the cool room. The pipe stared at her beside the tub, but she didn’t reach for it. She wanted to be sober when her new conquests found their way into her bed later that night.
The moons light cascaded through her open window. It was raining, but the clouds did not reach the moons in the far distance. It was an odd sight to see, the light reflecting off the droplets as they poured outside. The raven sat on the windowsill just out of the rain, merely keeping her company as it usually did. She wondered what Dorian and Draven were doing, if Draven was getting her younger into trouble or if he was actually taking care of him. Dorian was as free spirited as herself, and she knew he could look after himself. But she would feel better about it when the Belwark escorts journeyed to retrieve him in the morning.
Only when her fingers began to wrinkle did she emerge from the bath and wrap her black silk robe around her body. She let her hair down from the plait and started moving the pillows off the bed that Willow insisted she keep up there.
A small smile rose on her face when she heard her door open, and she didn’t bother looking up from the bed to see if it was indeed the Belwark and Dreamer from Scindo that had joined her.
“Someone is eager to please tonight,” she muttered, pulling the sheet back.
The person didn’t speak, and she almost frowned at the shadowed being standing against her door. “Are you going to stand there in the dark or should you like to come join me?” she asked.
She heard a boot step forward, and she looked up, only for her stomach to drop.
Lightning cracked outside.
Rhaif was standing in front of the door, half of his face lit up by the moons, the other half still shadowed by the curtains of her bed.
She felt her
