Chapter 56
Fifty-Six
Zasen
A yla moved slowly up the stairs, but she wasn't breathing harder at the top. That meant she wasn't as out of shape as I feared, just recovering from the effects of the venom she'd drank. Granted, while I knew exactly how our neurotoxin worked, I would never be able to experience it. I'd been born immune.
But once the girl was on the landing, she paused to look around. "It's like another house up here!"
"The rest of the house," I corrected, pointing to the first door on my right. "That's Rymar's room." Then to the next on the same side. "That's Kanik's."
She smiled, then turned to the left. "What's over there, or am I not supposed to know?"
I led her around the banister that walled off the staircase and into an open archway. "This is what we call the workshop."
All around us were tables with weapons and leather spread across them. On some, straight dowels of wood were waiting to be made into arrows and bolts. A bag of feathers was tied up at the side, with a smaller one next to it. Not that she'd be able to see the feathers inside, but I knew what they were.
"My father taught me how to fletch arrows when I was a boy," I explained. "See the big bag? That's the mixed feathers. Some are brown. Some are white. All colors, really. The smaller bag has the blue ones."
"Why do you make your war arrows blue?" she asked.
I smiled. "I started doing that to make a statement. I wanted them to know who'd shot them. I also stamped the faces of the men I killed with my sign die and threw their bodies down into the pit around the Mole base." Stepping away from her, I headed for the closest table to pick up the arrow I'd been working on recently. A blue one. "I was angry back then, Ayla."
"Because they killed someone?"
"My father." I paused. "And it was my fault. I was out too late. I knew I was supposed to get home before sunset, but Tasult and I'd been having fun, so I lost track of time. I was halfway back when the Moles rushed into town and my father hurried out to save me."
"He must've loved you very much," she mumbled.
"He did," I agreed. "So much that he yelled so the Moles would see him and not me. So much that he didn't fight when they shot him. He never tried to run, Ayla. He just yelled for me to hide."
"I'm sorry," she breathed. "They kill too many people."
"Like your mom?" I asked, clasping her shoulder to turn her back towards the next room.
"All wives," she explained. "They only want the children we produce. It doesn't matter if it's hard. They will keep making babies until the wife dies, and then they simply marry another girl when she turns twenty."
"The way that man tried to marry you," I realized.
"Yes."
So I gestured to the open door ahead of us. "This is what we call the office. It's really another bedroom, but Rymar and Kanik work in here."
She stepped inside and I followed. Ayla's head was swiveling around as she tried to take in everything. On the walls were notes and corkboards for tasks. The chairs at the two desks were both nice ones with padded leather seats, but where Rymar's was black, Kanik's was brown. Then there was the tired old chair at the side that none of us had wanted to throw away.
"This was our first chair," I said, gesturing at it. "The four of us - me, Rymar, Kanik, and Saveah's husband, Tasult - bought it when we got our first place together."
"Not this house?" she asked.
"Oh no," I said around a chuckle. "No, we were young and very poor back then. Together, we could barely afford to rent a place on our own. It had nothing in it until we pooled our money and bought that chair. Tasult loved it."
"And then he married Saveah?" she asked.
"Well, they didn't get married," I explained. "Lessa, the woman who measured you yesterday? She introduced them. Tasult thought Saveah was the most amazing woman he'd ever met, and they moved in together. We were all happy for him. When Tamin was born, I was named his godparent. When Taris was born, Rymar became hers. Kanik was supposed to get the next one, but..."
"The Moles," she breathed, moving forward to trace her fingers across the edge of Kanik's desk. "What work do they do here?"
"Rymar handles town business," I explained. "You see, he's the Deputy Mayor. That's a position people pick every so often to help out with the town. It's also not a lot of work. The Mayor does most of it. Rymar just handles the rest, like contracting street maintenance and such."
"And Kanik?" she asked.
I smiled, aware she'd not only picked his space out on her own, but also that she seemed very interested in his work. "He makes a lesson to teach his students. He gives them assignments. When school is back in session, he'll sit there and grade papers. Well, not there exactly, since we're going to move the desks."
"Really? Why?"
Leaning back against the wall, I crossed my arms over my chest. "Ayla, do you see the window over there?"
"Yes."
"Go look out it."
Her steps were light as she made her way around the mess. Guiding back the sheer fabric that counted as a curtain, she bent to peer through the bottom pane. Almost immediately, she sucked in a breath and jerked back.
"We're high!"
"It's the second floor," I agreed.
Then she looked again. I wasn't about to tell her the position exposed her rump. My eyes may have dropped down that far, but mostly I just wanted to see what she thought of the view. Would it scare her? Would she like it?
"Lorsa is so big!" she breathed in awe.
"And that's still only part of it," I assured her. "Behind that mountain on the right is more. What you're looking at is the south side of town and the market. Maybe the business area? I can't remember if you can see that from here."
"And the houses get so small!" she gasped, turning to look back at me. "It's like they're little toys."
"So do you like the second floor?" I asked. "Or is it too much?"
"I could look at this forever!" she said. "All the people down there, and they're just doing their daily things. It's like being a part of it all without needing to know how."
"But do you like it?" I pressed. "Or do you prefer the room on the first floor you're in now? Not the furniture, Ayla, but the room."
Her eyes widened, darting back and forth as she scanned my face. "Did I do something wrong, Zasen?"
"No, Ayla, you have done many things right. It's just that I don't want to keep sleeping on the couch. The three of us have been talking, and we think you need a space of your own. A room. That means I can either move my things up here so the men are all on the second floor and you'll still be close to the bathroom, or you can move up here after we clean it up."
"Next to men?" she asked.
"To Dragons, there's nothing wrong with being next to men," I assured her. "They will not touch you in ways that are too personal. They will only touch you as friends, and only when you're okay with it."
She swallowed, her gaze dropping to the floor. "I don't know the right answer."
"Ayla, the truth is the right answer. I asked you because I want to know your opinion, not because I'm expecting you to read my mind."
"But would it be improper?" she asked. "If the men are on the second floor, then the room I'm in now would be like the woman's hall."
"And we are not Moles," I reminded her. "We do not lock you in a hall for women. We do not expect you to keep yourself alone."
Slowly, she looked back up. "I like the window up here."
"Okay, then we'll clean this area up and get you some things. A bed, to start." I moved over to the worn-out chair and sank into it. "And if you sit at Kanik's desk, you'll see a calendar on it. That has all the months."
She moved to the chair and eased herself down, staring at the grid before her. "This looks strange."
"It's our year," I told her. "Each box is a month. Each line is a week. The last line is our holiday week."
"So this is New Year's Day," she said stabbing the first day of the first month. "Zasen, I'm going to need to write it all out. I'll get confused otherwise."
"In the drawer to your right is a pad of paper," I told her. "All those long things laying across the desk are pens."
"Pens?"
"Pens."
Her brow furrowed. "But how does that work?"
I chuckled. "I honestly have no idea, but try one."
Opening the drawer, Ayla found the paper, then uncapped the first pen her hand landed on. Timidly, she made a small line in the corner - then sucked in a breath. A smile grew on her face and she made another, then a small shape.
"The ink just keeps going!" she exclaimed, looking over at me with nothing but wonder on her face. "That's amazing!"
"They run out eventually," I admitted, "but it's a very long time. Months."
"And I can use all of this?" she asked. "Kanik won't mind?"
"Not the leather book," I said. "That's his work. He won't care if you look, but he'll get confused if you write in it. Otherwise, yes. Ayla, you can come up here anytime you need, and you don't have to ask permission. If the guys want to be private, they will close their doors."
"Yeah?" she asked. "So maybe it'll be okay if I look out the window again?"
"As often as you want," I promised. "But if you can help us figure out when the Moles are coming back..."
"It's going to be a bit," she told me. "The next holiday isn't until the end of August, but I have to work out the days to know how long that is in your time."
"Sooner is better than later," I pointed out. "And the sooner we can stop the Moles, the sooner we might be able to figure out how to help your friends."
Her hand stilled and the girl froze before me. She didn't even lift her eyes. "Meri and Callah?" she finally asked. "And they could stay here with me?"
"Not here," I said gently.
"But we wouldn't be a problem," she assured me. "I could teach them Vestrian so Kanik doesn't have to, and we know how to cook and clean and care for clothes. We'd wash and make sure none of you ever had to do anything!"
"Ayla..."
"We could even get married if you want. I mean, if that's what it takes to help them. I've been trying to figure out how, but I can't do it on my own, Zasen. I have to learn how to be a Dragon first, and then I have to stop the men! I have to make it so they can't hurt people here, and then I can bring my friends here and keep them safe like I did with Tamin!"
"Ayla," I said, stronger this time. "We don't have enough room here, and none of us want to get married. That doesn't mean we won't take care of them. No different than how we took care of you, okay? My mother speaks English, and Jeera, and even Brielle. We will find a place for them to stay, but we have to stop the Moles first."
"I'll figure it out," she swore. "I'll work out the whole calendar and then mark the holidays on your time. I'll tell you everything if you'll help me!"
"I'm going to help you anyway," I assured her. "We all are. This just makes it easier to stop the Moles."
She nodded. "And putting poison on the arrows will as well. I can learn how to shoot those too, right?"
"Once you actually learn how to shoot," I agreed.
"And if no one is outside when they show up, maybe they'll just leave?"
"Not usually," I said. "They break into the houses and go looking."
She sighed, nodding to show she'd heard. "Zasen, what we need are guns."
"Huh?"
"Guns," she told me. "They hurt more than arrows. They're also running out. That's why they take your dead and the guns. They don't have enough to lose. Bullets are easy to make, but the guns aren't. When one breaks, they have to take parts from another."
"But they all have guns," I pointed out.
She nodded. "Hundreds. Maybe thousands. But they always pick them up. They leave their dead but take the guns, Zasen. That means we need to stop letting them!"
"What we need to do," I reminded her, "is keep them from killing people."
"That too," she agreed. "We need to keep the Dragons safe, kill the Moles, and keep their guns."
I couldn't help but chuckle. "And you, little orin, are ruthless. I think I like it."
For the first time since I'd known her, Ayla actually beamed with pride.