22. Byzantine Architecture #3
He took me by hand, and I shoveled the rest of my bun into my mouth as he pulled me after him.
“Are we rich?” I asked through our tether. “If chocolate really does cost that much—”
“We can afford it.”
Music drifted through the streets, and I swayed in time with drums, bumping against Ciarán as we went. When I swayed too aggressively, he steadied me with an arm around my shoulders.
His thoughts buzzed around my brain, as they usually did, but it had been a few days since I’d felt it with such clarity.
“What are you always thinking about?” I asked. “All the time. Your thoughts are so buzzy.”
I fluttered my hands in the air in front me, pantomiming bees, and Ciarán scoffed.
“I could say the same about you, Blue.”
“Can you hear my thoughts?”
“I told you before, I can only hear what you’re thinking when you want me to, though you let your guard down when you get overly emotional.”
“I’m not emotional.”
“Sure you’re not.” He chuckled. “No, it’s just a vibrating inside my head. It’s nice to hear it again. You weren’t really there the last few days. I forgot how lonely it is to be alone in my own head.”
“We call that codependence where I’m from, and if I remember right, it isn’t considered to be very healthy.”
“What about chocolate cake? Is that healthy?”
“Definitely not.”
“Then I guess tonight, we’re indulging.” He let go and gestured towards a shop up ahead. A glass window overlooked chocolate pastries and cakes. The clientele wore cleaner clothing here, and there were more Skal goggles around heads and hanging around necks.
“Rich people,” I whispered.
“Oh, yes.”
I pressed against the window to survey the options but ultimately let Ciarán pick a three-tiered slice of chocolate cake. We leaned against the alley wall to eat off a shared plate, and Ciarán’s eyebrows jumped up his forehead at the cake’s taste.
“This is chocolate?” he asked.
“You’ve had chocolate before in Keldori, including in the last twenty four hours you were there, so you should remember it.”
“I mean, sure, but it was different. That wasn’t my real body.”
I made sure to save most of the cake for him.
I’d had plenty of chocolate cake in my eighteen years, and while I was sure Liam had too, Ciarán only had memory of the one piece.
We laughed as we ate, and I watched the swinging vines far overhead, thinking lazily about what the giant petrified tree might look like up close.
“They looked like they came out of the mountains, so who knows where they got so much Skal, but I wasn’t about to ask.
” A vaguely familiar voice carried around the corner, and Ciarán froze.
“I’ll bet they have more. One of them looked like she was just about dead, so I let them off easy, but they’re probably staying somewhere nearby.
They only just came through last night.”
Ciarán set the cake plate down on the cobblestone of the alley and crept back to the main street, hugging the wall. I followed close behind and pressed against his back so we could both peer around the corner.
A trio of men in red uniforms surveyed the chocolate selection together, and the one with the most impressive beard swirled a jar of Skal.
“So what if they have more? You’re the one with Skal here and now, Kamryn, so you’re the one paying.” His blond friend pushed a finger against the class of the cake shop. “I’ll take that one there with the berries.”
“All I’m saying is they looked pretty worse for wear, and sometimes the city is dangerous. Break-ins happen all the time to all sorts of people.”
“I’m going to break his fingers,” Ciarán hissed through our tether.
“No, you are not,” I warned.
“Sorry, my Lady, you weren’t supposed to hear that. That’s the guard that took our Skal when we entered the city.”
“And when he says break-ins happen all the time—”
“He’s going to find our inn, break-in, and steal our things.”
I snorted. “Good luck to him. Tiernan will destroy half the street before he lets anyone near Fana.”
The guards outside the shop continued to talk, and Ciarán shushed me.
“Come on,” the bearded guard, Kamryn, goaded. “It’ll be easy money and easy Skal.”
“If you want to go through the effort of finding where they’re staying and breaking in, go right ahead,” the blond guard said. “When they go to the local guard post in the morning about it, I’ll make sure it doesn’t get looked into, but I’m not going with you. Not after last time.”
“Suit yourself,” Kamryn laughed. “But there were a few girls in the party if that changes anything for you.”
My stomach dropped, and Ciarán’s thoughts inside my head turned violent. They lacked words and structure, but I could see all the things he wanted to do to this guard.
“Oh yes, mountain women. My favorite.” The third guard scoffed. “You are paying, aren’t you?”
Coins clinked as Kamryn passed off a money pouch. His two friends disappeared inside the chocolate shop while he leaned against the wall, holding his Skal—our Skal—aloft to inspect it.
“Stay here.” I pushed past Ciarán.
“Wren!”
But I was already running into the street and throwing myself at the guard.