Chapter 52
Remy
As soon as Jordy turned the handle, the door swung open, letting in a rush of brisk air. From my vantage point on the bed, I could see two people standing outside, though it was hard to get too many particulars because they were both bundled up.
One was much shorter and from the eyes I could see between the scarf and the hat, I surmised she was a woman. The other was a hulking giant, holding a casserole dish in big, gloved hands, and their thick fur coat added an unnerving similarity to a grizzly bear.
“Hello,” Jordy said, greeting them both with a smile. “I wasn’t expecting a visit from you today. Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine,” the woman replied. “We saw your visitor was up and about, so we thought we’d pop over and say hello.”
Jordy glanced back at me, and the cold wind rushing in around him caused me to shiver.
“Oh, yeah, come on in,” he told the woman and her very tall friend, and he stepped aside so they could enter.
“I brought my famous maple-glazed salmon,” the man said in a jovial booming voice as he held the casserole out to Jordy. “It’s cold now, but you can reheat it easy peasy on the stove.”
“Thank you,” Jordy replied, taking it from him after he closed the door.
The man in the fur coat pulled off his ski mask, revealing a friendly smile beneath a bushy brown moustache. His face was boyishly round, and the thick glasses he wore only added to his youthfulness by making his eyes look big and curious.
“I hope we’re not intruding too much,” he said with a laugh.
“No, not at all,” Jordy replied, and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “She was feeling well enough to move around, so I took her on a little field trip.”
By then, the woman had pulled off her own winter gear, draping her hat and scarf on the back of a dining room chair.
Her hair was dark brown with silver streaks shimmering through it, and she wore it in a low ponytail.
Her skin was pale, except for the rose on her cheeks from the cold, and her sweater and pants were all black and slim fitted to her petite frame.
“So glad to see you’re doing well.” She turned her polite smile toward me.
“Thanks,” I replied uncertainly, since I had no idea who the hell these people were.
“Sorry, this must all be so peculiar for you. Two strangers bursting in on you like this.” She walked over to me and extended her hand. “I’m Daiyu Chen, the Warden of Xwechtáal.”
“And I’m her boyfriend, Trevor Hartmann.” The tall man waved at me from where he stood by the door instead of snaking his large frame through Jordy’s cramped space to greet me.
“Remy King,” I replied, shaking Daiyu’s cold hand in mine.
“We’ve heard about you from Jordy,” Daiyu explained. “I like to keep track of what’s going on in town, and it’s so rare for us to have a visitor for so long without personally meeting them.”
“And I said before, she needed her rest,” Jordy reminded her with only a hint of annoyance in his voice.
“He did say that,” Daiyu immediately confirmed. “Many times. And I understood that. Which is why waited until I saw you were mobile to drop by.”
“That was very considerate of you,” Jordy said dryly, and he grabbed a chair from the dining table. “Would you like a chair so you can sit down, Daiyu?”
“That would be wonderful,” she chirped happily.
Jordy brought the chair over, between the fireplace and me, and she sat down. He offered another for Trevor, but he shook his head and insisted he was fine.
“So Jordy hasn’t told us much about you, although we have seen glimpses of your lion in the yard when he takes her out,” Daiyu said.
“Is she here?” Trevor asked, glancing around hopefully.
“No, she’s asleep in my apartment,” I explained. “She mostly sleeps in the winter.”
“And she does well living around people?” Daiyu asked carefully.
I nodded fervently, because I couldn’t send Ripley away, and I wasn’t ready to travel yet. So the warden needed to be certain that it was safe having my “pet” lion in her town.
“Yeah. Like I said, this time of year, she’s mostly sleeping,” I said. “She is wary of strangers, but that just means she stays away from them. When the weather’s nicer, we spend a lot of time out in the woods, hunting and hiking. But we’ll probably be on our way by springtime.”
“So you’re not planning on staying here?” she asked, tilting her head curiously.
“Not past winter, no,” I said.
“Most people passing through here are on their way to or from Glacier Valley. Since Jordy found you heading west, can I assume that was your destination?” Daiyu asked.
“Yeah,” I said, since there was no point in denying it, but I didn’t elaborate more than I had to.
“So where were you coming from? The Fort Lately area, perhaps?” Daiyu’s questions were friendly but probing, and I was beginning to suspect that this little fireside chat was really an interrogation to see if I was safe for her town.
I shook my head. “No, I passed by it on my way here. I’m from much farther south.”
“Emberwood?” she pressed.
“No. I wasn’t part of a community like that. I lived on my own with my family,” I lied.
She straightened up slightly. “You weren’t part of the Loth Family Ranch, were you?”
“No.” I shook my head again, and I hoped that Jordy hadn’t found my copy of The Book of Mercy in my belongings. “I’ve heard of them, but I never had any dealings with them. I don’t even know where their ranch was.”
“So you were living on your own then?” Daiyu asked.
“No, I was living with my family.”
“But you came here on your own?”
I nodded once. “Yep.”
“Where’s your family now?” she asked.
“They’re not here,” I replied simply. “What does it matter to you where they are?”
“Daiyu, I already told you a lot of this stuff,” Jordy said. He was standing at the end of his bed, his hands on the footboard as he leaned against it.
“I know,” Daiyu said, and she gave me an apologetic smile. “I’ve always been a very inquisitive person, and now with safety such a concern, it’s more important than ever to know as much as you can about the people you surround yourself with.”
“That’s fair. But like I said, I don’t plan on staying here that long. I’ve never been the kind to wear out my welcome.”
“Most folks who make it past the gates end up staying here as long as they’d like,” she said. “We work together here, building our community and taking care of each other. Our currency is barter or trade, and we welcome anyone willing to contribute.”
“Remy still needs more time on her recuperation,” Jordy persisted. “When she gets better, we can talk more about contributions. But right now, she’s exactly where she needs to be.”