20 Eira
Eira
At some point during her strangely comforting bath, Eira had asked Hugo to go downstairs and order them food, vowing that
she was okay and that she would be down there with him soon. She dried off and got dressed, Pennyroyal watching her with concern
as she laced up her new deep blue bodice. The fresh clothing didn’t fix the fact that she had lost almost everything important
to her when she had left her home in Cilirien, and it certainly didn’t fix the strange way she had been feeling for days,
but it did make her as happy as she could possibly be in that moment. There was something about a clean, new set of skirts
that lifted Eira’s spirits, and she wondered how much of that was from her past and how much of it was from who she was now.
“You don’t need to worry about me,” she said to Penny, scratching in between the rabbit’s ears for a moment. Pennyroyal moved
out of the way and stomped her back paws on the bed. “You were here too, with the princess and I. Do you remember? I don’t.”
Hugo may have thought it stupid or useless, but Eira and Pennyroyal did talk. The rabbit had her own way of communicating, and she was Eira’s closest confidante. Was it sad that a rabbit knew Eira’s secrets and deepest feelings? Maybe, but every witch needed a familiar.
Pennyroyal chomped and tittered, making a little noise in response. Eira took that as a yes, that the rabbit did remember
their time in this city. It brought her a moment of comfort, knowing that at least one member of their group knew the history
of their situation.
“You’re the best.” Eira scratched the rabbit’s back one more time before opening the door and heading downstairs for dinner.
She looked around as she walked, trying to see if she could remember echoes of being here, but there was nothing. That locked
door in her mind kept everything hidden from her.
Much to Eira’s concern, she couldn’t see Hugo as she headed downstairs, but the sweet barmaid from earlier pointed out the
door when she noticed Eira looking around frantically.
“He went out there, darlin’,” she said, pointing with a cloth-covered hand as she polished steins behind the counter. “Your
dinner will be out shortly, though, so don’t be too long!”
Eira nodded her thanks and quickly headed out the door, her boots clicking on the wooden floors as she swung the door open.
She scanned the area. It was evening and the town was bustling, but she hoped desperately that she’d be able to find Hugo.
She barely knew the man, but she also knew that he’d held her hand in that bath like he’d done it a million times before.
She knew that he’d protected her from whatever that thing was the night before—and she knew that they were both being hunted.
Eira also knew that he wouldn’t have stepped out for no reason, and it made her nervous about the Iron Retinue.
She walked over to Arthur’s stable, petting the horse’s snout as it dug through her bag, smelling the dried fruits she kept
in there for Pennyroyal.
“You’re not supposed to beg,” she said, winking and pulling out a strip of dried apple, which Arthur happily took out of her hand. Eira spotted Hugo walking across the town square, one hand nonchalantly in his pocket, and the other clutching what looked like a rolled piece of paper.
Hugo saw Eira looking at him and she watched his posture change immediately, as if he hadn’t expected her to see him . . .
as if he had thought he’d be able to get back to the tavern before she came downstairs to meet him for dinner.
What had he been up to? She strode out into the town center to meet him, the townspeople bustling around them as they made
their way home for their evening plans.
“Eira.” He smiled, a single curl of his dark hair falling into his face.
She wanted to brush it back with her fingers and lace her hands through his hair. “Hugo,” she said instead, putting her hand
on her hip. “Where were you?”
“Straight to the point,” he answered.
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Eira retorted.
“I was trying to see if I could listen in at one of the guard outposts to see if they had any discussions about us.”
Eira watched him, her eyes searching for a sign that he was lying. Loitering around a guard outpost when the two of them were
highly wanted seemed risky at best, and downright stupid at worst.
“You don’t believe me,” he said, one corner of his mouth lifting into a smirk. She fought the urge to kiss it off his stupidly
handsome face. “I also snatched a few of the wanted posters of me around their outpost . . . nothing of you yet, if you were
wondering.”
Eira grabbed one of the wanted posters from Hugo’s hand, unrolling it to see a relatively good rendition of the man standing
in front of her, just with shorter hair . . . and absolutely the wrong nose shape.
“This is pretty good. You should go back to the outpost and tell the Iron Retinue that whoever they have doing the art is talented,” Eira said dryly before shoving the paper back into Hugo’s hand.
“This whole thing just seems like a foolish decision. And riskier than you’ve been so far.
I’ve learned that out-of-character behavior means something strange is happening—or that the person is lying,”
“I’m not lying,” he said, tearing up the wanted posters and letting the pieces fall like confetti to the ground. “I did go
to the guard outpost, but it was only after I went looking for the princess. I found nothing, though.”
“Why would you look for her without me?” she asked, crestfallen and concerned.
“You were taking a bath, and I hoped I could quickly ask around to see if anyone had seen a woman that looked like her recently,”
Hugo answered matter-of-factly. “I wasn’t thinking about leaving you out, just about maximizing time.”
“And what did people say?” Eira asked.
“No one has seen her.” Hugo shook his head, disappointment coloring each word. Another dead end. Eira didn’t know yet how
they were going to find the princess if her failing memory was the only reliable resource.
“That’s unfortunate,” Eira said. “But don’t leave me out in the future, okay?”
“Understood, your ladyship,” he chuckled.
Eira rolled her eyes, trying to brush off how she felt. She believed Hugo, and she trusted what he was saying. But what if
he had found the princess without her? What would he have done? Or was she being paranoid? Realizing she had decades of lost
memories, and that a witch somewhere in Astra had stolen them, had left her feeling extremely vulnerable.
“Shall we?” Hugo said, gesturing to the door of the tavern.
“Fine,” Eira said, her walk slow as she found herself lost in thought all the way there.