“Yes,” he sighed, the words sticking him with guilt. “I know.”
“I understand that you want to go home,” Zorvut said, stepping closer to him. “But I can’t promise when that will be.”
He looked away, back down at his book, and kept his mounting frustration contained firmly in the center of his chest, pulling it as far from the bond as he could. “Okay.”
Zorvut waited for a moment, as if expecting more, then sighed and wordlessly moved to the wardrobe where he pulled off his shirt and hung it up. He blew out the candle next to the bed and laid down, his feet sticking out from underneath the blanket and hanging over the edge of the mattress. Taegan stayed up reading for a while longer, but eventually silently went to bed as well.
The next few days were much of the same. There was some distance between them—Taegan could clearly feel Zorvut’s frustration, but it did little to assuage his own. Tom seemed to sense their conflict, too; his smile in the morning was a bit more forced and plastered on than it had been in the previous days, though he didn’t pry.
He ended up leaving the house shortly after breakfast most mornings, and not returning until supper. Mostly he walked around town, though he did enjoy going down to the beach in the heat of the afternoon to swim. There were only a few taverns in Naimere; the largest was certainly Miss Jade’s, but there was a smaller tavern near the docks that was only a pub, without an inn. Sailors and dock workers who didn’t want to walk further into town for food and drink on their breaks were its most frequent visitors. He did not particularly like this tavern, but the patrons were always interested in talking with him to share stories about their travels, and he rarely saw the same person twice, which was a relief. The proprietor was a quiet, older human man with a bald head and a short gray beard who watched the goings-on in the bar with an intensity that distinctly reminded Taegan of a bird of prey. Taegan was not even sure what his name was, but the man did not ask questions and the wine was decent, and for now, that was good enough.
A new routine developed: he would eat breakfast quietly, listening to conversation between Zorvut and Tom with rare interruptions, then go for his first walk, making a long circuit around the perimeter of the town. Then it would be getting toward the middle of the day, and he would swim in the ocean to cool off and exercise. Once he was sufficiently dry, he would walk to the tavern on the docks and have a drink and a light lunch. Sometimes he would leave soon after, but other times he would linger for a while, chatting with other tavern patrons or just sitting and watching idly as workers filtered in and out of the bar throughout the afternoon. Eventually, he would leave to take another walk, this one shorter as he circled through the town square, occasionally doing some shopping before heading back to the house. Luckily, there was a bookshop in the town square, so even though the selection was not nearly as expansive as he would have liked, he still had something new to read.
At the end of the week, he finally ventured back to Miss Jade’s to pay for another week of boarding the horses.
“Pay ahead for two if you can,” Zorvut said before he left. “Or more if they’ll let you.”
He was already in the doorframe, so Zorvut did not see his sour expression at the words. “I will,” he called out behind him, but heard no response before the door closed.
He kept his usual morning routine of walking and swimming, but this time he walked to the center of town to find the inn afterward. The stable was behind the inn, facing away from the town square; there was a girl he did not recognize on duty, and she jumped up as he approached. She looked just as young as the other stable boys they’d encountered, though, with the awkwardness of a teen as she moved. He guessed she was thirteen or fourteen at the most. She was wearing trousers that she had clearly outgrown, an inch of her bare ankle showing between where the pants ended and her shoes began.
“Retrievin’ your horses, sir?” she asked, seeming to recognize him—he supposed the stable workers had doubtless talked about the massive horse belonging to the unlikely pair of an elf and a half-orc visiting town.
“No,” he replied, holding up a hand before she could dart inside. “I’d like to pay for another week of boarding.”
“Oh, sure,” she said, sounding a little relieved. Graksh’t was probably twice her height, so he couldn’t blame her for dreading the idea of saddling him. “Just one week?”
He hesitated. “Yes, just a week,” he said with a nod.
“That’s five silver pieces each, so one gold total,” she said, and he tossed her a coin. “Thank you, sir.”
“I would like to see my horse, though, if that’s alright,” he said, and she nodded, gesturing for him to enter as she moved back to the small table where she had been sitting and dropping the coin in a small lockbox.
The door swung open easily, and he stepped inside, quickly spotting Graksh’t at the end of the stable. It was not especially large, with five stalls on each side so room enough for ten horses, maybe more if they could double up a few stalls. But with a cursory glance, he could see that there were just a few horses boarded at the time, with only half the stalls occupied. He stepped toward Graksh’t and found Ember in the stall across from him.
When she saw him, she started whickering, tossing her head eagerly as he approached. He did not realize how hard he was grinning until he was up next to her, patting her nose as she tried to nuzzle his face.
“Sorry, girl,” he whispered, running his fingers through her mane. It was not braided the way it had been when he’d left her here, though it looked like it had been recently brushed and cleaned. “It’ll be a little while yet.”
He could hear her stamping her hooves from the other side of the wooden door, and for a moment he considered taking her out of the stall and just... leaving. If he really wanted to go home, he could—he didn’t need a chaperone, he was not a child. He could justgo. The urge to leave was almost overwhelming.
He caught himself as his fingers toyed with the latch on the stall door. What was he thinking? Zorvut was his husband. They had made the decision to come here together. How cruel it would be to up and leave! He didn’t deserve to be abandoned without a word, no matter how irritating Taegan found his single-minded focus. He would not be any less lonely on the road by himself. That he even had the thought was a weakness that sent a spark of shame burning in his cheeks, though he pulled it away from the bond before it could grow any further, not wanting Zorvut to feel his selfishness.
He would have to satisfy himself with patting Ember’s face for now. After a few minutes of giving her attention, he heard Graksh’t grumbling and stamping from behind him, so with a chagrined laugh he turned and scratched the black horse’s face as well. The massive beast peered down at him with obvious recognition and allowed himself to be scratched along his neck before tossing his head and turning away, seemingly just as fickle as Taegan’s own thoughts. He deserved that, he supposed.
As he left the stable, he slowed his pace, glancing at the wall of the tavern as he walked back out to the front of the building. It had been almost a week since he had last visited the Snoring Seagull, and he did like it better than the tavern on the dock, despite his uncomfortable encounter with Miss Jade. An occasional visit would be fine, he thought, and besides, if she was going to do anything with the information she had, it was already too late to prevent it. So what difference would it make if he visited or not?
With a resigned sigh, he stepped toward the doors and walked inside. It was just starting to get busy, being the middle of the day, so even though Miss Jade was behind the bar, she did not seem to notice him at first, and one of the other barmaids came and took his order instead.
“Just a glass of wine, please. Whatever’s your best,” he said to the barmaid. Buxom and youthful, she seemed like the exact archetype of a human barmaid with light hair pulled back in a bun and a crisp white tunic with simple lace along the edges, the first few buttons undone. She grinned at him, and he glanced away nervously. Was she just being friendly, or did she recognize him? Maybe this had been a mistake after all.
“Coming right up,” she said, and went to take more orders from the other tables.
Miss Jade had been chatting with another patron at the other end of the bar, but when she finally pulled away, she seemed to notice Taegan for the first time, a wide grin spreading across her face as their eyes met. But she said nothing, instead reaching below the bar to pour some drinks.
Eventually, she made her way over to him, bottle of wine in hand.
“I thought I was never going to see you again,” she said in a teasing tone, and Taegan pressed his lips into a tight smile.
