When they all joined him at his nest, a drizzle began to drift down from the heavy grey clouds above. Inx, Reba, and Eli stood at a healthy distance from the nest, something about the way they looked at Austin hinting they anticipated anger if they got any closer.
“Help me dig them out.”
Reba beamed, trotting forward to begin at once. Inx cracked his knuckles and joined him. Eli set down his bucket of cleaning supplies. “I’ll fetch shovels,” he said, and took off up the beach.
Austin picked up a thick-bristled brush from the bucket and started scrubbing.
Chapter Twenty
Reba stretched one of his bat-like wings over Austin, sheltering him from the light drizzle as they stood back and surveyed their work. His nest was dug out, and the scrubbed stones glittered black against the white sand. Inx lay flat on the ground a short ways off with Eli perched on his stomach, rubbing oil into his biceps. From the conspiratorial tilt of Eli’s head and the sly glint in his eye, Austin suspected he was quizzing Inx about the ongoing love triangle between him, Reba and Lassie.
Austin looked back at Reba. “Why do you like Lassie?”
Reba’s wings twitched, surprise flashing across his face before it gave way to an endearingly shy smile. “I have a list.”
“I’d like to hear it.”
“I like her voice,” Reba said. “It’s not as nice as yours,of course, but if I held everyone to that standard, the entire world would be intolerable. I like her discipline. She’s told me all cooks have that, but I know she’s dead wrong there—the way she runs her kitchen is bliss. I grew up in a dirty old town called Vicine. In the summer, it’s a desert, and in the winter, the streets are flooded with mud. Nothing is ever clean.” A little shudder shook his wings. “At the orphanage, everyone took turns helping prepare food. It was so filthy you’d wonder how much of what was going into you was food and how much was dirt.”
Being repelled by tainted food was something Austin could relate to without effort. A sound of sympathy rose in his throat, and Reba’s shoulders, which had begun to tighten, relaxed.
“When I first arrived here, I used to stand in the kitchen and watch the food be prepared. It took months of seeing that Lassie took her job seriously before I trusted to eat food I hadn’t watched her make. But in those months, I learned a lot about her and came to admire her. She says I remind her of her little brother.”
Austin’s head tilted to the side in thought. “I thought her gaze on you was an admiring one.”
“Thatlook was for Inx. I learned a great deal more about Lassie than simply how she cooks when I camped out in her kitchen, including the captain she has a soft spot for. She’s terribly shy, you see, and I’m fairly certain Inx didn’t even notice her until I told him she likes me far more than him.” A sly smile. “He’s very competitive.”
Austin smiled back, amused.
Reba glanced at the captured Inx, whose expression indicated he was being tortured by Eli’s questions. “I’m very close with him now, actually. He’s a good captain, but he’s also like an older brother. Avians aren’t well-suited to combat, and Inx has spent a lot of time giving me extra instruction.”
Austin considered that, idly studying the pair on the sand. “Are you not the same age?”
Because Austin was looking toward Inx and Eli, it took a few seconds for him to notice Reba’s incredulous look.
“What?” Austin asked.
“Do Inx and I look the same age?” Reba looked at Inx, then down at himself.
Austin studied Reba’s face carefully, but his initial assessment of mid-to-late twenties didn’t alter. Inx’s didn’t either. “You’re both around…twenty-eight?”
“Minus ten for me! And add at least another ten years to Inx’s count, probably more.”
Eli and Inx both looked over at Reba’s raised voice.
Austin studied Reba anew. “Are you actually eighteen?”
“Yes! I’m the youngest Troop member. Everyone always teases me about it. I thought the day you made me fly up and down the beach was because you were joining in with them all!”
Reba thought being made to fly across the beach was teasing? Austin blinked. “I just wanted to see you flying. I haven’t seen anyone with wings like yours before.”
Reba beamed.
Austin nodded toward Inx and Eli, who’d returned to their stalemate. “Why doesn’t he push him off?”
A hint of mirth entered Reba’s expression. “Eli is your attendant; Inx is outranked. Don’t worry, sir. Aside from Char, nobody else really pulls rank on Inx. It’s good for him.”
“I’d rather you call me Austin.”
