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“After how you had your unkindness climb in there and tug apart the old bird’s nest that clogged it?” Marla said with a jest in her tone that somehow wavered at its edges, steering a ladle around the iron pot that hung near the fire by the hearth. “The chimney is working just as it should now.”
“Still too much ash and soot that is sitting everywhere,” Asker added, running a finger over the grayed daub on the wall beside him.
He stared at his blackened finger. Then he smudged it against his thumb as if he didn’t know what else to do with his hands… like shake mine. Or usher me over to the table. Or smack me.
My molars pressed together all on their own, biting back that sarcastic chuckle tickling the back of my throat. This was going to be alongnight…
“Asker!” Marla hissed under the breath of her tense smile.
“Hmm?” He startled, looked at her, then nodded and finally gestured me to the table. “Yes, yes, of course. Please, have a seat.”
My back had barely touched the chair’s backrest when Asker reached for one of the pitchers on the table and started pouring into the wooden cups. Ah, the solace of wine—a loyal friend when it came to making the most awkward situation bearable. At least in that regard, Asker and I were of one mind tonight.
When Asker slid the cup toward me, I took it without hesitation, bringing it to my lips with a quickly mumbled, “Thanks.”
The wood pressed against my lips. The first drop hit my tongue, bland and stale and…water. Just water.
My chuckle echoed inside the cup before I took a sip, then placed it back down on the table. “No wine for me, huh?”
Across the room, Marla stared into her pot with trance-like focus, merely a hint of a shake moving her head. “Just give the boy some wine.”
“Old company breeds old habits,” Asker said, his words as firm as the pressed shadowcloth of his shirt.
“As if it matters…” Marla mumbled.
What was that supposed to mean?
“Do not make me regret asking him here,” Asker bit back.
My veins heated. This was a mistake; I shouldn’t have come here. Why the fuck had I bothered coming here?
The chair legs beneath me groaned over the wooden floor as I rose and turned back toward the fucking door. “Don’t worry, old man, I’ll fix that real quick for you.”
“No!” The ladle clinked against the pot as Marla rushed over, cutting my escape short with how she planted herself in front of me and took my hands into hers. “Stay, Sebian. Please! If you can’t do it because of him, do it for me.”
The longer I looked down at those soft eyes of hers, her fingers frantically gripping mine, as if she feared I might dissolve into feathers at any moment now, the more my muscles tightened. And I just… couldn’t see her like that, her features edged with the same pain I’d seen when she’d wailed over Ravenna’s charred body.
Nodding, I gave her hands a squeeze before I turned back toward the table and sat my ass back down in the chair. “Weather!” I said, grabbed my cup, and took a sip of my water. “You know, Malyr told me about how theaerymelstores the heat and, together with the wind barriers, keeps the temperatures mild even in winter. Still, I didn’t think that I’d come here at night in the beginning of spring without a cloak.”
Marla returned to stirring her pot, but not without mumbling, “You promised me.”
Asker sighed, then he gave me a nod. “Yes, very pleasant, mm-hmm.”
“Mm-hmm.” Fuck, this was going to be so painful. “Hot in summer?”
“It can be,” he said with another stiff nod. “But only if there is no wind, which is not often the case. We open the wind barriers at different heights, which creates a draft throughout the city, except for lower lying alleys.”
“Interesting.” Not in the slightest, but if it took two hours of talking about sun, wind, and rain to get us through this, then so be it. “I can’t wait to, um…”Get out of here.“To see if it reminds me of Lanai. I saw mango trees on the Perch. They’re dead now, of course, but it reminded me of home. I thought about taking Galantia to Lanai in summer. I’d love to show—”
A sob.
From. Marla.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, a shiver crawling up my spine as if the temperature in the room had dropped. “What’s wrong?”
The moment Marla’s eyes found mine, she gave a dismissive swat at the air, turned her back on me, and stared into her pot. “Oh, don’t mind me. It is just… so good to have you here.”
“Yes, yes, this has been long overdue.” Asker cleared his throat, shoving around in his chair as if he couldn’t get comfortable, no matter how he sat. “Malyr and Galantia seem to be reconciled? Happy, even?”
