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Then he sobered and glanced from me to Commander Currant. "The beast said someone transported it here. This is not its natural home. There is no way it swam all the way up here through this shallow branch of the river to get to this place–there aren't enough fish to keep it fed, for starters. And I doubt the crossing sees so much traffic that the hydra could just fill up on unaware travelers."
Currant grumbled and gave Bach a nod. "We'll report it. Though I'm not sure how much weight anyone will give to the words of a monster."
Bach nodded his head at her. "I told it I would try to get the rulers to send someone to remove it–without violence. It may be more cooperative in the future."
Currant nodded, and I chimed in. "If anyone has questions, I will vouch for the word of my mate. And we will come back to help re-home the hydra if needed." I glanced at Bach for agreement, and he nodded.
After that, our party was all a bit more wary and on the lookout for threats. But my mind kept going back to Bach's words. How much did I really know about the men who were now tied to me?
Not as much as I should, apparently. And I found myself wanting to know more.
That night when we reached the waystation, I insisted my mates share the shelter with me. They agreed with less grumbling than I expected.
There was only one bedroom in this cabin, but it was still well-maintained, with supplies and blankets in an enchanted chest at the foot of the bed. I spread out my bedroll on the floor by the small hearth as the men came in with their packs.
"You can take the bed," Mirri told me with a soft smile. "We're all well used to sleeping on the ground by now."
I just shrugged. "That would hardly be fair." I finished rolling out my stuff and straightened to find four sets of eyes watching me with varying levels of discomfort.
"I'm not about to demand you get in line to perform your mate duties," I said with an exasperated eye roll. "So, you can all relax. I just wanted to say thank you for how you handled the situation at the crossing today. It's likely that at least a few of the guards would have been injured attempting to protect me or eliminate the threat the hydra posed to other travelers. I appreciate your quick thinking."
I glanced at Fife. "And that you deigned to use your magic for us, even when you didn't have to."
I really wanted them to talk to me. To let me get to know them better, so I would know what to expect in situations like today. I had been so scared my mates would be harmed. But the worry had been completely unfounded.
"We were merely doing our duty," Bach said, before Fife could start up with the griping. "But you're welcome."
Fife arched a dark brow, but didn't comment, crossing to the bed and dropping his pack beside it. He proceeded to strip off his coat and boots, then opened the top laces of his shirt before he climbed onto the bed and buried himself under the provided blankets, as if he owned the place.
I sighed and shook my head. What an absolute brat.
Adder stared me down in silence for a beat before resolutely taking a spot on the bed next to Fife and closing his eyes.
I huffed and glanced at Mirri and Bach. Clearly, that talk I had been hoping for wasn't going to happen. "I'm pretty sure one more person can fit on that bed," I said tiredly. "Have at it."
I flopped down on the floor while Bach and Mirri had some silent, wordless conversation. Eventually, Bach got into bed on Fife's other side, and Mirri spread his bedroll out next to mine, close enough to say he wasn't avoiding me, but far enough away to feel like he wasn't crowding me.
We didn't bother lighting a fire in the hearth. The night and our blankets were warm enough not to need it. Evening was already falling around us, and as darkness settled, the soft breathing of the men slowly evened out into sleep.
I tossed and turned. I had never felt so surrounded by people, but so utterly alone at the same time.
After a long while, I flopped onto my back, my arms flung out like a starfish as I stared up at the dim recesses of the dusty ceiling. I started when a warm hand grasped mine. Mirri laced his fingers through mine and squeezed. "Goodnight, Kat," he whispered into the dark.
I sighed and blinked away the tears that had gathered in my eyes. "Goodnight," I whispered back. To Mirri, but also secretly to the other men in the room. And finally, with that little bit of connection, I was able to fall asleep.
Chapter 6
The rest of our travel through the mountains was largely uneventful. There were a few odd setbacks that might have been major issues for a lone traveler or someone without magic, but nothing our group of trained guards and highborn fae couldn't handle—a small rockslide, a flock of hunting wyverns, that sort of thing. Travel was always somewhat unpredictable in the mountains, and you never knew when the odd nature spirit or roaming creature would stumble across your path.
Even so, I tucked the weird encounter with the hydra away with the other little oddities of our travel to be examined later, in case there was more to it.
It was probably just paranoia on my part. I had let the king's dire warnings make me see fae-made threats where there were only coincidences and the natural chaos of living in the wild and magical country of Elfhaven.
We detoured slightly to stop by the site where the mountain pass was being constructed. Things were going well, according to the foreman I spoke with, and it surprised me how much progress they had made in such little time, using improved combinations of magic and mundane explosives. Soon, travel between Larkwood and the capital would take days, rather than weeks. And the road through the mountains would be accessible to wagons and carriages and other conveyances, rather than just individual mounts. Travel and trade with Astra would increase exponentially.
Jasper's tireless enthusiasm made the trip more pleasurable. And though we weren't exactly at ease yet, my mates and I had found some sort of neutral ground. Fife was clearly still miffed, and Adder only spoke when absolutely necessary. But Mirri and Bach carried on somewhat normal—if sometimes stilted—conversation. So, it was a start.
At night we all slept near each other, either when camping or sharing the waystation shelters. Sometimes I took the bed, other times I placed my bedroll on the floor and let the others sort out their sleeping arrangements. But every night, I listened to their soft breathing as I fell asleep, torn between my frustrated anger and the wish that things could be different between us.
