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Baris waited for her in the palace gardens that night when she left the clinic. He stood at the cusp of light and shadow near a fountain drained dry for the winter.
“Hello,” she said, her breath steaming in the air. Despite the cold, she was warm and snug in her red cape. “Thanks for the cape. It’s lovely.”
“I was purely motivated by self-interest. Now, I may wear my coat without the crushing obligations of chivalry,” he said in a serious tone. A twitch of his lips told her that he teased her.
She liked it. She liked him. This version of him.
Baris waited for her the next evening. And the next. Soon, their nightly walks became the best part of her day.
The first snowfall of the winter fell in lazy, wet flakes. It clung to the ground but melted away on the gravel. Lenore pushed back the hood of her cape to admire the way the light illuminated the flakes as they drifted through lantern light and then vanished into the dark.
Lenore enthused about the last fact she learned that day. “Did you know humans have more bones than Arcosians? Infants start with two hundred and seventy, but they fuse as we grow older. Kids are like that. Spongy. Bouncy, so they don’t seriously hurt themselves while their motor skills are developing. But adults have two hundred and seven. Arcosians have two hundred.”
Baris’ side eyes narrowed as he considered her words. “You do not have extra digits.”
“It’s our ears. We’ve got teeny little bones to enhance our hearing.”
“Obviously, it is compensation for your limited sight. What is a kid? Context tells me it is a hatchling.”
“A child, but also a baby goat. I have no idea why. Baby goats are rambunctious and adorable, though.”
Baris made an ah-ha sound, as if her rambling explanation made perfect sense.
Yeah, this was definitely the best part of her day.
“Late night?” The guard gave a chuckle, like that was a joke, and elbowed the guard standing next to him. They were a cluster of three, congregated in a hallway, just standing around and yammering.
“I was with a friend,” Lenore said, covering a yawn. She stayed up late watching a celebrity singing competition, not that she had any idea who the celebrities were or any interest in the pageantry of it. Lydia arrived with dinner and a bottle of wine. She wanted to watch for the costumes, but her screen was too small. Lenore found it hard to say no to the smell of delicious greasy food, and she had a massive screen that she barely used.
“I bet you were.” The guard winked both eyes on his right side.
Lenore must have looked puzzled—which, to be fair, she was—because the guard continued, “Up all night with your special friend.”
The other guards laughed like it was the funniest thing they ever heard.
It was too early in the morning to decrypt that nonsense. She continued her way down the corridor, clutching her coffee. Three minutes later, her brain came online, and she figured it out.
Sex. They meant sex.
Lenore marched back to the cluster of guards.
“You,” she said, gesturing at the tallest guard with her coffee-holding hand. The liquid sloshed threateningly at the rim. “What’s so damn funny?”
“Nothing.”
Oh, the eloquence.
“Yeah, that’s why you’re all tittering like you found a dirty magazine. What’s so funny?” she repeated.
“Well, you know…the king doesn’t have any special friends, then he picks you.”
“And that’s funny because?”
Color drained from the guard’s face. “Everyone is saying…you know…he favors you. Spends time with you. Gives you presents. Put you in the family wing of the palace.”
This was the family wing? Lenore managed to keep her mouth shut and preserve some air of mystery rather than ask the question that would confirm that she had been rather oblivious. The corridors were empty except for staff and the guards. No one came and went. She never heard voices of conversation as people walked by because she had no neighbors.
“He threatened to pluck out the eyes of the headmaster of the Royal Academy unless they admitted you.”
