by Lisa Daniels
The shifter stood still, his impressive frame outlined against the day. “You did save me.”
Noely heard what he said, but her mouth kept going as she felt the need to talk, anything to keep him from going. “You gave me peace. You reminded me that there is more to life than just the day to day. There is more I can do, but I let the little things interfere. There are bigger things to do, and I have let them go, at first out of need, then out of comfort.” Even though he turned his hypnotic eyes on her, Noely found that she could not stop talking. “And you still never told me why you left this morning.” There was a slight scowl on her face as the young woman finished on a completely unrelated topic. Her scowl deepened as she tried to make sense of her ramblings.
Cyprian gave her a serene smile. “There was a band of undine plotting to take you once you left. I persuaded them that you were no easy target.”
Dumfounded, Noely looked at the man. “Undine? Here?” He nodded. “And how is saving me from a pack of water sprites not paying me back?”
“Because you didn’t ask me to do it.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “And you didn’t ask me to help you.”
“I did when you lay with me last night.”
“Wait, what?” Noely blinked at him trying to understand what he meant. “You mean you aren’t trying to repay me for taking care of your wounds? You are repaying me for sleeping with you?” The shifter did not move as she tried to make sense of what he meant without any further information. “I mean, I know that I didn’t save your life, not with how quickly you heal, but you weren’t even concerned about your wounds?”
“I was not concerned about my wounds, and that is not how you saved me.”
Noely shook her head, her eyes locked on Cyprian’s. “I don’t understand. You were at no risk of death, so I didn’t save you at all. You don’t owe me anything. In fact, I would say-”
Her eyes could barely register Cyprian’s movements, but the next thing she knew he was standing in front of her, his finger on her lips. His astonishing eyes looked down at her, and her body reacted almost immediately. She shivered to have him so close. For the first time she realized that he was not much taller than her, just a few inches. The shifter seemed so impressive and sinewy when he stood away from her. His voice was low and assuasive as he responded. “Talking is not meant to be a defense mechanism, and more than half of the time people do not hear your words. Save them for when it matters.” His eyes moved over her face, and the young woman found that she had no desire to speak. He blinked, then moved his hand from her lips and onto the side of her face. “Not all deaths are physical. I will do as you ask, but it will not be adequate to repay what you have done. The fact that you feel more at peace does provide me with a small sense of satisfaction as it means you will also benefit from our time together. If I could give you more peace, I would. However, I am needed elsewhere, and the need is greater than the debt owed.”
With that, Cyprian leaned forward and kissed Noely on the top of her head. She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him, placing her forehead against his chest, too afraid that if she looked at him she would not be able to stop herself. The shifter laughed a little and held her tightly as Noely tried to burn the encounter in her mind. She wanted to say something, anything, to get him to stay, but for the first time since she had lost her guardian, the young woman knew that now was the wrong time for words.
A few moments passed. Cyprian placed a hand on the back of Noely’s head and gave her another kiss on the top of her head. When she finally felt she was more under control, she leaned back and looked up at him. The shifter looked into her eyes for a moment as if considering something. The corner of his mouth twitched up and a sad look filled his eyes. Then he leaned forward and kissed her forehead. Without another word, he turned and left the cave.
Noely wanted to run after him, but she knew that he was gone. She did not have his speed, and she knew that once he was out of sight there was no way for her to track him. She stood there in silence, regretting that the time with Cyprian had been so short. The sound of the water running at the back of the cave brought her back to reality. The young woman looked over at it, and her eyes saw the basket of the things she had collected the day before. Though she felt a bit sad, Noely also felt a sense of serenity and clarity about what she needed to do, starting with getting the collection to the herbalist.
As she exited the cave, Noely let out a heavy sigh. She knew that returning to the cave now was going to be as bittersweet as returning to the hut was after her guardian disappeared. It was such a brief encounter, but there was no doubt that her world was changed because of it. Shaking her head, Noely set off for the palace.
Chapter 4
A Change in the Routine
It seemed like the walk to the palace took no time at all as Noely’s mind spent the entire walk back to the city replaying the events since she had left. It was fortunate that there was nothing about in the woods as her attention was completely trained on her thoughts rather than on the world around her. This was not surprising as between the time she had departed the city to now the whole world seemed to have shifted for her, leaving her feeling both longing to finish what she had started nearly a decade before and driven to improve the lives of those she had already promised to assist.
Before heading to the palace, the young woman stopped by the herbalist and handed over the ingredients for the medicine for the Nekomata children. She did not know the family well, but Noely really liked the eldest boy who had helped her deal with some problematic potential suitors. He had acted like her son, scaring the men off. He may have done it more because he thought that tricking adults was a great game, but Noely knew that it was a valuable lesson for the boy as well. His family was not from this continent, and that meant they were treated poorly by many of the city’s residents, especially as they were clearly of a different race. The young boy had already shown that he was prone to fighting, so Noely thought that the lessons in tricking others would teach him to think with his head instead of always reacting with his fists. Now she had to make sure that he got better so that he could make something of those lessons. The herbalist promised to deliver the tonic to the children as soon as it was ready, mostly because Noely had paid the woman handsomely to do it, with the added incentive of another 50% if the children were better within a week. As she left the shop, the herbalist reminded the young woman of the promise and wished her well. Noely smiled, but this time said nothing as she left. Usually, she would have made some meaningless chatter and thanked the woman for her services, but today Noely was remembering what Cyprian had said, and now it was beginning to be very clear what he meant about talking less. The woman would not pay attention now that she had said what she wanted to say. As she walked past the window, Noely saw the woman already counting out the coins, her mind clearly ignoring anything that Noely would have said after the reminder. For the first time that day, the young woman wondered why she had started to talk so much when people hardly listened to anything that she said once they had said what they wanted or gotten the answer that pleased them.
Upon her return to the kitchens, Noely found that her guess about what people would think of her absence had been right. Several of the kitchen staff hurried up to her saying they thought she was as good as dead. It was clear that they were eager to hear how she had survived a night out in the forest outside of the city and come back nearly unscathed. Her story was brief as she explained that she had encountered a lovely old couple not too far from the location that yielded most of the supplies she had brought with her back to the palace. She hinted that they had given her a lift back to the outside walls to avoid questions about how she made it back so early. The last of her audience expressed their amazement that she could make even a night excursion into the woods sound dull, then went back to work. Usually she would have apologized for disappointing them, but this time she simply smiled and shrugged. Having given all of the herbs and other sup
plies to the kitchen staff, Noely left in silence to change into a different work outfit. Having spent a night in the woods tending to wounds, the young woman did not want to wear the same outfit for a second day. Fortunately, the blood stains had been easy to hide with a spare cloak that she had stored in the cave.
The young woman began her regular chores as the people around her talked. She soon realized that she had missed some excitement during her absence, so Noely listened as several of the kitchen staff began talking about the news from the night before, their disappointment in her dull story already forgotten.
“I heard that they caught the bastard and killed him on the spot,” Jasper murmured.
Keisha slapped his arm. “Don’t be stupid. They wouldn’t kill a spy on sight. They would bring him back so that we could all watch the bastard get what he deserves. Oh, I hope that they did catch him and that we get to watch him get a public execution. That would be the best possible way to resolve the terrible string of luck we’ve had in the war.”
There were murmurs of agreement to the last statement. Noely tried not to listen to the talk because most of the time it devolved into rather unsavory conversation that didn’t amount to anything. She did have a few polite conversations with some of the older kitchen staff. They were generally kind and had interesting information to discuss, but she had to be careful not to get too close otherwise they would try to play matchmaker with her.
The rest of the morning was uneventful as she finished up preparing a late breakfast for the late risers of the royal family. It was only after the head of the kitchen told her to go on break that Noely realized that she had completely forgotten to eat that morning.
A cheerful voice hailed her as she moved to the staff’s dining area. “If it isn’t my little Noely, back from a night romping about in the woods.”
The young woman turned and could not fight the wide grin that passed over her face as her friend Jaylon caught up with her. The young man was handsome, as always, in his servant’s attire. His grayish hair flowed and waved around his face, accenting his almost lavender colored eyes. Jaylon was her height and thinner than Noely, and she also knew that he was much prettier than her, which may have been why she preferred his company when she had to go into town. Compared to him, she looked rather plain in her kitchen garb. He threw his arms around her and lifted her off the floor in a tight hug before she could protest. Laughing, Noely tried to push him away so that he would drop her. As soon as her feet were on the ground, the young woman put her hands on her hips. “I thought you weren’t talking to me.”
“Once I heard you had gone off to die in the woods, I realized how unbelievably silly I was being. After a full night of trying to imagine a life without you in it, I saw the errors of my ways.” He put an arm around her shoulders and steered her towards the food. “Now all I want to do is take care of my darling little girl to make it up to her.” He led her over to a seat and forced her to sit down. Her stomach growled as her friend stopped talking. With a hearty laugh, he got up. “It looks like I should start by making sure you get something to eat. I swear I don’t know what you would do without me.”
Noely smiled up at him. “I am certain I would be even more of a wreck than I am now if I didn’t have you to keep me on the straight and narrow.”
The pair chatted as they usually did while she ate the food he gave her. Jaylon sat back down and put his chin on his hands as he watched her. “I want to hear all about your excursion outside the walls. How I envy you that you can think of doing that without any fear. But for now, I think that I probably have the more interesting story to tell.” He gave her a grin as she tilted her head to the side. A bit of food dribbled down her mouth as she was about to ask him why. Looking at her, Jaylon reached out with a napkin and wiped it away. “Salivating to hear the story. Well, it is a good one. I was waiting on Lord Grimsly last night when one of those fine men in uniform came bustling into the room.”
Noely smiled, “I don’t think that I would describe soldiers as bustling.”
“Hush, love. You are going to make me lose my place. Anyway, it was that fine, strapping young man, Captain Hisa. He’s moving up the ranks very quickly, and from what I can tell, it’s all because of his skill. Not three years in the military and yet he’s really got it down. Apparently, his unit had tracked a spy near the outskirts of Siccenna last week.”
“Siccenna!” Noely nearly dropped her food. “That’s only a couple of days from here. I thought that Hisa was still out near the front lines.”
“I know. That’s why I was so pleased when he came dashing in. But the news was grim. They lost the man when he took off a few nights ago. They chased him into a swamp, but they lost him – and this is the terrifying part – when they were attacked by some large serpent. The monster badly injured a couple of the men, but fortunately it didn’t manage to kill anyone. To hear Captain Hisa talk about it, I feel certain that he downplayed the size and ferocity of the creature. Surely it was his own prowess that got his men through such an impossible ordeal.” The man sat back and watched his friend, whose eyes were open wide. “You will never guess where that happened.”
Noely knew better than to try to guess. Shaking her head, the young woman waited for him to finish.
“On the other side of the woods where you were last night. So once I learned that you still hadn’t come back this morning, I was certain that you had met with an untimely end, and I’ve been devastated ever since. Promise me,” he leaned forward and took her hands in his, “that you won’t do anything like that again.” The smile was gone as he looked at her in earnest.
Noely pulled her hands away from him. “You know that I cannot make that promise.”
The man threw his hands up and rolled his eyes at the ceiling. “And who is going to benefit from you getting killed out there? I know you want to save anyone and everyone you meet, but you can’t do that if you are dead. Try to have some sense of self-preservation.”
“There was no point where I was in any danger yesterday.”
“You wouldn’t admit it even if you had been.” Jaylon narrowed his eyes at her. “I swear the next time you go dashing off into the woods on your own, I’m going to follow you. And that will mean I get killed, and then you will have to live with the knowledge that you caused my death. You will have to live with that knowledge for the rest of your life.”
“Jaylon,” Noely rested her hands in front of her, “we both know that is a hollow threat.”
“No, it isn’t.” It was one of the few times she had seen the man be serious. “You know how I feel about you. I’ve lost my entire family, so you are the closest thing I have now.”
Noely gave him a look. “You have a lot of friends and some day you are going to find someone who will accept you for who you are.”
“Now don’t you go making it sound like I’m one of your charity cases. I know that you care about me, too. I am as much your brother as you are my sister, and trying to deny that makes about as much sense as running off into the woods knowing that there is a horde of chimera out there waiting for you. No. I will not let you downplay this, Noely. Not this.”
“Are you still upset that I won’t even consider dating the latest guy you found for me?”
Jaylon shook his head, “That is not what this is about.” He took her hand and held it so that she could not pull away. The young man’s voice was low as he looked into her eyes, “I really care about you, and the thought of something happening to you kills me. Something is going to happen, and I need to know that you will be protected. Promise me.” A couple of years ago Noely would have been unable to speak looking into Jaylon’s eyes. They were the color of the first lilies in spring and they nearly glowed in his tanned skin. Up until recently, they had been the prettiest eyes she had ever seen.
Noely squeezed his hands, “You know that I am not going to do that.”
“You always say that, but you will never tell me why.” Jaylon looked hurt for the millionth tim
e as he tried to make her feel guilty about keeping her secrets.
“Jaylon, if you really want to know, I will tell you later tonight. But right now,” she pulled away quickly as she stood up, “we are at work and I need to get back to it. I can’t imagine that Gaige is too happy about his servant running off either.”
Jaylon waved a hand as he stood up. “As I said, I’ve been helping Lord Grimsly, so Gaige won’t even notice my absence.”
Noely started to leave the room as his voice caught her attention, “And don’t think that I’m going to forget your promise.”
Noely turned to look at her friend. “Name the time and the place and we can talk. Although,” she bit her lip, “I would prefer to be somewhere private when we talk.”
The man nodded, “I will come get you from the kitchens as soon as your shift is over.”
“Don't be absurd. I can’t go out in public straight from the kitchens. I’ll need to at least go home and get cleaned up after work.”
“I know, and your place will be plenty private enough.”
Noely smiled as she tried not to laugh. “Alright, but I may need to relax a little before I get too far into my story.”
“Then we will plan to return to your place after I take you out on the town. No, you aren’t allowed to deny me this. You turned down a great guy and then worried me nearly to death. I insist on taking you out and having some fun, if for no other reason than to give you a proper apology for getting so upset with you.”
Knowing that she was beat, Noely finally acquiesced. “Alright, I will go out with you tonight, and then we can talk back at my place. We can pick up some of your belongings and you can have my spare bed if you like.”
The man raised an eyebrow at her. “You think it will take that long?”
“It’s time I tell you about Augustin and how he came to be my guardian.”
Jaylon playfully stomped his foot. “You did that on purpose, you little minx.” With a dramatic sigh, he walked over to her. “I swear you do these things just to make it difficult for me to get any of my own work done. You are going to be the death of me if I’m not careful.”