Burnt (Blood and Fire Book 1)
Page 26
nights he slept at all. Amorette was curled up across from him, somehow managing to convey her dissatisfaction with nothing more than the curve of her sleeping back. That was like most mornings too. That used to bother him. A lot of things did.
He thought about going to the stream. He didn’t want to miss the sister though. And someone would be coming for him. To take him to the stables, where he would need to find a way to make himself invaluable. And somehow the stream just didn’t seem as important as it did those other mornings.
So he laid out breakfast instead. Salted pork and cornmeal from the rations he picked up the day before. Sometimes Amorette brought home fruit and bread. He didn’t ask how she got it. He didn’t care. Next year he would add vegetables himself. Ren promised to help him prepare the soil outside their house for winter so that in the spring he could plant a garden. It bothered him, yesterday, thinking of planning for another year of this life. Today was different.
He should probably be frightened about that, but Kaie found he just lacked the energy for that much caring. Eating his breakfast and thinking about a garden was just easier.
His escort came as Amorette was waking, long before the girl would be making her appearance. He felt a bit of regret, certain that this would be normal now. Not as much as he expected. Still, it was sad that he would never learn her name.
The stables weren’t close. The walk was longer than the one he took with the Lady Autumnsong. The work, right from the moment he walked in, was grueling. The Stable Master put him to work lugging the horse equipment – tack, he was pretty sure the man called it tack – and cleaning stalls. He got there sweaty and tired. A few hours in and his arms shook. It was exhausting and repetitive and Kaie lost himself in it.
He only stopped when one of the other workers – hands, he was pretty sure the man called them hands – took the shovel from him and ordered him to lunch. He followed dutifully, only realizing how badly he hurt now that he wasn’t moving.
The others were all clustered outside near the north fence, talking and laughing in animated tones. Kaie considered joining. But for some reason the thought of trying to fit in with these men just struck him as overwhelming. So once he was outside he slipped off to the left and found some bales of hay to rest on. He was used to the empty feeling in his stomach now. The need to be away from the others seemed far more pressing than a useless attempt to fill it. Especially after he caught them all glancing his way and chuckling.
He dropped down onto the hay, wincing as his hands touched it. He looked down, surprised to discover them blistered and bloody. They started throbbing as if the pain was waiting for him to notice it. Scowling at them did little to improve the situation but he couldn’t think of anything else to do about it.
“You are allowed to ask for gloves, you know.”
Startled, Kaie looked up and couldn’t help gaping. Just a little.
“What are you doing here?”
The sister peered at him from underneath her hair as always, but he got the feeling she was grinning. “Following you. You never finished your story. I wanted to find out if Auren won Tiana back. Because that was fascinating.”
He turned his scowl on her. She laughed, loud and surprising from such a tiny girl, and dropped down on her knees in front of him. “Here, let me see.” She grabbed his hands, not at all gentle about it. Then, after another impressive hair flip, she dug into a bag at her hip. “You’re lucky I heard you were starting here today. It seemed a safe bet you’d manage to hurt yourself, so Vaughan gave me some stuff for it.”
His scowl deepened as she pulled out a small jar and a fist full of bandages. He tried to take his hands back but she wasn’t letting go. “So you came to heal me up and make fun of me?”
She snorted. “No. I am enjoying it though. I don’t get to make fun of many people. Or heal. I think I’m going to do it more. The teasing. You don’t mind.” He cringed as she scooped some cream out of the jar and slopped it over his hands. It did feel better. “I bring lunch out to the stables every day. Also a couple other places. But this is my last stop, so I always stay for a while. I bet you’re happy about it. I know you missed me this morning.”
It didn’t seem like something he should admit to. “You hang out with these guys every day? That must be exciting.”
She tightened the bandage around his right hand, again not gently, and then tilted her head. “I eat with them most of the time. It’s one of the best parts of my day. You don’t like them?”
“Oh no. They’re fantastic. Making me shovel horse shit until my hands bleed, then laughing at me when I come to get lunch. I love them.”
She snorted again. Kaie decided he didn’t like the sound. “Poor boy. Your charming smile isn’t enough to win them over, so you figure the problem is them.”
“And what do you think the problem is?”
“Those five men are the only ones of twelve in the stable to survive the last culling. They’re brilliant at their jobs, but they can’t manage like this for much longer and know it. They need skilled help. And the Mistress gave them you. They don’t care how beautiful you are. You’re not what they need.”
“Well I didn’t ask to be sent here!”
She shrugged. “None of us did. You’re not the son of some tribal leader here. You’re not special just because you’re alive anymore.”
He was surprised. He never told her, or Vaughan for that matter, about who he was. “So what? Be content with shoveling horse shit?”
She was quiet as she finished wrapping his left hand. Then she looked up at him, smiled, and flicked him in the center of his forehead. Hard. His hand flew out of her grip and to the injured spot. His hurt exclamation won him another of her loud, barking laughs. “Quit thinking being handsome and having good parents entitles you to something better than the rest of us. You’re the same now, fairy prince. Yes, be content with shoveling horse shit. For now. Until Stable Master Stephen sees how hard you work and trusts you with something else. Earn your own way.”
Kaie didn’t like any of what she was saying. He didn’t think he was better than the others. He was never the entitled brat she was painting him out to be. Maybe she was right about earning his way. But not the rest. He thought about being angry with her, but it seemed like too much effort. Instead he just sighed and leaned back against the hay, staring up at the cloudy sky. “If you’re done lecturing me, Vaughan’s sister, I think I’ll get back to what I was doing.”
“Right. The moping.” She climbed back to her feet, managing to avoid smacking him in the head by mere centimeters. Then she was gone. He sighed and turned his attention back to the clouds.
His solitude was interrupted again just a few seconds later, when something heavy dropped into his lap. Gloves. Thick leather ones. They were worn, but in fine condition, and fit him like they were made with his hands in mind, bandages and all.
The girl’s expression, when he finally got around to looking up at her, was so curious it verged on uncomfortable. Like he was some sort of experiment she was conducting and his reaction was something to be catalogued and analyzed. She didn’t make any attempts to hide it either.
Still. They were very fine gloves. “Thank you.”
The intimidating look faded, replaced with a flash of a smile that reminded him powerfully of her brother. “You take care of those. I’m not good at charming. I don’t think I can get you another pair.”
He nodded. “I will.”
“Good.” She dropped down beside him on the bale and dropped more stuff into his lap. This time, it was food. At the sight of it, Kaie’s stomach gurgled in longing. Just like with his hands, it was like his eyes were informing the rest of his body of things it should know already. “Now eat fast, before time’s up and you have to go back to your shoveling.”
Twenty-Three
She was not wrong, the strange girl who hid beneath her hair. Not about his role in the stables. By the end of the month, with heavy use of the goop she always brought, his hands w
ere healed and Stable Master Stephen apparently ran out of stalls for him to clean and things for him to carry.
Kaie was taught how to feed the horses. It seemed a simple thing at first, but it wasn’t. One horse was on a special diet to improve her fertility. Two others were old, thus requiring different feed. The one stallion got more food in the morning if someone wanted to ride him, so that he would be a little drowsy when it came time to put the saddle on. And there were others. It seemed each one of the thirty stalls came with special feeding instructions, which he was told once with the warning that a single mistake would see him back in the horse shit.
She came to talk to him every day. He continued to use the bales, dreading the day they disappeared. It was less about the snickers and darting glances – after a day or two the others seemed to lose interest in him – and more about talking to her. Life here was draining, except when he sat there and ate next to her. It was odd, but then so was she. And it was nice. Relaxing. So he made efforts to keep it interesting for her. It wasn’t about earning her name anymore, though he still hoped to do so. Now he was trying for something else. Something he couldn’t quite find a word for.
So it was he found himself telling her all about Sojun. She was a great audience, showing far more interest in his boring tales of growing up together than she ever