Vassal by Sterling D'Este (ebook reader computer TXT) 📕

know what this was. Friendship? It seemed like something more.

And something more seemed complicated and dangerous with Enyo, with the temple, with the secrets she still held.

All Alphonse knew was that her heart fluttered like bird wings when Delyth had touched her and… and that couldn’t be wrong.

Could it?

Chapter XVI

Seventh Moon, New Moon: Thloegr 

The next morning, Alphonse woke to a very new sensation. Both hopeful and embarrassed, she watched Delyth sleep for a minute before realizing it was strange to do so.

She dressed hastily, gaze hesitating for a long moment on her veil. The sheer fabric was silken beneath her fingertips, inviting, but Alphonse just shook her head and hurried from the tent, leaving it folded neatly among her things.

Being the first to emerge, Alphonse enjoyed the sunrise privately and set about making breakfast. Somehow, this day seemed to inspire so much more potential. It would be better than the last few. It simply had to.

While the porridge bubbled away in the cooking pot, she wandered around their campsite and found a bush with fresh berries. They would be an excellent addition to breakfast. Alphonse picked many, filling her skirt with the little purple spheres until the pale fabric was splotchy from berry juice. Her eyes wandered to the blooms peeking between clusters of fruit, and her mind wandered to Delyth…

How her lips had felt, crushed against Alphonse’s own, how warm her hands had been against Alphonse’s skin, how her heart had hammered against Alphonse’s touch…

The berry she had been plucking burst in her fingers, and the healer jumped. She had squeezed it too hard.

Embarrassed, she licked her fingertips clean and set the fruit she had already collected aside. Though she built up the fire, spiced and stirred the porridge, and boiled water for ‘wake up’ tea, her gaze kept flickering towards those blooming bushes…

They were very pretty flowers of white and the palest of pinks…

Impulsively, Alphonse left breakfast to bubble and went to admire the blooms. She bent towards them, breathing in… Pleasant and airy… Not an overly heady smell.

Alphonse picked one, cupping it in her hand, admiring how the soft rays of light from the rising sun painted its pale petals gold…

⥣          ⥣           ⥣

Delyth woke alone, the sun higher in the sky than usual. Her shoulders were loose, her posture relaxed. She felt as though she had slept well.

Alphonse had left the tent, but Delyth found the little pile of flowers before she had time to worry, a pretty spread of delicate pink and white against the dark furs they slept in. She smiled warmly and picked up a single pale flower, raising it to her face to breathe in its light aroma. It was incongruous against the dark color of her hair, but she tucked it behind her ear anyway, a little indication that she had liked Alphonse’s shy gift.

When Delyth first stepped from her tent, it looked as though Alphonse was the only other already awake, but Etienne left his tent almost immediately after. The warrior could have sighed in disappointment, but instead, she just schooled her expression into something more neutral.

On the other side of the little clearing, Etienne made his way to sit beside the fire Alphonse had built. He still looked sleepy, hair mussed and eyes half-closed, but he pulled out his journal and scribbled a few lines anyway.

Delyth made her own way over and smiled at Alphonse. “Good morning,” she said while behind them, Tristan stirred in his tent.

Perhaps it was the heat of the cooking fire, but one look at Delyth had Alphonse blushing. She smiled sweetly, her gaze tracing the lines of Delyth’s face and settling on the pale flower in her hair. “Good morning. You look like Esha in spring.”

Delyth looked down at Alphonse’s gentle face and felt the stir of something light and fluttering behind her ribs. She wasn’t poetic by nature but found herself searching for something to say to capture the loveliness of wan, morning sunlight on tawny curls.

Before the right words arranged themselves on her tongue, Tristan butted in, having left his tent. “Yeah,” he said, growling with sleep and foul mood, “if Esha was a bear who’s mum had fucked a bat.”

Etienne responded before Delyth could, words sharp. “Could you at least pretend to be civilized?”

Tristan sneered in return. “Only cowards hide their meaning behind frilly words.”

Delyth had rarely seen the rogue in so fine a temper, and she looked between the two men with something like surprise. What had they said after she and Alphonse had left the night before?

And why did they have to bring it up now? The morning had started so well.

⚄

Cursed Realms, this was too easy. A few simple words and the mouse was silent, her head turned down away from her precious halfbreed as she ladled out breakfast. She handed him his bowl demurely, and Tristan snatched it quickly enough that some of the bland slop splashed out onto the ground. “Took you long enough,” he growled, and that was all it took.

A blink of an eye and Enyo was snarling back.

“You wouldn’t know how to fuck a bear if you tried Tristan,” she retorted. He’d almost forgotten the earlier insult, but Enyo didn’t seem to care that so much time had passed.

Was she… defending the halfbreed? Besides, he’d never said anything about him fucking a bear.

“You do look nice.” The compliment seemed to make both Enyo and Delyth feel uncomfortable, but neither of them could have come close to the shock on Tristan’s face. Since when did Enyo care about her recalcitrant priestess?

“I have decided,” Enyo began, “that we do not run enough. I shall run the rest of today’s journey.”

Delyth shrugged, her eyes on the Goddess. “Then, we run.”

Unsurprisingly, Enyo took off with abandon. She didn’t care about pacing herself or making sure the others could keep up with her. Of course not, all she cared for was the pure,