Somewhat to her relief, Yhkon didn’t have them ride again for the rest of the day. They walked, and walked, until it was evening and time to set up camp. As the rest of them caught up to him and began their roles in getting everything ready, she watched him hesitate, clench his fists, then mount Eclipse and ride off, telling Haeric he was doing a perimeter check.
He didn’t return from that perimeter check until well after supper. When he did, it was completely dark, and they were all growing tired. He walked up, appointed the watches, and vanished into the Wardens’ tent.
Talea sighed. He’d given her the first shift. Whether as punishment, or randomly, she didn’t know, and didn’t particularly care. The bigger issue was that it meant she had to stay awake for another three hours.
At least there was a fire, tonight. Often they didn’t have one, or only had it long enough to cook supper, lest the smoke draw attention. But according to Larak, they weren’t anywhere near any form of civilization, so there wasn’t anyone near enough to notice. So, they could have a fire all through the night. It offered a slight diversion—add the occasional stick, stir it and watch the brilliant orange embers flutter into the night sky, or catch leaves on fire and let them burn almost all the way to the stem before stamping them out.
Every several minutes as her eyelids started getting heavy, she stood up and paced for awhile, trying to walk quietly to avoid disturbing any of the twelve people sleeping in shelters around her. So if there’s no one around to see the smoke…why do I need to stay up and watch for no one…Yawning, Talea returned to the log that served as her seat and sat down. Yhkon. What to do about him and all his delicate topics. Would his mood be improved by morning? There was no guarantee. He’d been known to go two or three days straight without cracking a smile or speaking a friendly word.
“What good is being on watch if you don’t even notice someone walking up behind you?”
Talea nearly jumped out of her skin at the unexpected voice. A mixture of a scowl and a grin was already taking over her face by the time she recognized it as belonging to Wylan, standing with hands in his pockets a few yards away. “Wylan Cravei. You certainly could use a lesson or two in manners. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve told you not to sneak up on me!” She kept her voice low, as he had.
“And I’ve lost count of the times I’ve done so without hardly trying.” He smirked at her.
Without anything else to say, she just gave him a “very funny” look and huffed, getting up to stir the fire again. “So what are you doing out here? It hasn’t been three hours, has it?” She knew he had the next shift, but was sure it hadn’t been that long already.
“No. I couldn’t sleep though,” he replied with a shrug, taking a seat on one of the logs that had been placed near the fire.
“Why not?”
Another shrug, before he simply changed the subject. “So do you know what’s up with Yhkon this time?” He lowered his voice even more, no doubt in case Yhkon was awake. The Wardens did have an uncanny way of hearing everything, after all.
This time. Talea poked at a rock with the toe of her boot. “Remember when the twins mentioned someone named Tessa? Who we aren’t supposed to ask about? Well…I asked about her.”
He nodded slowly with brows raised. “Well. That was kind of stupid.”
Grinning again without meaning to, she elbowed his arm. He smiled slightly, and didn’t pursue the subject.
Though silence with Wylan wasn’t particularly awkward—that was almost all there ever was, anyway—she found herself fidgeting. In fact, she’d felt more awkward around him ever since Yhkon revealed their…hierarchy. Maybe it would be better just to get it out there. “Um, Wylan?”
He looked at her expectantly.
“Has uh, has Grrake told you about our…numbers?”
“You mean our ranks?” he asked, head tilted and what was almost a scowl making his eyes glint.
She frowned at him. “No, I specifically didn’t say that, because I don’t like to think of us in ranks, with any one being ‘higher’ or ‘more important’ than the other.”
Wylan seemed to consider her for a moment. At first she thought it must have been a look of distaste or irritation. When he simply nodded slowly and moved his gaze to the fire, however, she decided she’d imagined it. Especially when he replied quietly, “Well if that’s really how you feel about it, I admit I’m feeling better about the whole thing.”
Okay, then. She watched him, trying to figure if she ought to be hurt, annoyed, or appreciative. For both their sakes, the last would probably be best. And honesty was good, right? “I guess…I guess that’s good. I mean…I didn’t choose it. And I wouldn’t…I think you’d be better at it than me.”
Now he eyed her almost quizzically in the orange light of the fire. “I don’t…mind, if that’s what you’re worried about.” A shrug. “I wouldn’t choose it either.”
Since they were apparently striving for candor, she gave a sheepish smile. “I might have been sorta worried about that…”
Wylan responded with one of his rare, sincere smiles, even if it was as much a smirk as a smile. “I guess you and I will have to try and get along, anyway.”
Grinning, she nodded. “Guess so. Might be difficult.”
“Might be,” he agreed, with mock thoughtfulness.
She barely remembered to soften her laughter less it awaken the others. He was grinning back, and she didn’t feel awkward at all as they fell into an easy silence.
Since it was his shift next, Talea stayed out for a little while longer, then left him at the fire and retreated into the girl’s tent. It was nice, having another girl in the group. At least she and Kae weren’t quite so outnumbered as they used to be…though, they were still plenty outnumbered.
Crawling into her makeshift bed, she got as comfortable as was possible on the ground, and let out her breath as she relaxed her muscles. It would have been even nicer to have Brenly there with her, or her mother, or Alili. Or even if they wouldn’t help with the outnumbering problem, her father and brother. It had been over a month now since she had come with the Wardens and wards to Zentyre, and they had gone to Calcaria, to return to “normal” life—as much as was possible—among the San Quawr.
Talea woke with surprise, feeling as though she’d only just fallen asleep. The Wardens were waiting for them outside, as they stumbled out still rubbing sleep from their eyes. Time for training.
Training was, in general, challenging. Today especially, since she was tired from having the night shift, and Yhkon’s mood showed no improvement from the night before. He was putting more effort into hiding it, at least, making it possible for them to pretend nothing had happened. It didn’t quite make it possible for her to pretend she wasn’t slightly frightened of him.
Afterwards, it was the chores necessary to pack up camp, breakfast, and they were on their way once more. Since they were riding, it was back to close quarters with the gloomy lead Warden. He wasn’t talkative, to say the least. But, at least he wasn’t intimidating the others out of conversation as he sometimes did, so she distracted herself by listening to or even participating in their exchanges.