Page 16 of The Song of Sunrise
Leaf rests an elbow on the desk. “Three rooms please.”
The boy laughs. A short, bright sound. “Have you seen this place? We are fully booked.”
“Two rooms.” Leaf lays down a small pile of gold coins.
“Nope.”
“Fine. One room. And I think this will be more than accommodating.” Leaf slides a blue coin engraved with an ornate “W” slowly across the desk. The boy’s eyes go wide, recognizing the Watcher currency.
“A favor!” His voice squeaks in excitement as he quickly grabs the coin and pockets it. He looks from side to side, making sure no one saw the exchange. “Yes, yes. I think we can manage one room for you after all.”
He turns and calls over his shoulder to someone behind him, “Mom! Get me the key for 307.”
“Here you are, my dear.” A very curvy woman appears, silver keys dangling from her fingers.
Well, at least his mom works here too.
“There you be,” he says, handing us the key. “Third floor. Up the stairs, at the end of the hall.”
“Send up food, enough for six, laundry service, and hot water for a bath right away,” Castor commands from over my shoulder, leaning far enough forward that his muscular chest presses against my back.
My breath hitches at the touch.
“Oh sure, now that I’m paying, we eat for six…” Leaf grumbles as we make our way upstairs.
The stairways were not as straightforward as one would think. Twice we went through a door only to find that we were still on level 1 or 1.5 or 1.75.
Eventually, we find the hall labeled as the 300s. Sounds of pleasure escape the rooms as we pass through the dimly lit hallway.
The shadows thankfully hide my blushing cheeks.
First to reach 307, Leaf unlocks the room and pushes in the door.
“How lovely! Plenty of space to spread out and make ourselves comfortable.” Leaf deadpans and gestures for us to enter the small room.
The room is extremely cramped, like the Inn owner lost a bet for how many pieces of furniture they could fit in one room. A singular bed rests crookedly in the corner facing a crackling fireplace with two cushioned chairs before it. A large bathtub lies in the corner of the room underneath the small window, partially hidden behind a beautifully carved wooden privacy screen.
Two small boys in cotton aprons bump into me as they rush past with pails of water.
Almost boiling water splashes my leg, and I let out a sound somewhere between a screech and hiccup.
“Sorry Miss!” he quickly offers, not taking a minute to stop from dumping the pail into the tub and running full speed out of the room to grab another pail.
After a few minutes, the bath is full of steaming water. A few trays of turkey legs, potatoes, carrots, shallots, grapes, bread, and wine are left on the table by the fireplace.
My stomach rumbles loudly.
“Akemi, you should bathe first. I’m not sure you’d want to bathe after us,” Leaf says, popping a grape into his mouth and gesturing at himself in disgust.
“I was going to offer to wait, but honestly, you make a good point.” I walk to the other side of the indecently small room behind the half-wall partition in a total of five steps. Eager to wash off the layers of mud, grime, and terrible memories, I toss my clothes to the side and hiss in delight as I dip my toe in the bath. The water is deliciously warm. I sit down slowly, letting my body adjust to the temperature, and empty in a few drops of lavender oil from the vial near the tub. I scrub myself raw until I can no longer see the blood behind my fingertips.
Snippets of Castor and Leaf's conversation float from the room beyond. Words like “Dead Twins,” “council,” and “attacks” seem to repeat quite a bit.
Only after my skin is pink from scrubbing, I stand and pick one of the plush towels from the neatly stacked pile to wrap around my torso.
“Whoever is next, have at it.” I step from behind the privacy screen and pull my heavy, dripping hair over one shoulder.
Leaf and Castor stare at me.
