“Another day’s rest needed, is all, and I’ll be back to work.”
“Are you missing stitches?” Kenner drew Ashmedai’s attention to where the boy was looking at Levi, as if only just having noticed the changes in Levi’s face.
“I suppose I am,” Levi said. “Ash has been helping me get rid of them.”
“Rid of them?” Kenner wrinkled his nose. The dragon had been dismissed, which had the rollhound sniffing about in search of it, but Kenner was focused on Levi. He reached up to grab Levi’s collar and tugged him down to his level. “Why? Don’t you like how you are?”
Levi floundered, glancing at Grillo, and then at Ashmedai, before returning to the boy. “It’s not that exactly, but….”
“But,” Ashmedai broke in, finishing his forward motion to reach Levi and Kenner, “sometimes we need to have the freedom to change the things about ourselves that don’t quite feel like us. Do you understand?”
Kenner released Levi but kept his scrunched brow. Then his eyes brightened. “I’d want wings like Penny! Do you think her baby will have wings?”
“Perhaps,” Ashmedai said with a chuckle. “We’ll have to wait and see, won’t we?”
Levi came toward Ashmedai and there was a moment of uncertainty, filled with fluttering nerves, like neither knew what should happen next. The shrinking space between them seemed to say that a proper greeting was called for, and by the time Levi reached Ashmedai, the answer was clear.
They kissed, the same as in Ashmedai’s bed, light and sweet, thoughwith a lean inward like the promise of everything they longed to share again.
“Are you looking forward to the festival, Levi?” Grillo asked as he came nearer, not commenting on what he’d witnessed but likely not surprised. “You can help me finish those stalls tomorrow. Then the event is just around the corner.”
Levi smiled, echoing all of Ashmedai’s recent joys in the expression. Their hands found each other as reflexively as their lips, lacing tight with neither having to glance down, as Levi answered, “I can’t wait.”
Levi
Levi stared at himself in the mirror, wearing the violet-colored tunic made from Emerald silk. He had tried it on numerous times since being gifted it from Daedlys, but ever since the king learned of its existence and asked if he might see it at the festival, Levi had wanted to save it for just this occasion.
The silver threads that edged the bottom, long sleeves, and oversized hood all seemed to sparkle in the light. The draping of the uneven hem, like a skirt but too short to be worn modestly without trousers, gave the garment a formal appearance, ideal for a special occasion.
Levi had originally claimed a basic leather belt to accompany the tunic, but he thought his weapons belt, black with silver, along with the black and silver daggers, completed the outfit in a more elegant manner. He wore a black shirt beneath, black trousers, and black boots. With his wavy red hair as neatly styled as he could manage, and although straycurls tended to fall into his eyes, he thought he looked almost….
Like a prince.
Levi knew that if he looked out his window, he would see the lights of the festival glistening, even this early, turning what had simply been structures the night before into the dazzling carnival they were intended to create.
He made a point to not look. Levi was excited, but he and Ashmedai had promised to attend the festival together, and he didn’t want to experience any of it without his king.
Instead, Levi’s eyes fell to the music box he had placed on his windowsill. He had played it often lately, remembering more and more of the melody’s words each time. The stamp on the bottom of the painted green, blue, and white wooden box with its rearing horse inside said Jafari’s.
Levi remembered the shop. He remembered wanting to purchase one of the boxes for his brother when they were first on the shelves, but his family had very little to spend on frivolities. He’d been saving for one of the boxes nonetheless, from odd jobs, while still looking for where he might apprentice, even at his older age. He should have completed an apprenticeship by now, though he couldn’t quite remember by how many years. His mother had been too nervous to let him work much outside the home for fear of him getting caught.
He had been caught anyway, for… his magic, he thought? He couldn’t quite remember that either, but every day another memory surfaced, though there was no way to know how much time had passed between then and now.
Levi lifted the lid of the music box, and it began to play its tinkling melody, the chorus of a folktale,The Ride-Along Bard.
“For no bard is humble,
And no hero’s flawless.
All that matters is the stories we tell.”
Levi thought it might have been one of his favorites, but it certainly was now since the box had been a gift from Ashmedai.
Upon descending the tower steps, Levi found the main living area empty. There was no draught left out for him and no sign of Braxton, other than the faintest of dark purple light pulsing from beneath the workshop door. For once, Levi felt no draw toward it, but at risk of being pulled in against his conscious mind, he turned away.
Soon he’d leave this place as his home and go… well, he knew where he wanted his next home to be, though he felt foolish for assuming he would be granted the honor of living in the castle after only one visit. The days since then had been filled with responsibilities keeping Levi and Ashmedai busy, though they had stolen a moment or two—a kiss or mildly heated embrace—but the chance to truly be together again hadn’t yet come.
Wherever Levi ended up next, he knew he would be happy so long as he could still call Ashmedai his.