Page 168 of The Eye of the Fifth
‘I am not worried about myself, Gedeon.’ Her eyes were haunted. Was that… was that concern he could see, staring back at him?
Concern for him?
She turned her back on him and began pulling glass jars filled with Goddess knew what, and vials of differing liquids from their haphazard order on the shelves. ‘I can make something, though I cannot be sure of its efficiency. It has never been used for Warden magic before.’
‘Anything is better than nothing.’
‘You should keep going with the tonic I gave you too,’ she said, then frowned. ‘And perhaps youshouldstart taking two drops instead of one.’
Gedeon stayed and watched quietly whilst she went about making his magic-dulling potion. A strange sensation rose within him.
He had never been cared for in this way. His mother did not have a maternal nor compassionate bone in her body, and the healers in the Black Castle were paid for their work, very handsomely too.
But Maida…
As far as he was aware, the healer gained nothing from helping him. He was not even sure if her doing so was by order of Naal, or of her own volition. She had never said.
‘I’m not sure if my being there tonight is such a good idea after today,’ he mused aloud some ten minutes later as she handed him another vial, this time its contents a sluggish brown.
‘Tonight?’
‘I was going to attend dinner. Sunsi thought it to be a good idea. But now-’
‘It is a good idea,’ Maida said. ‘It is high time everyone knew who Gedeon Dewmaul is. Not the Fire Warden, nor prince, nor damnedDestroyeras Nysari likes to refer to you.’ She shook her head at that. ‘But just Gedeon. I find, against my better judgement perhaps, that I have come to rather like him.’
A true smile pulled on Gedeon’s mouth. ‘Did we just become friends, Maida?’
Leaning against her desk, she crossed her arms over her chest. ‘Friends might be pushing it.’ There it was. An undeniable fondness shining on her features that sent warmth spreading through Gedeon’s heart. ‘But if I were to vote now, I would not lay a black crystal.’
???
Kyra.
‘I think that’s enough?’ Kyra said, amusedly eyeing the third helping of potatoes Mankar spooned onto her silver plate. There was barely space for anything else.
Mankar gave her a knowing grin. ‘I figured you might need refuelling.’
His glance toward Kawai was telling enough. She smirked. ‘Is it that obvious?’
‘When you show up late together it is. Poor Kano was like a lost wolf-pup before his brother came to save him.’ Kyra peered across the table to where Kawai was talking Kano’s ear off, the latter listening but his expression far away. He was thinner now than when she’d met him. Perhaps he wasn’t adjusting to life outside of Nevatis as well as she’d thought. Guilt trickled through her.
She’d make more of an effort from now on to make him feel more at ease.
‘Oh, and your hair is wild and his scent is all over you,’ Mankar casually added.
Damn fae noses. Living in Avaldale for so long, she’d forgotten how acute the fae senses (or akee, she supposed) were compared to humans.
Kyra merely knocked her shoulder with his and shook her head, running a hand over her hair for good measure.
Down the other side of the table, tensions ran a little higher. Naal seemed adamant in using the dinner hall as a place to talk strategy, rather than using the Council Room for which it was fucking made. She wished the Air Warden wouldn’t talk about the war here in what should have been a relaxed environment. She didn’t want every mouthful to be tainted by ominous questions.
What does Empress Azar have in store?
What should their next move be to counteract it?
Naal had no spies in Zarynth now. Not since the death of Mankar and Nysari’s father, and her insight on any movement in the south was regrettably thin.
Not that Naal had toldherthat, of course. They’d barely spoken at all.
