Nine Miska. A Few Days Later

I covered the teacup with my hand as I walked upstairs. Smoke curled from it with a slightly bitter smell wafting off it. After reading through my mother’s herbal text she’d left me, I knew it would help. All wounds needed healing from the inside, even if the others didn’t believe me. My stomach curled at the thought. I didn’t know why I wished they would accept me so badly. Maybe because even though this was my home, it hadn’t felt that way since my mom passed.

Carefully, I climbed the vine-covered spiral staircase. Moonlight from the twin moons spilled through the half-opened walls, their smooth stones cut out to let the light in. One thing I loved about this place, and quite frankly, the only thing, was how much our queen let nature have its way.

A small giggle had me glancing up, and I heard the turning of a page. I hurried along, coming to the top of the stairs as the hall branched outwards. I stopped outside the carved door right as that laughter stopped. They sat in the center of the room, surrounded by a mountain of books.

I had watched Cedaar and Xio before. The girls whispered about how they liked his body but always hushed when I entered the room. They had never shared anything with me, but it still stung. I had heard how the queen wished him for her own, but she thought the fling with Xio was far more than he had let on. I had to agree. His eyes never left her, and she was always a step or two behind him. It was impossible to think they were a fling. It all seemed so real and genuine, especially now as I watched.

Xio laughed and playfully swatted at Cedaar. He backed away, grinning wildly as she said something in that language I didn’t know. I wondered what it was like to love, to be loved. I never saw it here, not like that. Here, it was only hushed whispers and secret meetings, most matches based on politics and greed.

I smiled as they played, and I could see why the other healers were so enamored with him. He was sculpted like the old gods in the stories they used to tell us. Maybe that’s why the men here in Jade City were jealous and made jokes about his weird haircut. Either way, I didn’t care. I only wished to help. I only wanted a friend. That was why I stayed up after the others went to bed. I would pull my mother’s book from its hiding spot and read through the night.

Glancing at the tea in my hands, I pursed my lips and went to turn. I was intruding like I did when Sashau and Killie talked, and I didn’t want to get in trouble. I’d visit them early in the morning instead.

“Miska. What brings you up here so late?” Cedaar asked, and I stopped, half turned from the doorway.

Concern furrowed his brow, and judging by the books and texts before him, it seemed they were up late with another lesson. I knew from the others he had been teaching her how to speak our language and a few others when he wasn’t sitting in a herbal bath, or they weren’t making those grunting noises upstairs.

“I made tea,” I said, my voice fluttery. I was nervous and had every right to be. He may be beautiful, but they were a part of The Eye, trained killers and rebels who didn’t fear the one true king. The other girls whispered stories of how they could probably kill us with a spoon if they so wished. Years and years of training had made it so they didn’t fear anything. It must have been brutal, and even though our queen was helping, she did not trust them.

“I made tea,” I said again, trying to make my voice steady and more confident. It wasn’t him I feared. No, it was the dark-haired one that never left his side, the same one currently staring at me. They called her a shadow, for that was what she was. Every move he made, she countered as if they were in a constant dance. She let nothing show in her expression, but it felt as if she was afraid of something. I swallowed and squared my shoulders. Our queen said we weren’t allowed to visit them alone, but I was tired of them not listening to me. Nothing they did seemed to help, and I could tell he was getting worse.

“It is from my mother’s texts, one I remember her using on another who had twisted his leg nearly off. It worked as if by magic.”

I swallowed and took a step inside. Quicker than any living thing had the right to be, Xio was in front of me. I froze, the tea clattering on the small tray I held as I gripped it hard, trying not to spill it.

She leaned forward, watching me as she inhaled, her nostrils flaring. She made a face. “It smells bitter.”

My throat went dry. “It’s the gravanl seed.”

She cocked her head to the side as if that word was unfamiliar to her. Cedaar translated, and she glanced toward me, the tea, and then shrugged.

“Okay.”

Xio stepped aside, allowing me to pass. I didn’t hesitate, afraid she would change her mind or, worse, kill me with a spoon. My footsteps echoed against the stone floor. Cedaar gave me a small smile as I placed the tray on the table.

He picked up the cup and raised it to his lips. “Miska, why are you awake so late? No matter how kind the gesture, it cannot be just to make me tea.”

I nodded, too afraid that if I lied, she would smell the truth. “It’s the only time the other healers are all asleep. I needed to borrow a few ingredients from the cupboards they keep sealed.”

Xio whistled softly, and I felt that overwhelming power behind me. “Oh, naughty, naughty. We have a little thief.”

I half turned, shocked by how well and quickly she had learned our language. Nausea gripped me, and I realized she was right. I was a thief. “Please don’t tell.” I turned back to Cedaar, knowing I would not find mercy with Xio. He took a sip of tea before lowering it. “If the queen finds out, she’ll have me blistered with the thorny vines she keeps.”

A look passed across his face, one I didn’t know how to decipher. He glanced behind me at Xio, and his smile returned like morning sunlight on the hills. “We will not speak of it. Promise.”

I nodded quickly. “I am sorry to disturb you both. Please let me know if the tea helps.” I turned and darted across the room, the long fabric of my gown wrapping around one leg. My hand reached for the door, but a delicate hand slapped against the wood before I could open it. I gasped at Xio standing there, blocking my exit. She stared down at me, and I gulped.

“You brought me those soaps, didn’t you?”

“Y-yes. Cedaar asked. I knew a recipe my mom showed me because we used to travel a lot, and I hated the water we used, so she made bubbles to distract me . . . Now, I’m rambling.”

“I liked them. Thank you.” Xio pushed off the door and folded her arms, grinning slowly.

“Please, Miska, have a seat,” Cedaar said.

My skin prickled with warning, unsure of what I may have walked into. My eyes shifted toward Xio, and I could not stop the words that fell out of my mouth next.

“They say you are a terrifying beast,” I whispered, and an edge of red ringed her deep brown irises. “That you can shape to any form and feed on the very lifeblood that keeps us all breathing.”

“Do they?” A corner of her full lips tipped up, and she leaned in closer. “Flattery will get you everywhere, princess.”

“Xio,” Cedaar said, his tone filled with warning.

Her name made her smile widen, and she flicked her gaze from Cedaar back to me. “Don’t worry. I promise not to bite and be on my best behavior. Besides, I’d hate to cause his pretty face to grow a stress wrinkle.”

She nodded toward Cedaar, and I gulped. There was no way I was leaving here without sitting with them, and a part of me was terrified. I said nothing as I wrung my hands, turning from her and heading back toward the table. Cedaar stood and grabbed a chair for me.

“You’re so kind,” I whispered as I curled my dress under me to sit. “Most aren’t like that. Not anymore.”

Cedaar pushed my seat in before pulling out Xio’s chair. She sat and asked, “Are the other healers mean to you?”

My eyes flashed to her as Cedaar finally took his seat. “Sometimes. Well, only when they talk to me. They usually avoid me most of the time.”

“Why?” she asked, leaning forward on her arms. “What did you do? Steal a boyfriend? Girlfriend?”

Cedaar made a noise in the back of his throat, both of them speaking in that foreign language. Then she gave him one of those dashing smiles across the stacks of books before turning back to me.

My fingers twisted in the edge of my dress as I shook my head. “No, the boys here hate me, too. No one liked my mother. She questioned our queen too much, which got us kicked out in the first place. But when she died, I had nowhere else to go, so I came back.”

Xio turned those striking eyes toward him as he spoke once more in her language before sipping more of the tea. I didn’t know what was said, but she responded with a crooked smile that changed all her features. It softened them, and a part of me softened too. The tension in my shoulders left as she leaned toward him, and I saw it then.

If he was the sun, by the old gods, she was the moon. Powerful, dark, and overbearing at times. She never left him, nor he her, as if they danced around each other for eternity. He didn’t respond but smiled and shook his head before turning to me.

Cedaar set the teacup back on the tray. “This is quite lovely, Miska. Thank you for that. You said it has healing properties, yes? Enlighten me on which ones.”

I stayed in that study with them far past the time the moon crested in the sky. He asked me about ingredients from my world and how they were used. He asked me about my mother and then about the things I liked. We spoke of how I was rescued and came to be here. In return, they told me where they had come from.

Xio told me of treats so sweet it would make your face tingle, and she smiled about it. They both did. Against my better judgment, I did too. She didn’t seem like the beast they whispered about, the one they feared. She seemed so normal, especially when she looked at him. I didn’t know why I was ever afraid to be around them, and now I felt silly for ever thinking that way.

The moon drifted toward the horizon as I helped them both with more words from my world. We studied and even made somewhat of a game of it. I realized I was having fun, and I was not used to having fun. They seemed so focused on me, as if I was the one who needed healing and not him. It wasn’t until Cedaar yawned and Xio soon followed that I realized we had stayed up the entire night.