Page 35 of The Ballad of a Bard

“I care for her, so I care for the wellbeingof her sibling. Do whatever it takes to make sure he lives, and if possible, heals completely.” The lie rolled off his tongue too easily, but she couldn’t focus on it. All she could think about was the idea of Cobalt never returning to this ill state ever again.

“Would that be possible?” She dared to hope, to imagine, to dream of a world where he wouldn’t be confined to the cot, stuck between layers of blankets and subjected to his hacking coughs. “For him to get better?”

“Everything is a possibility here. We’ll see what we can do.” Leysa finished her assessment of him and stood. “For now, he needs rest. I’ll start administering various medicinal herbs and concentrated concoctions in the morning. You did a good job, for bringing him here, West. I’m not entirely sure how much longer he would have lasted without the proper care and attention.”

Her heart became a stone in her pocket as she sank to the bottom floor of the river.

“There’s only so much that people below the Bronze Gate can do, regarding health concerns, Leysa.” West sharply uttered under his breath. “She did the best she could with what she had.”

It was almost a compliment from him.

“Oh, I would agree. She kept him alive far longer than I would have predicted someone in his predicament would have lasted. Good job to you as well, my dear.” The healer turned her attention to Crimson. “I’m not sure what you did, but you saved him from an early grave.”

“Just save him, please.” Crimson almost begged the woman. She would have fallen to her knees, if that was what it would take. “Whatever you can do.”

Her tone was grim. “I’ll do my best.”

With one last, swift kiss to his damp forehead, Crimson left her brother in the healing ward. She whispered a farewell in hisear with a promise to visit him every day. He gripped her fingers once in his tiny hands before letting her go and falling into a deep slumber with the help of a lavender tincture.

West guided her to his room.

Theirroom.

“Here’s where you’ll be staying. I hope it’ll suffice.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, as if there was a flame of embarrassment that licked him raw. Even his copper skin seemed to hold a red hue to it as she took her surroundings in.

It was huge, at least compared to the two room apartment that she and Cobalt shared at the Spinning Compass. There were four rooms that she could see, with the potential for a fifth in a hidden curve towards the left.

She gaped at the amount of space that lay before her. “This isoneof your rooms? What does the other one look like, if you consider this to be small?”

Crimson threw her bags aside at the sight of the bed that was twice the size of the one that she and Cobalt slept in together. Her mouth fell open even more, if that was possible and she ran towards it, tossing herself into the mountain of cushions and pillows.

They caught her and it was like sinking into a cloud. She let out a girlish laugh, glee sparkling over her skin like a tickling blade of grass. Clouds, she was floating on actual clouds. She never wanted to leave the bed again, to do anything other than rest and sleep and feel as comfortable as this.

“I told you that you wouldn’t notice us sharing a bed.” He chuckled at her joy, unbuckling the sword at his side and setting it by the door. “Welcome to my humble abode, one of two.”

“This is paradise.” Crimson sighed in delight as she sank even further into the mattress, feeling as if it were made of nothing butair. She knew it was feathers, but they were the softest feathers she’d ever felt. “How would you ever want to leave these rooms?”

“Because I have something called duties to attend to.” He began to list them off on his fingers. “Making sure that the Empress has everything she needs to rule over Tazali, watching over his royal smugness, helping to train new guards for the Watch as well as running it.”

She pulled her head up to look at him.

“As well as looking after you and your brother now.” He sheepishly added, rubbing at the back of his neck and looking anywhere but at her. “But they’re all tasks that I’m happy to take on.”

She noticed his right arm.

When he shrugged off his doublet, she didn’t know.

“Where are your tattoos?” Crimson pushed out of her lying position, shoving her feet towards the end of the bed.

“How did you know about that?” West interrogated as he ran a hand through his umber hair.

“The painting in the courtyard. You have them in it.” She gestured towards his right arm as he approached her and took a seat on the side. “As well as one of the hanging tapestries.”

West twisted his arm, pushing the fabric up to observe his own flesh as if he had never seen it before. “Dream set a glamour on us when we first came down to play alongside the mortals, so that we would appear like one of them. It’s probably one of the most obvious parts about me that would give away who I was, so she hid them as well.”

Crimson rose to her knees, trying to find any semblance of the tattoo, or the magic that wrapped around it to keep it hidden. She found nothing. “What else did she hide?”

“You’re full of questions, aren’t you?.” He lowered hishead to hide his boyish smile. “She dulled the immortal glow of my eyes, and the way my skin shimmered beforehand. As well as a couple other things, but you get the gist.”

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