Page 45 of Insolence
I give a low whistle. “Must be difficult being separated from your family all this time.”
“Guess that’s the one good thing about your ‘short memory,’ eh?” His bushy eyebrows rise toward his hairline. “Ain’t got nobody to miss.”
I give an agreeable grunt and hand the bottle off.
“How do you handle being away from them?” Autry ventures to Kael in the shy manner that overcomes him at times. It always gives me the sense he doesn’t ask personal questions of his mentor. Not this sort.
Not unless I’m around to feed them booze and stir up mud.
“Same as you do being separated from your loved ones, I reckon.” Kael takes a contemplative drink, holding the liquor in his mouth before swallowing. “Keeping busy. Wages are good, so I never have to worry that they’re getting by.” He glances at his apprentice. “But I think I’ve reached my limit. After this, I’m done.”
Autry takes the bottle back. Lifts it to his lips.
“Oh?” My spirits sink a little bit. “You're not taking out another contract?”
“Nah. I’m an old man now. I’ll be forty-seven when I can go home to Black City. Can’t waste what’s left of my life on this blasted mountain, can I?”
But I can.The unspoken observation drifts awkwardly between us.
I take the bottle back and drink in earnest this time. Relish the liquor’s burn. The way it softens the jagged edges ofeverything that’s been chipped away from me. “Hey, Autry.” I shift my focus. “You got your eye on any of the pretty girls down in the valley there?”
“Sure,” he snorts, caught off guard. “Who doesn’t?”
I don’t react. Both men’s eyes land on me anyway.
We don’t use labels, but my being a slag was a given from the get-go, seeing as I’m here at all. I’m sure by the time I arrived they’d seen their fair share of Caras and Rosalies. Heard about plenty more.
The reason I struck up a friendship to begin with is because these two—Autry in particular—have compassion. They don’t enjoy the suffering these women endure.
Maybe when they began their temple contracts, Kael and Autry believed the betrothed deserved what was coming to them. By the time I arrived? Not so much.
That’s another thing we don’t discuss, although I want to. But I’m not supposed to know about any of that.
I hold the bottle aloft. “To pretty girls. In backwater valleys and otherwise.” I take another swig to Kael’s rowdy laughter and Autry slapping his knee.
Despite my dark mood on arriving, between the liquor and their camaraderie, my muscles are unclenching. The anger that’s been fueling me these past three days is beginning to trickle away—at least a little bit.
“I don’t trust a person who won’t drink to pretty girls.” Kael chuckles, his eyes unfocused. The brandy continues to make its rounds.
I fix my attention back on Autry. “You’ve got a big family, right? Back in Cantana?”
“After a fashion.” He barks an awkward laugh, eyes darting around the alcove in that wary way of his whenever anyone asks him about back home. As long as I’ve known him, Autry seems to be guarding as many secrets as I am. “Lucky most of the stuff wemake is small. I figure I’ve got a long career ahead.” He rotates both arms at the shoulder before stretching the lanky limbs over his head. “After Kael leaves, I’ll be a proper blacksmith. Might want to try my hand at something bigger.”
“Heavier hammers’ll wear your body down quicker,” I point out. “You sure you don’t want to stay here and keep making those sweet little daggers for the guardsmen? Mentor an apprentice of your own?”
“Psshh. How do you think you girls get all that pretty jewelry you like to flaunt, eh?” grumbles Kael between sips that slosh, clear liquor beading on his whiskers. “Think that stuff just makes itself?”
You girls. Briefly disoriented in my body, I mask my discomfort with a joke. “And here I thought it was the stuff you picked out of your teeth.”
Times like this, when my body and mind fail to align—with alcohol heating my insides and bringing a flush to Autry’s pale cheeks and Kael’s swarthy complexion—it’s hardnotto forget about the feminine lines of my face and hips. My long hair and soft chest. Which is bound nearly flat beneath my shirt today.
Kael scoffs. “It’s not all mallets and anvils, you know. Jewelry is a whole different beast.”
Credit where it’s due, though. Even though they don’t know about my mutable soul, these two have never looked at me askance in my trousers.
“Beastmay be stretching it,” I chuckle.
“You’d be surprised,” Autry says, reaching for the red juggling balls he usually keeps nearby. Always has to occupy his hands, that one.
