Page 84 of Tarnished Crown

Either way, sleep that night was harder to come by than usual. When I finally found myself in its clutches, my dreams were once again haunted by memories of my flogging and the caves.

After the third time the nightmares dragged me back to consciousness, a warm, familiar weight settled in behind me. Only then was I able to find my way back to a dreamless sleep.

CHAPTER54

The next few days of travel continued much as the first had, with an easy pace and early stopping points. Sometimes we made it to an inn, but we stayed in a couple of barns as well.

When we arrived at the villages, we didn’t scramble to our rooms, but instead visited the taverns and talked with some of the villagers.

Things were getting easier with the local Socairans, too. Instead of worrying about how they would look at me or treat me when they saw my hair, I found ways to make sure they saw me as a person first. Even if that occasionally came in the form of smashing a snowball into Evander’s face.

The added benefit was the fact that it seemed to help the villagers see him as more of a person as well, even if he never acknowledged it.

Still, I breathed a sigh of relief when we finally crossed the river and found ourselves on the small road that led to the cabin. Tendrils of smoke from the chimney stretched out just beyond the hill in front of us.

It was still ridiculous to me that they called the place a cabin when it was at least five times larger than the ones I knew of back home.

“How long have you been coming here?” I asked Evander.

“Most of my life,” he answered.

I thought that was going to be the end of it, but he surprised me.

“It was my mother’s. And since Mairi hates to leave the estate, it was a convenient place to get away from her. My father brought me when I was younger, and later, I started to come here with my men.”

Something in my chest tightened at that. This was his haven. And judging by the way his trusted soldiers responded to coming here, it was theirs as well.

“And your pets,” I added, mostly just to break the weight of the moment.

“Only the most annoying ones,” he teased.

“Notallof the most annoying ones,” I disputed. “Now, if I had stuffed Boris into my satchel for the journey like I wanted to, that might be true, but as it stands...”

His chest moved with his wry chuckle, and I smiled as the cabin came into view. The sun was just beginning to set behind it, casting a hazy pink glow on the mountains.

Though our last visit had ended on such a bleak note, one I refused to think about right now, the time I had spent here was still a bright spot in my months of being in Socair.

Riina and Nico met us at the stables, helping us with the horses. They were markedly less surprised to see me this time, and even greeted me by name while we talked about the journey here until we headed into the cabin.

Flames roared in the hearth in the large entry room, not only heating the entire main floor, but also infusing the room with the rich smell of cedar. I took a deep breath in and savored the comforting smell.

After dinner, we returned to the sauna. I sat on the far corner near the door. Evander sat near the stones like he always seemed to, but I wasn’t quite prepared to face the intense heat on that side of the sauna this evening.

While the men were as exuberant as ever, the week-long journey here was starting to wear on me. I was as amused by their banter as ever, but spent most of the short time fending off yawns before Kirill finally took pity on me and suggested we go to the lake early.

The icy water shot straight through my scars when I jumped in, but it was more of a shock than actually painful. When I emerged, I donned my robe and headed into the main room to dry my hair by the fire.

Evander returned sooner than I expected, and we headed up to his room.

Neither Evander nor I had mentioned the availability of the room next to his, the one I had stayed in last time. He had simply carried our packs into his room as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

And I supposed it was, at this point.

I was already nestled under the thick tartan blanket on my side of the massive bed, half asleep when Evander climbed in next to me, breaking the silence.

“We’ll have company in the morning.” His voice was a little too casual.

“Who?” I asked through a haze of exhaustion.