Masquerading

16. As if I Grew Horns

"GRIMLINGS have not existed for hundreds of years."

True as Killi's words were, Leif could find no other explanation for Kyden's behaviour. I was as if it had been them torturing him in the caves, saying things to him that he'd somehow known were untrue. Leif could not imagine how bad it had been if Kyden could not tell the imposter apart from the real him.

"Can you think of anything else?" Leif was thankful to finally be stepping out of the caves.

Killi grunted as he adjusted Kyden on his back and hurried across the gorge. "No. But, grimlings? That isn't good, Leif—for Aradanas or any of us." In the shadows of boulders that would keep them hidden should any Loricai—or worse—look out from the caves, he put the Prince down.

"You...You're really here?"Kyden latched onto Leif's arm. His eyes filled with tears at Leif's nod, and he pulled him down to the ground, engulfing him in his arms. "Sweet Mother Feyrie! Leif!"

"There will be time enough for greetings and appreciation when we are up there and away from the threats in those caves. Kyden, can you walk? We will make faster time if one of us is not carrying you."

Leif thought it funny and apt that the plants with the stiff colourful flowers that resembled brushes grew along the water's edge. It had been a slow but not tedious journey back to camp, and now he sat on a stone, his bare feet in the ravine, using a brush flower to scrub dirt from himself. Kyden and Killi both dove into the water without a care for their clothes or armour. Leif refused, though he supposed it might have been a good idea since they all smelled like the bad end of an olm.

He watched as Killi stood statue still watching the water. Worry for something beneath the surface tarnished Kyden's face, but Leif had seen him do this before, when they were children in the ravine near the castle. Kyden jumped back when Killi finally lunged into the water, emerging with a fish in hand. He repeated it a few times, tossing the fish he caught to Leif. With a collection of a half dozen, Killi stopped and wrung his locs out, then sprayed Leif as he shook the water from his body. As he speared the fish onto an arrow from his quiver, he grinned, his gaze dancing between Leif and Kyden.

"I'll get these fish cooked then," he announced too loudly, and made his way up the hill. Leif watched him go, the realization that he'd be able to get in the water dawning. He glanced at Kyden; with his secret already out in the open, he felt less troubled by that, than what Killi might be thinking would happen on leaving them alone.

As if reading his mind, Killi turned at the top of the hill, yelling down with laugh, "Be careful, the hinei like to play near water!"

"The hinei?" Kyden asked as Killi disappeared. He looked ready to exit the water and grab his sword, but stopped when Leif shrugged off his armour.

"You haven't heard of them?" Sliding off the rock, Leif waded out into the water, a small grin fighting its way onto his face. He chewed his lip, wondering if he should tell Kyden or simply brush off the words.

Kyden shook his head, watching Leif as he bobbed into the water and stood again. Leif flushed under the gaze that travelled up his shirt, now translucent and stuck to him like a second skin.

"I forget that Faladrin is not as populated with rivers and lakes as Aradanas and Themi." He said as Kyden's eyes settled on his face once again. "Hinei bite, but they are harmless. They like to play at being matchmakers."

Kyden's brows raised, but his smile slow and wicked as he discarded his gauntlets on the rocks, hit Leif in the gut. "Do they?"

Leif's skin bloomed with shiver bumps and he wasn't sure if it was because of the water drying on his skin, or Kyden. But he refused to look away as he nodded, determined not to show how affected he was.

"In Faladrin we call them love biters."

Apt, Leif supposed, since their bites incited blind love between their chosen victims.

Kyden undid the buckles on his armour, his lip caught between his teeth as he considered Leif. "But, I don't think they'd pose much of a problem for us, do you?"

Leif cursed the smile and fire on his face that he was powerless to stop. He ducked into the water as Kyden turned his back, and tried desperately not to watch him pulling the armour off. but it was clear Kyden knew he was being watched and he shot a look back at Leif as he began loosening his shirt.

Flames! Leif busied himself with washing the dirt off. In the burrows, he'd been torn by the impropriety of his state of undress and that it had been Kyden's hands on the skin he shouldn't have been seeing, even if just to mend it. While that had been unavoidable, this, without the urgency of death or pain was surely scandalous. But curiosity, and something else altogether, brought his eyes to Kyden as his shirt was pulled off.

Gaze travelling slowly over the brown skin of Kyden's back, Leif wondered at each and every scar he saw. His shoulder blades and upper arms were covered in ink. Unlike the thick lines that swirled on Killi's chest, these were delicate and detailed. Leif wanted to touch them to make sure the skin under those radiating lines was not, in fact, covered in scales. They reminded Leif of patterns he had seen when travelling with his father when he was young. A sudden realization hit him like a horse's kick to the chest.

"Leif?" Kyden turned and quirked the corner of his mouth at Leif. "Why are you looking at me as if I grew horns?"

Leif moved slowly through the water in his approach and pressed the blade of his throwing dagger to Kyden's throat. "You're Loricai."

Colour drained from Kyden's face and he closed his eyes in what appeared to be a silent curse; he'd revealed himself by the ink that laid under his armour. He didn't step back as Leif expected, swallowing awkwardly as he looked at Leif again.

"Please." He begged as he searched Leif's face. "Please don't do it, Leyva. Please don't."

Surprised, Leif eased the pressure of the blade. "You—?"

"I figured you out. It took me longer than it should have. I suppose you have to blame it on a preoccupation. But the more I looked closely at Leif, the more I started seeing the extraordinary young Princess I spent more time watching fight, than I should have the last time I was in Aradanas. She is not someone easily forgotten."