Sonnet: The Cities of Steam, Brass, and Aether

Chapter Nineteen

Blair awoke several hours before the sun was up, she decided to give the boys a few more hours though; knowing for some reason she just needed less sleep than most other people.

She busied herself by practicing some of the skills her uncle had taught her. She got into a meditative stance that allowed her body to continue resting while she focused her mind towards other goals.

It felt like minutes later that she heard the distant sounds of people stirring from their slumber, the noise was like a small buzzing in the back of her thoughts. She allowed herself to return to a normal state of consciousness, checkinging to see if the boys were actually waking or if they were just tossing in their sleep.

Opening her eyes, she saw Grilimir kneeling down on a single knee over his belongings. He had no bedroll to roll up, for he had given it to Selyne last night; or more likely Selyne had taken it from him by "pulling rank" while Blair was gone. Disgusting.

He was instead packing in the pile of dirty clothes and... was that his poncho?

"Ugh. Gril, you could have told me you didn't have your bed roll. I didn't need mine, you could have had it."

"It's okay Blair! I sleep on the floor at home, but sometimes my daddy will throw me some dirty clothes to use as a pillow if I am lucky!"

"That... that sounds horrible Gril." Maybe Grilimir would have been better off if he did stay with Lance...

"Nah. It isn't that bad, what sounds truly awful is living with a bunch of strangers in dark caves, like Henry and Lavender with Lan..."

She hadn't realized what he had been about to say until it was almost too late. She lunged forward from her seated position and slammed her hand over his mouth; it was very effective in silencing him suddenly, although he bit down on her hand from the unexpected action. She held her breath for a moment and glared at Grilimir until he let go and mouthed a silent sorry to her , eyes smoldering with anger.

She stayed atop of him with her hand over him in a silent threat.

"Do not mention Lance OR the others. Got it?" She silently mouthed to him, arching a questioning eyebrow.

He stiffly nodded his head in acknowledgement, causing her to finally release him; hopping up to her feet and holding out a hand, taking his grasp in hers and pulling him up.

"Shh." She put a finger over her mouth while she hushed, nodding her head sideways towards Selyne who was currently facing away from them.

She stalked towards the motionless figure silently, like a panther preparing to spring upon its prey. Carefully walking up to him while staying as low to the ground as she could, once she had reached him she hovered a hand over his shoulder.

"Oh Prince!" She grabbed his shoulder and jerked him towards her with a single quick motion. Revealing his wide eyes before he squeezed them tightly shut and began a sporadic, wheezy rasping that she assumed was supposed to sound like sleep.

"What did you hear?" She stood over the still motionless prince, his eyes refused to open.

"Very well." Moments later, she was pressing the hard, cold tip of her steel spear against the underneath of his chin.

"Tell me what you heard. Or I will kill you now." His eyes shot wide open and stared directly at the spear point, he looked like a cross-eyed drunken fool from this angle.

She was bluffing, but there was no way he was gonna know that. It wasn't the first time she threatened to kill him, but the intensity in her eyes clearly made the prince look nervous.