Gods & Thieves ✔

16. Library and Jail

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I wake up to the sharp sound of something heavy being kicked against the couch. My eyes fly open, and alarm washes over me. Has someone sneaked into the apartments? I lie on my side, my back to the door, so I can't see anything but the cushion. Is the trespasser here to kill me? Or Loretto? The sun is just rising...Has Maricela decided I shouldn't live to see this particular dawn?

Panicking, my hand slips under my pillow, but the knife I used to hide there the previous nights is gone.

"You left your blade on the table where you sliced the cake." Loretto's voice sounds utterly unimpressed. "A terrible knight you are. Get up. I told you you'd be coming with me today."

Not a trespasser, I still get to live. Relief eases my muscles. Rubbing my eyes, I begin to turn to look at my mentor, but then stop. "Are you decent?"

"I'm the most decent person you'll ever meet."

"No, I mean dressed?"

"Yes! And you're still in pajamas. Get up." Faer heavy boot hits the couch again, making it creak and shaking the last of my sleepiness off. "You've ten minutes. Brush your curls and get dressed, or I'm dragging you outside naked."

Why don't I doubt that? Cursing, I get up.

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It's still early when we walk down the halls of the Great Temple, not a soul around, only stillness and lethargic morning haze sinking in through the windows. Having spent half of the night up and talking, I feel like I've been chewed and spit out into this very morning even after washing my face with cold water, yet as I glance sideways at Loretto, faer posture is unwavering, faer eyes alert. I would've thought my mentor hasn't even gone to bed if not for a crisp clean robe flowing smoothly around faer figure.

"How can you be so peppy?" I ask when we take a turn, which, if I remember correctly, leads to the library set on the basement level of the temple. "Don't you want to sleep?" Suddenly, a terrible thought crawls into my head. "Do shamans even sleep?"

"No. I--" Loretto cuts off, forgetting faer own words as faer eyes shoot in my direction and catch me looking. Confidence fades from Loretto's expression for a moment as though I've done something discouraging. "Yes. I mean..." Loretto clears faer throat. "I mean I couldn't sleep."

"Why?"

"Why are you asking so many personal questions for someone who has no right to ask personal questions at all, Eli?"

I itch to bristle in reply, but eventually only scowl and look away. For a while, we walk in silence. This morning feels right and wrong at the same time, I catch myself thinking. Right, because every morning feels so, doesn't it? Like a fresh start. Yet wrong, because for a moment, I really believed the last night built some sort of a bridge between me and Loretto, some connection, a step toward friendship. And now the sun has risen. And that connection is gone. And I don't even know why I want this friendship. "Here, not a question. A statement," I finally say, ostentatiously staring at the stone relief of the sun and moon carved in the wall we're passing. "It's unfair that you get to call me Eli, and I have to call you Mentor, Mentor."

There's a long pause before Loretto makes the conclusion opposite from what I hoped for. "Do you want me to stop calling you Eli?"

"No."

Another pause. "Alright. You can call me by my name. You do it anyway in your thoughts, I suppose." Loretto's voice sounds a fraction quieter than before, though just as firm, as fae adds, "But only when we're alone. In public, I'm still your mentor."