The Lion's Gambit (Book One) Fully Released

Chapter XVI - Bonding

Opening his eyes, Kota stared up at a wooden ceiling. He turned his head to the right, seeing a bookcase against the side of the room. Groaning, he looked down as he moved his attention to the floor, where a red-and-green rug lay across the middle of the room. As he leaned forward, he placed his right hand against his face and rubbed his eyes. He then looked down at his left arm, which was wrapped in a fresh bandage halfway between his elbow and wrist as it lay along the arm of the chair he was sitting in. Taking a deep breath, he focused his eyes, seeing Lucinda resting flat on a bed across the room. He scooted the chair back against the wall behind him as he stood, almost falling forward, but he braced himself against the edge of the bed and knelt next to her. "Lucinda?"

Lucinda lay still and breathing but did not respond to him.

Kota glanced around the room. Books and different-sized jars sat on the bookshelves, with various powders and plants. A few small desks were around the room against the walls. Then he noticed, on the table next to the bed, the bloody bandage that had wrapped Lucinda's wound, along with various tools. She was wearing a simple white shirt as she lay in bed, and he felt his clothes while seeing he was wearing the same clothing as before, just with a newer bandage around the markings and mud stains.

"What happened?" asked Kota as he moved his hand to Lucinda's shoulder and down the braid of her hair.

He walked around the bed to the window before looking out and seeing the sunlight shining down on the area. Leaning a little way out of the window, he looked down, seeing he was on a higher floor of some platform of buildings as he eyed the streets. Taking his time, he examined the busyness of the crowds below. Turning his head upward, he saw the light blue of the sky, as if the storm clouds from the other night had never existed.

Kota turned, hearing the opening of a door, before reaching down as he went to unsheathe his sword. When he realized he did not have a weapon attached to his belt anymore, he moved to the small table next to the bed to grab a small knife. Holding the blade out at the door, Kota saw an older man reading a book as he entered the room. He looked up at Kota as he closed the book. "Good, you are awake now. No need for further violence, boy."

"Where are we?"

Kota kept the blade tight within his grasp as he eyed the man, who moved to a small desk, placing the book down on the surface.

He nodded as another figure walked into the room, closing the door behind them, reading a similar book to the old man's.

"So, I may have found something that might work regarding—" She stopped as she turned, seeing Kota standing with a knife out to the older man.

Kota glanced over, seeing Grace standing there with her blond hair up in a small bun with braids meeting at the back of her neck. She wore a simple sleeveless black shirt under light-gray fabric that ran from her waist and crossed over her shoulders. The light-gray fabric laid layered together around her waist, and it fanned out beside her legs. A brown belt with a strap resting a touch below her waist, where a sword sat inside a sheath held it in place. Long black gloves covered her forearms, laced up the outside to keep them tight against her skin. Her legs laid covered in a lighter-gray cloth, tapering into her knee-high black boots.

"Grace, what are you doing here?" asked Kota as he lowered the blade to his side, seeing the man move closer to her.

The older man stood next to Grace as he looked over the book she held in her hand. Nodding his head in agreement with a previous conversation, the man turned his attention to Kota. "This one is quite smart. You should consider your friend lucky. If she had not arrived with you two on horseback, the girl over there would have been dead by now."