The Stableboy's shadow (BL)

Chapter 4

It was about 10 when we left the town. We set up our journey to the east, walking faster than we had before. The sky was still grey, and sometimes, a swift mist would fall down, but nothing like the pouring rain we had had these past few days. We followed the road for a while, until I mentioned that it would be faster if we just cut through the woods. I knew these parts, I knew that there weren't many monsters in the woods, even though they were feared by the townspeople. We'd be out before the nightfall, so we'd be alright.

Percevin hesitated. To be fair, I was mainly bored of the roads, and tired of passing by people going into town. We'd merely gain an hour or two, top, but I knew a clearing on the other side of this forest where we could set camp before nightfall. I had never really followed the roads. Ever.

In the end, he accepted, and we left the road to cross through the woods.

As I said, no monsters were in sight. We reached a clearing just before dusk and set up camp. Percevin went to gather some firewood, I left to fill up our water skin in the small creek nearby. When we got set up, we merely sat by the fire and waited till the night fell.

Percevin got his book out and started to read. I realized that even if he had been reading the same book for about four days, he wasn't far along, and progressing very, very slowly. Maybe he was practicing his reading as a part of his knighthood training. As a servant, he probably didn't really have much of an education, or a very basic one. But before he could set up and read further along, I tried to talk.

- So... are we going to talk about it?

- Talk about what, he immediately responded to my surprise.

- About the fact that this mission is about killing someone?

- Why would you care? You're an assassin.

I didn't reply. I knew he wouldn't believe me. He stared up from his book and glared at me. The fire created shadows on his face, making him looked way older than he actually was. With the seriousness of his traits, he appeared even more elvish. I silently wondered if he knew about his elven heritage.

I stopped talking. There seemed to be no way of making him realize that what we were doing was wrong. I knew that servants thought that their lord's word is law, I wondered if he realized. No matter how hard I tried, and no matter of his knighthood training, he didn't seem to care.

- don't you care, I asked.

He shrugged, getting his attention back to his book. I thought about it for a second, trying to connect with his shadow. I wondered if he knew that if someone from the knighthood was to catch him, any chance of getting asserted would be annihilated. That if someone surprised him in the company of the most wanted shadowmaster, he could be killed. I supposed that he didn't care much. His master had ordered him to.

I sighed. I got rid of my gloves and my coat and got my blanket out, ready to go to bed. I felt a slight shiver in his shadow's stance and immediately looked up. His eyes were resting on me once more. He was staring. Most specifically, he was staring at my hand.

My eyes followed his, and I looked down. The brand of my wrist was slightly shining in the darkness. The eye-shaped burn mark was made so it was always visible, even in the dark. I immediately put a hand on it, fighting back the urge to put my gloves back on. I guess he hadn't noticed it stand out between my other tattoos the night before, when I had gotten rid of the skin-colored silk wrist brace I was wearing all the time under my glove. I could feel his shadow tending toward me, curious of what it was, and it soon got on my nerves.

- You can ask, I said with a flat tone.

After all, I had been wanting to talk to him for days now, and he wasn't cooperative. If he wanted to know more about me, about what it was to be a shadowmaster, I would oblige, and maybe it would make him talk to me more.