NEVER SPLIT THE PARTY: The Adventures of the Creeping Bam (BOOK 4: The Hunt)

CHAPTER TWENTY: ART

"I wondered where you'd gotten to." Shay takes me somewhat by surprise as she drops onto the step a noticeable distance from me, clearly wanting to respect my boundaries right now even though she's still sitting close enough to be friendly. Prob'ly she knows me well enough to know I ain't gonna turn her away no matter what kinda mood I'm in, we're too good friends for that now. And I could use the company. Maybe I been beating myself up a little too much since we got back, and more so after that interrogation ...

Fuck, that didn't go well. I mean it did, I scared the hell outta that nasty bitch in there and she gave up everything she could, even went so far as to agree to draw us a map o' the tunnels, 'least as much as she knows about navigating 'em. Including the route from the Late Bone to the Playhouse, which is helpful. Although it's still up in the air exactly what the plan actually is there, so I ain't had much of an idea what I gotta do for prep. So I'm just taking care of everything instead.

After I left the interrogation I saw Darwyn back to the infirmary, leaving her with the healers so they could try and get her back to fighting fitness again in case we really are gonna go tonight. I still ain't comfortable about the idea of her coming, not so soon after she took that wound, but she's insistent, downright indignant about it really, and even Kesla found it hard to really argue too hard about it, the way she got. Although she did insist Darwyn at least catch a few hours o' sleep after, just to give her some peace of mind. Not that I'm too confident she'll actually do that.

Meanwhile I went back to my own room, having heard the temple's staff had gone to our hotel to collect the remainder of our gear alongside our horses to bring here since we're making this place our base of operations moving forward. Finding my own admittedly spartan luggage waiting for me, I sorted through it for my duffle and, having collected my gear, went in search of somewhere good and quiet for me to set up for my prep-work. I thought about going into the library, finding a quiet corner in there to work, but in the end decided against it. Didn't feel like a clever move setting up my full armoury on one o' the big tables in there to give my blades a good polish and sharpen, reckon it would've sent the wrong message.

In the end I found this nifty little spot in the endlessly surprising environs of the temple's uncannily oversized architecture, once again baffling me with the way it's so much bigger than it has any right to be looking at the building from outside. Like the fact there's a whole open, grassy space somewhere in the middle of it all. Granted, it ain't really a garden, there ain't flowerbeds or even any bushes or little trees, just an open cloister with a stretch o' grass surrounded by raised white-stone paving, with a pool in the middle. It's a glorified font really, maybe ten feet across with two foot walls round it, but when I had a look in it before I set up I saw weeds and lily-pads in it, with frogs and coy fish swimming about in the surprisingly clear water. Clearly it's intended to be a calming, tranquil place, for folk to come and unwind when they get stressed. Seemed the right place for me, then.

So I settled on the edge of the clipped lawn and laid my oilcloth out in front of me, then set the entirety of my collection out on it so I could go over all of it, seeing what might need tending to, and what I might wanna give a courtesy clean anyway, for my own peace of mind. Including the my battle armour, now I finally got it to hand again. I'd made a decent amount of headway by the time Shay found me.

She sets her own more modest pack aside and stretches her legs in front of her, giving arching her back a little as she leans on her arms, shoulders back too. I can't help watching her as she does it, she's an incredibly beautiful woman and this seemingly casual, mostly unconscious act is a very sexy thing to watch. Then she catches me looking and I turn back to my own work, frowning in frustration as I try to get my mind off such thoughts again. Honestly I ain't really in the mood for it right now.