Figurehead

twenty-six

"I'll take Fik and Jast to the stable," she whispers, taking the reins from me. She gives me a gentle push into the room- is it a room?- before I can protest, then leaves, the cloths falling back into place between us.

I just stand there, awkwardly. "So this is what the inside of a shelter looks like," I comment slowly.

He nods, with what might be a faint smile gracing his features. "Yes."

"Who else is in here?" I ask. We know each other's name and role. Nothing else, really. And even here, he is serious. Polite. Distant. He has to be. He has been trained to be.

"Besides him, there are two of his kin, and there are two others like me." Palace guards. "There is a serving-family here as well." He shrugs. "That's it."

"I assume there is room for Tui and I," I say, raising my eyebrows. It sounds like a statement. I meant it as a question.

"Of course," he nods. "Trusted messengers stay here. Other messengers stay elsewhere."

There is nothing else to say, really. We are merely acquainted, after all. Tui returns with a flutter of cloths, our belongings in her arms, and she nods at the guard with a slight smile. "I hope you are well, Juk."

He nods. "Yes, thank you." He reaches out an arm and pushes the cloth aside for us to pass through, letting it resettle behind us.

The 'walls' are all cloth, although they are enforced by columns, more like wooden staffs than the stone columns in the palace, back in Anshakim. But they are thick, and deep-rooted, enough to uphold the shelter. The 'hallway' is narrow, but relatively long. There are many 'rooms' here. Some shielded by more cloth than others, some with none at all, some with cloths parted.

I follow her into one of these, and she pulls the cloths so the 'room' is 'closed'. There is faint light provided by two fireflies enclosed in a relatively large lantern. She hands me my things, and I set them down, unrolling my pallet, onto the cloth stretched over the sand.

"It does well to keep the sand out of everything," she whispers, and I nod. Everything in here is shadowy, flickering and hazy. Her outline is not quite visible, and neither is that of my things, but the little light there is here is better than none.

Something appears at the forefront of my mind- Your word is a lamp for my foot and light on my path.- and I smile to myself before lying down on the pallet, covering myself with a sheet and pelt.

"Sleep well," I whisper.

"You too."

It takes me a while, as it always does. Especially since it is so cold. But the stillness, the darkness, it lulls me to sleep soon enough.

The lantern is gone, taken by one of the serving, I assume. After all, it has been replaced by a dish of water and two small cloths. But the room enclosed by cloth is warm, bathed in a faint golden glow from outside. Strange, considering it is Dre and it can't be long after first light yet.

I dry off my face with one of the small cloths, folding it and returning it to its place beside the dish as Tui gently splashes her face with the water it contains. Beside us, our pallets are already rolled tightly, our belongings still bundled.

"Tie this around your neck," she instructs me, handing me the cloth I used. I furrow my eyebrows, eyeing it. "It will keep the sand from entering your nose and mouth."

"And my eyes?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

She shrugs. "You can wear a cloak, but otherwise there's nothing you can do." I do as she tells me, then tuck my hands into the pockets of my jacket. My cloak and pelt are wrapped around my other belongings. It is too warm to wear them.