On Thin Ice (Prequel to Guild)

Chapter Twenty-Six: Bloodscript

               Salkhi was still there when dawn broke and Yuina finally arose from the sleep of the dead. Perched on her nightstand with a strand of her hair locked in her powerful beak, the eagle squawked at Yuina when she tried to shoo her away.

"So you've decided to stick around, have you?" she chuckled, wiping the sleep from her eyes, sitting up and stretching so her spine popped and she groaned as light flowed in through the balcony screen.

Eventually, she coaxed herself up to open them, yawning deeply before gazing out at the upper deck and breathing in its silence.

Then spitting it out again.

Hands gripped the balcony railing, knuckles turning white. Teeth gritted. Lips parted. Pulse flared out like a light.

Like the lights of the tent city that had stood on the beach just hours before.

Not a scrap of fabric remained from the camp. Not a note of the patriotic tunes belted out the night before. No slumbering drunks snored against the jungle's woody edge, no daggers had been strewn about the grounds, lost in drunken fights or ill-advised midnight sparring matches.

Alone.

No sign of Dai or Jia, Noboru, Genji, Inoue, Tuân Nakano or anyone else anywhere.

The other side of the bed lay untouched.

"Where is everyone?" she asked, though she already knew the answer.

Aside from the giant Shirub Silver eagle who soared through the air to land on Yuina's shoulder, squawking and clicking her beak, the ship had gone totally silent.

Curved talons threatened to puncture the silk of her robe, the silk pajamas underneath. But the pain was worse elsewhere.

"He left me," she choked, and as if she understood, Salkhi nuzzled her hair.

"You can have the rest," she sighed, stomping over to the wardrobe to fetch Dai's cloth bag of grains and seeds, emptying it out in a heap on the squat calligraphy table and coughing at the chalky dust that rose from it in a cloud. Salkhi dove. "...It's not like he'll be back to eat it any time soon."

Kopere could take weeks to fall. Months.

But perhaps without Yuina to stay her hand... this conquest would be swifter, bloodier than expected.

Perhaps her beloved husband would break more promises before this day ended.

Yuina sniffled as the bird toppled the pyramid of grains, then groaned. She turned her glare on her stomach. On the disobedient childling who dared test her. "Oh, come on!" she cried, "You are not going to make me eat that."

She lasted all of a moment- hating herself as much as Salkhi's expression implied she did once she'd finished off the seed. At least no one else had seen. At least the balcony was open and the sun was shining upon her.

Wiping her mouth and brushing the crumbs off her chest, Yuina made her way to the door. She curled her fingers around the polished wood handle, found it unlocked and pushed it aside.

...

                       Never underestimate the capacity for irritability of a northerner in the heat. Jia had told him that many months ago, but he'd never believed it could be true. Dai Kimsura had dismissed his sister for exaggerating, forging tales to use as fodder for gossip.

With only his sweet wife to go off of, Dai had never imagined himself trudging through Kopere with a northerner who bothered him even more than the heat. He'd have guessed it would be Ho. Or Nakano. Or Jia. Never the brown-nosing lord of Yukimura.