A Court Of Shadow and Blood

☆ Stablehands ☆

Eblis was glad to leave the tremors of faebane power behind. They were faint—almost like a scent—but she was still having trouble evening her stride into a careful one, a feline at either side and one watching her back. Eventually it faded the further she got, her steps near silent through the halls given her meagerly sandaled feet. 

As she walked, she touched her mind against Madalyn’s, warning the female that they needed to talk soon. She felt a brush of understanding before she left her mind. 

Darkness had begun to cascade over the halls as the sun set, the faelights then flickering on. Though every hall looked the same, Eblis quickly found herself at the door of her room. Her mind did a quick search of it, sweeping for any faeries or humans alike within, and quickly pushed the wooden and iron-bracketed door open. She took a deep breath, finding her own scent quite welcoming. Though it appeared old; it didn’t quite seem like her anymore.

The mating bond.

Eblis took a startled breath as she realized it. She hoped no one else had noticed, or that it wasn’t too obvious to outsiders. Perhaps it had been too late, or that Azriel’s claiming kiss before she’d been uncovered had been enough. But, after a few extra sniffs, she found it was a weak after-taste. 

She pressed the door close as she basked in the small piece of paradise that she’d made her room out to be. The stone walls were covered in prismarine tapestries depicting the ocean and night skies, the floors covered in plush yellow rugs that she’d used to mimic sand. Her bed was a massive thing settled in the center of the room, the sheets the color of dawn bleeding into midnight ocean, the end tables the same oak of a decommissioned ship she’d once sailed. Her first ship. Decommissioned because the King had killed her crew. 

She held that tiny bit of them close. Though, on some nights when her mind wandered sleeplessly, she found that if she stared at the tables long enough, she thought she could see blood splatters on them. The boundary between it being the night she’d been kidnapped and her mother killed and the night she’d been left hopelessly alone had long since disappeared. 

She had a desk of oak—not of her ship, however—and a tall bookcase laden with scrolls of paper and books old enough to probably fall apart in one’s hands if they were not careful. She scanned everything quickly and assured herself that nothing had been touched or searched through before going to her armoir. 

“What am I supposed to do?”

Eblis, grabbing a loose peasants shirt and dirty work pants, turned to Feyre. The female settled herself into the chair at her desk, turning the simple wooden seat around to face the room. It was strange seeing Illyrian leathers in her room; it seemed almost ill-fitting since she’d fashioned it after her love of the ocean and night.

Her violet gaze flicked over the observation before she balled the clothes under her arm and made her way to the wide, adjoined bathing chamber. “Anything, I suppose,” she said over her shoulder, before clicking the door shut. She rid of her warm-weather clothes and dressed in the stablehand’s garb she’d gathered centuries ago during one of the many mini jobs she’d done. Her skin prickled at the long sleeves and pants, her skin much colder than she’d realized. 

She smudged some dirt along a cheekbone before going back into her bedroom. Feyre watched her quietly as she slipped her hair into a hat and weaponed herself in discreet places. The loose yet warm clothes had many hiding spots per their original use. 

“You could go spying if you want. Just don’t get caught.” Feyre blinked, as if reminding herself of their conversation.

“Are you sure?” She sent a blue-gray gaze to the door. “The Queen is...truly like a goddess as you said. It almost makes me feel as if she is one.”