From Silver and Chaos

An Attempt.

Unedited.

Chapter 16: An Attempt.

Lunches and Dinners.

Guests and Gawkers.

Ainthochs friends came and went, all dined and wined and given their first well wished for glance of the Seeker Birchwood. I had been told names that I didn't remember and smiled so falsely, I thought that my lips would rot and fall from the ground.

Gwen had gotten great amusement from it all, even though they all viewed her with an air of suspicion when she first loomed over them. Fyr worked the room as a practised professional, her expressions never shifting, never misspeaking or tripping over herself. Where I felt comfortable with a sword in my hand and an open road, Fyr was a master at this. I watched her, copying her in some parts. I admired the ease at which she could move from person to person, bending herself into someone they wanted to speak to.

More interesting, was their fascination with Kohen and how I didn't recognise him fully when he spoke to them. No wonder he had so many eyes in Naredan. His conversation flowed like elven wine, spilling into open minds.

I stood at the back of Arrow's stall, brushing down her neck and telling her to ignore the stallions that mooned over her. My girl was beautiful and she knew it and these gleaming, spoilt horses wouldn't easily sway her.

"Do you see the way she swans around with them?" A sharp voice whispered between the steps of a horse's hooves.

Arrow's ears perked and I slid back further, a hand smoothing along her velvet nose.

"You would swear she thought she was human, the way she acts." A tittering laugh. "And Annabelle swears up and down that she saw that Paladin Captain sneaking out of the Seeker's room in the morning."

"And Jennie swears that they vanished during the arrival party and returned, their hair different and their clothes too rumpled for simply walking around the grand-room."

"How shameful. Unmarried and ..."

"Well, they best stay unmarried," The first voice cut in. "Could you imagine the uproar if a man of that standing in society married a mutt. They're good enough for a firm ride, but not more than that."

"And she does look like she..."

"Boys," A curt, cold voice interrupted them. "You're insulting a guest."

"Lady Ainthoch," Gone was the sharp nastiness. The whispering secrets. "We didn't mean for you to overhear us."

"And yet, I did. Which I am glad to." Her voice neared. "Go to my brother and tell him what was said by the end of the day, or I will."

"I – we... I need this job."

"Pray that my brother is merciful then and more forgiving than you are."

"Yes..." Two sets of footsteps left this section of the stables. Arrow nuzzled at my shoulder, her dark eyes warm. I debated, as I listened to Darcy Ainthoch's footsteps fade away. The whispers of servants. I accepted it as a possibility but it still stung.

I moved to the door of Arrow's stall and looked out. "Thank you, Lady Ainthoch."

She paused, flying around with a hand on her chest. The mare that she had been stroking, jerked her head back into her stall with an alarmed whinny. Darcy Ainthoch wore her riding leathers, her hair plaited back from her face. She took me in, blue eyes sharp and watchful. She had stayed away from me over the past few days, but I felt her watching me. Assessing me