The Winter Sun

Chapter 17

"Stablemen!"

Lach and Rid were startled. "Yes, sir!" They screamed in unison as their gazes fell on the knitted bushy brows of the stablemaster. His scrutinizing gaze seemed to always look for something to grumble about. The stablemen glanced at each other before the tension cut with a dismissing grunt of the old man when his plan didn't work out.

His sausage finger worked on his belt as he unhooked two pouches. He launched first at Rid, who juggled momentarily before getting a proper grip.

"This is heavy," the man blurted out.

Lach planted his fork before catching it, the pouch not that heavy in his hands. A question floated on his eyebrows.

"Your pay." The stablemaster grunted out.

Rid didn't waste any time spreading the pouch wide open and letting all its content pour inside his palm in a clinking tune that made his eye glint like stars on a clear night. "Ten bronze coins!" A joyful gasp escaped his mouth. "Thank you!"

Lach's eyebrows knitted into a frown as the glint of five pieces of bronze coins stared back at him, waiting for the same reaction as Rid, which didn't come. He sighed internally. He shouldn't have been surprised. The Steward made it clear that his lapse would be punished in one way or another. While he had avoided the worst fate, he still couldn't shake that drowning feeling. Solstice was in a mere few days, and the threat of Lord Harrington crept to his back. He wouldn't be able to pay for the house before that day. His heart sank thinking about his family getting kicked out of the house and spending this eternal winter in the icy cobblestones but even more, thinking about his mom working again for those assholes.

He clasped the money in his hands, letting the hard edges of the coins embed into his skin. He would need to find a way or another.

The stablemaster's stern gaze stifled him. "As I told you, Lach, only half of the coins for you. The rest is to cover the damages that you made." His thick arms crossed over and rested on his protuberant belly. "You are lucky that Lord Harrington left it at that." Lach scrunched his nose.

"I know...Thank you," it came out stifled under his clenched jaw. That would teach him. At least their bellies won't howl for food for the following days.

"It's your last day in here." The two young men raised their gazes at him. "Don't mess it up before you go," he narrowed his eyes.

"Yes sir!" they answer in unison. There was something bittersweet in his departure, and in the back of his mind, like an afterthought sweeping like a light feather, he wondered if he would see the Princess again. He wiped his forehead and let his eyes travel to the immense bricks of the castle, a weight pulled at him inside. The souvenirs with his father were still vivid, but something brighter had emerged from that.

"Now go to the gates," he tilted his head towards the exit. "Carriages are arriving."

As they passed by the smaller man, something caught Lach's shoulder. He found the concerned eyes of the stablemaster. "The castle needs a stableman until tomorrow." Lach's eyebrows rose. "I told them about you."

He blinked. "Really?"

The man nodded. "I am sure Rid wouldn't mind about it. You will get one or two more coins."

Lach could almost embrace the man. "Thank you!"

"Behave." The stablemaster pointed a finger at him. "Don't mess it up."

**

Rid left just before the sun started his low descent into the horizon, not without the promise of enjoying his coins at the tavern all night. Lach sent him away with a warning to not finish blackout on the snowed cover cobble street like it happened one too many times.