Just Lyca Lady

Chapter 7 : Wolfsbane

Just Lyca Lady © Copyrighted 

After my father had tossed an arm over Gray's shoulders and dismissed me by saying, "To bed, Anna," I managed down darkened halls and found my chambers. Exclusion from the boys' conversation seemed like a fair penance for having ventured out in the first place. Besides, sleep was demanding me to join her in my sheets.

Stripping free of ruined garments and falling into my covers, I did not worry with dirt coated skin or untended-to wounds. All remaining matters could be addressed once the exhaustion looming at my doorstep was dealt with.

Morning was far closer than I'd have liked. As I washed and scrubbed what ilk I could from my body, a maid, Lorra, cared to the scratches on my back. What Gray had said was correct; the minor wounds had regained feeling, making my nose crinkle and a quiet hiss escape my lips as Lorra ran a sponge over them.

The tightness of a new corset didn't help with the pinches of pain the cuts were giving, but it was merely an irritant that faded to the back of my mind as I walked the halls and corridors flooded with the dull glow of morning sunshine. The past few months of wandering these halls, of being in this town, had become rather tedious, lacking in anything new and exciting to learn or do. Excitement was about as mythic as the lycan around these parts.

But with one came the other, it seemed. Hopefully I was right in believing they'd both still be around.

I listened to bits and pieces of conversations that managed their way to me as I trailed my finger along rough, stone walls, waiting to hear one of two specific voices. Father's graveled and enthusiastic loud tone finally caught my ear. It didn't take long to track him down. He was sitting at one end of our large dining table, and in a chair to his right, the man I was searching for. One corner of my mouth drew upwards. I was right. Gray was still here.

With that gladiator awareness of his, Gray's gaze drifted from my father not a moment after I'd entered the room and found me. It was as fascinating as it was unnerving how easy it was for the man to detect someone's presence. No normal knight I had met was capable of such a feat. But I knew better than any that Gray was far from normal.

"You've decided to join," Father said, effectively pulling my gaze from Gray to him.

"If you permit me to." Treading lightly was not an approach of mine, but there were moments when such a thing was smart. However, the wrinkling man knew when I was just play the part of ladylike for my benefit.

Still a smile pulled to Father's face, "Don't peddle your shite to me." Honesty, I had no idea why people questioned why I behaved the way I did if they knew the lord remotely. I was my father's daughter, plain and simple. "No gold to waste on such things."

"Silver will suffice," I said, walking closer to the table, "especially considering its dual functionality of a currency and a bane may come in handy."

"You should have no need to worry with banes now," Father stated as he placed his hands on the dark, smoothed wood of the table and rose from his armless chair.