The Prince's Mark

Chapter Thirty Nine

The group stopped moving sometime after noon. Those who had been in the wagon had only managed four or so hours of sleep and Ina and Pendaer hadn't slept at all.

Mirthal woke up before Tracou and took this opportunity to examine his sleeping face. Even when they slept in the same bed, Mirthal had never had a chance to look at him asleep before. His head resting against the wagon's covering, his white hair fell over his forehead and eyebrows. With his eyes closed, the only natural color on Tracou's face came from his lips. He looked almost like he might fade away, the only evidence of life being his pink lips and the soft rise and fall of his chest. A good amount of grime had built up on him, though. If Tracou needed a wash, then he himself must have looked even worse.

Had he been able, Mirthal would have let Tracou sleep. Unfortunately, things had to be done, so Mirthal gently jostled his shoulder.

"Tracou?"

Tracou's eyelids squeezed. Then he bolted upright, looking around the wagon as though he expected someone to attack him at any moment. When he spotted Mirthal, he stared at him, settling down.

"Oh... Morning."

"Morning. Are you okay?"

"Tired." He paused. "What about you?"

Mirthal laughed. "I'm great. I'm out of Dorssur... and," he held onto that syllable for a moment, to drag things out, "I got to see you sleeping."

"What's good about that?" Tracou asked with a frown.

A grin pulled at Mirthal's lips. In just a few words, he had set Tracou on a path to a pitfall. All he needed was one more push and he would fall right into Mirthal's trap.

"You're cute when you're asleep."

Red bloomed in Tracou's cheeks and his expression shifted between offense and something almost... shy? He couldn't decide on which expression to adopt, each one sliding into the other and then back again.

Perfect. It took so little to pull this reaction out of Tracou and Mirthal felt immensely satisfied.

As to why, exactly, he enjoyed knocking Tracou off balance, even Mirthal would struggle to explain. He would consider the question for a moment and then reply: 'it's cute,' answering nothing. Asking him why it was cute would earn, at most, a perplexed look in response.

Boots clomping over dirt approached them. Pendaer settled behind Mirthal, glaring daggers at Tracou.

"Stop distracting the prince, dezmek. We have to cut our supplies in half."

"He's the one distracting me!" Tracou protested.

Regardless, Pendaer was right—they had work to do.

Hashing out their next step took time. They hadn't been prepared to split into two groups, but two groups meant two sets of supplies. Mirthal and Sakshi had brought nothing with them, making the process more difficult. Naturally the wagon would stay with Tracou, seeing as how it belonged to him in the first place. But they had four horses and they had to give two of them to Ina and Sakshi. Pendaer's horse would aid in pulling the wagon. This offended him deeply and he tried to argue that Sakshi and Ina could ride a single horse until they found a village, but that only benefited him and no one entertained the idea. For the most part, Sakshi and Tracou dealt with the supply distribution while Ina and Pendaer discussed compensation. Mirthal occasionally had to step in to deal with either Pendaer or Sakshi, though he was significantly less successful when it came to Sakshi.

With everything settled, Ina took Tracou aside to speak with him. Or she would have had he been able to walk. Instead, she shooed the others away from the wagon.