The Night Rider

Chapter 20

We walk through the wooden door into the small house. I stare my eyes out at all the things that fill the house. Dried plants, silverware and candles are everywhere. You can feel the magic of a wizard through the grain of the wood. The house breathes magic, as if it had been pulled out of a fairytale book and placed in our world.

We walk to a wooden table placed against the wall. The table is full of all kinds of attributes that I cannot name. Plants, jars of liquids and powders in all sorts of colours. There is a stored book full of drawings and text that is unclear to me. 'Take a seat'. I follow Noa's order and take a seat on the wooden chair.

Noa sits down opposite me and puts his hands open on the table. I understand his action and place my hands, palms up, on his. His dunes glide softly over the black lines that run from my palms. He touches me so gently that I almost wonder if I really feel it. His almost black eyes are fixed on nothing but my hands.

Chea has taken a seat against the wall at the other side of the room. She just watches and hangs against the wall. Noa's eyes go from my palms back to my eyes. He looks deeply at me, as if trying to read my soul. A small grin appears on his lips. His thumbs leave my skin. He folds his hands together and looks at me in silence.

'Princesses are not as innocent as I thought'. All I can do is look at him gaping in silence. He gets up from his chair and walks towards the kitchen. I look at Chea who shrugs her shoulders for a moment, as if it all speaks for itself. 'I suppose you'll be joining us for dinner', I hear from the small kitchen.

'We're staying the night', Chea answers his assumptions. 'You don't mean that I hope'. I start to laugh a little at Noa's genuinely surprised and deviant reply. In the meantime, I have also got up from the chair and walk towards mother and son who are arguing. 'I have one spare room, so you'll have to share that,' Noa concludes while stirring a pan.

Chea looks at me questioningly. I shrug my shoulders as a sign that it doesn't matter much to me. 'Fine', Chea answers her son. Noa lets out an irritated growl and then scoops up a plate full of a mixture I can't identify. Despite the appearance of the mixture, it does smell very inviting. I get a plate pushed into my hands but I am certainly not complaining.

You can identify it as a kind of curry, without rice or meat. Noa opens a kitchen cabinet and takes out a piece of bread that seems almost as hard as stone. I stand with the plate in my hands, hesitating where to go. Chea takes the other plate from the sink and simply sits down at the kitchen table.

A sigh passes over my lips as I sit back down on the wooden chair, Noa's words playing in my head. How can he read me with a single touch and glance? Or is he bluffing? Little has been said about Noa's powers, seemed hidden. I don't know how powerful he is, whether he is able to do anything for me.

Noa puts a slice of sliced bread on the table, takes a seat himself. He starts eating in silence, without paying any attention to us. I don't know where he got this introverted behaviour from, Chea and Elien are both pretty extroverted. I take a piece of bread from the shelf and start eating, surprised by the taste.

'Do you like it here?', Chea asks her silent son. Noa looks up from under his eyelashes at the woman next to me, swallows the food in his mouth. 'You ask that every time you come here, the answer remains the same'. I am not necessarily friendly to my mother but this is a step further, he almost belittles her.
'You could be a bit more friendly'. The words leave my mouth before I know it. Noa's blue eyes shoot straight to me, looking at me with irritation. He puts the piece of bread he was holding in his hands back on his plate. He folds his hands and looks at me penetratingly.

'Look Rafiki. Maybe you are used to everyone bowing down to you, adoring you. You are here in my house, with my rules. You are nothing more or less than a cursed assassin who needs my help, so behave accordingly'. I look at him in amazement, cursing our arrival.

Slowly, anger bubbles up inside me, anger I can barely contain. Noa continues eating as if nothing had been said, Chea also keeps quiet. I feel the black magic spreading through my veins, the urge to wring his neck. If I don't act now, I know I will either create a new enemy, or add a new name to my list.

'Where is the spare room?', I press my lips in irritation. The urge to do something to him is growing. Third door on the right', Noa answers nonchalantly and continues eating normally in the meantime. I push my chair back, just a little too loudly. The sound echoes through the small house, before I make my way to the guest room.