Reader Beware

Chapter 42

            They had just reached their street when Rika came to a decision. She had to know the truth, before she went along with her current plan. She held back until Ahisu turned to look at her. She kept her eyes on his chest, unable to look him in the face. “I…I just need to know, why? Why did you…” she flushed, leaving the sentence hanging.

            For a second, all she could hear were the faint shouts of happy children. Then he said “Shetton.”

            Rika’s head jerked up and she actually stared at him. “Shetton? What do you mean Shetton?”

            The demon appeared beside Ahisu from wherever he’d been and laughed. The mage looked at him, but Shetton only shook his head, eyes dancing as he grinned. “Shetton’s idea,” Ahisu finally said.

            She choked. “His idea? W-why? Why would…something like…”

            “Hide in plain sight.”

            Rika felt her stomach drop away as the meaning of his words sank in. For a second, she’d allowed herself to think that maybe he…but it had all been to hide from the soldiers. To make them wander off and find someone else to check. A goddamn act.

            She was glad when he turned back around, continuing along towards the house. She could feel tears prickling her eyes and fought them down. She bit the inside of her cheek, knowing she couldn’t cry. Not in front of him and not in front of the other two.

            By the time the mage was opening the door, Rika had herself settled. She wouldn’t burst into tears, but she knew that, sooner or later, she was going to have to sit by herself and have a good cry. These kinds of emotions couldn’t be kept bottled up forever. Not when she was living with the source of them.

            The door had barely swung outwards when Damek and Elthia all but dragged both of them inside. Rika found herself face to face with the healer, who pressed a hand against Rika’s forehead and closed her eyes. She stayed like that for several seconds before she shook her head and looked to Damek. “She’s not injured.”

            Her blue-haired friend glared at Rika, his arms folded over his chest. “Then might I ask, how and why you were gone so long?”

            She flinched, gaze going to the floor. “I was going to get ingredients and make lunch as a surprise. I got lost.”

            “You got lost? You got lost! Damn it! You were supposed to stay here for a reason. Or do you not get that there are two powerful lords with personal armies at their disposal after you? You can’t just go wandering around town on a whim! And do you have any idea how worried we were when we came back and found you gone? We thought you’d been taken again!”

            Rika winced. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

            Damek’s glare intensified and Rika braced herself for his next words, but Elthia laid a hand on his arm. “She apologized. And we can hardly blame her for getting lost.”

            “She shouldn’t have been out there in the first place! She was supposed to stay here.”

            “If you’d been left here by yourself all day, would you have stayed?”

            “I’m not being hunted by-”

            Elthia shook her head. “No, but it wasn’t fair of us to leave Rika by herself. Now,” she said, turning to Rika. “You look tired. I’m sure you’ve had too much excitement, what with getting lost and all. You should go have a lie down. I’ll come wake you up when dinner’s ready. Unless you’re hungry now?”

            Rika shook her head, the very thought of food throwing her stomach into open revolt. The idea of curling up in her bed, maybe crying a little, then taking a nap was too tempting to resist. “I think I do want to lie down,” she said, voice quiet, feeling the aftereffects of so many intense emotions in such a short time.

            The healer nodded and patted her arm. “I thought you might. You’ve been through a lot, and not just today. I think you really just need a nice long rest. You look tired. If you’re feeling better tomorrow, we’ll dye your hair then. I have all the ingredients I need, and I’ll use tonight to prepare a batch.”

            “Thank you.”

            Elthia smiled. “Don’t worry about it. You just go on upstairs.”

            Rika nodded and headed towards the stairs, doing her best not to look at Ahisu, who she could see out of the corner of her eye, was sitting in the position she knew he took whenever talking silently with Shetton. Just thinking of the demon’s name made her stomach give a little buck, reminding her that she was only barely holding them in.

            It’d be easy enough to cocoon herself in blankets and pillows and just cry that she decided to do just that. As long as she was quiet, the others wouldn’t ever know.