again you’re gone, off on a different path than mine
i'm left behind wondering if i should follow
Though Lepis had not thought herself on uncertain ground, there is nevertheless a warmth of relief at Castile’s willingness to humor her. The dun mare is no stranger to acquiescence, but there is some small thrill in achieving it from someone that she considers an equal. There are few of those – and the number only grows less as she ages – and Castile has always been one. “The hand of the king,” she repeats, soft amusement coloring her voice at the words, reminded of a story of a far away land that she’d loved in her childhood. Castile had been the one to tell it to her, she thinks with a smile.
When he speaks next, his voice is lower, pitched so that no one might overheard them.
What he has to tell her is nothing new; they have shared the goal of expanding Loess since her departure for the redwood kingdom nearly five years past. Progress has been slow, complicated by Lepis’ reluctance to spill blood and the North’s iron will. Castile’s voiced plan speaks of a more rapid progression though, and yet he does not answer her only query. Lepis does not miss this, but nor does she bring it up again. Some things, she thinks, are best left to her own devices.
Steal them, he tells her, but does not specify how or even when. That is up to her, she decides, and she will time it properly. Things move slowly in the North, after all, and she has time.
Lepis watches the acrid smoke that rises between them as it spirals into the clear spring air. A reminder of his dragon nature, she thinks, and her mind slips to Oceane. Had the mare found Sochi, she wonders? Had she confronted Castile? It is not her place to pry, she thinks, but Lepis has never cared much for staying in places that limit her actions.
“I hear you are expecting another child this spring.” Lepis says, her brow raising over blue-grey eyes. There is no expression beyond that – the waiting, the curiosity – because she does not allow it. She will not have this chance to question the motives of the man who had broken her marriage, Lepis thinks, and she will not squander the opportunity with someone guilty of similar crimes. “Oceane seems like she will be a wonderful mother.”
LEPIS
i’m the one who sees you home--
but now i’m lost in the woods
and i don’t know what path you are on |
