Kai Drakon's Arc

Chapter 2 of 30

Kai paid for a room upstairs and climbed the narrow steps with his pack on one shoulder. The loft under the tavern's high roof held four cots, a washbasin, and a shuttered window that faced the yard. He was the only one up there. He dropped his pack. He sat on the cot nearest the wall and pulled off his boots. His feet ached from four months of road. He lay back. He closed his eyes. He saw Azure crouched behind the counter with jars pressed to her chest. He opened his eyes. He turned onto his side. He closed them again. He saw the way her tail had brushed his knee when she passed. He sat up. He told himself he was tired. He told himself sleep would come if he stopped thinking. He counted the boards in the ceiling. He got to twenty and started listing the towns he had crossed. He got to six and remembered her voice saying two coppers if you want heat in the stew. The tavern noise below thinned. A door shut. A dog barked once in the yard. Kai lay staring at the beam above him. He had walked three regions looking for a woman whose face he did not know. He had found a face tonight. He could not sleep on top of it. He swung his legs down and pulled his boots back on. He was not going to lie there until dawn pretending. He wanted to know if she was still downstairs. He wanted to ask her a real question and hear her answer. That was all. He could sleep after. He went down the stairs in his socks with his boots in one hand. The main room was almost empty. A man slept with his cheek on a table. The fire had burned low. Azure stood behind the counter wiping it down, sleeves pushed to her elbows, tail curled around one ankle to keep it out of the way. She looked up when he reached the bottom step. She did not look surprised. "Couldn't sleep," Kai said. "No." She wrung the rag into a bucket. "Didn't think you would." He crossed to the counter and set his boots on the floor. "Can I sit." She nodded and a slight smile. He sat. She poured water into a cup and pushed it toward him. "Something's been killing on my farm," she said. "Two goats last week. Can’t find any tracks." She did not look at him while she said it. She wiped the wood in slow circles. "Neighbors won't come out past the fence." Kai set the cup down. "I track." She paused wiping the wood and looks up with hopeful eyes. “You do?” Kai nodded in determination. “Tomorrow. If you’ll let me.” She blinked in surprise before nodding. “Tomorrow." And smiled warmly. He went back upstairs and slept before his head hit the bed.