ChaoticArmcandy

  The tolling of bells.

  Mi nuzzled my neck from behind. “Hey there, sleepy.”

  I y wrapped in a thick bnket, the curve of her body at my back. At some point Roxa must have slipped away and Mi had taken her pce.

  “Mmmph,” I groaned, blearily trying to count the knells. My tongue was sore. “Have work.”

  “I have just the thing for you.” Mi slipped out from behind me and I struggled upright, blinking owlishly.

  She returned with a steaming mug, which she thrust into my hands. “Drink,” she ordered firmly.

  I took a tentative sniff and perked up as warm, spicy aromatics awakened my senses. Mi rewarded my first swallow with a kiss to the top my head, and I blushed pink with pleasure.

  “How’s that?”

  “Mm, s’good,” I enthused, taking another drink and savoring the yummy bittersweet fvors flooding my mouth.

  “It’s a blend of alma leaf, marsh licorice, and gryndelia. And some lion’s tail,” she said, watching my reaction with a satisfied look.

  The bells fell silent. I shed the bnket and began casting around for my clothes. Mi watched me hurriedly dress, her mouth firming, her eyes serious.

  “I’m not sure when will be a good time for you to come back yet, Ellie. Roxa and I have a lot to do and the danger we’re in will get worse before it gets better. I don’t want you to get caught up in it.”

  I looked up in dismay. I’d been hoping she would invite me back sooner.

  “Just lie low for now and keep your cover. I think it would be better if you stayed away from this corridor and especially this room for a while. Either Roxa or I will come find you with the dowser when we can.”

  I nodded reluctantly, trying to keep my face clear of the sinking feeling in my stomach.

  Mi’s face softened a little. “You’ve done much harder things already, girl. This is nothing. Just keep reminding yourself of that, and be patient.” She gave me a quick hug, then went to the door, checked the corridor and turned back to me. “Ready?”

  I took a deep breath, nodded, and slipped quickly out and away.

  ~ ~ ~

  I entered the office amid the bustle of shift change. Jaques was bantering with Roz when I arrived panting at her elbow, and she took one look at me and snorted.

  “Oho, someone’s been out to eat, eh?”

  Roz made an emphatic noise of agreement, her face blossoming with a shit-eating grin.

  “W-what?” I stammered, blushing like a sunset. This wasn’t actually happening, was it? Hadn’t I washed my face?

  “Girl, you reek of cunt.”

  Oh no. I hadn’t washed my face.

  The cluster of staff around us roared with ughter, and I felt more and more of the room’s attention settle on me.

  My gaze dropped to the floor, tunnel vision setting in. I felt faint with embarrassment.

  “She might have thought she were washing herself with a cake of pin soap, but on closer inspection, twas a cm!”

  “Or a wet cat, ehhhh?!”

  “Perhaps a day old fish?”

  “Careful, Ellie—your face stays that color much longer, might not change back.” Roz elbowed me jauntily, almost knocking me over.

  I tried to breathe, and smile. They were just having fun with me, that was all. There was no hint of threat, none of the shame-inducing discipline of social hygiene.

  Taking note of my bright red face, Jaques waved to calm the hubbub. “All right, everyone, go do what you need to do. Ellie, stay here a moment.”

  The hubbub and chatter spilled out of the office and the door finally closed. Jacques leaned against the table and looked at me frankly. I swallowed and resolved to stay tight-lipped about Mi and Roxa.

  “Is someone here taking advantage of you?”

  “N-no.”

  Jaques must have seen my fractional hesitation because she winced. “Wrong question in this pce. What I mean is—are you in trouble? With someone new? Someone besides Pasha and his lot?”

  I shook my head quickly. “No.”

  She eyed me carefully. “Sex is always about power, hun. If you’re jumping into beds here, it’s going to complicate things for you, and then for me. Remember, your only job here is to keep your head down and not draw any attention to yourself. So tell me what’s going on here and don’t leave anything out.”

  My mind raced. If she told Pasha, who then told Aralia—the memory of the st time I’d tried to keep something from those golden hawk eyes fshed through my head. I was not at all confident in my ability to resist Aralia’s attempts to draw the truth out of me. I needed to lie quickly and convincingly.

  I lowered my eyes to the floor. “I was just—um.”

  She stared at me expectantly.

  “Pying with myself,” I muttered, flushing. I gnced back up and tried to widen my eyes. “I-I don’t know what Pasha told you but, um.” I swallowed and softened my voice, gncing at the door. “I’m having some alchemical side-effects that make me really, ah, horny all the time?”

  Jaques stared at me for a moment, then burst out ughing.

  I hardly dared to breathe. Had she bought it?

  “Oh, fates, I’m sorry for ughing at you, Ellie. That’s, uh, well. Right.” She turned away from me, still chuckling, and made a shooing motion out the door. “Don’t catch any flies with that mouth.”

  I shut my mouth with a snap, cheeks bzing, and fled. Out in the corridor, I buried my face in my hands, groaning, stunned at my success and simultaneously cringing at it. Why were my best lies always so humiliating?

  I spent my shift stirring and hanging undry, trying to hide from all the other staff, dreading the moment when I would see them all again.

  And Mi didn’t know when she would be able to spend time with me again. How long would that st? Surely more than days. Weeks? The thought made a pit of loneliness yawn open inside me again. My respite from it had been so brief…

  I was so caught up in the rushing pull of my sadness that I hardly noticed the coin in my pocket warming.

  I stiffened.

  Oh.

  Aralia wanted me.

  My body flushed with heat, even as little sparks of relief danced in my mind. She wanted me. The armed aloneness inside me began to melt a little…

  And that’s when I realized I’d forgotten to take the hepatic again.

  Full of little tremors, I rushed back to the office and knocked, then pushed it open without waiting for a reply. Jaques looked up from her paperwork.

  “Oh, it’s you.”

  “I—I’m being signaled.” I gasped. “I’m supposed to go. It’s from, uh, you know.”

  “Yes.” A wave of permission. “Then you better run along.”

  ChaoticArmcandy