June 25, 2011

In Which Riona Is Mocked by the Eyes

February 16, 1175

"Just a second!"

Riona pulled Lonriad's tunic over her head and pushed the drawer shut. What good was a private room if she couldn't even have ten minutes without someone banging on the door? She'd been about to turn in for the night. She'd been about to curl up in bed with a board and a quill and a fresh sheet of parchment she'd swiped from the market and write home--just a quick note, something vague, telling her family not to worry. Of course, the question would have been how to get it back to Naroni, how to get it to her father without actually addressing it to him... but it was the thought that counted, right?

At least, that was what she'd have to tell herself if the interruptions continued. At least it was probably just Casimiro. "All right, make it quick."

"All right." Damn. It wasn't Casimiro, but Isidro.

Riona groaned. "What do you want?"

"No need to bite my head off." He shut the door and shuffled toward her, his right foot dragging as it often did. "I just noticed that you headed up here a little early and couldn't help but wonder why."

"Oh, I don't know--to get some sleep, maybe?" Christ, couldn't he just leave it at that? The way she was being treated by all of them except Casimiro, she'd figured no one would have noticed her leaving. Then again, Isidro was a bit uncanny. "We have to be on the road pretty early tomorrow."

Beneath the most prominent of his scars, his dark brow arched. "We just had supper."

"Yes, well, I'm a bit tired."

"You're never tired." How could he look so smug without smiling? Asshole. "Look, let's get something straight here. You don't like me and I don't like you, but we're stuck together as long as you choose to stay with my party, so we might as well get used to it. Anyway, I'm here to extend the olive branch."

...Eh? The only olive branch she could think for him to extend was to leave. She wanted to get comfortable. She wanted to figure out what to do about this letter. She wanted to get out of these disgusting clothes. But this was a man who did not like to make things simple. "All right..."

"Bernardo and I were going to head down to this little place just outside the village. Care to join us?"

A chilling panic spread from her core to the ends of her limbs. Just her and Isidro and Bernardo? Bernardo was all right, but it wasn't as if they were friends, and of course Isidro... "Uh... what about the others?"

Isidro shrugged. She might have gotten more of a response had she asked for a fucking bedtime story. "Oh, Augustin and my father have better things to do, and Casimiro doesn't really care for what we have in mind."

Somehow, that didn't sound promising. "Why doesn't Casimiro want to go? Is it something unsavory? Something he's too much of a gentleman for?"

Pushing a strand of thick dark hair to the side, Isidro sniffed. "That's one way of putting it, perhaps... but surely you wouldn't be opposed to bit of youthful hi-jinx? Would you, Searle?"

Maybe this was what Isidro was good for. He seemed to take every opportunity possible to remind her of her supposed identity, to make her think about what this 'Searle' would do. Was Searle opposed to youthful hi-jinx? "No..."

"Good." Isidro flipped back his hair, the soft candlelight of the room playing on his face in such a way that he was almost pretty; shame that his eyes were mocking her. "Bernardo's waiting downstairs. Grab some money and we'll go."

NEXT CHAPTER:

8 comments:

Van said...

Okay, two updates today :)

...which is convenient because I might not be able to whip up tomorrow's Ashelia on time because of my work hours :(

thewynd said...

Oh man I hope they aren't going where I think they are...

Penelope said...

It's blatantly obvious he's taking her to a brothel. Riona is so dense that light bends around her. (HA! Glad I finally got the opportunity to use that.)

Also, that's pretty cruel of him. I think that this resolutely proves that he knows who she is. He would not have just invited his good friend Searle out for a night on the town, especially not so aggressively. Maybe those two deserve each other. :O

Penelope said...

Also, I think he talks to her like she's stupid and she doesn't pick up on it for a second.

Penelope said...

Actually, I take that back. She does at least know when she's being insulted. But I think that he very definitely thinks that she's an idiot.

Van said...

Gayl: We'll find out where they're going in the next post.

Pen: We'll see what's going on Isidro's head next post. But yeah, this a dick move on his part if he does know who she is.

And he definitely thinks she's an idiot. Although... can you blame him for that one? If he does know, then the way he sees it is that she's an impulsive little brat who ran off from a stable home--which is something Isidro himself never had--to go continent-hopping with a shady group being led by Domingo, whom she should have guessed to be bad news.

But yeah, at least she has the sense to be insulted. I wouldn't say she's quite stupid, but she's certainly immature and more naive than she'd like to think she is. Someone like Raia would have just told Isidro to shove it.

S.B. said...

The poor dumb child. Does she really have no clue? I don't think she's stupid but she may be fatally naive. This whole impulsive plan, and that's dressing it up far more than it deserves, is absolutely crazy. Oh hell yeah, write a letter to Dad and stop off at the nearest post office to send it.

Is Isidro just toying with her? Mean or amused or annoyed or what?

Van said...

Riona seems to have this idea that she can do whatever she wants without consequence and the people around her just have to deal with it :S

Isidro... well, we'll see...