In Which Asalaye Learns Something about Brothers

July 28, 1172

Asalaye fiddled with the laces of her dresses as her form settled further into the hay. She probably should have been out in the field with everyone else, dancing and laughing and clapping every time the newlyweds so much as looked at each other--she was the groom's sister, after all--but she wasn't in the mood for a party, so she'd stolen away and climbed to the obscure sanctuary of the barn's loft, never mind that she was wearing her best dress and had torn the hem on one of the ladder's nails. Nanalie would scold her for it, but Asalaye didn't care--after all, who would notice a torn hem? The very same people who'd failed to notice her leaving?

"Laya?"

So someone had noticed her absence after all--and not even a someone she would have preferred, she noted as she watched a dark head with a flawless nose emerge from the hole in the floor. Smirking, the boy slung himself from the ladder to the hardwood. "Has the beautiful Princess Laya been locked away in her tower, doomed to days of drudgery until yonder knight in shining armor comes to slay the dragon?"

Asalaye sniffed. Lonriad was the last person she cared to see right now, but she liked to think she could give as well as she took. "And what are you supposed to be? The dragon's next meal?"

"Yes, but I turned out to be one of those dishes that are just too pretty to eat." He crossed the floor and trudged through the strewn-about hay, leaving it in even more of a disarray than before.

"Really? I would have guessed the opposite."

As he drew nearer, Lonriad chuckled. "Well, you would've guessed wrong, then."

God, he was insufferable. Of all the stupid boys who could have found her up here, why did it have to be the one who was all but immune to her insults? "Look, what do you want?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I just wanted to see what you were up to, I guess."

Well, clearly she wasn't up to anything; why couldn't he just leave? "You should go back to the party."

"So should you."

Silence. Sighing, Lonriad dropped to his knees and crawled onto the hay pile beside her. Asalaye's nose twitched; for a dumb thirteen-year-old kid, he smelled shockingly good. "Are you all right? You didn't really seem like yourself at the wedding."

Asalaye kicked a chunk of hay to the side. "I'm fine."

"No, you're not." Lonriad crossed his legs and drummed his fingers against his torso. "If you were fine, you wouldn't have told me you were fine; you would have called me an ass-rag and tried to push me down the ladder."

Insulted, she frowned. "Tried?"

"Well, you know what I mean.

"Look, I just want to help. If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to."

"Then I won't." Thank God that was finally over. Asalaye leaned back against the shingled wall stared at the sloped ceiling above them; it was a somewhat overcast day, but the sun's weak rays still crept through the cracks. "Do you think he'll still want to spend time with us?"

Lonriad's head tilted. "Who? Your brother?"

She nodded; nudging a little closer, he did the same. "You're not losing him, Laya, if that's what you're worried about."

"Oh, and how would you know?" She felt her spine surge as he slipped his arm around her--and yet, oddly enough, she felt no urge to move.

"My sister, remember?" His lips pulled into a smile; she tried to mimic it, but he made it look too easy. "Raia. I mean, we fight and all, but she's still my sister--and when she got married, I didn't think she'd ever find time for the rest of us again. But she visits us, and we visit her, and honestly... I think her and I are getting along a lot better now that we're not under the same roof."

Getting along better? The very notion was so absurd that for the first time in days, she laughed. "You're joking, right?"

"Laya, have I ever lied to you?" He reached forward with his free hand to tapped her square on the nose. "You never hear anyone else telling you how ugly your nose is, do you?"

"That's because they have tact, you stupid bastard!"

He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. She'd always imagined tearing him a new asshole if he tried to kiss her, but she decided to let it slide. "Maybe, but the point stands. Don't worry about your brother. You'll still see him all the time, and I guarantee you that he'll never stop loving you--I have a couple of pain-in-the-ass little sisters myself, you know."

It was odd to think that he was making her feel better--so odd, in fact, that her rational side needed some reassurance. "You promise?" It was a childish thing to ask, but it had never failed her before.

Lonriad rubbed his hand up and down against her shoulder. "I promise."

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