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Chapter Nine
The next morning, Tris woke to find Nariss cooking breakfast. A quick glance told her that Briar and Niko were still dead to the world. She sat up and looked over. "Morning."
"Good morning!" Nariss replied cheerfully. "Would you like eggs?"
"Yeah," Tris said through a yawn. She kicked her way out of the blankets and stalked off to the cart to collect up some clothes to change into out of sight of the boys. It wasn't that she overly cared but propriety had been beaten into her skull by Auntie Muriel.
She returned to the cook fire in brown trousers and a loose, gray shirt. She took a seat and watched the teenage boy cooking several large eggs. He scooped two out of the pan and put them on a plate and passed it to Tris in a fluid motion. She was pleasantly surprised. Then she tried it. Her eyebrows shot up. "This is actually good."
"Thank you," Nariss replied. Then he caught the surprise in her voice and feigned hurt when he continued. "Oi, I can cook perfectly well!"
Tris just looked at him silently.
He pursed his lips and took the other two eggs off the fire and onto another plate. Then he took a bite and said, "My dear mother is a very powerful mage but she cannot cook even a little bit."
"Then where did you learn?"
"My Da owned a shop. He cooked everything for us. That was the general idea though. Ma married a cook so she wouldn't have to. I wouldn't be surprised if I came home and found she'd starved to death."
Tris looked harder at him. She could see pain touching his eyes. "Your father…"
"He died when I was twelve. His horse threw him when a lightning bolt struck a tree close by."
"Sorry," she murmured.
Nariss sighed and smiled. "No worries, it was a long time ago." He paused to take another bite of his eggs. "What about your parents? If you don't mind my asking," he added hastily.
"My parents are alive and well, as far as I know. They're merchants and I haven't seen them in eight years." There was no inflection in her voice, there never was.
"I'm sor—"
"Don't you dare pity me!" she snapped, anger coloring her face.
"Sorry," he said sheepishly.
She looked down at her eggs rather than look at him and risk losing her temper. The silence was palpable until Briar called a good morning a few minutes later followed by a request for eggs.
"Coming up," Nariss called with a loud and cheerful voice.
The eggs were cooked and cooling on a plate when Briar returned, wearing green trousers and a lighter shade of green, open collared shirt. He was also carrying his favorite Shakkan. He set it aside, shoveling eggs into his mouth.
"That's a Shakkan, right?" Nariss asked.
"Yeah."
"I've never seen one up close before. It's quite beautiful."
"Thank you, I love to grow them. It's fun to work with them, especially the ones that cause trouble." He grinned. "They just need a touch of magic to shape them."
"Don't get him started," Tris said dully. "He'll go on for hours about his precious trees."
"My mother said an old friend of hers had a student who raised Shakkans."
"Well, I'm sure there are a few of us. I'd sell you one but you did get robbed two days ago."
Nariss laughed. "If we cross paths again, barring robbery, perhaps I'll make a purchase. The…challenge of looking after one intrigues me."
"Well," he started, casting a sidelong look at his sister, "I have this very stubborn one that just will not do what I ask of it."
Nariss chuckled. "Your trees sound like womenfolk."
"Watch it," Tris murmured.
"You three seem to be getting along." Unbeknownst to the teenagers, Niko had woken, gotten dressed and joined them. Tris felt slightly annoyed that she'd gotten caught up in the discussion and failed to notice Niko's movements. He took a seat and joined the discussion. "Aside from stubborn and troublesome, which tree would you recommend for Master Porter here?"
Briar launched into a memorized spiel about the various forms of miniature trees and Tris tuned it out, sending some winds out while calling others in. There were no bandits around, it seemed. Actually there was no one around. The nearest town was filled with sound according to one breeze but that one had that traveled far; it was still a day and a half's ride.
When they set off after breakfast, Tris took point, listening to winds since she couldn't scry without giving herself away. She knew Porter was watching her from his seat in the cart behind Niko, could feel his eyes burning into the back of her skull, but she continued to ignore him.
Briar, on the other hand, watched Nariss watch Tris. "Why are you staring at her?" he asked.
"She's interesting."
"Not good enough."
Nariss turned his eyes to him. "I'm reduced to staring since every time I try to get nearer, she growls or gallops away."
Briar looked at him hard. As Tris's friend, he wanted he wanted her to be happy. As her brother, he wanted to pound any guy who expressed interest with possibly bad intensions into the dirt. Of course, she was perfectly capable of doing that and much more to any man who hurt her, but it was his job to beat him senseless before that happened.
He wanted to see him interact with Tris before he decided. The problem was getting Tris to go along with it. Finally, he said, "Talk to her about Chime."
"Chime?"
"Her dragon." Briar pointed into the sky at the light refracting glass dragon that soared over her head. "Or just animals in general. She loves them; more than people."
Nariss smiled and Briar decided that there wasn't any ill intent. At least, not at the moment. Still…to give him a bit of a test. "Oh and, just so you know, if you do anything to upset her, she will summon a natural disaster to destroy you."
The completely serious tone made Nariss gulp. But, since he looked resolute after, Briar smiled. "Good luck."
Nariss nodded but said nothing.
To be continued…
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