Page 152 of Winter's Echo
“You are a complete asshole!” I yelled after him. An older woman passing shushed me, and I glared at her so fiercely that she picked up her pace and almost ran away from me.
I pushed open the door, feeling even more annoyed when I saw the sign with the pool of water and steam rising from it. I’d walked right past it.
Twice.
Larana was waiting for me, and I almost turned around and walked back out when I met her fierce glare.
“What took you so long?”
“Nicco.”
She opened her mouth to say something, thought about it, and then shrugged. “My fault. I should have told Bax.”
“Have you been… in?”
Larana looked down at her traveling clothes and picked up her disheveled braid. “Do I look like I’ve been in?”
“No would have worked.”
She grinned. “Come on, let’s get the stench of road off us.”
She led me into a wide room that was lined with wooden benches, with towels placed along them at short intervals.
“We change in here,” Larana told me, pointing to the small shelf under the bench. “Fold your clothes there, then you take a towel.”
“Leave my clothes here?” I asked her in surprise.
She ran her eyes over me in confusion, and then I saw the look of understanding in her eyes.
“You can take your cloak in with you.”
I nodded once, grateful she understood that my money was in my cloak.
We undressed, both of us facing away from each other. I picked up a towel, surprised at how short it was, but it covered the important bits.
I folded my cloak as best I could and carried it through the purple curtain that hung between the changing area and the baths.
The baths were unlike anything I had seen. The wooden floor gave way to stone slabs. Steam rose in lazy circles above the water, and the bath itself was a single large pool, sunk into the floor so the water lapped gently over the stone.
Two other women were in the water, each at an opposite end, but they were more or less in the same position. They were resting with their shoulders against the bath wall, their arms spread out on the stone, and their heads tilted back as they enjoyed the warm water.
The air smelled of something exotic and warming.
“What is the smell?” I asked Larana as she dropped her towel and sank into the warm water.
She sniffed. “Honeyblossom?” She inhaled again. “Maybe some lilac.”
It was subtle but pleasant. Self-consciously, I put my towel over my cloak and quickly got into the water.
Heat instantly soaked into my skin, and I was quick to submerge myself fully. When I came up, Larana was unbraiding her hair. She pointed at the smaller pool to the side.
“You can wash your hair in there,” she told me. “See the stone shells?”
I looked and nodded when I saw the large shells that protruded from the wall.
“Soap for your body and your hair.” Her blonde hair fell in waves over her shoulders and floated in the water. “I can’t wait to wash my hair,” she said with a groan as she tipped her head back.
I leaned back and reveled in the warmth of the water. This was almost better than the hot spring in Thiece’s settlement.
