Page 23 of Lady Knight and the Thief

Cypress scoffed and asked, “What do you want to know?”

“Where did they find you?”

“Orphanage. Queen Henrietta chose me to be a companion of Cade’s. We trained together. I got good, then better than everyone else.”

Torren nodded. “And they never mentioned me?”

“Nope,” Cypress said, making her lips pop.

He nodded, accepting the malice in the tone. He’d earned it, in any case. “Did you know your parents, before the orphanage, I mean?”

“No.”

That was it. No explanation, nothing. Just a flatno, and a clear end to the conversation.

Torren nodded in acceptance. “Good night, Lass.”

Cypress gave him a skeptical look, brows scrunched together before she said, “Goodnight,thief.”

Torren smiled and crossed his hands over his middle, fingers laced together as she shuttered the lantern and shrouded the room with darkness.

Sometime during their talk, the inn had gone silent–enough so the sound of the night outside seemed to magnify in the dark.

He closed his eyes briefly, listening to the crickets chirping and birds calling, the wind whispering through the trees.

It wasn’t long before Torren heard the sound of Cypress’s soft breathing filling the space, as if the trees had lulled her to sleep themselves.

Torren was a long way off from sleep yet, so he gazed out of the window and into the dark, listening to what the wind had to say about Cypress, the indomitable.

9

Red Sky in the Morning

CypressawokewithTorren’sbooted heel lightly nudging her calf. Dawn’s barest golden rays cut through the window, illuminating his gray- blue eyes.

“Time to move,” He whispered, then stood and quietly strapped his sword to his waist and grabbed his pack.

Cypress quickly slipped from the bed and began gathering her things. “Did you hear something?”

Torren nodded, “It was quiet until a few minutes ago. Loud men who still sound drunk from last night. That kind of hubris never ends well, I fear.”

She nodded, gathering the lengths of her hair and tying it off with a small strip of leather cord. A glance out the window revealed a sky painted blood red, the wash of color stealing her breath.

Quickly and silently, Torren led them down a set of stairs to the rear of the building, which led to the stables. Without breaking stride, he tossed a pair of gold marks to the stable boys who’d been sleeping in the stalls next to their horses.

“Thanks, lads,” Torren said before double-checking the various straps and belts on the saddles.

Satisfied that all was as it should be, Cypress and Torren left the inn under the cover of dawn's earliest lights, the beating of horse hooves louder than the pounding in her heart.

The mattress hadn’t been anything special. Compared to the bedroll shehadbeen using, Cypress could admit that the mattress was superior.

Though nothing compared to sleeping under nothing but a canopy of leaves. These nights on the road had been some of the best sleep Cypress could ever remember. The sound of the wind blowing through the trees did something to soothe her soul and calm her mind and spirit, making sleep as easy as breathing.

“How much further to the edge of the Wylds?” Cypress asked after they stopped for a short while to relieve themselves and grab rind fruits from their saddle bags.

It had been a long day in the saddle already, so she decided to walk beside Seren for a while. Cypress could use the time to stretch her muscles, and her horse deserved the rest.

“We’ll need to make camp tonight, and probably tomorrow on the road. Depending on the weather, we could be with my people within the week's end.”