Claiming The Remnant

Chapter 73

[ Garrett ]

"No harm no foul, right?" Zach babbled. "Right!?" He pushed when I didn't answer.

"Ye Gods lad, give me a minute!" As I snapped the words at him I felt bad - worse when he squeaked a sorry. "No, I'm sorry. It was just a lot to process."

"Yeh…" He grimaces before hanging his head, green hair flopping over his face.

"Right…right…" All attempts to slow my racing brain were failing. "One question, did Jo draw the dagger, at all, even a smidge?" I tried to breathe slower.

"No, the dagger didn't move from its place of concealment. Only the hand touched it." Zach was resolut.

"Ok… well, nothing happened, no crime was committed. Jo might have thought about it or maybe they were just touching it. Jo does do that - like a little quirk. Either way, you're right, nothing happened." I steadied myself against the sturdy mare at my back. "Thank you though."

"Don't thank me yet I still have my question." He chewed on his lip, accessing me. Ye Gods, it wasn't going to be 'the talk', was it? Earth and Sky, that was not a conversation I had any idea how to go about.

"Alright then lad." I handed him the soft brush to make the mare's coat shine. "What is your question?"

"How did your brother died?"

"Phew." I breathed out.

"'Phew'?" He repeated confused, green eyebrows coming together. "I thought this was a delicate topic?"

"It is… but I thought you were going to ask me about sex." My confession had me blush a little. Zach laughed and gave me a silly grin.

"I'm pretty well informed on that front. For a start, a closed door doesn't mean that much to me - I can't turn this off. Ye Gods, have I tried." He shook off a thought. "And Ethyn already talked to me about it."

"Yeh, I'm glad about that because I wouldn't have known where to start." Turning to the chestnut mare I was just putting together an answer to Zach's question when he huffed.

"Rin wants to wait until we make declarations and become entwined at the temple but I don't want to wait. I love him. I'm trying to persuade him for my birthday - we can even do the temple thing beforehand but he's all 'we're too young mon moitié'. Too young for what?" He waved his hands in the air in exasperation. "Too young to love? We would be the legal age. What does he even mean by this? Does he not want to be with me? Does he want to see other people, explore options? I only want him. I'll always only want him. He is my forever." Zach vented. The lad really was having a hard week.

"Zach, perhaps Poflorin just isn't ready. It can feel like a big step and it's not always the easiest thing to talk about or admit to." Once again I channeled my inner old person for some sage advice.

"Huh." He was clearly thinking about my words as he brought the brush down the mare's healthy coat. "Was your first time with a man, or a woman?"

"Ye Gods, Zach." Chuckling I stopped brushing the chestnut mare. "You're really forward - you know that."

"I like to talk." He shrugged.

"Then why live in the busy castle?"

"Han likes the castle and it's safe for her. After I met Rin I really didn't want to go anywhere else. Sometimes it's frustrating when people don't understand me, especially when they aren't happy with me expressing myself in other ways, but it's not that bad." He shrugged. Zach looked at me, head slightly tilted with an expression that said he was fed up of me asking him lots of questions but not answering his. "Are you going to answer my questions?"

"I was about to but you keep talking." With a smile and a ruffle of his hair I resigned myself to share. "My first time - I was seventeen, it was with a lass from a bakery. I'd been courting her for a few weeks." Zach opened his mouth, no doubt to ask a question. "Nuh-huh, that's all you're getting on that topic for today."

The rest of the tale would be better appreciated after his first time. Hearing it didn't go well for someone else eases the sting of things not going to plan. At the time it was awful but now the memories of Hetty's flour covered everything after a bag fell off the shelf and split due to my vigorousness, quickly followed by her dissatisfaction at me finishing less than a minute later, was pretty funny to look back on.

"Your brother?" The lad was tentative. It was odd how important it seemed to be to him.

"My brother's name was Kieran. Five years older. He had white magic, just a streak and he was a really good brother to me. There were lots of things that were good about him but it's rarely the good things about a person that are the issue." The memory was prickly and my heart ached. "Kieran had a terrible vice along with an equally awful ability to read people. He was a gambling addict. He lost more than he won and he bet more than he had. One day he bet with the wrong kind of people. People who don't take kindly to waiting for what they are owed. They killed him for it. He died in my arms, in some backwater alley that stank, with my blood dripping on him. Here." I nabbed Zach's hand and pressed his fingers against the scar along my jaw. "Looks tidy but it was the razor sharp tip of a dagger right down to the bone. My souvenir for my attempt at saving his life."

"How long ago was it?" He asked with his fingers probing my scar.

"Four years. Well, I suppose almost five now."

"Do you still miss him?"

"All the time." Zach dropped his hand and stood still. It was so strange to see.

"Is it wrong that I miss my Mother?" Zach asked the floor.

"No lad. Regardless, she was still your Mother." He was somber and so was I.

"You know, Zack, I've never told anyone that story before."

"Really? Is it a secret?"

"Nope, not really. Just never felt right to share it. I lied to our parents to protect them, Taiya asked a dozen times over about this scar but I didn't trust her enough to tell the truth, Jo has never asked about my brother and other people were mostly just people. I didn't want to tell them."

“Do you know who did it?”

“No, not the specific person but I know who he owed, I know who sent his executioner.” Vacarin, that's who. That man had a lot to pay for. Maybe I would bring him back. Then he could pay in his blood, one slice at a time in Lystra town square. "Any more questions? About my brother." I added before he took it as a free for all. Face scrunched up in thought, he shook his head.

"Not for now. Can I redo these?" He fingered the new mare's braided mane.

"Sure." Zach was good company and the horse like him. He even showed me how to do one of the more intricate braids that he favoured. "Do you want to sit on the horse?" I ventured when the braiding was complete.

"Umm…" Zach fidgeted nervously.

"I was just offering, no pressure." With firm but kind hands I rubbed the mare's head.

"Ok, but if I don't like it -"

"I'll get you down right away." I interrupted. "Come on, I'll give you a boost."

"No saddle?"

"Ah, nah, don't want her getting all excited thinking we are going for a proper ride. Isn't that right girl?" Zach chuckled when I spoke to the horse and patted her side. "So, you're going to stand side on here, put one hand here the other here, little momentum and swing up. One fluid motion."

After one false start and a little push from me Zach was astride the new mare.

He looked unimpressed.

"Grip with your knees so you don't fall off. That's it." I felt proud of Zach for trying it, even if he didn’t seem too keen. "What you think?"

"It's like standing on the ground." He shrugged. The mare was a little excited or maybe impatient and it pawed the ground. "Whoa!! Do it again. Do it again!" In his excitement Zach almost fell off. I had to give him a push to keep the mare under him.

"This?" I tapped her leg. Well trained, she lifted it and with another tap she put it back down.

"Yes!"

"You want to walk a little?"

"Definitely."

Nice and slowly I led the mare around the pen while Zach yipped and squealed and generally exclaimed his delight.

"I take it you like it then?"

"I love it!"

"Then the horse is yours."

"You're giving me a horse? You can't be serious."

"I am."

"If she's mine can I name her?"

"Of course."

"I'm going to call her Bisou."

"Bisou?"

"It's from the old language, means kiss." Zach leant forward and hugged Bisou’s neck. “She is amazing. Will you teach me to ride her?”

“Well, you see Zach, I’d love to but...” I rubbed the back of my neck, “I don’t think I’ll be able to do that. It’s not that I don’t want to but I really won’t have the time. Perhaps a few lessons from myself here and there, however I can arrange for someone to teach you if that would be ok?” Hum, Graceson was probably available… made me chuckle.

“I understand, Captain.” I was sure that he did but it didn’t stop him from pouting.

“Bisou is a lovely mare, I’m sure she will be very sweet to you, especially if you bring her an apple or the odd sugar cube.” My chestnut mare, who had been so patiently waiting at stables, whinnied at the mention of sugar cubes. “You like what you see when she steps?” I guessed.

“Yes, it’s like… watching water ripple. It’s beautiful.” Zach purred, swinging his feet. “Do you not know any of the old language?”

“Umm, ‘merde’? That’s about it. When I hear a word I can sometimes work it out. I’ve studied some old Fae - much more useful than the old language, easier too with it being most similar to our language. The old language, it’s a dead language. A dead society.”

“I know but it’s fun and some of the words are pretty. What do you call Jo? My butterfly? ‘Mon papillon’. Cute.” He grinned, playing with Bisou’s freshly braided mane.

“It is cute. What about you and Poflorin? He calls you ‘mon moitié' and you call him ’rin’, what do they mean?”

“Mon moitié is ‘my other half’ and Rin is just short for Poflorin. His full name is a mouthful when the castle is busy but he thinks it’s cute. Sometimes I call him ‘Beau’ - handsome.” He gushed, full of young love.

“Right then lad, I’ve got half a dozen other horses to groom, so, are you staying up or coming down?”

“I better come down, I need to run some errands.” He rolled his eyes. “There have been a whole bunch of people calling for me and I’ve ignored all of them.”

“I thought it was quiet here?”

“It is. Sounds more like someone actually calling me as opposed to a marble bouncing around in a tin can.” He lifted one leg over so he was sitting side on and lithy jumped down. “Thank you for this morning Captain, it’s been a sucky few days - for both of us, but after talking with you I feel a lot better.” With all the brilliance of youthful exuberance he turned to his horse. “Be a good girl Bisou, I’ll bring you a treat later.”

And with that I was alone with the horses. After I’d groomed all the remaining horses (which, with all my experience, didn't take me too long), it seemed like a good idea to take my mare for a ride. Just as I was finishing there was the sound of footsteps.

“Jo!” My reaction was instant, instinctual even. A huge smile filled my face, my heart beat faster, my feet were moving without me, my arms opened to embrace them as I leant in for a kiss. They turned their head to one side giving me their cheek but other than that they didn’t pull away. “Shall I saddle you a horse?”

“I can saddle my own horse.” Jo’s tone was tense and clipped. “Anyway, we are just here to see the horses. We aren’t going to ride.”

We? Looking past Jo it became painfully obvious that they hadn’t sought me out. Finding me here had been accidental. Lady Esther, still incredibly pale but surprisingly less skeletal, was standing one step into the pen holding the gate open. Her eyes were fixed on me. A mix of emotions, tangled terror and recognition. She started to shake.

“Jo?” They were brushing past me, forgetting about the Lady that was trailing behind them. Jo stopped, took a heavy breath.

“Missed you, too.” They muttered quietly. Blinking, I was ripped in two directions. To my butterfly that I so desperately needed, who I was pretty sure just admitted to being there when I drunkenly told a wall that I missed them and to Lady Esther who’s shaking hand was raised to grip her head.