Nightsworn | The Whispering Wall #2

Five: Watcher

"You look like someone just crapped in your food."

Koen's chirpy mood was a stinging contrast to Jordan's abject misery. Jordan's friend and fellow apprentice strolled inside the training room after this pronouncement, leaving Jordan staring glumly after him as he greeted Astra and then Nika.

The training session had gone well – for Astra. Jordan blamed his bad performance on fatigue and the injuries he had sustained during the robbery, but it was a feeble excuse considering Astra was grieving and had still found time to excel in her studies. Her intensity unnerved him and he couldn't match it, which meant he was endlessly grateful that they were only sparring with wooden sticks. Despite the blunt weapons he was covered in bruises and he'd strained muscles in places he hadn't even known he had muscles.

To make it worse, Astra made no effort to salve the embarrassment with friendly banter or teasing. She worked in total silence and preferred to pretend she and Jordan had never so much as spoken to each other.

"Had a rough time?" Koen's tutor Hap sounded a lot more sympathetic. He and Jordan gripped elbows in greeting as the old man hobbled inside.

"She's really good," Jordan muttered, and cringed when he realised he hadn't made it sound much like a compliment.

"She is," Hap agreed. "She's also got a year of training on you. Don't be so hard on yourself."

Jordan grunted. He didn't feel much better about it.

"Your footwork is improving a lot," Nika said. The Unspoken appeared at Jordan's side.

"I fell over twice."

"Better than last time."

Jordan scowled, forced to concede the point, even though anything would have been an improvement on last time.

He glanced over at Koen and Astra chatting quietly in the corner. Astra caught him looking and abruptly stopped talking, then patted Koen's shoulder and walked away down the corridor. A moment later a door snapped shut.

"She really hates me, doesn't she?" Jordan mumbled, face burning. "I don't think I did anything to her."

"She doesn't hate you," Koen said, shoving his hands in his pockets and ambling over to join them. "She takes a while to warm up to people. Longer than usual at the moment." They all fell silent for a time, and then Koen added, "Anyone fancy a drink?"

"Yes," Jordan said immediately, ignoring the heated look Nika directed at him. The Unspoken hadn't taken well to finding out that Jordan also partook of Yddris's extensive collection of drink, but Jordan wasn't about to make the prying worse by admitting it was the only thing that helped him sleep.

"Demon's Brew?" Koen asked, either oblivious or ignoring the sudden tension.

"Where else?" Hap asked, clapping Jordan on the shoulder as his face burned anew. The owner of the Demon's Brew inn had a daughter who Jordan had always got along extremely well with, a fact that the other Unspoken teased him for relentlessly.

They left the house together – Astra was staying in a communal boarding complex, where the Unspoken had hired a building for guild use over the dark season. It was in a slightly shabbier part of the merchants' quarter, bordering the large estate where Lord Harkenn housed the families of his staff and soldiers. Jordan preferred this part of the city; it was more homely than other parts of the quarter, without being run-down. He thought it might be a good place for him to rent a house with Grace someday, when he had the money. Perhaps Harkenn would even let him buy it.

Not that the lord was all that fond of doing favours.

He looked up at the sky as he stepped out into the street, heart sinking at the indigo cracks across the sky. It felt as though the daytime had never got started, and it was already ending. He and Grace had arrived in Nictaven on the cusp of the dark season, so Jordan had never seen the city in full light. He missed the sun more fiercely than almost anything else from earth.