Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree

"Why fix what isn't broken?" Tarr asked. "No point in wasting money on training they won't use other than to fight with me."

"I heard you could read and write," Lyra mused. "Are you simply a recorder or do you enjoy books?" She didn't return the smile; she expected Ky knew she'd seen through his weak lie.

"Fair enough." Aleth inclined his head. It wouldn't be particularly easy to get people up here to cross-train Tarr's soldiers in the middle of a war, anyway. It was just as well that Tarr was too short-sighted to see the strength of a well-rounded military.


"I enjoy books," Ky answered, sobering a bit. He hesitated again. "I don't have much time for them these days. But when I was a little--" girl "child, I was a voracious reader and tore through all the books my father got for me."

Tarr reached the top of the stairs and came to a low part of the wall where he could see over into the forest below. It had been his favorite spot since he was a small child; his grandfather had taken him up here and pointed out the different animals in the trees and the sky.

"I never enjoyed reading before I came here." Lyra held up the book of poetry. "I suppose I see the appeal now. Books can take you anywhere, can't they?"

Aleth stopped next to Tarr, looking over the landscape. "It's beautiful."


"Oh, that's a good book!" Ky said eagerly, then caught herself and sobered a bit. "I mean... the poets in that volume are quite talented. Are you enjoying it?"

Tarr nodded; he didn't find it particularly beautiful, but he'd heard it described as such. "I'm very lucky to live here," he replied. "It's the perfect place: good game, fresh water, trees, farming soil."

"Lady Katerina's a very good poet," Lyra agreed. "I wish I'd had her experiences. Her descriptions of the Southern Realm almost make me feel like I'm there." She set the book down on the end table, fidgeting with a loose thread on her gown. She wanted to talk to this boy, to tell him everything. But why should she? He was no more trustworthy than his master, and Father would be here soon and she could tell him instead.
This boy, though...he was strange. Different.

"What more could you want?" Aleth said with a smile. It was getting less difficult to do so, now, although his face still throbbed. His rage was beginning to subside a bit. He needed to regain his composure before Loquitur showed up. Tarr was nothing -- the dog sent to fetch Aleth and bring him to his master. He needed to put his best foot forward with Loquitur.


"Perhaps you will someday?" Ky answered, starting to relax a bit. She knew she'd need to angle and try to get some information out of Lyra, but for now, she was enjoying just getting to chat with another girl who had to live with the same sort of man that she did. "I used to think I'd spend my whole life in a tiny township on the Coast, and look at me here, all the way in the North." Ky smiled a bit, but it was sad.

Tarr scanned the forest. He could see for miles ahead from this spot, and likely he was gazing at wherever Loquitur and the Barrasters were right now. There was no movement to indicate such a thing, however.

"I hope eventually I make it down there," Lyra sighed. She studied Ky again, eyes flickering up and down his thin frame. What was off about him? What were her senses trying to tell her?
"What is the other servant like?" she asked after a long moment of scrutiny.

Aleth followed Tarr's gaze, looking out over the forest. He was just as happy to stand in silence as try to make small talk. He reached up and gingerly touched his face, feeling the skin hot and puffy beneath his fingers. He bit back a sigh and returned his hand to his side. You better hope to the gods this doesn't bruise before Loquitur gets here. Bastard.


"Tadaaki?" Ky brightened. "He's great! Very kind, and strong, and patient."

The closest thing to a friend Ky had at this point. Even though they both knew fully well that there could be no secrets between them. Aleth didn't like secrets. The only thing Ky knew about Tadaaki that Aleth didn't was that Tadaaki's mom used to call him Aaki when he was a child, and he liked it when Ky called him that, too. In private. Never in front of Aleth.

Tarr was blissfully unaware of Aleth's quiet fury. He was absorbed in trying to spot disturbances in the forest canopy. There were a few spots where birds suddenly erupted from the treeline, but that likely meant predators or some natural commotion.

Lyra nodded slightly. She hadn't paid him much attention when he first arrived; her only observation had been his size and skin color. But she took Ky at his word. "Are you two friends, then?"

Aleth was quickly starting to get cold, especially since he'd worked up a slight sweat with the sparring match, but he'd sooner die than admit it to Tarr. He folded his hands in front of himself and stared straight ahead, mind returning to reviewing the various names of the people who were to join them soon.


"Um, yeah, kind of." Ky nodded, glancing at the book instead of looking at Lyra. "Servants don't really... have friends." She shrugged a bit, glancing back up at Lyra's face so it didn't seem like she was avoiding her gaze. "But we're amicable, for sure."

Tarr's cheeks were red with the cold, but otherwise he felt completely fine. He'd lived in this climate all his life, slept in a tent beneath the stars as he listened to a bear shuffle around the remains of his supper. He'd lost a toe to frostbite at age nine. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing this place could throw at him that he wasn't prepared for.

"Amicable," Lyra repeated. "Interesting." She looked back at her book. This was the first time she'd felt even remotely relaxed around another person since coming here when by all rights she should be as tense around Ky as she was around everyone else. More so, even. But she wasn't.
Perhaps it was the fear she knew they both shared.

Why were they standing out in the damnable cold of this damnable country? Aleth's agitation began to grow again. He forced himself to take a deep breath and think of what was going on inside the house inside. No doubt Ky was gathering information right then. At least, she had better be gathering information, or it was going to end more poorly for her than the sparring match had for him.


"He's very kind," Ky reiterated, then shrugged slightly. "Do you have many friends here, your ladyship?"

Lyra shook her head, lowering her gaze immediately. "I was never very outgoing. Besides, the only people here are servants and soldiers. And the apothecary, but he's very strange." That was little information, but it ought to be enough to answer the question without giving away too much about herself.

A pang ran through Ky, but whether it was guilt or sympathy she wasn't sure. Maybe it was both. Gaining Lyra's trust just to abuse it. "I'm sorry to hear that," Ky answered softly. "If it's not overstepping to say so, I think you'd have many friends if they were here to be had. You also seem very kind."

There was a large chain of movement far in the distance, and Tarr's eyes lit up as a flock of birds burst from the trees. "See that?" he said eagerly. "That's them! Right over there." It would be another thirty minutes before they arrived, by Tarr's estimate.

Lyra rose abruptly, picking up her book. This was dangerous territory. She couldn't get soft, not here. Not with a servant boy, of all people.
"Thank you for entertaining me," she said promptly. "I should be going now, as should you." She hurried to the shelf where she'd gotten the book and put it away. "This conversation didn't happen," she added before scurrying for the door, clutching her cloak tightly about her.