Here's the next bit of Hexachord, for all those who are interested hehe crits are appreciated on this, as always; if you're looking for the other sections, here are the links. thanks for reading =)
Prologue and section one:
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Sections 2 & 3
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Monday morning, Katie returned, relieved to find Cloasia all in one piece. That afternoon, she’d again invited him to ride with her, and he’d accepted with better grace than before- a fact Katie had been quite pleased by.
She’d saddled Flyer and led him out of the stables to see Cloasia waiting there with his mare, Nalani. He wasn’t paying attention to her, for he was standing next to his horse, leaning on the saddle with his arms crossed, staring at something.
Katie paused and followed his gaze, curious. He appeared to be watching Michael as she drilled now both Robin and Jonaleon.
Katie gave a start and looked back at Cloasia. For once, he looked neither angry, nor contemptuous, nor aloof. The look on his face was almost… tender?
Katie blinked as if to clear her vision and looked again. Yes, it was still there. But… mingled with something else.
Sorrow?
Katie stared, and finally drew Flyer near. Cloasia turned, his usual aloof expression back in place by the time she got there.
“Let’s go,” he said brusquely, and swung himself into the saddle.
Katie waited until they’d gone down the road a ways, then asked, “Hey Cloasia… what do you think of Michael?”
He started slightly, then shrugged carelessly. “She’s pretty, I guess.”
“You think so?”
“I guess.”
Hiding a grin, Katie commented, “She doesn’t think she is.”
Cloasia all but halted his mare in surprise. “She doesn’t? Why not?”
Katie shrugged. “I don’t know. Do you really think so?”
Cloasia scowled. “Of course she is.”
Katie suppressed her giggle and fell silent.
After a long pause, Cloasia said, “She doesn’t like me.”
Katie looked at him, catching the too-casual tone. “What makes you say that?” she asked carefully.
He curled his lip. “She told me so yesterday.”
Katie’s heart plummeted. “She did?” she asked quietly.
“Yeah. She said she doesn’t like me, and she doesn’t trust me. She told me to stay away from her, and to leave Jon alone. She said if I were smart, I’d keep as much distance between her and me as possible, and that if I didn’t believe she could harm me, all I had to do was ask around. She also said that it’s now her blades and dragon’s rage that stands between me and Jon, and that I’d best not give her more reason to want to kill me,” he went on, a trace of bitterness and anger in his otherwise bland voice.
Katie looked down, knowing full well that Michael would have said those exact words if Cloasia gave her reason to. “I’m sorry, Cloasia,” she whispered.
“It’s not like I care,” he snapped, pushing Nalani ahead of her a little so she couldn’t see his face.
****
Back at the castle, the drilling had stopped for a short break, and the conversation had turned to Jon’s half-brother.
“I worry about Katie, all alone with him all the time,” Michael admitted, glaring off into the woods where they had gone.
“I have a watch on her, Michael,” Robin said, tapping her head.
“I know, I just… I look at him, and my own warning signals tell me to gut him before he does something to hurt someone,” she said, gritting her teeth in frustration. “I mean, I look at him, and I never see anything… good. He just seems so wrong to me. I can’t see any good in him at all. It’s almost… evil,” she ended softly.
“I know what you mean, Michael,” Jon told her gently. “I’ve known him for years and always felt the same thing. There are reasons, reasons I can’t- I can’t tell you, but- I don’t think there is good in him. If there is, it’s well buried. I don’t- I don’t think he even knows what love is.”
Robin’s spine crawled at this, and she lifted her blade. “Katie sees something there, though. Can we get back to our drill?”
They followed her, but Jon added to Michael in a low voice, “There is good reason to think him evil, Michael. He used to do some evil things to people.”
Michael drew her sword. “If I catch him at anything else, I won’t hesitate to kill him,” she stated grimly.
****
Katie lifted her head and wrinkled her nose. “What is that? It smells like-”
“Smoke,” Cloasia interrupted, narrowing his eyes. “There’s a village up ahead a mile or so.”
“A village! Cloasia- we should go look- if there’s a fire, we-”
“Quiet,” Cloasia ordered.
Katie was about to retort when she heard the hoofbeats in the distance; she stared down the road, watching a cloud of dust grow in the road far off as the sound of hoofbeats grew louder and louder. She looked questioningly at Cloasia. “What-”
A small, maniacal smile was playing about his lips. “Raiders.”
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