Ember (46 page)

Now that I’d seen how swoony Amy had been
over Ikovos and Jaden, I started to pay closer attention to the
girls around us as we walked by. With the number of gawkers I could
hardly believe I'd missed it before.

I studied Ikovos and Jaden covertly while
they talked back and forth. They both looked quite different, but,
well . . . Since meeting them, I'd considered them exceptionally
handsome. Still, it was just a fact that I hadn't really seen that
many boys in my lifetime, living in a small town and all. I half
owned my opinion up to my own ignorance.

Now, looking around this city, passing
probably a hundred guys already since this morning, it obviously
wasn't just me. They were exceptional and
all
the girls we
passed knew it.

My eyes scrunched a bit.

“How much for that one?” asked Jaden, nodding
to Ikovos who had just walked out of another inn.

“
Too
much,” he answered.

“Great,” mumbled Jaden.

“Further down then?”

Jaden looked around distastefully.

The area was beginning to deteriorate at a
rapid rate. Not
so
bad, just . . . somewhat trashier
streets, older shops, crack here and there along the much more
sporadic pavement. The buildings were also getting more cramped,
almost like an alley.

“A little further,” he finally said, and we
started on.

“So,’ started Ikovos, “now that we have some
extra time, what should we do the rest of the night?”

I didn't answer.

After a while Jaden shrugged. “Find an
inn.”

Ikovos gave him a sideways look. “That's no
fun. Evelyn's never been to a big city before, we should think of
something.”

It was quiet for a second, then Jaden nodded
back to me. “Well, what do you want to do?”

I felt a little awkward, but thought about it
dutifully. “Well . . . ah . . . I liked the ramen a lot. . . .”

They both smiled. Ikovos looked like he was
about to say something, but a loud cry ahead interrupted him.

“Come one, come all! Step up for your chance
at a one-hundred cash prize.”

Huh?

“Well this sounds promising.”

That was Jaden. Both boys had their eyes
fixed forward to a large crowd stopped around something in the
center square.

“Our current champion has reigned through the
last six matches. Does no one have the courage to fight him for the
win?”

Jaden started to walk forward, Ikovos
too.

“We're going
in
there?” I asked
incredulously.

Ikovos just grabbed my hand. “Stay
close.”

Great, that answers my question.

We pushed through the group as the announcer
continued. “Fantastic! We have a contender. Now, sir, if you'll
take a seat. . . . We'll begin in three, two, —” The one was
drowned out by a loud cry from the crowd.

As we moved deeper, things were getting more
cramped. Luckily we reached an opening from which Jaden was already
looking on speculatively.

I followed his gaze.

From what I could see there was a table with
two men on either side, hands gripped and elbows down.

“Arm wrestling?” I muttered.

“Oh, yeah. This'll do nicely,” said Ikovos
with a grin.

Jaden smirked.

I looked to the spectacle, then back at the
boys. “What are you guys talking about?”

Ikovos released my hand to take off the pack
hanging over his shoulder.

My head shook. I pointed off. “You aren't
actually thinking of doing that, are you?”

He shrugged. “Why not?”

I looked at the table. One of the men had
just slammed the other's into the wood top, the one the announcer
had named the reigning champion. The guy was huge, like . . .
huge.

I studied Ikovos who was wearing a ribbed,
white, t-shirt. He was muscular, yeah, but not
that
big.

“Ikovos, I don't think that you could beat
that guy.”

He stepped forward, grinning back at me. “If
you want we could have you do it.” He was serious.

My head shook confusedly. He just walked
towards the table.

“Ikovos!”

A hand grabbed my arm from behind me. It was
Jaden. He looked at me calmly. “Just watch.” Then turned his eyes
turned forward.

I still didn't think this was a good idea,
but . . . I don't think I stood much of a chance against both of
them.

I turned back ahead in time to see the
announcer climb back to his high post.

“And our champion still reigns! Will anyone
challenge him? Or will he be the winner of the tournament?”

Ikovos reached the edge about this time,
dropping under the railing smoothly.

The announcer eyed him, climbing down to
converse. He made a couple dubious looks throughout, but eventually
hopped back up to announce the new challenger.

An hour later, to the disbelief of me and the
majority of the crowd -Ikovos had defeated twelve men in
succession.

I’d realized after the first impossible
victory that he was using magic to assist. Jaden confirmed this. As
he went on the crowds grew, but the challengers lessened. The
announcer was now trying to get more men to take on Ikovos.

“Isn’t this sort of like cheating?” I
whispered, leaning in towards Jaden.

He smirked immediately. “How did I know you
were thinking that . . .”

“Maybe your conscience told you,” I braved.
The announcer continued.

“Or maybe your fanatically high-barred virtue
is
just
that obvious,” he said smugly.

I laughed once, looking over to him. “So now
I’m too virtuous.”

“I didn’t say that,” he shrugged, “it’s
probably not a bad thing to have a lot of.”

I couldn’t keep from smiling as I turned to
watch the announcer make a final call for more challengers.

“Still,” noted Jaden, so close that his
breath hit my ear. “It might be good for you to try breaking the
rules
just
once.”

My body tensed. The soft exhale of his smile
as he pulled away made a shiver run the length of my spine. I was
so rocked that when the announcer declared Ikovos the victor, I
missed out completely on the cheering.

Once Ikovos reached us and the crowd had
dispersed, we talked about what we would do for the rest of the
night. Of course, now that we had enough money, we planned on going
back up to the tavern where they usually stayed to sleep. But it
was still a few hours till dark.

They decided on a plan with little help from
me, I refused to give any input barring another trip to the noodle
place. We ended up pretty much just exploring through the city,
stopping here and there at different stores. We quickly discovered
that none of us were big on the shopping thing . . . which was
normal for them being boys just not me.

All in all it really wasn't like any time I
had spent with them before. For once I felt like I was on the same
level as them, rather than something less. It probably boosted my
confidence a bit that they glared severely at any boy that tried to
talk to me, or even look at me, for more than a couple seconds. I
figured this had to do with their lack of faith in my
self-preservation abilities. There wasn’t another reason I could
think for it.

Now we were all sitting at the counter of the
ramen restaurant. The sun had just started to go down, making the
sky and atmosphere all about the city glow blue.

When we'd finished ordering, this time I got
a ramen with meat added to it, I hopped off my seat to glimpse at
the sky above. After a moment, I came back, smiling happily.

“It's so pretty out,” I said, sitting down.
“I wish it would rain while we're here.”

“Please don't.” Ikovos grimaced.

Jaden smirked. He was looking over the menu
casually.

My lips pursed. I knew I loved the rain and
Ikovos hated it . . . but Jaden had never said how he felt about
it.

I guess that's a weird question to ask . .
. almost as weird as sincerely wanting to know the answer.
My
stomach, which had been all-but constantly knotted since the
blacksmith shop, tightened a bit further. I had to struggle to keep
my eyes from drifting over just enough to study his arm.

Ack . . . pathetic, pathetic, pathetic.

I was very near to unconsciously dropping my
head into my hands when a soft tapping began to hit the buildings
around us.

“Oh, great, “ said Ikovos. “You've gotta be
kidding me.”

“What?” I looked at him. Then behind us to
see that rain was starting to fall onto the streets past the
awning.

My heart leapt. It was wonderful, the first
I'd seen in at least a week. I squealed happily, smiling to
match.

“This is totally your fault I hope you know,”
said Ikovos, glowering.

I bit my lip, leaning back to look up, then
laughed. “But you already said that I couldn’t control the
weather.”

He smirked perplexedly.

“Back by the lodge,” I tried. Dead silence.
“When it was raining . . . “

“Oh yeah,” he said, laughing suddenly. “When
you wore that jacket so it wouldn’t get sunny.” His laugh grew,
substantially, till I was regretting bringing it up.

“Whatever. You were the one that got stuck
wearing tank-top in the rain.” I laughed. Then Jaden turned his
head to me, expression obvious.

I instantly sobered, eyes slipping down. It
wouldn’t have been accurate to say that I’d
forgotten
he was
wearing a tank-top, more like I’d been concentrating so hard on not
noticing that I’d actually not considered it before my
sentence.

I cleared my throat and sniffed, turning down
to the counter just as the server set the hot bowls in front of us.
Ikovos had stopped laughing, but the smirk on his face was wicked.
I picked up the chopsticks.

“It’s a very nice tank-top . . . ,” I croaked
out, stabbing at my noodles absently. Then I checked over.

He didn’t look angry. He was just shaking his
head with a slight smile on his lips. It relieved me completely and
turned back down contentedly.

The cold, wet air around us, the freshly
steaming meal . . . in my book, things couldn't have been
better.

~ ~ ~

“STILL GLAD that it's raining?” shouted Jaden
behind me.

We were walking in a line down the street,
water pouring down on us from above. Despite the substantial noise
made by the storm, it wasn't hard to make out his voice.

Guess that's how it goes when you say
everything so surely.

“You don't want to know the answer to that,”
Ikovos replied for me. He was at the head of the procession.

Jaden eyed me.

I gave him a sort of “he's right” smile, but
then added quickly, “Actually, I would wish it away for Ikovos’s
sake.”

We both turned ahead to the boy. He had a
large coat held up over his head to stop the rain, but it wasn't
really helping much because the water was just running down his
arms instead. The scowl that covered his face when he turned back
wasn’t the greatest either. Jaden smirked.

“You see, that's my favorite part of it.”
Then he walked past me to the front of our line.

My face soured.
Why do I have to like such
an ornery boy . . . ?

Soon after Jaden took the lead we arrived at
the inn. From the outside the place really didn't look like
anything special, just a three-story building on the edge. There
was rain pouring down all around it. It was almost completely dark
now.

Jaden hit the door first, stopping to hold it
open for the both of us.

We rushed in, stomping our feet on the mat.
The moment Jaden shut the door the mood changed. There was this
warm, cozy, secure, feeling. The inside was all mostly wood, dark.
The front room we'd entered was quite large. In the main center and
left of the room was a mix of coffee tables and expensive-looking,
maroon-red, couches. To the right was a long mahogany counter that
ran the length of the wall. There were a few people, mostly men,
sitting on the stools in front of it, some of whose eyes grazed us
tersely as we entered. I don't think me or Jaden stood out too much
apart from the dripping wet thing, but Ikovos had his head upside
down shaking out his hair.

I smiled once at it, then continued to peruse
the room.

I still hadn't pinned the cause of the
warming feeling. There were fires absolutely everywhere, I suppose
that could have been it, but . . . suddenly the culprit hit me, so
obvious it made me wonder how I missed it.

Music. It was playing in the background,
filling the air with a bright lively tune. There must have been a
band, though I couldn't see one from here. Over by the seating area
down the center there was a half-wall beside the staircase.
They
must be behind that.

I bit my lip excitedly, but when I thought of
asking the boys if I could go look, I realized I should probably
help make sure we got all our bags and stuff checked in first. I
turned over to them. Jaden was already looking at me, so I
addressed him.

“Can I help with the checking in or
anything?”

“I got that,” said Ikovos, straightening up
before the other could answer. “Jaden, you get the bags over to the
stairs.”

Jaden's mouth tipped humorously. “Yes,
sir.”

Ikovos walked off without a response. I think
he was still pretty irritated about the rain. Jaden picked up two
of the bags, walking them over to the bottom of the stairs across
the room.

I grabbed the other three and followed
him.

“Did you have to carry three?” he asked once
we got there, looking back at me dubiously.

I forced proud smile. “I'm strong.” Then let
the bags drop deftly to the floor. I almost tripped in the
process.

He smirked, then leaned back against the
railing, eyes shut. Standing that way, with his pieced hair and
bronze, chiseled, arms still slick with rain, he looked like he was
made out of stone. Any passerby was more likely to think him a
statue than a boy.