atop the thing as if he's ridden woales all his life. Maybe he has. Maybe this is what gods do for fun.
The thing makes a gronking noise, shits all over the road behind us, and then pauses to eat some grass on the side of the road. Aron mutters a curse, tugs on the reins, and our woale reluctantly starts walking again.
"Remind me why we're taking this thing instead of walking?" I ask him, shifting carefully. My backside is hurting from the thing's spine and it's been less than an hour since we left. It's going to be a long day in the saddle—so to speak. "I imagine we could crawl faster than this thing's going."
Aron just snorts.
"I'm serious. I bet if I look behind us I'll see the farm still."
"It's not about speed, Faith. A well-trained woale will continue along a road all day and all night without stopping. They don't need to sleep or rest for days on end. They're useful for their stamina."
"Goody. So you're telling me we get to somehow ride on this thing through the night?"
"If we must. If we find someplace suitable, we'll stop and rest for a while." He doesn't sound bothered either way.
Must be nice. I hold onto his leather belt and grit my teeth as the thing lumbers along, swaying. I want to rest my cheek against Aron's back, but I don't want him to read more into my body language than he should. Resting against him would also mean pushing my boobs against him, and I'm still mulling some of his comments from the last few days.
Especially the one about how he could have me anytime he wanted. I think it's more arrogant bullshit, but he's also becoming increasingly touchy-feely and it makes me both breathless and confused. My thoughts start to migrate in a sexy direction and I carefully steer them back to the present, watching as Aron pulls one of the waterskins from the saddlebag in front of him and takes a sip, then offers it to me.
"Thanks," I say, surprised at his thoughtfulness. I take a sip—warm, yummy—and hand it back. "Cathis and Vian were sure grateful for the money, weren't they?"
"Of course they were. They should be grateful they kept their heads. The fact that we rewarded them for withholding information probably seems like it's too good to be true." His tone is sour.
I poke him gently in the side. "We didn't pay them for withholding information. We paid them for giving us supplies and letting us take the world's slowest mount."
Aron chuckles. "I have been on slower, if it makes you feel better."
"When?" I demand to know.
He shrugs. "I do not recall. Only that I know it is truth. Perhaps in the last Anticipation?"
I keep forgetting that this has all happened before. "Do you remember much about it?"
"Some. The memories are fragmented, I suspect because when all Aspects reunite, the individual is lost."
"Mmm." That's strange to think about—that the man I'm holding onto might not exist once this is done. I wonder if it bothers him to think about that, or if he's accepted it as fact. "So who won last time?"
"Won?"
"Yeah. Which Aspect won out? Hedonism? Lies? Arrogance? Apathy?"
He thinks for a long moment, considering. "Hedonism, I think. I know it was not Arrogance."
For some reason that makes me sad. It's hard to think that it's all the same person, just split into four different ways. That this isn't the real Aron, just some piece of him. I'm growing fond of the guy, all said, and I don't like the thought of him disappearing, or dying, or whatever happens when this is over. Not that it'll matter to me, of course, since I'll be home.
But I still think about it. "But it wasn't Lies that won last time, either?"
I guess I'm pretty transparent, because Aron casts a look over his shoulder at me. "If you are worried about confronting him, speak your mind, Faith."
"Well, seeing as how we haven't exactly been killing it on our own, yeah, I'm worried."
"Killing it?"
"Doing well? Thriving?"
He snorts, turning back to the road. "I think we are doing quite well. We have supplies and weapons. I have an anchor. You have a full belly and no plague. I see nothing wrong with our position."
Plague? He just casually throws plague out there? I bite back my horror and decide to point out the bigger problems first. "Vian and Cathis said that the other Aspect had mercenaries with him. Like ten.