The Girl Who Fell From The Sky - Rebecca Royce Page 0,45
her head. “I don’t want to hear anything about any of them in bed, ever. The four of them used to be together so much that Mattis and Nox might as well have been my brothers when we were young. Nothing. I mean it. Otherwise, it’s quite nice to have a sister, Bianca. And maybe someday, you’ll feel more settled and you’ll tell us about your life before. We can share secrets.”
Secrets were always something I’d kept to myself. There was always too much at risk to share anything that could land anyone in trouble. Including myself.
Still, I’d never had friends before.
“Tell me about your families.”
I sat back to listen. I’d always been really, really good at that.
Chapter Twelve
Dreama dropped me off back at Torrin’s place with the promise to return the next day. If I was going to teach people to read, then I had to go through the books and see what we were dealing with. I had planned to spend the next day doing that, but she wanted me to stop after lunch and come with her to view the farms. Since I was one of them, I needed to see what we were fighting for.
That made sense. Maybe someday, this would all feel normal. I wasn’t there yet.
Nox slept in the same guest bed, with Mattis out cold in the chair next to him. I looked around until I found a blanket, and I covered him in it. He stirred but didn’t wake. The room was chilled. If he wasn’t careful, he was going to get sick.
I walked back through the throne room and ducked past another curtain, toward where I thought Torrin’s bedroom might be. It was quiet in here. I could almost hear my own heartbeat in my ears. Light in the room was low, but I could make out a shape in the center of this room. A bed. Like heat on my skin, Torrin’s gaze burned from across the room. He lay on top of that bed, dressed in pajama pants and nothing else.
Without a word, he extended his hand, and I walked toward him. “Did you have a nice day?”
The closer I got, the more I could see that his eyes were red-rimmed. He had clearly not slept, and maybe he hadn’t slept in a while.
“I did. The women were all very nice to me.”
“There are a lot of underlying politics that get played around here all the time. I imagine if Dreama brought you to a group, then they’re all on our side. Tomorrow, I will deal with those that aren’t. You seem very smart to me. I imagine you’ll figure things out.”
He rose, my hand still in his, and drew me toward a closet and a dresser. “These are filled with clothes for you. I think they’ll work. Including pajamas. I don’t want you to get cold at night.”
I stared at the selection. “Thank you. That’s so nice of you to think of me.”
“I want you to be comfortable here.” He drew me toward the bathroom. “We have running water right now. That usually stops in the winter. Take advantage of it. Every year we have to fix the mess of it…and I’m never sure how long that’s going to take.”
Maybe if they didn’t have to constantly fight the Reamers, they could work some of that out. Seemed like it was an endless cycle of fighting and survival. He let go of my hand. “I’ll let you get yourself ready for bed.”
“Thanks.” I was repeating myself with the gratitude, but he was proving to be more considerate than I’d have thought he would be. I took a long shower. The pressure wasn’t great, but it was there. Exactly how gross was I going to be with all the dust in the air when we didn’t have running water? I dried my hair as best I could and slipped on the pajamas he’d left for me. When I came out, it was to find Torrin sitting up on the bed, staring at a wide paper covered with a series of numbers in front of him.
He didn’t look up but sensed my unasked question. “They’re crops we expect to have before the cold season. I’m doing brief calculations. Current number of citizens, how many babies will be born, how many mouths to feed. We always have to reduce a certain amount of the population that will die in accidents, illness, murder, or war. Rough estimates.”