A Sweeter Song Tomorrow

ix. deep breath

He follows her to her room. Adder can't say she cares for the way he's exactly three steps behind her. But more than that, his attitude toward freedom baffles her.

The other slaves have met the offer with suspicion. Of course they've met it with suspicion. But it was suspicion born of at least some kind of want. Open hostility to the idea of being free? And it's not even as if he wants to remain with her.

It's staring at the available furniture in the room that a new fact hits her.

"You say you were never more than two paces away from Danarius? Never?"

"I was not," he confirms.

"Where did you sleep?"

He stares at her like she's a blathering idiot. Maybe she is a blathering idiot. She blames this whole 'owning a bodyguard' fiasco.

"I slept on the floor."

"Right. Well. That can't continue."

He watches her for all of an instant as she strips half the pillows from her bed, and a pile of furs, and one of the three luxurious coverlets. These Tevinters have no idea what cold is, if they think these balmy nights need that many linens.

And then he takes the pile of blankets and pillows from her. He stands before her, clearly unsure of what she's doing with them, but for some reason unwilling to let her do any kind of work.

She points to a couch in the far corner. "If you want to sleep in here, you're sleeping on that."

He looks down at the pile in his hands, then over at the couch, then finally at her.

"Take them," she says, as gently as she can when she wants to have throttled Danarius the instant he even thought of enslaving this man. "They're for you. Get some sleep."

"But you're still awake."

"I'll be abed soon enough," she tells him.

Later, after she snuffs the candles and strips herself — both of these over his protests; apparently snuffing candles and undressing their masters is what slaves are for — she listens to him breathe in the quiet. His breaths are even, measured, but it's not the evenness of sleep.

The thought of him curled up on her floor makes her chest hurt.

They're listening to each other breathe, she realizes. They're the bare length of a room away, in the dark, and yet they each manage to be alone.