The Dreamer's Curse by Honor Raconteur

Author:Honor Raconteur [Raconteur, Honor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Raconteur House
Published: 2014-05-28T23:00:00+00:00

They started with a bath, haircut, and a change of clothes.

Sevana mistakenly tried just sending him into the bathroom with directions to wash thoroughly first. When he came out wet, but still mostly dirty, she mentally kicked herself. Why did she think that a little boy with no raising would know how to properly wash?

Grabbing him by the arm, she towed him back into the bathroom and this time, she scrubbed him down herself. There was a lot of splashing and protests from her wet captive, but she didn’t let up until he actually looked and smelled clean. When he finally escaped, the bath water was muddy and filthy.

Wrapping him in a towel, she sat him on a stool and started in on his hair next. It was so matted, getting a comb through it was nigh impossible. She started cutting out the worst chunks, working through the rest carefully to avoid scalping him completely.

He started squirming, head jerking from side to side.

“If you don’t stop that, you’re going to lose an ear,” she casually threatened.

The fidgeting abruptly ceased.

“What’s your name, anyway?” Sevana hadn’t thought to ask before.

He muttered something she couldn’t hear.

“What? And speak up properly.”

“Sky,” he repeated, exhaling noisily.

Sky? What an odd name.

“Don’t know what my real name is,” he admitted. “I been working ships ever since I was little, till the last one sank near the coast and stranded me here. But people call me Sky ‘cause it’s the color of my eyes.”

True, he did have the most amazing sky-blue eyes. She could see where the nickname came from. But if he didn’t even know what his real name was, then odds of him having any family to return to were extremely low.

“You…” he paused, visibly searching for the best words. “You told Bristly earlier that I wouldn’t stay here.”

“Bristly? Oh, you mean that bear of a merchant?” Accurate nickname, considering the way his beard had bristled out as he talked. She grinned, liking the creativity. “Yes, I did.”

“So where you going?”

“We are going to Windamere,” she corrected. “That’s where I live. Although right now I have a job on the Windamere border that I’m in the middle of. I need to get back to it.”

“Oh.”

What, no more questions? Sevana had this lurking suspicion that he didn’t trust her completely yet. Ah well, time would sort that out.

“Oww!”

She stopped attacking that particular tangle with the comb and shifted to the scissors instead. “Sky,” she asked in exasperation and no little amount of irritation, “When was the last time that you cut your hair?”

He thought about that for a second before offering, “Don’t remember?”

She believed that answer. “Kid, I’ve seen bird nests that weren’t as tangled as this. I’m going to have to cut this very short to get it decent looking again.”

He shrugged, obviously not caring.

Well, if he didn’t care, she certainly didn’t. Sevana went back to work with intense concentration. It had been a while since she’d cut anyone’s hair and she would admit, to herself at least, that it wasn’t one of the things she was particularly talented in.

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