charge,” the half-blood said cheerfully. Honestly, I would rather have paid to avoid this mess, but I was not given much of an option.
“We took the liberty of fetching your belongings before we left,” Bolivar added, snapping his fingers and pointing to a pile of things in the corner. Rio obediently recovered my bag and handed it to me. I noticed the walking stick and the teakettle were missing. As if reading my mind, the half-blood explained.
“We also felt it in our best interests to retain your weapons.” That was most inconvenient, but I still felt the weight of the cloud-bomb in my pocket. They had not gotten everything.
“I’m sure you would like some time to freshen up, so if you would, Rio.” The captain waved his hand at me dismissively, and the half-blood was more than obliged to follow his implied orders.
It was only after he had led me halfway back down the stairs that I realized that he was taking me back to the same room I woke up in. I could not change out of my nightdress in there!
“Er,” I said, managing to catch Rio’s attention, “are you leading me back to that same room?”
“Is there a problem?” He looked at me innocently with his one eye.
I could not exactly tell them that Levent was awake, yet.
“Well, that guy in there. He’s kind of scary, right?” I had to sound like I did not have personal interaction with the kin. It was proving to be more difficult with each passing phrase.
“Yes. I suppose he is,” replied the half-blood with little sympathy. “Unfortunately for you, we need you to wake him up. Seems we hit him harder than we meant to, and it really is necessary he be awake when we reach our destination.”
I paled. Nice going, Levent.
“Fine. I’ll need water and a towel.”
“Already done.” He knew way too much about this process. Whoever leaked this information was definitely suffering my wrath were I to meet them. We neared the door.
“I’ll also need some privacy.”
“Of course,” Rio smirked, opening it.
To no surprise, Levent was still on the floor. A bowl of water and a rather