“Four hours to Ter.5.2,” a conductor called from the thin hall outside their cabin. “Four hours to terminal.”
Arianna stood and reached above them for one of the bags. She stacked paper money in perpendicular bundles, counting to herself. Cvareh watched her hands as they flipped through the bills, sequestering out batches before repeating the process. Her fingers didn’t joint exactly the same as his. Cvareh flexed his fingers, unsheathing his claws momentarily.
“What happens if it rips?” He should have known better than to ask the question by now, but silence and boredom had him in their hold.
“Then the bill is void,” Arianna answered as though the fact was obvious.
“So why make the money paper?” It seemed ill advised.
“What else would it be made of?”
“Metal?” Like on Nova.
Arianna paused her counting and looked at him like he was stupid. Cvareh was many things, but he was not stupid and the look made him bristle. “We have more important things to use our metals for than money.”
He stared as she returned to counting, wondering if he had actually said the comparison to Nova rather than thought it.
“Flor, we’ll barely have enough to buy passage on the airship, I think.” Arianna went back to ignoring Cvareh.
“Barely.” Florence picked up on the key word in Ari’s statement.
“I may need to do some work while we’re waiting to get on.” Arianna began laying out the belt and harness he had only seen her remove yesterday.
Cvareh had taken it as a good sign when the woman felt comfortable enough with him being in her presence to remove her weaponry. Though it could’ve just begun to chafe. He shifted to scratch an itch. Gods knew he had reached that point as well.
“Not as the White Wraith, I take it?”
“No,” Arianna affirmed. “I don’t want people to know I’ve left Dortam. Plus, I won’t have time for a job of that scale.”
“People will find out you’ve left Dortam if you do any work.” Florence leaned back into the sofa with a small grin. “Subtlety isn’t your strong suit.”
Arianna glared in the girl’s direction. But unlike the ones she regularly cast Cvareh’s way, this look was light and playful. He’d begun to wonder as the nights slipped on what the real relationship between the two women was. They shared the narrow sofa while he took the upper bunk at night. Florence was too old to be Arianna’s daughter. Sisters, perhaps?
“I’m going to heed my needs before I get all strapped in,” Arianna announced, donning her mask and slipping out the room—careful to not let the door open wide enough that Cvareh would be visible.
“What will she do?” Cvareh asked. Florence looked at him, confused. He’d found a friend in the girl—that was undeniable. She listened to his questions and did her best to answer them. As a result, Cvareh picking her brain had become a quickly adopted ritual whenever Arianna left the room. “For work.”
Florence made a noise of comprehension. “If we’re lucky, just some pick-pocketing. But I don’t think Ari has limited her skills to just that in ages, if ever. I’m sure there will be whispers of the White Wraith expanding her hunting grounds before we board for Keel.”
Cvareh waited a long moment for Florence to expand in more detail, but she didn’t. For once, he decided against probing further on the topic. There was a worried cloud hanging over the girl’s head as she engaged in a staring battle with the tools of Arianna’s trade. It was as though she silently accused them for the habits of their master. While Cvareh found the woman abrasive, rude, and hideous, Florence saw beauty. He wondered where he’d have to stand to make sense of the White Wraith the way the young Fenthri did.
“You two are close.” His observation wasn’t a question, so Florence didn’t answer more than nod. “How did you two meet?”
“I was running.” Florence didn’t pull her eyes away from where they had fallen on Arianna’s gear, but she was no longer seeing anything in the small compartment. “There was a group of us…we all decided we would leave the Ravens together. We would strike out for freedom. But we were caught. Most were killed, some imprisoned.” The girl’s knuckles turned white from where they gripped the seat. Cvareh could hear her heartbeat quickening, the tension in her breath. She was nervous saying just that much. “I happened along Ari on the way and I begged her to take me with her. She agreed.”
Florence pulled herself from her thoughts and looked at him with a forcefully brave smile. The crawling unease he felt at the sight of flat Fenthri teeth was beginning to subside. He stared at Florence’s rounded cheeks and delicate nose, her small ears and dark gray skin. She wasn’t pretty by any stretch of Dragon logic. But a little kindness was helping him no longer find her repulsive.
“I guess she has a habit of helping people who need to get places.”