[Ridge]
I reached up and grabbed his ear, wrestling him sideways so that we rolled over and this time, he was the one lying flat on his back. He made a startled noise and tried to yank me off of him, which only resulted in me tightening my grip on his ear, silently threatening to break the pierced cartilage there.
"Ow, ow let go!" He tapped desperately on my arm like he wanted out of a sparring match.
"What's happening!" I demand.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that?!" He huffs, trying to turn his head out of my grasp, "What kind of lunatic tackles someone like that?"
He keeps whining until I sit back and give him some space to breathe. I didn't even realize my knee was pressing into his chest. Oops.
"The kind that wants an answer, right now. What's going on in the east?" He sits up and smooths out the wrinkles in his shirt. Then his sharp green eyes are on me, no doubt wondering how much I know, and how he can get out of this.
"How do you know about that?" He narrows his eyes suspiciously.
"Oh please, everyone knows." I bluff. I honestly have no idea what's going on, but that's what I'm here to find out.
He latches onto my wrist and pulls us both up in one swift, effortless motion. This bastard could've easily thrown me off of him earlier. After all my training, official and individual, how is he still stronger than me? I should punch him. That might fix things.
"Let's talk inside." He pulls me into his room and closes the door. It's not until he's drawn the curtains and stuck a chair under the door knob that he starts explaining.
"The Nymour forces have withdrawn." He whispers.
I stare at him blankly, more for dramatic effect than out of shock. If anything I'm so fucking relieved. That could have gone in an entirely different direction. My eyes start getting dry so I blink a few times, which must've only added to my confused image, because Kadeeth felt the need to clarify.
"The enemy soldiers have abandoned the front lines. Supposedly, they've been gone for almost an entire week." He shifts impatiently at my unresponsiveness, "THE NYMOUR TROOPS LEFT-"
"Fuck, why are you yelling?!" I cover my ears.
Then that smirk creeps onto his punchable face at having won our childish standoff. I know I should take this more seriously, but I'm so happy that we're not being invaded that I don't actually care to be stern anymore.
"So, you didn't actually know anything, did you?" He asks, his smile tightening in mock annoyance.
"Nope." I can practically see how irked he is by how his muscles tighten up at my casual response. He probably shouldn't keep telling me all these military secrets. What would he do if I decided to sell them? Even if my only customers ended up being the staff, concerned souls like Amira, it could jeopardize the Riddothas carefully crafted reputation and status.
"Now I have you on assault and lying." His body relaxes again, indulging in my good mood. With the war problem resolved, there's no point in starting another fight.
"You have nothing, where's your proof?" I shoot back, looking around his room.
I make a bee line for the beautiful, four poster, canopy bed and collapse on impact. He follows suit, jumping onto the mattress beside me, and popping my entire body airborne for a second. We both laugh as I hit the blankets again.
He reached behind us and stacked his massive collection of pillows one on top of the other until we were both propped up with a clear view of the setting sun. His large wall of windows leads out to a rickety wooden balcony that we built during one of my summer breaks from the Academy.
There's no door, so you have to open the window and climb through to access it, and in reality it's more of a platform than a balcony. The Riddotha Manor has plenty of actual balconies, but I pointed out that Kadeeth's room didn't have one about three years ago. So he convinced me to stay with him at the Manor for break, and we stole nails and boards from the Manor repair supplies that came in with the daily shipments.
By the time the Duke found out about the ugly addition to his glorified Manor, break was over and I was already back in class at the Academy. Kadeeth told me he was scolded severely, but that the Duke never ordered him to take it down. To this day, I don't know if he's aware of my involvement in building that death trap. We haven't been out there in years, it probably can't support our weight anymore.
The sun slowly vanished beneath the tree covered horizon. Kadeeth's arms were casually braced beneath his head, the hand he used to catch my head earlier a bright, angry red. I'll have to apologize for that later, or thank him. It may call for both.
"Kadeeth." I break the silence.
"Hmm?"
"It's over, right? There's no need to panic anymore?" I ask through a yawn. The only thing keeping me awake right now is my need for reassurance, and the slight ache in my deprived stomach. He's quiet for another minute, and I start to wonder if he fell asleep.
His reply finally came, "I don't know." Well that's disappointing.
"But the fighting is over?" I supply hopefully. I wonder if I look like Amira did in the maze, while she tried so hard to imagine that everything will be okay.
"It could be. Or maybe the Imperial family will finally declare war, and we'll invade Nymour. Or maybe their troops have only fallen back to ambush us when we push forward." He sighs, "There are a lot of variables still."
"Damn." I feel my eyes droop, it's getting hard to keep them open.
"Yeah, damn's the word." His lopsided grin entered my peripheral vision, then everything faded to black.