Footsteps whispered to life.
Kia Low's head snapped around a second before Yuze's. A sharp shove, and he pushed Yuze around a shelf and crowded in behind him.
Yuze opened his mouth to snap at him just as his brain registered the noise.
Kai Low's hand clamped over his mouth as he pressed Yuze tightly against the wall with his body.
Behind him, a creak echoed through the darkness. The slide of the door over the floor. Yuze's hand clenched around the book, held one-handed at an awkward angle; his wrist screamed, but he refused to drop it.
Footsteps followed the door, growing louder as they moved into the room.
Kai Low's head tilted just slightly, listening, calculating the location of the body that belonged to the footsteps.
Yuze had a knife in his boot, his belt, and in the wrist sleeve on the hand holding the book. His best bet was the one in his boot, since there was too little space for either of them to draw their swords without cutting the other.
With the cold stone pressed against his back, Kai Low was warm against his front. Growing warmer the longer they were pressed together. Strangely, it was still comforting despite the danger.
Or maybe because of it.
Kai Low felt steady, reliable, pressed against him, and Yuze felt strangely guilty for being surprised. Despite his open hatred and distrust of the Camelia, there was no reason he couldn't be both despite being on a different side.
And he'd demonstrated a surprising cleverness since Yuze had known him so far.
Did Kai Low have another weapon available? Something that they could use to handle the situation quickly and quietly.
His eyes darted around, then—
They met burning gold. This close, he could see every fleck of brown that made the gold shine even brighter. The fire that had seemed quenched the last few days was there, brought back no doubt by the threat to their lives, and it swallowed Yuze whole in a matter of seconds.
It was a terrible weakness at the worst possible time, but Yuze didn't have the strength to look away.
Then, Kai Low did.
He turned, stepped back, and Yuze panicked.
Was Kai Low revealing himself to fight? Was he wounded? Had Yuze missed something? He grabbed Kai Low's cloak, yanking him back.
Kai Low's eyes widened in surprise, and he caught himself on the wall next to Yuze's head. Yuze ended up boxed in, eyes wide, Kai Low looming over him.
He managed to recover his wits this time and hissed. "Where are you going?"
"He's gone." Kai Low whispered, and Yuze knew immediately he was going to regret this. The Bandri warrior sounded all too pleased.
Yuze shoved him away, face flaming.
Kai Low snickered as Yuze stepped past him and looked around. The door was closed, and the room was empty except for the two of them.
A rush of relief left Yuze's knees a little weak for a second as Kai Low grinned. He looked around in an effort to ignore his smugness.
"We should have a bit before another guard comes." Kai Low noted. "They must do rounds."
"Or we made noise." Yuze hissed because Kai Low wasn't whispering.
It got him another eye roll.
"Where's the candle?"
Kai Low read it and handed it over.
"Hold this." Yuze shoved the poison tome at him and, as quickly as he could, went through the rest of the book. He grabbed a few more volumes that he recognized. Several more on poisons and a couple that were on imbuing artefacts with magic. He piled them in Kai Low's arms.
"Uh," The Bandri raised an eyebrow. "How many are you stealing?"
"I'm not stealing," Yuze whispered. "I'm…. confiscating."
"Confiscating." Kai Low refrained from rolling his eyes this time. "You know we have to get them back through the tunnel, right?"
"That's why I'm only taking a few."
Kai Low eyed the stack in his arms.
It took another minute for Yuze to decide he was satisfied with them. "Let's go."
"We can't search the rest of the manor with these." Kai Low frowned.
"We're not going to. We're going back."
"We should stay and search. There might be something more valuable than these strange books." He frowned at the stack in his arms. An acrid smell registered in his nose, and he grimaced. "What the hell is that smell?"
Yuze glanced at him, unconcerned. "Human skin smells a bit strange when it's treated like leather."
Kai Low stared at him, horrified and barely resisting the urge to chuck them across the room. "You people make books out of people? What the hell is wrong with you?"
Yuze's eyes furrowed. "The kin actually works well when it's treated. Those books are probably hundreds of years old, and they'll keep for a few hundred more if they're cared for correctly."
He turned his attention to listening at the door while Kai Low stood there, staring at him.
Books made out of people?
What kind of monsters skinned people to make books?
The tribes didn't do anything like this.
He should have stayed out on the prairie.
~ tbc