Chapter 17: A Lullaby of Social Graces

The host came back with a man in a sharp suit holding a bottle of wine.

"You made an excellent choice, sir," the sommelier said to me. "I have to say, the smoke in these grapes leads to a very interesting taste to the refined palate."

He set out a couple of glasses, poured a small splash, and pushed it over to me. Judging that he wanted me to test it, I sniffed it and sipped it before pushing it over to Four, who repeated my actions. Indeed, it was quite good. I had no complaints.

"Yes, I haven't had such a good wine in a long time," I said, trying to add a little gravel to my voice, but clearly, I wasn't as skilled of an actor as Four was. She smirked at me before taking up the conversation.

"Um, Yes. Hints of notes in apricot," she said in a more refined tone.

We stood out, we stood out a lot, I suddenly realized. In fact, I wasn't sure we could stand out anymore. I originally thought we were trying to blend in, but apparently not. Four going for the bold approach. A noblewoman pretending to be a servant takes a working man out to dinner. How scandalous!

This would cause a lot of talk, but hopefully, no one would be able to connect us with the guards getting roused from the palace. Rather, the story would overshadow everything. And that would not be something that anyone would put together with the most recent assassination attempt.

Four played her part well as she and the sommelier went back and forth over vintages and tastes, displaying a knowledge far, far above her station even as we pretended to be a working married couple. Still, I stayed quiet until they asked for our appetizer order.

***

Four and I had a grand time at dinner. We stayed a little bit longer than we probably needed to, but after we had some appetizers and drank a bit of wine, the laughter and conversation seemed to flow naturally. Four was great at holding conversations. She asked my opinion on topics and led probing questions that didn't feel too invasive but always left me something interesting to say. Rather than, "Do you like this?", "No, I don't," it was, "Why do you find this distasteful?"

So we talked about the wine, the food, and the city. I told her my opinion on the architecture and the city layout, and she explained why she wasn't a huge fan of the region's food. It was quite fascinating, and I felt like I got to know her better than almost anyone, even though I didn't know this level of detail about One. Of course, they were all surface-level, but the conversation was engaging and pulled me along.

I did think that some of it might just be part of her character. But she seemed to enjoy dropping hints about our real lives that only I could get, so I thought the small details were unlikely to be false. Besides, the best lie was closest to the truth.

By the time I had paid and we were walking out of the restaurant, she was leaning on me for support, which was likely only half-feigned, as we had gone with a second and third bottle of wine. Definitely not advisable, but we were having quite the time as we walked towards the gate.

Since we weren't in carriages, we would be able to take the pedestrian gate. It would let us get out of the city quicker than if we had to go all the way around via horses. As we walked along, Four started to hum a lullaby that I wasn't familiar with. It was soothing and soft but, at the same time, uplifting and cheerful. The music made its way into her stride, and I had to hold her shoulders to keep her straight. Had she really drunk so much that she had lost her wits, or was she playing up an act?

When we made it to the gate guards, she was slurring her words slightly. "We need to get home," she said. "Our carriage is waiting for us." The guard looked at her and shook his head before addressing me. "I'm sorry, sir. The gates between the cities won't open till tomorrow morning."

"What? Does that have to do with the racket we heard earlier?" I asked.

"Eh, not really," the guard shrugged. "No, you're not from around here, are you? The new policy was implemented last week. Gates between the city boroughs are closed while the sun is down."

"Just don't have much reason to cross the boroughs at night much. And you sure?" I said and shifted my cloak to show a full money pouch. His eyes lingered on it, and then he shook his head. "Yes. Sorry, sir. No exceptions. I can't lift the gate even if I wanted to."

"Well, fuck," I muttered, slightly buzzed myself. We stood around looking lost for several heartbeats before he took pity on us and pointed down the street two blocks down. "There's a pretty dang good inn that'll lend you the room for the night. They have some vacancies, and, well, they might not give you the best meal, but the beds are clean and comfortable."

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I thanked the man and led Four off. It only took a few minutes before we found the inn, just as the man had described it. As we opened the door, a rotund woman with curly gray hair cut close to her scalp came out from behind the bar. "Ah, we always get one pair who couldn't make it home,"

I shrugged. "Yeah, and the lady's a bit tipsy. So we're gonna call it a night. How much for a room?"

"Just two silver," She said with a disarming smile.

I faked a wince. That was really fleecing us, but I wasn't too worried about paying, but rather keeping up the act the best I could. "Uh, how about one silver?"

"Sorry. We're... We're nearly booked." Clearly, she knew she had us over a barrel, but I made a pass at arguing back and forth. But in order for Four to maintain our cover, she appeared to come out of her droopy, drunken stupor to reach into her purse and toss a couple of silvers at her.

"The lady just wants the bed," she slurred. Four still swaying to the tune she had been humming.

The lady deftly snatched the silvers out of the air and tossed me a key. "Up the stairs to the right."

I nodded and practically dragged Four across the common room and up the stairs before she managed to get her feet under her.

Once we were out of sight, she took the key from my hand, straightened up, and nearly skipped over to the room.

"Wow, how drunk are you?" I asked.

She held her fingers an inch apart and said, "thiiiis much," but then her head tilted as if her neck muscles couldn’t hold her head up any more, and she amended her statement, "Okay, maybe a little bit more."

She widened her fingers a few more inches. I shrugged. "Yeah, you sure fooled me."

She smiled. "I know. I'm good at this," she said with a small giggle as she unlocked the room and gestured for me to go inside. "You always said I was the best you ever trained."

Did I? Was she the best at social manipulation or assassination in general? Was I being honest with her, or did I say the same to everyone? That sounded like something I would do.

The guard was right. The bed was clean but nothing special. The small bed would be a bit cramped for both of us.

"Why don't you close the door?" I sealed the cracks with shadows so that no noise would come out. Something I had been practicing in the carriage and could only maintain for a few minutes. But I wanted to make sure we had our story straight. "So let me get this right. You're pretending to be a noblewoman off on a dalliance with a commoner to get people talking about us rather than who we are?"

"Exactly right," Four nodded. "Very good. We hadn't discussed it, so I wasn't sure, but you've been playing along perfectly."

"Why not just go under the radar?" I said.

And she gave me a funny look. "Well, that's what they'd think we'd be doing. We were a little bit odd, and they might come talking to us, but I should be able to ward any of them off. And you look very, very different in that getup. Besides, if they try to track us down tomorrow after we are gone, they will have nowhere to start," she said, waving toward my colored poncho. "No one would think you would be able to get close to the king. I assume he's dead, right?"

I nodded, "Yes. Dead and taken care of. The contract is fulfilled."

"That's good to hear." And then she cracked her jaw with a massive yawn. "Yeah, do we need to take a watch?" she asked.

"One more thing," I said before responding to her question, "Nine and One?"

She shrugged. "They're probably back at the carriage. They knew there was a chance we wouldn't make it in time, but... " she stifled a yawn, "They... They might come find us."

That's right. They'd be able to cross over the city walls with no problem. And honestly, we could, too. But if this story just disappeared, they might be able to track down what we looked like. And they would know that this pair of people were suspicious, more than just an oddity, if they investigated after the fact.

"Now," I said, relieved, and I let the ambient sound flow in from the cracks again, "No. I think we should both sleep," I said, responding to her earlier question about a watch. "It should be enough."

"Okay," she said, then she reached up behind her back to unbutton the back of her dress. I tore off my poncho and stripped it out of my suit coat and pants, tucking them under the folded poncho so they wouldn't see the nobleman's dress if someone opened the door by mistake.

When I looked back, Four was in just a pair of panties and a delicate bra that didn't even cover her nipples. She forcefully kept her hands by her side and stared at my face, a hint of her earlier fear coming back into place. I noticed she was rocking back and forth on her heels as she waited for me to do something.

Clearly, she was not nearly as eager as Nine or One, and I wasn't about to force her. I had more self-control than whoever controlled this body before me, and Nine and One would be more than enough to keep me satisfied. My Numbered would never have to sleep with me.

“Good night,” I crawled into the bed and turned my back on her, resting my head on the pillow and closing my eyes.

It was nearly a full minute before I heard her shift and walk up to the other side of the bed, hesitantly crawling underneath. I could feel that she had left an inch between her skin and the blanket up to both of our shoulders, and I could feel the cool air coming in. But if it made her more comfortable, that was fine.

Besides, I was really tired. I had done a lot of running and climbing, and then to finish that off with several glasses of wine, just keeping my eyes closed was a bit too much to ask. So I let them drift closed and... I barely felt her back brush up against mine as I fell asleep. The warmth kept me cocooned for several hours before I even thought to stir.