It was Alba who had found him. The barn owl, with her silent wings and grace like the wind, had trailed this fellow far longer than he had been aware, her curiosity getting the best of her in the midst of her hunting for wayward voles or careless squirrels. There were no creatures as silent a stalker as she, and so she hunted this cloaked man, watching, waiting, biding her time to be certain. She watched the expertise in which he used to set his trap. No bumbling fool could hope to mimic such intimate knowledge to how a snare might work, and only when she was certain did Alba beckon the dunalino that she was so intricately bound to.
’I found him,’ the barn owl beckoned back to Somnus, who had immediately lifted his head from fetching a cool, refreshing drink vigilant and alarmed by the tone coating his bonded’s mind-speech. Alba’s following words were poisoned with contempt. ’The poacher.’
Oh.
For weeks, Somnus had extricated himself from the world around him. It wasn’t the most noble of things to do after stepping away from the crown, but honestly, the days after his abdication and putting Ipomoea on the throne, he had felt lost. So, as he did when he was feeling particularly troubled or confused, the stallion ventured to Veneror to pray, taking with him his teapot and two cups. Due to this self-imposed exile, however, he had come back almost unaware of what was going on in the land he had once ruled. Only the whispers of ‘killings’ and a ‘poacher’ had met his ears, but he had been planning to return to the citadel and meet with Po for a formal briefing, if his brother-turned-king had the time to spare.
’Somnus.’
Alba’s harsh whisper of his name caused him to pause mid-step. His eyes scanned the area, searching, waiting, spotting the barn owl within the skeletal fingers of a nearby tree while playing sentinel… And then they paused, resting upon his unaware quarry.
Emerald eyes met this man’s vivid blue as the fellow lifted his head, presumably done with whatever it was he was tinkering with, and Somnus spotted the brief look of surprise flash across his expression before it was gone. Brows furrowed, the dunalino dared a single step closer, letting his shoulders roll back as though indifferent.
Somnus did not look to Alba. Instead, he gave her a simple command, knowing that this man would not hear her departure. ’Go.’
Although hesitant to do as he instructed and leave him alone with a would-be killer, Alba did just that, letting herself fall from the tree with outstretched wings and silently take flight to return to the capitol.
