He sat on a log next to Anik, regarding him. He wasn't bad-looking, really. Not at all. Maybe if he hadn't been a total asshole, and if their situation had been different, Ren would have tried to charm him into bed. Maybe. He was still a Lowlander, after all. But then again, so was Ilias, and his beauty had rivalled any of the slaves in Aleria.

Sifa joined them with three new bowls of kalg. Someone had opened the second keg, although, in their defence, the first one had been almost empty when they started. She offered Anik a bowl, but he held up a hand in polite refusal. Ren took one and downed its contents in one gulp. The girl had been right – it really didn't taste that bad anymore.

Sifa laughed heartily and followed Ren's example, then tossed her bowl over her shoulder and handed the last one to Ren. Standing, she locked her arms around Leine's waist and the two of them started dancing to the rhythm of the spectators' claps.

“Whoa there,” Anik said, tugging Ren's bowl from his hands as he was about to raise it to his lips. “You have to be able to ride a horse tomorrow.”

“I'm not drunk,” Ren argued with a frown, resting his elbows on his knees. The world spun a little, like he was standing on the deck of a ship, but that was all. Really. “Besides, my horse is dead. One horse is not enough for three people.”

“All the more reason to stop now,” Anik said, setting Ren's bowl out of reach. “I'll talk to Sifa and Leine in the morning, maybe figure out a deal for the horses they took from the soldiers.”

“Fine,” Ren said. He didn't feel like arguing. He narrowed his eyes at Anik. The man hardly looked like he had been drinking except for a slight flush to his cheeks that could just as well be the heat from the fire.

“What?” Anik asked, raising an eyebrow at the way Ren was watching him.

Ren wanted to tell him that he was really much too handsome to be such an unpleasant grump all the time, but an uncomfortable buzz in his fingertips distracted him. It travelled slowly up his arms to his elbows and grew in intensity. Anik said something to him, the words unintelligible and Ren raised his head with a frown.

“What?”

Anik spoke again, but the words that left his mouth made no sense, as if Anik was speaking the Lowlander language again, although Ren knew he wasn't. Ren narrowed his eyes. His throat was buzzing now, too. He tried to swallow and found he couldn't. Anik was looking at him with concern.