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Edvard left shortly after that back into the streets of Sel Deuo, but not until Kura had reappeared to ask if Yuila could come into the backyard to visit. Edvard had said no, but maybe later, and Kura promised to return.
When he was gone, Mina sighed, which only made her back catch, making her reconsider the liniment. She took a deep breath slowly, and stepped on the foot Edvard had loosely bandaged. Yuila came to her side and slipped a small arm around her, and Mina suddenly thought how much the young Crone's mother must miss her. Even she had missed the girl when she thought Yuila had left the slave camp.
Actually that was more relief than genuine missing her, she reconsidered as they sat at the table near the window. Yuila took the chair across from her and they looked out at the small courtyard below the inn. To the west a balcony from two rooms over blocked part of the yard, but it was empty. In what they could see of the courtyard hung a clothes line, and they recognized some of their own clothes hanging.
"There aren't enough chairs," Yuila said.
Mina looked around the room. "You're right. We'll have to move the table nearer the bed later."
Yuila nodded. They looked back out the window, and Kura popped out from under the balcony into sight. She glanced up at them, waving. Yuila waved back, leaning out the window. Another older girl, the one who had taken their laundry the day before, called to Kura and she joined her at the line of clothes.
Yuila pointed into the next courtyard with the water fountain. "There's Didi, the cat."
Mina moved to see the yard better. The cat slinked among the ferns, tail switching as it crept up on an unsuspecting mouse. "How do you know its name?"
Yuila draped against the window, blowing the frizzed hair from her eyes. "That's what they called it last night. The girl who was sitting at the fountain after Edvard left to watch you."
Mina frowned. "What do you mean, watch me?"
The girl lifted her hair in the growing heat of the afternoon and shook it out. "He went back last night to watch you after he couldn't get you out, Sapo."
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