Chapter 31

T he flowing wine and ale is having its intended effect, and the warriors have gotten louder, if anything, and certainly freer with their hands. Dressed in my serving robes but with my eyes now heavily outlined in kohl and red salve on my lips, I put myself to work fetching more wine almost as soon as I reenter the great hall. Cups and flagons change hands across each table, and the demands grow brasher and more boisterous by turns.

It takes only a few trips back and forth from the kitchens to position myself in front of Fortiss. When I lean forward, he looks up with a jolt. “You…”

I bow and step back, awaiting his instruction like the servant I am.

“More wine,” he finishes, as the giddy laugh of the girl beside him breaks his concentration long enough for me to slip away from his glare. I don’t mind. I’ve done what I wanted to do. After that, I sense Fortiss’s gaze upon me constantly as I weave my way through the crowd. I don’t make his task difficult. I set up position near his table, eventually dragging a water jar over to rest against the wall. I’ll have need of it soon enough.

Fortunately, no one disturbs the vessel or pays undue attention to me. By the time the women and men begin pairing off to leave and the rafts of retainers file out of the feasting hall, leaving the servants to clean, I’m not surprised that Fortiss remains behind. He stays as the councilors take their leave, and Rihad as well, who looks very content with the evening’s work. Eventually, even the pouting blonde leaves Fortiss behind, though she’s clearly reluctant to do so. He turns to stare at me.

I roll my eyes, fixing my attention on the table I’m clearing. How many girls have made that offer to Fortiss this week alone? Probably too many to count.

“You’ve done a good job hiding from me this week,” he murmurs.

“Hiding is sometimes the way,” I return easily as I survey the room. It’s nearly empty now, and the guards are paying little attention. I suspect I won’t get a better opportunity.

“Before we can, ah, do anything else, a moment, sir.” I half curtsey as timidly as I can manage and gesture to the water jars along the wall. “This won’t take long.”

Fortiss frowns, watching me curiously as I move the short distance to the large water jar. I squat down to pick it up—and don’t have to feign staggering under its weight. The jar is nearly full.

“Here.” He strides over to me and lifts the jar from my arms as if it weighs nothing. “Where are you taking this?”

“To the beast below,” I say, as if that’s perfectly obvious. I turn away from him, heading toward the high table.

“ What? ” He hastens after me, then slips around and positions himself before the door that leads down to the cavern when I try to enter. “Talia,” he bites off under his breath. “It’s forbidden for you to do such work.”

I shrug . Interesting . “Well, I’m playing a role, here. I was given these orders from the head cook. She says to take this jar down by this door, adding to the supplies where the beast rests.”

“I don’t care what the cook instructed you to do.” Fortiss works his jaw, and I think for a moment that perhaps he does know what resides in the caverns of the First House, the glorious Divh held captive. Then he shakes his head. “Lord Rihad has his own servants to attend to…that.”

“You’ve seen yourself how busy the house staff is. Here.” I hold out my arms impatiently to take the jar again. “Caring for the creature is the work of servants, not warriors. In this, I am happy to serve.”

His lips twist, and he turns stiffly away. “It’s not right.”

Without another word, he strides into the archway.

As I recall from before, the stairs are long and winding, and at some point, Fortiss slows enough that I can step in front of him, trotting quickly ahead. “Thank you, sir, I’m in your debt, sir,” I keep murmuring just to needle him, but I get only grumbled responses for my efforts.

At last, we reach the lowest level, where the wide apron of stone spreads out toward the metal bars. Fortiss is barely moving now, and I pull the jar from him, wobbling a little under its weight. I go to the great vat at the side of the room and shove the lid free, spilling the water into it and stirring.

“What’re you doing now?” Fortiss demands. “You’ve done this before? I’ve never been down here.”

“Then all the better that you’re with me.”

When the salve is prepared, I scoop several portions of it into one of the smaller jars next to the vat and move toward the bars. I’m almost through them when Fortiss seems to come to life.

“No,” he says urgently. “I can’t go in there. I’ve given my word. It’s forbidden for any warrior knight to enter this section of the dungeons. But I won’t have you get hurt.”

I blink at him as another layer of Rihad’s damnable deception slips away. If Fortiss knows only that there is something in this dungeon that he has pledged not to explore, but not what it is—then clearly his level of personal honor is far higher than I ever expected. In my father’s house, I would have gone exploring straight away.

Either way, I can’t completely let this moment pass. He may be constrained by his sense of loyalty to Rihad…but I’m not. “Shh. You’ll wake her.”

“Her?” His voice is strangled, and he doesn’t speak as I move to the edge of the precipice and kneel, dumping the oil mixture over the side.

Despite himself, Fortiss approaches. I hear him slide between the bars. “What are you…”

“She likes it.” I sit back on my heels, waiting. I hear his soft footfalls on the stone even as a scraping in the cavern beyond begins. “See?”

“I can’t see anything. I’m surprised you can.”

Fortiss reaches me and, with a hand on my shoulder, sinks down to the stone ledge. “I shouldn’t be here. And it’s too dangerous for you.”

“Right.” I shrug. “But I’m here to perform a service to the beast that roams these caverns, nothing more. And she’s chained.” I nudge him with an elbow. “You can’t tell me you’ve never been down here before.”

“I…it’s forbidden to me.” A curious non-answer. “I serve the Lord Protector.”

“Well, yes. But not in the same way as a servant, right?” I find myself tired of this misdirection. It’s time someone told me the truth about what’s chained Fortiss to this place as much as the beast below us. “I mean, you’re a warrior. Why don’t you have a Divh?”

I can sense his withdrawal, but in the darkness, it seems that secrets are easier to share. At length, he speaks, with the tone of a man confessing to a crime. “Because I’m not worthy. When my father died, I wasn’t with him. The band was supposed to transfer to me. I was his only son. Only…it didn’t. I wasn’t worthy, then or…or later.”

The scratching beneath us has stopped, and I can almost imagine the dragon’s graceful head twitching to the side, her cruel teeth gleaming in the half-light as Fortiss speaks. But the creature comes no closer, doesn’t lift her mighty head.

“My father was the greatest warrior in the land,” Fortiss continues. “Toma the dragon—they called him dragon in honor of his Divh. It was the most fearsome creature in the Protectorate, some said, swift and lithe. There were hundreds of bardic tales written to honor both my father and his Divh.”

Szonja. The word is whispered in my mind. Szonja.

“She,” I murmur. My eyes are wide beneath my hood, my breath practically choking in my throat. So this Divh does by rights belong to Fortiss—she does.

Fortiss pauses. “What?”

“The Divh, your father’s Divh. The dragon. She’s a she, not an it.” The word forms again in my mind, quick and absolute, Szonja . A more beautiful name I’ve never heard, and one that fits this mighty Divh perfectly. I open my mouth to speak it but catch myself just in time. As Merritt, I could share this name. As Talia, I can’t.

I can sense Fortiss’s scowl even though I can’t see it. “How would you know? He never told me its name.”

The snap of gnashing teeth is so loud, I jerk back, and Fortiss reaches out and clasps my arm, pulling me farther away from the abyss. “What was that?”

“I don’t know,” I lie. “What else do you know of your father’s Divh?”

“Well…I only saw it once. My father went out one morning with me to the marshlands and lifted his arm and it?—”

“She.”

“ She appeared in the near-dawn light and, well, she was glorious. Ebony and sapphire with spears of gold glistening along her skin. Her wings full and proud, her expression fierce, her…” He frowns. “Why am I calling it a ‘her’ again?”

“Because it’s her truth.” I pause. “She sounds like a worthy Divh for the greatest warrior in all the land.”

“Yes,” he sighs. “And Rihad told me I’d surely merit it—her—when the time came. But he was wrong. I was only twelve, but…my father died before the transfer could be completed. Rihad wears the band himself, now, in sorrow for my father’s death. He…” He swallows. “He’s supposedly truly banded to the Divh, double banded and all, though I’ve never seen it…her…I’ve never seen her again. What’s more, the Lord Protector has never awarded me my own Divh either. I haven’t been worthy.”

I stare at Fortiss as rage and sorrow waft up from the cavern, and more than that—I know how he feels. Know the burden of a shame you can never release, no matter how hard you try. In that moment, I also sense another truth. Fortiss is first-blooded and firstborn, and for him, that means something. It means honor, discipline. Adherence to the old ways, and to a path that shines in the Light. He would never have intentionally killed Merritt, and he didn’t loose that arrow. But that doesn’t mean he is innocent of being his uncle’s pawn.

“You’re going to fight with his Divh, though, aren’t you? I heard the others talking. That would be a feat of worth.”

He blows out a long breath. “I don’t want to fight with a borrowed Divh. I’ve never heard of a bond that allows such a transfer of allegiance, and it feels…it feels like a lie, somehow. I wish to fight honorably. With my own Divh.”

I nod. “What if your Divh was injured, somehow, and not the glorious creature like—like your father’s Divh? What if she…or he…was weaker? Smaller? What would you do, then?”

He thinks for a moment. “Size is no replacement for heart. That’s something my father once said. If my Divh is small or hurt, but it?—”

SHE.

This time, I don’t have to remind Fortiss. It’s as if he can hear the Divh in his own mind, even if he can’t understand it. “—but if she still chose me, then…” He shrugs. “That’s all I’d need. It’d be the same as if she was the mightiest creature in all the land.”

There’s a sound of rippling hide, and Fortiss jerks his head toward the cool darkness. “Did you hear that?” he asks, a frown in his voice.

I feel the quick, hurried touch of Szonja in my mind, urging me away. “I think we can probably go now.” I stand and pull up the jar, now empty, but he takes it from me without leaving the edge.

“Have you seen it?” he asks. “The beast Rihad keeps here?”

“I have,” I allow. “But not often. Maybe only once before.” I suddenly don’t want him to see Szonja this way, and I wonder…are these my own thoughts, or something the Divh is impressing on me, asking me to leave? Does she not want to reveal herself to Fortiss in her current state, broken and chained? Either way, I feel I must honor the sense that we should step away from this dank cavern.

Fortiss seems to agree, and we turn toward the bars. Once we are safely through, he sets down the salve jar again. I hesitate, frowning at him as he hesitates. The shadows shroud him in gloom, and I can barely make out the features of his face. “Are you all right?”

He stares at the bars another long moment then back at me.

“I don’t want you to go,” he murmurs. “Not yet. No one will bother us here. There’s danger, but…my rooms are on the other side of the castle. We might be seen trying to reach them.”

I swallow, but he’s right. There’s no way I could make my way across the castle in Fortiss’s company without drawing the interest of idle eyes. And interested eyes could recognize me—even if they don’t quite know why. We can’t stray far from the shadows…and we shouldn’t be lingering in the shadows at all.

As soon as I think that last thought, I reject it. Instead, I step closer to Fortiss and stare up into his beautiful face.

“No,” I agree softly, taking his hand. “No one will bother us here.”