Chapter Eleven

Fox woke up alone and was not surprised. A part of him was even grateful, because when he went downstairs to wash, the traces of his night’s activities were starkly evident and anyone seeing him with Conall would draw the correct conclusions. Then again, the knights, some of them perhaps marked similarly, all continued to look the other way until everyone was dressed.

Fox had risen surprisingly early—retiring just after dark and then being thoroughly taken apart made for a restful night’s sleep—so he lingered at Kaladas for breakfast. The morning was already too hot, the air damp and unpleasantly heavy, which was especially irritating since Fox would have to button his doublet all the way up because a certain knight had sucked several kisses on his neck and left marks.

He stood outside near the small kitchens and held his plate in one hand as he ate, seeking whatever cool breezes might be found, and nodded greetings to knights who passed him. Byr they might be, but they usually greeted him first and Fox did have some manners.

Byr Falnya’s cousin, Byr Shine, crossed the courtyard from where she must have bathed, her attire consisting of a long shirt, a towel, and her boots. She was not staying in Kaladas as far as Fox knew, which meant she had hopefully had a fun night.

Shine was an unusual name for a byr, who deliberately used names from the ancient tongue, leaving the commoners to their common language and common names. Very, very few byr actually spoke or read ancient tongue, but none of the common people did. Most didn’t even read modern Kaskan. All the history the byr pretended to know and kept hidden away was signified in their names, Fox would bet on it. But he would also bet that most of them didn’t know the meanings of those names, even their own.

Shinehowever, was clear. And common. It made him wonder more about Falnya and that family of byr, far away from the capital in their backwoods region and apparently somewhat disinterested in tradition, yet willing to send Byr Falnya here to provide an heir for the king.

Or to try to control or influence him, Fox supposed, although he didn’t think any of the consorts would have much success there.

“I was told there was food!” Byr Shine called out to Fox for some reason as she approached the kitchens, smiling at him before she headed inside. She had a thin, faded scar across one cheek that made her smile seem wider, brighter. Shine indeed. Maybe the name, like Fox’s, had been given to her years after her birth.

Somewhat confused, he turned to watch her go, so when she came back out almost immediately with her hands full of bread, cheese, and peeled, boiled eggs, their eyes met.

Confusing him even more, Byr Shine stopped next to him. “I have to head back up—don’t want to leave Falnya alone for long, but I needed something to eat first.” She ate an egg in one bite. She might even have swallowed it whole.

Fox, who hadn’t asked her to explain her presence, nodded politely anyway. Byr Shine continued to chat, rather open in nature… or pretending to be.

“I’ve yet to see the capital, so this is my first experience with court life. Not that I mean to imply anything by saying that,” Byr Shine added quickly, her tail all over the place. “I’m just getting used to it. I trained to be a knight. Book studies and people matters I left to my brother or Falnya.”

“People matters,” Fox echoed faintly before looking up at her. Knights tended to be tall and the ones who weren’t broad managed to seem so even when barely dressed. “I normally wouldn’t dream of offering advice to a byr,” he paused there, expecting a haughty sniff or a rude remark, and got wide yellow-brown eyes fixed eagerly on him, “but if you want to do well at court, or at least want Byr Falnya to do well, you should learn that telling strangers your secrets can be dangerous.”

Byr Shine gawked at him. “Secrets?”

“Consider everything you are feeling and thinking to now be a secret.” Fox smiled but it was bitter. “Especially when around other byr at court, or anyone who might serve them. It is… not a friendly place, although of course, I am not byr, so perhaps I shouldn’t speak for you. Additionally,” he cleared his throat, “did they teach you tail positions when you were brought up? Because they use them here and in the capital.”

Byr Shine seemed to have trouble swallowing her second egg. “Did you learn tail positions growing up?”

Fox picked at the last of his bread before answering. “I am not byr and I did not grow up in the capital.”

“You said no telling secrets,” Byr Shine reminded him and actually seemed serious about it.

Fox rolled his eyes. “That is no secret. You will hear that information whenever my name is mentioned. You don’t need to act as if you don’t know the gossip, although thank you for trying to be polite about it.”

Knights were byr, but they did seem to have their own rules of behavior.

Or Byr Falnya had sent her to try to learn more about Fox. Fox sighed, all his energy from his good sleep and good fuck rapidly disappearing.

“I do know the gossip,” Byr Shine admitted, moving on to the rest of her food like a starving horse, which was how knights always seemed to eat. They could not be fed enough here. “Everyone does. We’d heard the stories even before the royal household sent out feelers about fertiles in the family. Then of course, after that, our parents demanded to know all of the stories.”

Fox wasn’t certain he would want to hear all of them. Probably not. He was not the first lover Domvoda had had and wasn’t the last either, but he got most of the infamy.

“That’s what made it funny to see you,” Byr Shine went on, ignoring all of Fox’s advice. “Oh, not that I laughed! I was far too nervous even though I knew I wouldn’t be expected to really talk to anyone. The king, the Dragonslayer himself, then you. I’m not like Falnya. Every thought went right out of my head.”

Fox looked at her again, disbelieving. He could have said many things, but instead took an egg from his plate and handed it to her. “Did Byr Falnya request that you accompany him?”

Byr Shine bobbed her head as she ate the new egg. “Oh, yes. He knew I wanted to try my hand at the King’s Tournament. It was a kindness, although I expect I shall lose my events. If I’m fortunate enough to return next year, I will hopefully do better. By then, I might be used to the court and the king—and Byr Conall—watching me, and my nerves will have calmed.”

She’d seemed calm enough the other night when demonstrating her skills for the court, but Fox wouldn’t have known if she hadn’t been. He’d have to ask Conall.

“And that made it funny to see me?” Fox tried to follow, he really did.

“The King’s Clever Fox,” Byr Shine said the nickname with hushed awe. “In some stories, he saw you on the street and was captivated.” Fox snorted. Byr Shine actually seemed disappointed at that reaction, but not for long. “In others, he can barely leave your side.” Fox’s tail dropped with his shock; he’d never heard that one, although it was blatantly untrue. “But in all the stories you are beautiful and talented and smart. And you are; I just didn’t expect the stories to be true. But at the same time, you’re smaller than I thought, and mostly you play music—which you do wonderfully, though I’ve no ear for song. But I thought you’d be reading or saying witty things all the time. And you sleep amongst the knights, not with the king, and—oh, I shouldn’t have said that.”

Possibly a deliberate mistake, the kind of thing byr did to be catty. Fox stared into her wide eyes and wondered absently if Byr Falnya had truly brought Byr Shine here for the tournament or because it was reassuring to have someone around who was not good at lying.

“My point is,” Byr Shine insisted with a hint of stubborn determination, “that you aren’t from the court either, but you don’t have any nerves to get in your way. Which was funny to me because I am byr and an invited guest and yet I’m nothing but nerves. You don’t seem intimidated at all.”

Fox handed her his last egg. He gave himself a moment, then another one, before shaking his head. “If you want wise words about rising above fear, you will need to talk to one of the more experienced knights. If you want gossip or useful information, I don’t have any for you. And you’ve already ignored what advice I’ve given you.” The wrinkled brow in response to this made Fox sigh, just a little. “But I understand what you mean about the court, and the king, and Byr Conall. I’d heard of him long before I ever saw him.” The king too, but ‘king’ was an idea. There were songs about Conall, several of them.

Byr Shine was eyeing the rest of Fox’s plate as though the kitchens were not still directly behind them. “Were you intimidated?”

Fox had been terribly intimidated. But he wasn’t about to admit that to anyone, let alone a suspiciously friendly knight who did not know what discretion was.

“The Song of the Dragonslayer was one of the first songs I played for audiences when I got a lute of my own,” Fox murmured. “My original lute,” he added. “Serviceable and barely dinged up. Cost me what I considered a fortune in those days. But I was not even twenty then,” not even close, “and had yet to walk to the capital.”

Byr Shine gasped with some revelation. “How long ago was that? Am I older than you? I expect I must be. That’s funny too. From the stories, I would have thought you’d be the king’s age. But you’re not, are you? He’s got a decade on you at least.”

“I am twenty-five,” Fox informed her crisply, although that was more of a guess. Twenty-four or twenty-three were also possible. The families who had taken him in after his parents’ deaths had been concerned with more things than remembering the year of Fox’s birth, and Fox had always been small.

“A decade at least,” Byr Shine said again, clucking her tongue. “I’m struggling now. I can’t imagine being here on my own at twenty-two or so.”

“I’m always on my own,” Fox muttered.

Byr Shine gave up lusting after Fox’s plate to give him a puzzled frown. “But Byr Conall speaks highly of you, so you must have gotten over being frightened of him.”

“Frightened?” Fox’s voice went high. “I wasn’t frightened of…. Don’t be ridiculous. I felt many things at being in the king’s court, surrounded by byr, in my nicest and entirely inadequate clothes, hearing the words ‘Dragonslayer’ and ‘Byr Conall’, and looking up to see him, but frightened was not…” His indignation faded as he went silent, then swallowed to ease his dry mouth as he had done then, in the exact moment he had looked out from the corner a servant had placed him in, across a sea of icily disapproving byr, and seen the Dragonslayer.

The byr had been whispering of Fox so that Fox could hear, and of the king’s past lovers—also for Fox to hear, although Fox hadn’t realized why at the time—but then their conversation had shifted to the king, and the king’s odd taste in advisors, and heroes. One hero.

Fox had looked up and seen a mountain dressed in armor and a prettily decorated surcoat, with gleaming skin and half an ear gone, his eyes like fires when they’d met Fox’s.

Fox had stared at him like an awed child with his tail up and his mouth dry as sand, tremors all through his chest. He worried over his clothes—too simple, not pretty enough—and his hair—a wavy mess down his back—and how he could not stop staring and how surely the Dragonslayer would find Fox embarrassing instead of sophisticated.

Then Domvoda had entered the room and Fox had torn his gaze from Byr Conall to look upon the king, and the king had ensured that Fox was unable to look elsewhere for a long time. Sometime after that, Conall had found Fox outside the king’s bedroom and Fox hadn’t wanted to look at him. But even out of the corner of his eye, Conall’s presence had always been enough to leave Fox shaking.

“I wasn’t frightened,” Fox said at last. “If you are, I’d suggest talking to him. Maybe that meeting will be funny to you as well.”

“Talk to him?” Byr Shine waved a hand and her tail toward the other side of the courtyard so Fox turned to follow the gesture. Conall and several other knights emerged from the stables, leading their horses as if intending to ride out, probably to the tournament grounds. All of them were in armor, enough to make them sparkle in the light. Conall was laughing, something Byr Shine evidently thought was intimidating and not beautiful. “Was it funny for you when you did?”

Conall glanced over at the same moment Byr Shine asked the question, finding Fox immediately. He nodded a greeting to Fox and then also gave one to Fox’s dining companion when he noticed her, sending Byr Shine’s tail whirling. Conall could have been any other knight in Kaladas, except for his gaze when it returned to Fox.

Fox wanted to tilt his head to present his neck or lift his tail right there in the courtyard.

A strong shiver went through him.

“No. It wasn’t funny,” he answered Byr Shine with quiet honesty, before handing her the last of his breakfast. He left the knights to their business and went to his room to finish dressing for his day at Saravar.