10. Tahlia

That evening, the great hall’s massive hearth snapped and crackled with flames as servers distributed pancakes fried with honey and sesame seeds, freshly steamed mussels from the river covered in a fermented fish sauce, the pale cheese common in the Shrouded Mountains, and, of course, bread.

Fara was annihilating an entire loaf on her own when Tahlia found her at a seat near the fire.

Tahlia leaned toward Fara and raised an eyebrow. “I can come back if you two need a little alone time.”

Fara gave her a withering look. “You riders are mad for getting on the backs of dragons, but I will say, the bakers up here are far more talented than the ones in the valley.”

Accepting a plate from one of the servers, Tahlia had a seat beside Fara. The mussels were hot and the sauce was strange but deliciously biting. She enjoyed half a pancake, then washed it down with watered crystal wine.

“Are you going to eat that?” Fara pointed to the other half of the pancake.

“No, please take it. I don’t want you nibbling on my fingers if you get hungry at midnight.”

“Where have you been all day? How did it go with the High Captain?” Fara glanced at the two squires sitting opposite them, but Tahlia didn’t think they were too concerned about anything Fara and Tahlia might discuss. They seemed fully engrossed in their small game of three dice.

“I needed some time to ponder.” She’d spent hours walking the trails that branched from the keep and out of the walls to the pine forest surrounding the castle grounds.

“Whoa, I haven’t heard that one from you before. This must be pretty bad.”

“Well, Marius is definitely struggling with the death,” Tahlia said, keeping her voice to a whisper.

Fara nodded. “But did he listen to your, um, to your information?”

“He did, but he wasn’t himself. I’ll have to talk to him again later. Maybe after the funeral and a few days to get his head on straight.”

“Might take longer.”

“It might, but I think he needs some space right now.”

Fara licked her fingers. “My parents would have died seeing me do this. I am really starting to enjoy life up here in the peaks.”

Tahlia patted Fara’s shoulder. “I’m glad. I would hate to be up here without you.”

Tahlia tried to eat more and push her worry aside while Fara feasted, but Marius’s stony face kept flashing through her mind’s eye. She tapped Fara with an elbow. Fara lowered a large wooden spoon of honeyed oats and glanced Tahlia’s way.

“Yes?”

“Sorry to disturb you and your next true love, but I’m going to the stables. I just want to check on the Seabreak.”

“Want me to come?” Fara asked. “I can apply that salve to her left wing again if you think we should.” She set her spoon down and wiped her mouth on one of the linen napkins folded at each place setting.

“No, I’d rather go on my own.”

Fara smiled and went back to her oatmeal. “Don’t get lost.”

“I haven’t yet.”

“Those stables are wild. You could walk around in the passageways for ten years without finding an end.”

“You’d probably get roasted before a decade passed,” Tahlia said, trying for a lighter tone.

“Most likely.” Fara snickered. But she snagged Tahlia’s sleeve before she could leave. “Seriously though, watch out for…” She glanced around them. “For that one person.”

She meant Ophelia. “I will.”

This wasn’t a ridiculous warning like many of Fara’s cautionary comments. If Marius decided to tell Ophelia that Tahlia had seen her, even if he intended no harm, Ophelia would go after Tahlia. Who would everyone believe was at fault if she and Ophelia ended up in a fight? Their new commander, that was who. They’d have no choice.

No one—save Marius—would risk their bonded dragon for Tahlia. She was too new. She didn’t even blame them. No, she had to find proof that Ophelia was involved in her father’s death.

Had she killed him? Did Tahlia really think that of the female?

She chewed the inside of her cheek as she slipped from the great hall into the foyer, heading for Ophelia’s chambers. She didn’t like fibbing to Fara, but she didn’t want her worrying.

Stars sparkled across the stained glass of the windows and reflected off the crystals embedded in the stone walls. She crossed the foyer and started up the side stairs.

Had Ophelia killed Gaius? Maybe. Who else had access to him? The other knights and Remus. But this was Ophelia. Evil Ophelia. Yeah, she was the best bet. Before she could repeat that thought to anyone, she had to find proof.

She hid in the darkness at the edge of the corridor that split off toward the bedchambers, the kitchens, and the various meeting halls. Riders and staff passed by, most of them solemn and quiet due to Commander Gaius’s death. Once the area was empty of people, Tahlia slipped down the hallway that led to Ophelia’s rooms.

The sconces’ yellow light drew Tahlia around a tight corner, up another set of stairs, and past a new tapestry showing the wedding of Queen Revna and King Lysanael. The Unseelie King had been stitched into the scene even though everyone knew the two males hadn’t made peace until well after the pictured event. Unseelie monsters’ eyes glittered with gold thread, and the Unseelie King’s skin was shown to be a deep gray with a scattering of dragon scales here and there. Tahlia shivered and kept on. Riding dragons was glorious, but being a dragon shifter? That would be madness.

Ophelia’s door, another oaken beast of a thing, was carved with swirls of clouds and stars. Tahlia leaned against the wood to listen. If she was found, what would she say? Perhaps something about condolences. Yes, that would work well enough.

Footsteps sounded down the corridor, and Tahlia’s heart shot into her throat. She lunged for the opposite side of the hallway and concealed herself behind a row of hooks and hanging cloaks. Ophelia approached, her mouth bunched and her brow furrowed. She removed a key from her belt and unlocked her door.

Once Ophelia disappeared, Tahlia moved to follow.

Thankfully, Ophelia hadn’t locked the door from the inside and the oaken entrance swung open with a creak. Tahlia froze, waiting, hoping she hadn’t been heard. The smell of the apartments was odd. Smoke, but not regular candle smoke. This scent was harsher. Hiding under that, a sickly odor hung in the air. Illness? Rot? Mold?

A bang and a shuffle indicated that Ophelia had gone farther in and was moving something large and heavy across the floor.

Tahlia dared to lean around the corner of the entryway. Ophelia’s back was to her. She was kneeling and dragging a rectangular carpet into what seemed to be a random spot in the middle of the living area.

Ophelia paused in her redecorating mission and started to peer over her shoulder. Tahlia ducked back and held her breath.

“Lue, is that you?”

Lue was Ophelia’s squire.

Sweat rolled down the back of Tahlia’s neck.

The sound of Ophelia’s boots and the splash of water from farther away let Tahlia relax. She peeked around the entryway wall again and saw Ophelia at a wash basin near a round window. She was cleaning her hands. Tahlia caught a flash of the back of Ophelia’s left hand. A slash of gray-black charring showed.

If Ophelia was expecting Lue soon, Tahlia needed to go. She turned to leave, cracking the door open a bit more. Keeping every movement slow and sure, Tahlia made her way into the corridor, then she scurried back the way she’d come.

The sconce near the corridor’s tight turn had flickered out. Tahlia ran straight into something.

“I knew it, you little beast,” Fara whispered. “Let’s get out of here while we’re still breathing.”

Tahlia rubbed her shoulder where the buckle of Fara’s side-swept half-cloak had hit her. “What do you mean?”

“I knew you weren’t off to the stables. You don’t possess the ability to stay out of harm’s way.”

“This hallway is safer than a labyrinth cave system full of dragons.”

Fara glanced at Tahlia, frowning as she walked on. “Ophelia is the worst kind of monster.”

“You’re not wrong. But I did see some odd things.”

“Like what?” Fara asked.

Tahlia hurried down the stairs with Fara at her side. The sound of conversations trickled up from the foyer.

“The person in question was moving a rug.”

Fara faked a shiver. “Horrifying.”

Tahlia smacked Fara’s arm with the back of her hand. “The place smelled so strange. Like someone had been sick there for a long time. And the chamber smelled like smoke.”

“Just because Ophelia has an ague,” Fara whispered as they crossed the foyer to return to the great hall, “keeps too many candles lit, and enjoys redecorating doesn’t mean she murdered her father. Although I’m here for throwing insults her way regardless. Just not out loud.”

Tahlia eyed the crowd in the hall, searching for a certain grouchy High Captain. “Something is off here. I just know it.”

Fara reached for the milk and egg puddings sitting in a tidy row on a sideboard. “Well, for now, it’s nothing a tiropatina with pomegranate seeds won’t fix.”

The desserts were fantastic and no one bothered them when they retired to bed, but Tahlia didn’t sleep a wink. She hadn’t seen Marius the rest of the evening and she could not shake the feeling that she should be working harder to uncover what in the hells was going on.