“You were plenty fast,” Rydon said with a chiding look. “You turned your back on him. That’s what cost you.”
She was spared answering when the bartender jumped onto the bar, and whistled so loud Sonah squealed at her side.
“Listen up, you degenerates!” he called out in the common tongue.
The crowd erupted with joyous agreement.
“Live music out back! And get ready to dance!”
If possible, the roar from the patrons became even more deafening. Sonah and Croak jumped up and down, sloshing their ale all around them and Terena shrieked as some of it landed on her head. Rydon wrapped an arm around her shoulders and tugged her along as they headed out the back, along with half the crowd.
Two men seated to their right were playing instruments resembling small guitars, their fingers flying so fast over the strings Terena was transfixed as she watched.
A woman was singing in Greek, although Terena couldn’t see her through the crowd already in the large open space, people lining up and dancing in one giant circle. Croak pushed past her, tugging Sonah along as the two separated dancers so they could join in.
They didn’t know the steps, but quickly picked it up from the dancers on either side of them, and Terena’s heart squeezed to see Sonah’s shining face laughing up at the woman to her left. Rydon pushed Terena in front of him and she let him pull her into a line a few people down from where Sonah and Croak had joined. Gabriol joined on her left and Terena turned to smile up at him.
She was already dizzy from drink, and the dancing—how fast they moved!—had her breathless. She didn’t know how long they danced; one song bled into another. Soon, people were jumping into the center of the circle, dancing in a way too intricate for Terena. And there was no way she was sober enough to do it.
She laughed in surprise as Croak jumped into the center, his dramatic leap making everyone cry out with encouragement and laughter. He pushed back a lock of sweat-soaked brown hair, then tried to copy the last dancer but tripped over his feet and fell in a heap, making Terena double over in a fit of laughter. Gabriol missed a step and fell on top of her. Since she was holding Rydon’s hand, she pulled him down with her and he pulled down the poor woman on his right.
Terena couldn’t stop laughing as they all sat there for a moment in a mess of limbs. It took them forever to rise, overcome with giddiness. The line of dancers reformed around them until it was only Terena in the middle.
The dancers began to clap and Terena twirled, arms up in the air as she spun. Terena closed her eyes and let the music fill her world as she moved. The crowd sang the song, and soon the voices of those dancing and watching made her heart soar.
She was carefree in that one moment. She wanted to freeze it, and stay in it forever.
Just one night without nightmares.
One night without thinking of him.
Terena opened her eyes and sighed, stumbling as a heady dizziness overtook her. Ready to rejoin the dancers, she moved to the people in front of her, smiling as they made room for her and lifted her smiling face to the dancers across the way.
Her smile slipped.
Daris Antonius stood in the line between two women, one of them smiling up at him as if he hung the moon himself.
Heat rushed to her face as their gazes locked. Surprise and something else on his face she couldn’t name crossed his features, but instead of looking away, Terena grinned across at him before lookingaround the circle of dancers. She spotted Sonah and Croak singing along with the others, Croak’s head thrown back as he belted out what Terena was sure were the wrong words, Sonah playing along at his side. Terena’s gaze shifted to Rydon, who saw her at the same time and moved across the center to come to her side.
There were shouts from the other dancers as he passed the center, but his only concession to the unspoken rule those in the center of the circle must dance was to raise his arms up and snap his fingers as he came quickly to claim a spot next to her.
“I think I need another drink!” he yelled over at Terena as they shuffled first to the right, then back a step, then right again.
“Same! I want wine, this time,” she called back, leaning closer to his ear so she didn’t have to shout. He nodded and tugged at her hand. She pulled the woman’s hand on her right toward the man standing on Rydon’s left as they left the circle, then trotted after Rydon, weaving her way through the crowd around the dancers and back inside.
Gabriol, too, had had the same thought as them and Rydon yelled when he spotted him at the bar. Gabriol lifted his chin in their direction, then leaned over the bar so his face was obscured by the other patrons nearby.
When they were beside him, he held out a tankard. Rydon shook his head. He leaned in to say something to Gabriol, then the bartender, who nodded and placed a cup on the bar top as he reached for something below.
Terena grinned at the bartender when he handed them the wine and she raised her cup to Rydon and Gabriol.
“Let’s go find somewhere to sit, I’m fucking tired,” Gabriol yelled over the crowd, and Terena nodded. She followed behind Rydon as Gabriol led them through the crowd toward the front right corner.
He leaned over a table nearby and after some nods from those at the table, he grabbed a chair and brought it over to an empty one behind them. He set it down and moved to the one in the corner, Rydon taking the seat at his side and Terena the remaining one looking out over the rest of the room. Not that she could see over thesea of bodies, but she was grateful for Rydon making sure she was seated where she could see everyone.
“Gods, Terena, take it easy, or we’ll have to carry you back,” Gabriol said with a grin, watching her drain the last of her wine. Rydon clapped him on the back and rose.
“I’ll get another round,” he said, then strode off, disappearing through the crowd.
