Dencai Hospitality
Ayla tried not to let her relief show as the guard led her through the gate and into a side hall of the castle. The guard gestured to a wooden bench. She sat with a sigh, settling her bag onto her lap, and waited as a servant came to listen to the guard. Niel sat beside her, his arm and thigh pressing unseen against her own. The servant nodded and strode off. The guard left, presumably back to his post.
Ayla resisted the urge to rest her head against Niel’s shoulder. It felt like an age later that the servant returned, and beckoned her to come. She slung her bag over her shoulder and followed the servant up a winding castle stair, down a hall, and into a small sitting room.
“The messenger, my lady. My lord,” the servant said.
Three people sat at a small table, in cushioned, high-backed chairs. One was a broad-shouldered man of about 40, with slicked-back hair down to his shoulders, wearing a bright blue overcoat. The woman to his left, who Ayla presumed must bethe Lady Hana, was a thin, beautiful woman just come into adulthood, her blonde hair braided elaborately back and her eyes startlingly blue. She wore a large aquamarine wedding ring. The two of them were holding hands of cards, in the middle of a game. The third person, a man in his twenties who looked nearly as haggard as Niel, was slumped back in his chair with his eyes closed. By the two face-up cards on the table in front of him, Ayla guessed he had lost and was napping until the round ended.
Lady Hana set down her cards and looked expectantly at Ayla.
“You have word from my sister?” Hana asked. “Is something the matter?”
“She’s well enough. I think,” Ayla said, trying not to show her surprise at the relationship. She could see the resemblance now that she knew to look for it. Ayla cleared her throat, then curtseyed before approaching to hand over the letter.
Hana unfolded it and read quickly, her eyes skimming back and forth. The only change in her expression was that her eyebrows rose slightly. She handed it over to the castle’s lord beside her.
“We can help,” Hana said, before her husband had even finished reading. “But I don’t know why she went through all the bother to write about it. It’s no great favor to put a lady on a boat. Thereissome trouble afoot, isn’t there?”
“I’d wager she felt odd, it beingmykeep,” the lord said bluntly, folding the letter and handing it back to Hana. “Does the lass think I’m heartsore?”
“You’d better not be,” Hana said with a quirked smile. The lord grinned back at her.
The third man blinked his eyes open. They were pale as sea-glass, but the shadows beneath them dark as charcoal. His upper lip was fat, his honey-brown hair bore a collection of small braids, and there was an unhealthy gauntness in his cheeks.
“How are you doing that?” he asked, staring straight at Ayla and Niel.
“I’m sorry?” Ayla stiffened.
“How do you make two people look like one?”
“What?” Her voice rose sharply.
“Are you quite alright, Hark?” Lady Hana asked, blinking at him.
“I can feel it,” Hark of Ironcliff, Niel’s cousin, said. “The way the air is moving. There’s something in the wind’s way, something I can’t…”
Hark pushed himself out of his chair and took a step forward. Ayla felt a breeze spin against her face. A second later, The castle’s lord practically tackled Hark back down to his seat.
“Do you want to die, fool boy?No more magic. The healer was clear you used too much.” The lord turned to Ayla, his expression grim. “Whatever you’re hiding, Goodwoman, reveal itnow.”
Terror prickled down Ayla’s spine. Old blood. Niel’s cousin had Hulder powers. And there was no hiding, now that he’d called them out. She was about to turn and run when Niel tugged off the cloak, snapping into view beside her. Hana shrieked.
“Oh, youfucking—” Hark hissed, scrambling out of his chair as the castle’s lord attempted to simultaneously push Hark back down, and draw his own sword.
“I come in peace,” Niel said, showing his hands were empty. The castle’s lord let his sword, only drawn an inch, slide back into its sheath.
“Peace?” Hark seethed. “You attacked my city, you titty-poxed bastard!”
“I’m sorry for that,” Niel said. “Are you alright, Hark? You look like shit.”
“You’ll be the younger Eyron,” the castle’s lord said coldly. Niel nodded. “Damned Eyrons,” the lord muttered under his breath.
“What’swrongis I spent allfucking summertrying to keep us safe from the waryoudamn well started,” Hark said. He struggled back upright and glared at Niel, swaying. “I nearly killed myself to do it.”
They shouldn’t have come to the castle, Ayla worried. They should’ve just gone straight to the harbor and looked for passage. No matter what Corin had said about the ships at Dencai, they’d risked too much coming here.
“Please,” Ayla said, her hands trembling, “We just want to leave. We don’t mean any harm.”
