“I won’t require action on your part.Perhaps insight on whether an idea I have might work.”What he truly needed from Everil couldn’t be asked for.Not with Talia, Aultyr, and Harke there, listening as they ate.No way to gain reassurance that they’d remain friends after Declan did what he must do.“It’s a stupid idea.”
“I’ve never been particularly adept at predicting Nimai’s behavior,” Everil admitted.“But I’ll offer what I’m able.”
Good.That was good.No matter how much or little he might assist, his willingness to do so bode well for Everil not shunning him after.
“My thoughts are to tell him the truth: I see an offense given and wish to make it right.”Declan couldn’t keep the hiss from his words.Therewasoffense given.“Then take refuge in audacity and issue a formal challenge to a duel.How clever is he with magic?”
“Clever,” Everil answered immediately.“Subtle.I would say of no particular strength, but I made a poor bond in that way.If his new bond shares better than I do, he may well be quite capable.”
“We haveduels?”Talia interjected, eyes bright and expression offended.“We have duels, and I’ve never been to one?”
“Hadduels,” Aultyr corrected, a hint of curiosity in his voice.“Been a thousand years.Maybe more.”
“Declan, it’s a very rash idea.And he’ll not wish to accept such a challenge, not from you.”
Declan snorted.“Voids, dirty his hands with me?The shame.”
“He fears you.”Only Everil’s flat, factual tone kept Declan from laughing.“Not your deathsight.Not your politics.You’re cleverandpowerful, even if you can’t draw from your bond the way he might his.Nimai did not allow our friendship merely to placate me.”
Old questions fit together then, puzzle pieces slotted into place.Declan always took Nimai’s reaction to his attempts as the standard disgust and disregard toward sluagh.Not fear for what he might do to the wretched man.
“There goes my idea to play into his dislike of me to goad his acceptance.”
Humor sat easier than dwelling on the past.
“Not from you, no.You cannot play on his honor or sense of justice, either.He must see it as a threat to his status.”
“Rashly public, then.”Preferably not surrounded only by his friends.Nimai had many.Declan had his few, but they only occasionally intersected.“Did you know Charil and Yenah still throw their biannual parties?”
“My House’s invitations must have been mislaid prior to delivery.Nimai always did enjoy attending.”Everil hesitated.“I imagine more so, with the Council.It’s important to be seen.”
Antonio wouldn’t like it.Not with Calloway’s family pledged to the House.He wouldn’t wish to go, if the sour, miserable twist in the bond gave hint to his emotions on the subject.Throw a probable encounter with the wisp to the mix, and Declan would face Nimai alone.
If he died, he would be alone.
“I’d rathernotbe seen,” Talia piped in.“It’d be a lot easier to kill him if you were invisible.”
“Nah.Have to be naked,” Aultyr said with a not-quite smirk.“Or a ghillie dhu.”
Everil tapped the table thoughtfully, first studying Aultyr, then Declan.“There is something to be said for hiring out such an effort.Must it be you who undertakes this?”
“Don’t do public executions.”No more humor there in that level, steely chill.“Challenge, put me up there, just makes you look weak.Can kill him, sure.Prove you’ve pull.Not that you’ve a Council seat.”
“And it’d take us a month,” Harke interjected, his scowl far more pronounced than Aultyr’s.“At least.No ins tothatHouse.”
Aultyr smiled.It sent a chill down Declan’s spine.“Not likely to get any, either.Got into it with a couple of ‘em a while back.Took offense to Kylan having a go at a changeling.”
Ah.Judah, the new changeling in Faerie.That made sense, if not an odd picture.Per Aisling, the ghillie dhu was a small, quiet creature that appeared spun from glass.Declan doubted his siren bond would take someone weak and retiring as her other half, but he’d been wrong before.
“I’ve been attacked twice in a week,” he said, rather than let himself spiral into speculation.“Even if I were willing to wait a month, it would add another eight to that count.”
“More, keep wandering into unclaimed lands.The way I told you not to.”
Everil didn’t glance at Aultyr, or ask Declan why in all the worlds he’d not taken that advice to begin with.He watched Declan, assessing and worried and not a single scrap of condemnation.
“Talia,” he said after a long moment, words careful.“I would request you accompany Declan and Antonio, when they undertake this.A Gate’s witness will lend the proceedings gravitas.”
“Do I get a new hat?”
