Carefully, I lowered the corner of the curtain again, and made certain the entire opening was closed.
“I’ll take the first watch if you want to sleep,” Taio said as I moved across the room, skirting the chairs that circled the place where the table had been.
“I’m not tired.”I was extremely weary, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep yet.He patted the ground beside the lamp.I shook my head, lifted the lamp and carried it to the small table beside the bed Taio had shaken out.If we couldn’t be warm, at least we could be comfortable.I climbed on top, sitting crossways on the bed, and leaned my back against the wall, my feet hanging over the edge of the mattress.Taio joined me, sitting beside me.I sighed, the lumpy mattress a thousand times more comfortable than the ground under my thin bedroll.
Taio rested the back of his head against the wall and let out a long breath.He’d comforted me after Finnrey’s death.Now it was my turn.I’d never been good at this sort of thing, but I could follow Taio’s example.The first rule seemed to be not to ignore the emotions.“Are you worried about the others?”I asked in a whisper.I didn’t want to take any chances the Hollows outside would hear us.
“Yes.They have no place to hide.”
“The majority of the pack came for us.”I hoped that sounded reassuring.
“Did it?”He looked at me, his blue eyes dark in the low light.“Out there, the Twilight Men are not the only danger.”
Gaz.Gaz and Nize were still out there.I wondered if they’d been close enough to draw some of the Hollows after them.Even though they’d betrayed me and caused Finnrey’s death, I didn’t want the Hollows to eat them.I didn’t wish that death on anyone.“Gaz wants you,” I whispered.“He doesn’t care about the others.”This was true, not false hope.
“He will kill them because they protect me,” Taio said.“I know how this works.”
I looked up at him.His voice had been hard, and I saw the way his jaw was set.I tried very hard not to think about the parts of him below that jaw, covered only with a thick blanket.We sat close together, and I was beginning to feel warmer now.“What do you mean?How what works?”
He looked away from me, his gaze on the far side of the room.But I didn’t think he saw the table pushed against the door.His eyes had a faraway look that told me he was seeing something else.“Revolt,” he murmured.“Betrayal.I know these things.”
“What happened?”I asked, my attention instantly caught.I knew so little of Zulen that I was hungry for any scrap of knowledge.
“A decade ago, when I was ten and five, my best friend betrayed me.He came to my chamber in the night to slit my throat.I stopped him.”
I drew in a slow breath.“How did you stop him?”
Taio looked at me.“A wood carving knife in his heart.”
I put a hand on Taio’s arm, and he withdrew his hand from the blankets and covered mine.His hand was warm over my cold one.I watched as the blanket slid off his shoulder, revealing the large cat he had permanently inked there.The last lion in Earsleh had died years ago, but I remembered seeing him when I was very small.He’d moved so gracefully, and the drawing on Taio’s body moved that same way in the flickering light.
“My brother was close to death.The rebels hoped to kill Omira and me and destroy my family.”
“Why?”Palace intrigue was nothing new to me, but as far as I knew, no one had ever tried to kill my father or any of his children.My father was loved and respected.He had always embodied the values of our people.Perhaps that was why Gaz’s revelation about the king being behind the plot to kill Taio had so shocked me.I expected better from my father.All of us did.
Taio blew out a breath.“We are a peaceful people,” Taio said.“We dance, we make music, we sing, we create.We do not believe in harming any living creature.We revere nature.”
“Like that cat?”I pointed to his shoulder.
He glanced down at it.“The lion is the symbol of my family.These cats still live in the mountains to the north, where the Twilight Men cannot reach them.”
“In Earsleh, we believed your people perished because you did not fight the Twilight Men.”
He nodded.“Many died, but we are allowed to defend ourselves.In my grandfather’s time, we pushed the Twilight Men to the north and the east and west.We pushed them across the rivers and now that water is a barrier protecting the capital.”
“What about the rest of the country?”
He shook his head.“Small settlements in the mountains, yes.Beyond that?”He shrugged.“I do not know.The capital has been cut off.”
This separation sounded recent, but I would ask about that later.Right now I was interested in the power dynamics.“If your people believe in peace, why did your best friend try to kill you?”
“He was part of a faction who advocate for war.They believe we must kill the Twilight Men or become their victims in time.”
“I think your friend was right.”
He smiled at me.“I do too, but his methods were questionable.His faction should have tried to persuade my parents.Instead, they turned to violence.In the end, once the revolt was put down and the rebels driven out or imprisoned, they got their way.Omira and I were sent to train to fight.My mother still hoped my brother would recover and grow up to lead.Omira and I would learn defense and protect him and the kingdom.I gathered others—Kintle and Yung among them—and we trained.”
“But if you are a peaceful people, who taught you to fight?”
