“I’m thirty-three years old,” the lady said. “To my knowledge about humans, I’m probably the same age as you or maybe even older. Does that make it acceptable for me to drink wine since you’re drinking it?”
“I guess.” I shrugged, taking another sip. “At least you have plenty of staff here to deliver you back home safely if you get tipsy. May as well get wasted.”
She tilted her head to the side. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean let’s have fun.” I laughed, raising my glass.
“Oh, I love your joy!” The lady gushed, her enthusiasm fueled by the fumes of my intoxication. “Before tonight, I’ve only ever tasted joy from the Source in the Temple of the First Priestess. My parents and I go on a pilgrimage once a month to pray and worship. It’s a wonderful experience that I usually look forward to every time. But I far prefer your joy now. It’s so much sweeter, more fun, and kind of…intimate, I guess.”
It looked like the fine lady discovered the joy of a friendly girl chat for the first time in her thirty-three years of life.
“Thanks,” I said, sipping my wine for our mutual enjoyment. “You came prepared. Good food. Good wine. It helps.”
“Well, I knew I had to do it all perfectly to make this trip worthwhile. I studied everything about Joy Vessels. One of my servants is acquainted with one of the cooks who works in the queen’ssarai. She managed to obtain some recipes of dishes prepared for Joy Vessels.”
Now that I was no longer hungry, I remembered that some of the dishes tonight seemed slightly overcooked and most could’ve used more salt. But overall, it’d been a very good dinner, and I appreciated the effort she’d put into it. It helped that I hadbeen practically starving, so it was easy for me to overlook the imperfections and give her the joy she was after.
“It was such a daring undertaking,” the lady continued excitedly. “I escaped Kalmena under the cover of the midday sun, while my parents were asleep. They would’ve never allowed me to travel to Ashgate if they knew. This place has the worst reputation. No one even knows its exact location. If it wasn’t for Timur, who told me about the beacon of Ashgate and helped create the shadow tunnel to it, I would’ve never found it.”
She glanced at Timur, who had finished his dinner and returned the plate to the servant. I filled my tumbler with water, then gave it to the other servant to pass it to him to wash down his dinner.
“How do you know Timur?” I asked the lady casually, snatching the opportunity.
He cleared his throat in warning, clearly imploring her to shut up. But the power of wine was strong, and the lady kept chatting.
“My father knows someone who served in the queen’s army with Timur, many years ago. He was contacted by that man with the offer to come here for human joy. But it’s highly illegal.” She leaned toward me, lowering her voice. Both of us were turned sideways now, sitting side by side with a few cushions between us. “In Kalmena, Joy Vessels are the crown’s property, and their joy is reserved for the members of the royal court only. So, my father declined the offer. Can you believe it? He waged brutal battles in the queen’s name, but he was too scared to travel to Ashgate. Well, I’m braver than my warrior father. I came here on my own, without Father knowing. And I have no regrets.” She beamed.
I wondered if that was her first genuine smile, since shadow fae couldn’t feel the joy of fun or happiness that led to smiling and laughing on their own. Now, she felt it through me.
“I’m glad you came,” I said, grateful. “It’s been a pleasure having dinner with you.”
She placed her bejeweled hand over mine.
“Thank you for sharing your pleasure with me, Sweet One.”
Before we left, the lady, who had never shared her name with me—deliberately no doubt—handed Timur a heavy leather purse.
“As agreed, but with a little bit extra to express my appreciation for exceeding my expectations,” she said to him before turning to me. “Ashgate may be a cursed city, but I will forever keep the fondest memories of it because of you, Sweet One. I’d like you to have something from me too.” She slipped a ring from one of her fingers and handed it to me. “It’s from the royal palace, from the night when I was personally introduced to the queen. It has a bee carved in the stone, see?” She pointed at the golden bee etched into the large green stone of the ring. “Very fitting for a sweet Joy Vessel like you.”
I thanked her for the ring that fit perfectly on my pointer finger. After saying our goodbyes, I turned to follow Timur out of the tent, but an object on one of the carved stands by the entrance caught my attention, stopping me in my tracks. I stared at it, with my mouth agape. Old fear gripped my chest like an echo of a nightmare.
It was a skull of a terrifying yet dreadfully familiar creature. I’d only seen a part of it before—an eye socket, a cheekbone, and a frill over the ear opening. Here, it was whole. With carved red gemstones fitted in for the eyes.
“What is this?” I asked, my mouth going suddenly dry, despite all the wine and water I’d drunk.
“Oh…” The lady sauntered closer, her silk skirts swishing and the golden jewelry in her pointy ears clinking in sync. “This is the skull of avirutudragon. The only one in the whole of Kalmena, they say. These creatures are rare, which is a good thing because they’re extremely dangerous. But my father had seen quite a few when he was in the queen’s army. He personally killed this one by stabbing it through its eye with his spear. They say the skull of avirutudragon protects from violence and aggression. Because these creatures are so vicious, there’s simply no place for more violence around them, even in death. So I brought it with me here, to the most violent part of the kingdom.” She smiled, but with her tendrils being disconnected from me now, it was an empty smile with no mirth behind it.
“It’s…terrifying,” I muttered.
“Simply horrific, isn’t it?” she agreed. “Can you imagine facing a live one of these, like my father did?”
I could not. Yet I feared we both might be closer to one right now than she knew.
Six
Elaine
Ifollowed Timur silently across the desert, my feet sinking into the black sand. He’d offered me a ride the moment we’d left the tent, but I’d refused. The image of the white skull with red ruby eyes floated in my mind, overlapping with the image of his face split between a living being and a bone.
