Chapter 8
The outer castle wallshad just come into view when Bella asked Riven about his childhood.He loved speaking with her and wished to share everything about himself, but he feared revealing too much.“What do you wish to know?”he asked.
“Well, for starters, do you have siblings?”
He vacillated how much to share.“My father’s first wife died in labor with their second child, so I have an older half-brother from that union.”Common enough that she would not be suspicious of his parentage.
“Are you close with him?”
“No.Poisson was born as rotten as an old gourd.”
“Poisson?Your brother’s name isFish?”she exclaimed.
“Pet name.Only the family calls him that.My mother said he looked like a fish, and it stuck.He was too young to argue when he was dubbed with the moniker.”
“How tragic for him.”
“Not undeserved,” Riven said.
“Come now, tell me how rotten this little boy was.”
“Where to start?He would pick me up out of my cradle by my arm and drag me that way on the floor.He poured hot soup on my nappy when I was barely walking.”He felt his face heat, hoping she did not ask about the results ofthat, which were painful blisters forweeks.“He said it was to stop me from following him.When I was old enough to ride, he knocked me off my pony and I cut my ear on a rock.”He pointed at his tiny earhole.“I almost lost that ear.To this day, they are uneven.”
“And how did your mother or governess handle this chaos?Surely your half-brother received a blistering bottom at least once for his evil ways?”
He shook his head.“My mother and governess always pretended never ever happened.Father would tell me to toughen up and be a man.”
Bella’s jaw dropped as she looked at him.“And you were a boy at this time?”
“Yes.Four, five, maybe six.”
Fire sparked in her eyes, and he loved that she was outraged on his behalf.“Well, if your brother is intended to follow in your sire’s footsteps, then for your sake, I hope your father’s industry involves joining the military and being sent to a faraway land.”
Riven laughed out loud.“Would that it were so!”
They shared the most honest, joyful laugh Riven had ever experienced.
A moment later, everything changed.
Barely three hours in total had passed since they had traveled away from the pond, but Riven suddenly knew with absolute certainty he had pushed his luck.Despite the wineskin with enchanted mud, despite the new, watertight bucket, despite the flask full of smelly pondwater that slopped against his slippery hide, the spell upon him was fading.
In the worst way possible.
“Bella, my friend, we must hasten back to the pond.Wum.”
“Hasten our return?Just as we are getting to know one another so splendidly?Do you yearn for your poisonous muck so badly as that?”
“Wum.Wum.”
