“Don’t give away all your vulnerabilities.” Dorian’s eyes had opened a fraction. “She’ll leap on you like a briarling and try to shank you with a blunt knife when you least expect it.”
“That was before we were partnered,” I said to Haskel.
In the short time I had known him, I had developed a small affection for the older fae. At the very least, I wanted him to continue training me; I had learned more in an hour with him than in three months with the guard.
“I’d have shanked him long ago if he weren’t so pretty,” Haskel said. “None of the women here would allow it.”
Dorian’s booted foot surged forward, narrowly missing Haskel’s calf.
Haskel laughed, stepping back more quickly than I’d expect. It was strange to see camaraderie like this, and even stranger to feel a modicum of safety.
Dorian gathered his book and got to his feet. “I take it you’re done for the day.”
“Her arms have gone to jelly.” Haskel lifted one of my limp arms by the wrist. “Best fill her belly with boar and wait until tomorrow.”
I pulled my arm away. “I can go on.”
Haskel laughed. “You can’t, but you do have the Sylvanwild spirit. Anyway, tomorrow’s only a sun’s revolution away.”
Dorian nodded for me to follow. “See you, rot-spawn,” he said to the other fae.
“Until then, mossback.”
I paused in front of Haskel. “I appreciate it.”
He threw out a dismissive handand bent, picking up the weapons. “The best thanks I can get is you coming prepared on the morrow.”
Together, Dorian and I walked the innermost path around the citadel’s trunk. “Never thank him,” Dorian said when we were out of earshot. “It’s in vain.”
I glanced at him, then away. “Now I’m going to thank him every time.”
He sighed, but his lips curved in my periphery. “He’ll like you less for it.”
“Likingdoesn’t strike me as a Sylvanwild value.” I paused. “Where are we going, anyway?”
“My chambers.”
Hischambers? I glanced over, brows drawing together.
He seemed to sense my unease and said, “Everything we need is there. My books. My research.”
“Research? I thought you were…”
His eyes shifted to me, glinting. “A simple soldier sent off to the Kingdom of Storms to beat my club on the ground and carry off a human?”
“Isn’t that what you did?”
His gaze went forward, shuttering. “Yes, it is.”
There was more to his words, a depth beneath their simplicity. But I sensed he wouldn’t reveal it if I were to ask.
Inside the citadel, we walked up the staircase and into the bowels of the tree. We passed down winding hallways and up more flights of stairs, and though I tried to map them as we went, I lost my sense of direction by the time we passed a group of young women with Rhiannon at the fore. All were barefoot in fur robes, their hair done up in elaborate styles, and they were so busy in conversation none of them noticed us.
Except for Rhiannon.
She gave a nod to Dorian, who’d stepped aside to allow them to pass, and then a nod to me.
I watched after them. They were elegant and tall and how those of us in the Dip imagined royalty might look and walk. Once I had seen the queen’s dais pass through the southern district, but the lace curtains were drawn.
