Suddenly, Bell straightens in the saddle. “Are there wyrms in this forest?”
“No.” Rakos frowns. “I mean, I don’t know. Nobles don’t host wyrm hunts here, but they don’t go here at all. I only ever fly over the area. Why?”
“I just thought the tree pattern was conducive to tunneling,” Bell says. “See how spread out everything is? We should be careful.”
“Good call,” Rakos says, though he’s not sure how careful they can be. Wyrms tunnel underground, and they’re attracted to vibrations like footsteps on the surface.
“There’s one more thing I should tell you.” Bell shifts his reins to one hand, then the other.
“Is it about how well I fucked you last night?” Rakos asks. “Because I’m already planning to fuck you even better next time.”
Bell doesn’t rise to the teasing. “I would rather talk about that, yes. But I actually wanted to tell you I met Prince Vana at the bloodmasque”
“What?” Rakos jolts so hard in the saddle that his horse halts in protest. He forcefully loosens his grip on the reins and nudges her forward. Instinctively, he fears for Bell—but Bell clearly returned safely to him last night. “Tell me what happened. And maybe this is my vanity talking, but did he say anything about me?”
“He knew I was with you.” Bell looks around at the trees, then at Rakos. “After you went off to look for your friend, I got a little distracted. I watched the end of the duel, then I went exploring the rest of the labyrinth. I stopped in a garden, because I like gardens, and Prince Vana approached me to talk.”
“You were alone with him?”
Bell tilts his head. Sunlight angles through the orange trees, painting him gold. “Are you jealous?”
“I’m worried, not jealous,” Rakos insists.
“He had a bodyguard with him.” Bell’s eyes crinkle in amusement. “We were properly chaperoned.”
“That’s as close to alone as you’ll ever get him. They never separate. It’s a Kaiskara thing.” Rakos frowns. “What did he say?”
“Vana, I mean, His Highness was very polite. He asked if I had seen you, which I denied. But I asked him to describe this Wing-Captain Rakos Tem. His description was very, um. Illuminating.”
No wonder Bell wasn’t as shocked as he should have been last night. Rakos is glad he doesn’t have to keep up the charade anymore, because he was apparently even worse at it than he assumed. “Humiliating. Continue.”
Bell fiddles with his reins. “I said I hadn’t seen you, but Vana saw right through me. He said that if I happened to come across this Rakos Tem, I should pass along a message for him.” Bell looks him dead in the eyes. “He said there was a misunderstanding. He never meant to harm you.”
They ride in silence after that, between rustling trees and wisps of mist that disintegrate against the boundary of Rakos’s magic. A heaviness and a lightness play havoc with Rakos’s heart.
“Well, that’s exactly why I want out of this,” Rakos says. “All these stupid games.”
“What do you mean?”
Rakos laughs bitterly. “The lies. The schemes. All these over-complicated solutions to fake fucking problems. I just want to fly my dragon and use my magic and protect something I care about. But I’m no longer sure what that is, anymore.”
“I’ve heard of you,” Bell says hesitantly. “The Shadow of Draskora. You’re rather famous.”
Old hurts twist between Rakos’s bones. Not his own. “I’m famous for a war I never understood.” Rakos has never said these words to anyone but Sarka before. “I enlisted to defend my homeland, but we weren’t under threat seven years ago.”
“House Dire never gave you a reason for the war?”
“The generals gave us reasons,” Rakos says. “But they were all bullshit. Patriotic propaganda. If there was a genuine reason, why did we pull back without accomplishing anything?”
Bell nudges his horse closer to Rakos’s. He rides well, clearly comfortable in the saddle. “You said you didn’t desert. Did you want to?”
Rakos takes a deep breath of the forest air. Recalls himself and his place. It feels good to talk to Bell, even about this. He probably shouldn’t continue, but he doesn’t want to be cautious with Bell anymore. “The nobles and generals are shit, but the dragon corps are solid. And Sarka’s my best friend. I would never leave without her.”
“That’s why we’re going to Parsk now.”
“Exactly.”
“What are you going to do when you’ve found her?”
