Page 41 of Connor and the Dragons

I giggled. “But it’s so pretty.”

Connor cupped my chin and forced me to look up, and I found both him and Kessrin staring down at me. Connor leaned down and planted a soft, searching kiss on my lips.

“Good boy,” he whispered, and a shiver chased up my body.

Kessrin stayed completely silent, but as I looked around at the other consorts, I wondered if it was intentional. Kessrin’s only job was to be beautiful and to be looked at. I supposed that didn’t require speaking.

The small bites Connor had requested were an excellent choice. There were crisped dumplings full of something that crunched and then melted, ribbons of spiced fish on polished sticks, fried vegetables like the ones from the market, and a honeyed pastry in the shape of a knot that I would have committed minor crimes for more of. Connor fed me from his fingers, plate by plate, praising me as I received each bite like the treasure it was, licking his fingers clean, and then doing a little extra licking just because.

Kessrin did not eat, even when I waxed poetic about the pastries. Maybe the person whose job was to look pretty was not meant to eat. Though that didn’t explain why he hadn’t moved a muscle since the food arrived.

“The decor is magnificent,” I said, smiling up at the lavish ceiling.

“Eat your dumpling, sweetheart. I’m trying to talk to this lovely wizard.”

I looked up and noticed someone had joined us. When had that happened? A woman and her consort had sat on the seat across from us, chatting up a storm. She was middle-aged and grand, dressed in wizard robes made of a fine silk. Connor asked for her tailor, which made her giggle like a schoolgirl.

“So, I’ve heard there was more to the Hall than the dining room,” Connor was saying, bored, as though he barely cared about the answer.

“Oh, everyone’s heard that.” The woman’s rings clicked against her wine glass as she took a sip. “But you can’t ask your way in. They simply must notice you.”

“Notice what, exactly?”

“If we knew that, darling, we’d all be through the door. A consort and a pet, lucky you. And they are gorgeous, which I can’t deny will help.”

Their conversation got boring after that, and I tuned them out as I looked around at the other pets. There were maybe a dozen of us in the restaurant, kneeling at tables here and there. Some were very good. There was a girl in copper chains who knelt with a stillness I immediately envied. There was a big troll who took each bite from his mistress’s fingers with his eyes closed, reverent, and made it look like prayer.

I copied their posture, keeping my spine long, thighs spread, hands open on my knees. I fixed my attention on my master as though he were the only light in the building. I took each bite slowly, gratefully, let my eyes close over the taste, leaned my cheek into his palm when it lingered.

Beside Connor, Kessrin’s stillness had become alarming. I rubbed his knee, wondering if he, too, would be considered my master.

“If you need to center yourself,” I offered, “I could suck your cock. It helps me enormously.”

“Oallian,” Connor said.

“It would be no trouble, Master.” I met his eyes and watched them widen subtly. “I want to be sure to keep Kessrin happy too. I was thinking, he is my master too, in a way, isn’t he? It might be a tiny bit greedy, but I can be a very good boy, I promise I can.”

Connor leaned closer, brushing his lips against my ear, and said, “Kessrin is afraid.”

I glanced around the room at all the wonderful costumed humans playing at wizardry with their sashes and their party hats. “As though any of these people are a match for either of us.”

“That,” Kessrin whispered, “is precisely the kind of thinking that starts wars.”

I squeezed his leg, massaging the muscles and promising, silently, that I was well in control of my faculties, and he relaxed, just a small amount. Or perhaps I was imagining that.

A server arrived at the end of the meal. He was an older man with silver at his temples and the smooth walk of someone who had carried trays through this room for decades, and he leaned close to Connor’s ear. I heard every word, because I was kneeling right there being perfect.

“Forgive me, master wizard. We do not often see slaves kept so beautifully as your two.” His eyes dragged down to me, slow and thorough, and they approved of what they appraised, then over to Kessrin, whose leg stiffened beneath my hand. “The one on his knees is so attentive. So devoted. There is a room behind the restaurant for guests of a certain quality, if you and your submissives would care to be shown through.”

Connor’s hand settled into my hair, and he took his time answering, and his fingers tightened in my curls while his voice stayed bored.

“Thank you. They are both very good,” Connor said. “We’d be delighted.”

The server led us back through a curtained arch, and I floated after my master on my leash. The tithe had bought us dumplings, and Kessrin’s beauty had bent every neck in the restaurant, but my goodness had opened the door.

Connor leaned down as we walked and said, “Good boy,” privately, into my ear, and I almost wilted on the spot.

The room behind the curtain was better.