“The information you just provided,” he said. “I figured I’d pay you before Fox hounded me about it.”
She looked at him for a moment, her head tilted as she considered taking yet more coins from the prince. But she nodded, nipped them from his palm, and tucked them away. “Work is work.”
“Agreed,” he said with a smile.
A horn sounded, and I nearly jumped to my feet, thinking the guards on the palace wall had spotted a threat. And the boom that followed didn’t help. But it wasn’t a warning drum or cannon fire. Colored light exploded above the palace like brilliant flowers. The concussions were so loud I could feel each boom in my chest.
“What in Oblivion is that?” I asked in a lull between explosions.
“Gunpowder,” Savaadh said, “like that used to fire cannons. We sometimes use small charges to send messages between camps. These have been colored by using different recipes. It was my gift for the celebration.”
“They’re…powerful,” Wren said, her gaze on the sky, her eyes full of wonder.
Then the final, whistling spark died away, leaving wisps of bitter smoke in the air.
“Fox?” Savaadh asked, glancing at me.
“Loud,” I said, and rubbed my ear. “But pretty.”
He leaned toward me. “That could be only the beginning.”
“The beginning of what?”
“Of what I could give you. Treasures to fill a palace. You could live in the desert, the brilliant skies above golden sands, or travel with me to the plains of the north and south, where we camp, deep winter and high summer beneath the stars.”
“And what would you get out of it?”
“I’d get to enjoy your beauty, your wit, your charm as my traveling companion.”
“I don’t think I’m cut out to be anyone’s traveling companion.”
His eyes were dark and shining with promise…and humor. “How do you know if you don’t try?”
I liked Savaadh, but I knew his offer wasn’t serious; he was royalty, after all. Though once again I did find myself wondering what it might be like to make that journey from year to year, from ice caps in the north to wetlands in the south, carrying what you owned and relying on the land, your cunning, and the stars to keep you alive.
“My answer is still no.”
“Tell me about star navigation,” Wren said, changing the subject. Savaadh’s eyes brightened, and he began to explain the positions of the Guiding Stars and how our realm moved among them.
“Fox, a word?”
I glanced at the prince. His expression had gone hard and cold as Carethian silver. He took a drink from his golden goblet, then put it on the table. Then he rose and stalked off, farther down the path and away from the palace.
“Of course, Your Highness,” I muttered, but followed him.
He stopped several strides from the pavilion, near a cluster of shrubs where white flowers scented the air with spring. “I warned you.”
I blinked at him. “About what?”
“Following him to Vhrania.”
For a moment, I wondered if the sweetwine had muddled my brain. “What are you talking about? I told you I wasn’t going to join his caravan. Told him that. Couldn’t even if I wanted to. And he didn’t mean it anyway. It was a joke.”
There was an edge to my voice that I hadn’t expected. The prince’s warning seemed cruel given how impossible it truly was.
“He’s an Ensi,” I continued, because I couldn’t seem to stop myself, “and I’m a servant, and that’s not the way the world works.” Both of us knew I wasn’t just talking about Savaadh.
“Even if I did want to run off with him, to get out of this gods-damned country, it would be no business of yours.”
