Page 41 of A Veil of Gods and Kings

Temi nodded and leaned on her knees, resting her chin on her hand. Valerian threw the discus, and Delon jumped up, grabbing it, flinging it back to the other side. Emrin ran after it, his feet pounding into the turf. Len dove towards Emrin, snagging him around the waist and pulling him to the ground with a thud. The disc bounced into a clump of grass with a chuff within the boundary. Delon whooped, his golden brown hair glistening with sweat.

Temi tapped her fingers against the bench. “Why don’t you ever join in?”

I sucked in a breath. “I can’t.”

“Why?”

I hesitated and then rose. “Would you walk with me?”

She studied me for a moment, her brow furrowing, and then she nodded and joined me. We ambled back into the gardens. The lavender crocus flowers bunched together like miniature clouds tucking down in the fluttering green sky of the garden beds. “When I was little,” I said, “I followed Emrin and Hyacinth everywhere. I played sports and roughhoused and climbed trees.”

Temi tucked her hands behind her back, her warm brown eyes focused on me.

I cleared my throat, warmth touching my cheeks. “But, when I reached school age”—I bit the inside of my cheek—“I couldn’t read.”

Temi’s eyebrows drew together. “Isn’t that the purpose of school?”

I chuckled breathily and snapped a tulip, twirling the pastel pinks of it between my fingers. “Yes, it is. But, I mean, reading didn’t make sense to me. The letters danced off the page and flipped around. I couldn’t keep it straight in my head.”

Temi nodded. Our feet crunched along the gravel pathway, and I took a deep breath. “Educational advisors told my parents it was because of my upbringing. They said I couldn’t read because I’d been allowed to run wild.”

Temi frowned. “And you believe that to be the case?”

“No.” I sighed and tossed the tulip into the garden beds. “And my parents didn’t either. But that didn’t matter. Gossip doesn’t need truth; it just needs a hint of it.”

“And malicious people willing to spread it.”

I trailed my fingers along a bush studded with jewel colored-flowers. “That too. But, people said terrible things about my father. That he couldn’t manage his own household. How would he rule the kingdom? They said that he was a radical, allowing women to do as they please.” I smirked. “That may be true in a way.” My smile dropped. “It didn’t help him though.”

Temi kept her gaze steady on me, and I blew out a breath. “So I stopped running around with the boys. And I stopped playing their games. I started wearing dresses.” I wrinkled my fingers in the silk of my gown. “And focusing on my studies.”

Temi’s jaw tensed. “And so you learned to read?”

We came to the base of a massive tree, and I stepped under the shade of it. “That’s the sad thing. No. Trying harder didn’t make it easier for me. But, I did eventually learn, thanks to—” I cleared my throat.

“Thanks to?” I bit my lip, and she shook her head. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t wish to.”

I blew out a breath. “No, it's fine. Thanks to Valerian, a friend of Hyacinth’s. He’s one of the master stablemen here. The year I was ten, and he was twelve, he would draw the letters out in the dirt and have me walk them over and over again. He turned it into a game. If it wasn’t for him—” I pinched my lips together.

Temi studied me for a moment, her gaze so intent it seemed to peel me back. She smiled. “What would you think of a challenge between us?”

I scraped my hand over the bumpy bark of the tree. Something in her voice sent tendrils of worry that curled up in the pit of my stomach. But something else sparked there too, sending a shiver along my spine. “What kind of challenge?”

“If you do some sports-related activities with me”—I parted my mouth to stop her, but she shook her head—“then I will do something that terrifies me and learn to ride horses.” She grinned. “Maybe your stableman could help us, even?”

“Oh, Temi, that’s… I mean—” I cleared my throat. “He isn’t my stableman. What I’m saying is, I can’t—”

She cocked an eyebrow up. “What do you say?”

“I’m not playing discus with the boys. I won’t make a spectacle of my family again.”

“Okay,” Temi said. “We can do other things. We could work on skills no one would have to see us practice.”

“Such as what?”

She trailed her thumb along her thigh. “Have you ever thrown a knife?”

“Definitely not.”