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“Anton, I hear you have been in the eastern forests,” Lord Vikhrov said, addressing me directly and shocking me half out of my wits. “What is it like all the way over there, near the eastern mountains?”
Everyone who had heard Lord Vikhrov’s question went quiet and stared at me. Within seconds, the other conversations around the table halted as everyone looked to see what was going on.
I hated being the center of attention, but I did want to make a few points.
“It’s nothing like Good Port, that’s for certain,” I said, speaking to Lord Vikhrov directly and pretending he was the only one paying attention to me. “The culture of the eastern forests is nomadic, for one. There are very few permanent buildings or camp sites. The ability to pack everything up at a moment’s notice is key to the wild wolves.”
“Because if you can’t run or fight at a moment’s notice you will be killed,” Dmitri spoke loudly from the end of the table. “Belongings are a liability in the forest. Any wolf who wastes time gathering them when being attacked will be dead before they know it.”
Everyone seemed to shift to stare at Dmitri at once, causing a rustling sound that reminded me of the forest on a windy night.
Dmitri was right, so I let him take over the explanation.
“Even the weakest of the wolves in the eastern forest would be able to kill and skin any one of you before you even knew what happened,” he went on, smiling viciously at his audience. “You Good Port people are too soft and too enamored ofthings.”
“You mean you don’t have things at all?” Gaia asked, seemingly incredulous. “And you don’t live in houses?”
Dmitri focused on her, his grin turning sharp, then stood. I was ready to leap to my feet to stop him from causing an incident, but Dmitri only seemed interested in frightening the children.
“I don’t need a house to live,” he told her, stalking closer. “And I don’t need silly things, like dolls and toys, like you probably play with. All I need is a sharp knife to kill and eat whatever poor, furry creature crosses my path, and a waterskin to wash its seared flesh down with.”
I scowled, disgusted with the way Dmitri was ruining everyone’s appetites.
What I didn’t notice until she spoke and drew my attention was how Gaia wasn’t impressed at all.
“I don’t play with dolls,” she told him, standing and crossing her arms once he was near her. “And I don’t believe you.”
“No?” Dmitri turned up the intensity of his intimidation. He leaned closer to her and hissed, “I would eat a little girl like you for lunch.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Magnus smirking. Lord Vikhrov didn’t seem worried either, and Gaia was his granddaughter. That was almost reassuring.
“First of all,” Gaia said, giving Dmitri a flat look, “you must have more belongings than just a knife and a water flask, because you need fire to cook meat, and you need at least a tinderbox to light a fire.”
“I—”
“Second of all,” Gaia went on, “if you don’t live in a house, what do you do when it rains?”
My mouth twitched. I liked Gaia.
And the answer to her question was that wolves got wet. And not in the interesting way. Those who didn’t have waterproof tents or who hadn’t been lucky enough to find a cave or build a lean-to had to sit out in the rain or find trees with thick enough branches to shield them. The fact that Olympus’s daughter couldn’t fathom people without houses who would just sit in the rain was a sign of just how easy her life had been.
“Who lets children into a feast like this?” Dmitri complained, straightening and ignoring Gaia. “And you call yourselves civilized people.” He snorted, then walked back to his place at the end of the table.
Lefric turned to look at me with wide eyes, barely containing a laugh. “Gaia has a mind of her own,” he told me quietly. “And I don’t think Dmitri liked it.”
I resisted the urge to gloat along with Lefric and glanced over my shoulder to Dmitri. Hehadn’tliked it. I knew him well enough to be able to tell that from the way he concentrated on eating while ostensibly ignoring everyone else. Dmitri might have been fierce and rude, but he was also miserable. Maybe even more miserable than me.
But the difference between me and Dmitri was that he’d brought his misery on himself.
I shifted to return to my food, but as my gaze glanced over Peter and Neil, I realized Neil was rubbing soothing circles on Peter’s back as Peter hunched in on himself. Magnus had reached across the wide table to hold Peter’s hand as well. That only made me angry at Dmitri. He’d set out to frighten Gaia, but he’d terrified Peter instead.
Lord Vikhrov either didn’t realize what Peter had gone through and what he was going through now, or he spoke again to cover up the awkward, poignant moment between the three husbands.
“Is all of that true?” he asked me. “Do the wild wolves of the eastern forest truly not value possessions?”
I could see how that would be as baffling to Lord Vikhrov as it was to Gaia.
“It’s mostly true,” I said. “Dmitri was correct in implying that those wild wolves only own the most essential items.” I thought about what I’d seen in the last few hours and what I’d gleaned from overhearing Olympus’s conversations on our journey down the river. “They would make terrible trading partners. They have nothing to trade, because the entire concept of ownership and property is vastly different in the east, up against the mountains.”
