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“Well, since I don’t suppose he invites you along on his pursuits, I can’t think that you know what you’re talking about.”
“That’s true. Tivol has no use for me.”
“If you—” She stopped abruptly, putting her hands up. “This is ridiculous. We don’t need to quarrel, and we certainly don’t need to quarrel about Tivol. So how long will you be in the city?”
“Only another day or so, but I’ll be coming back fairly often, because my father wants me to take his place on the Council.” He smiled briefly. “And if you thinkIdislike Corcannon, you should hear my father’s rants about the place. He’s decided never to set foot off the property again. So I’ll be his agent for any business that requires travel.”
“Perhaps you’ll enjoy that more than you expect.”
“Perhaps,” he agreed. “I went out to the islands a couple of months ago, and that was quite an experience. Only a handful of people could speak Cordish, but they tended not to be the people who could make decisions, so all negotiations took twice as long as expected. But the place was—” He couldn’t seem to find an adequate word, so he settled on, “Amazing.”
“I’ve seen sketches,” she said in an encouraging voice. She liked travel much better than Tivol as a topic of conversation. “Those cliffs and the ocean—they seem wild and desolate.”
“Even more so when you’re actually there,” he said. “The colors are—everything is this slate gray. The cliffs, the beach, the houses and fences quarried from the mountains. The sea is a darker shade of the same gray, and more often than not, the sky is filled with piles of clouds that are almost the same color. And then there will be this burst of greenery or a bush as tall as my head and covered with red flowers, and the bright colors are such a contrast to the dark ones that they can take your breath away. And then the sun comes out and if it hits the water just right, it can blind you. The sky is so vivid you feel like you could dip your hand in it and it would come out stained blue.”
“How poetic! Will you be going back?”
“I think so, yes. I think I will be traveling a great deal over the next two to three years.”
“Will you go beyond Zessin? Out to the ruined lands?”
He smiled. “The ruined lands are off the eastern coast,” he reminded her. “What’s beyond the western coast are all these tiny little islands, one right after the other, so small you can hardly believe people live there. My father does run vessels out there to do a little trading, but there’s not much commerce out that way. I don’t think I’ll be doing much sailing. Anyway, I have plenty to do just traveling around the continent.”
“Then I hope you travel safely.” A memory widened her eyes. “But Reese! Were you on the road when the quakes hit two weeks ago?”
“I was, but we could hardly feel them in Chibain. They were strongest right here at the city border, from what I understand. I should be asking whereyouwere.”
“Here, still asleep in my bed. I felt the house sway, and a crystal vase on my nightstand fell to the floor. But it was no worse than that.”
He was frowning. “Still. Unnerving. I’ve heard that there have been more rumbles than usual over the past few months.”
“Maybe. There are always rumbles, so it’s hard to tell.”
“I don’t like to think of you here in the city if the whole place starts shaking apart. You should come out to Chibain and take shelter on my father’s estates. We’ve barely felt the tremors.”
Although he was smiling, she couldn’t shake the feeling he was serious. But she adopted a bantering tone. “Well, I heard that Darrish Mountain is spewing ash, and you can practically see it from your front lawns! I would hardly be any safer there if the mountain suddenly erupted.”
“Yes, but it lies south of us, and all the land slopes southward,” he pointed out. “Any destruction would flow in that direction.”
“Toward Marata.”
“Indeed.” He appeared to be struck by a sudden realization. “Toward Tivol’s land! Promise me you won’t go visiting his mother any time soon.”
She tried to frown at him, but it was all too absurd. As if anyone could truly predict where ash and molten rock would flow. “I’ll have to go to Marata sometime. The estates will eventually be ours after I marry Tivol and he inherits the land.”
Reese offered her a lopsided unhappy grin. “Maybe you shouldn’t marry him,” he suggested. “It’s too dangerous.”
Her breath caught. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Don’t marry him,” he said. “It will break my heart.”
She wanted to reply with another briskDon’t be ridiculous. She wanted to respond with a furious scold.You promised you would stay away. You promised you would stop saying such things. You know you only confuse me and hurt me and make me hurt you in return.But instead she just stared at him and couldn’t summon a word.
“I know your father has always favored Tivol, but I’m from a Council family, too,” he went on. “I think your father would get over his disappointment soon enough.”
She shook her head. “Reese—”
“You don’t have to marry him, Maddie,” he said. “Not if you don’t love him.”
