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How unfair was that. I was Lancelet’s friend. I was the one who had left all three of them behind. If anyone was more to blame it was me.
But I had assumed Draven would always be able to do anything I needed him to. Protect me, protect anyone. And I had to give him credit. He had tried.
With a pang, I realized he probably knew I blamed him. And he hadn’t shirked the blame. He had accepted it as if it were his due.
Perhaps Breena was right. There was a very slight chance that Draven would make a good king. Or emperor.
Then I set my face stonily. Or perhaps he would if he didn’t keep women locked up in his bedchamber against their will.
“There,” Breena said with a tone of satisfaction. “You look rather pretty.” She looked over my shoulder at my reflection in the mirror and patted my shoulders. “I suppose there is no accounting for taste. Draven has always had an eccentric streak. It runs in the family.”
“Does it?” It was rather a backhanded compliment but I wasn’t about to complain. I doubted Breena dished out many compliments in general.
“You’ve dressed me up and done my hair. Does that mean I’m going somewhere? Is Prince Kairos expecting me?” I asked hopefully.
Breena’s face turned sympathetic. “I’m afraid not. I just thought you should look nice for when he came back.”
I bit my tongue and resisted saying I was not here to simply look pretty for a man. Not that Draven didn’t succeed in looking fairly pretty himself... basically all of the time.
“Thank you,” I managed. “I suppose I’ll go and read for a while then.”
And plot Draven’s downfall and my imminent escape, even if I had to climb out a window.
Though the windows seemed to be an off-putting escape avenue, I thought desolately. I suspected the wards that kept the volcanic heat and ash and smoke out only went a little ways out from the castle. If I managed to climb out over the balcony, I would probably find myself quickly roasted alive.
Breena nodded, her mind evidently already elsewhere. “I’ll tidy up here, then be out of your way. I understand that creature Hawl is seeing to your meals.”
That creature? So Hawl was not necessarily accepted among the other servants? If Hawl evenwasa servant. I wasn’t sure what Hawl was exactly.
“Yes, they–he–she—is an excellent cook,” I stumbled.
“I believe the Bearkin is a female. Not that you can tell one way or the other. Not that the creature seems to care one way or the other what they are, or perhaps they would put on clothes like a decent person,” Breena tutted with annoyance.
“Not a fan of the Bearkin then,” I murmured beneath my breath.
I moved into the dining area where I found the kitchen empty but a pot of steaming tea and a plate of cooked eggs, herbed biscuits and fruit waiting for me on the counter. I poured myself a cup and filled a plate, then returned to the sitting room and began to read about the construction of the palace.
A few minutes later I heard Breena depart.
Eventually the details of palace construction became tedious and I skipped ahead to the next chapter which discussed the demographic makeup of the kingdom of Sorega in relation to the rest of Myntra.
While the fae of Valtain had dominated southern Eskira at one time—until their sudden departure for who-knew-where, the Siabra seemed to rule the entire continent of Myntra. The Court of the Umbral Flame was their seat of power, but there were smaller Siabra courts all over Myntra, ruled over by the higher ranks of the nobility. Sorega contained the most prominent and the greatest number of Siabra, but other races inhabited Myntra, including–I was shocked to read–humans.
Indeed, the city which lay above us–Noctasia–was something of a cosmopolitan mosaic, where people from all over the continent traveled and converged for everything from festivals to marketplaces to royal ceremonies and processions.
I put down my book for a moment and stared out the windows across from me where a burst of liquid flame drew my attention. Everything about Draven’s court was strange...yet also familiar. I might have been back in my room in the castle in Camelot, reading a book from my shelf. Except here, I felt...
I cursed silently as I found the word I was looking for.
But it was true. I feltsaferhere than I did in Camelot, despite what I might have said to Draven and despite how unsafe Draven seemed to believe I truly was.
Here, I was with him at least. Back in Camelot, who would have even a hope in hell of protecting me from Arthur’s wrath when I returned without the sword?
Would my brother believe I had stolen it?
My thoughts were cut off by a tapping sound. At first, I thought Breena had returned and this time was doing me the courtesy of knocking.
But the tapping sound wasn’t coming from the bedroom exterior door or even from the foyer beyond the sitting room. It was much closer.
