Chapter 23 #3
She dissolved her cloud, dropping to her knees in front of him obediently, staring at him like she was deeply in love with him.
“Oh, great Master of - er - the world. What can I do to serve your ugliness? Humbleness!” she corrected instantly, muttering curses to herself.
I breathed a surprised laugh, sometimes finding it hard to equate this creature with something to be feared. Although I could never be too careful.
Drake swiped a hand through his hair, dishevelling it in a way which somehow looked intentional.
“I think we will need a drink or six tonight. A bottle of...” He glanced over at me. “What's the most expensive drink in the kingdom – no, the empire?”
“Cartlanna honey wine,” I said without hesitation.
“That.” Drake pointed at me while staring at Kyra.
“Your wish is my remand,” she said proudly.
“Command,” I corrected quietly, and she blushed before a large bottle of the wine appeared in her grip. She placed it in front of Drake triumphantly and he nodded his approval.
“Thanks, little goddess,” he said, throwing her a wide smile which made the currently copper coloured skin of her cheeks darken even further with her blush.
Drake plucked the cork out of the bottle with his damn teeth, and I darted forward, snatching it from his grip before he could drink it like a barbarian.
“That’s worth a hundred kurus a drop,” I gasped.
“It’s free to me, mate, because my little goddess just conjured it up. Now give it back,” he ordered, snatching a dagger from his hip, his eyes flashing murderously and all signs of the easy-going cad falling away to reveal the teeth of the monster which lay beneath that surface he presented.
By the Fallen, was he going to try and stab me over a bottle of wine?
“If you drink Cartlanna wine like that in the city, you're going to give yourself up in five seconds,” I warned, refusing to so much as balk at his violent display.
He groaned, turning to Kyra again. “Cups?” he asked.
She nodded keenly and two golden chalices appeared in her hands, the most beautiful cups I'd ever seen. She handed us one each and I inspected mine with intrigue, trying to seek out some darkness in this power, but it was confoundingly beautiful.
“One for the lady perhaps?” I kicked Drake and he rolled his eyes. I was hellbent on treating Kyra well, for if she turned her wrath on us, we would pay dearly for it.
“Get yourself one,” he said to her, and she smiled widely before conjuring another of the chalices for herself.
I poured out the wine then we dropped down to sit in a circle while Kyra watched me like I was about to perform a magic trick, and Drake looked like he was tempted to glug his wine before I gave him any instructions.
“Do as I do,” I ordered, and Drake nodded, gesturing for me to go ahead with a lazy flick of his fingers. That mannerism was a pretty noble one at least – he hadn’t been wrong about his arrogance being a bonus.
I clinked my chalice against Kyra's then lifted it to my lips. “To the Emperor Tarim Lunarelle,” I said. “May his daughter bear glorious heirs.” But by Osaria, don’t let them be Drake’s or fucking Kahn’s.
Drake echoed the traditional words and Kyra joined in with a giddy grin.
I sipped the wine, the honeyed nectar rolling over my tongue and down my throat.
I sighed contentedly as the alcohol fizzled in my gut.
I'd always wondered what this tasted like.
Even high-born Fae like me weren't privy to this level of wealth. A bottle of Cartlanna wine would have been the equivalent of two months’ rent even for a royal guard.
Drake tossed back the contents of his cup and smiled widely.
“That shit is delicious.” He hurriedly poured out another glassful, his eyes flipping to me as he sensed my disapproval.
“It's not like I'm gonna do this in the palace.
But we're not in the palace right now, mate.
So, let's drink like the heathens we are and just enjoy being away from all of that bullshit while we can.” He clinked his chalice to mine with a roguish grin before sitting back and pouring himself another.
I nodded vaguely, but didn’t down my drink like he was, recalling my captain’s rules when it came to alcohol.
I was permitted to have one glass of wine or tankard of ale on celebratory events like the emperor’s birthday, summer’s end, and the princess’s upcoming Unveiling.
To be drinking at all outside of those decreed holidays was something I should have been violently punished for.
So, despite being out here in the middle of the Lyrian Desert with not a chance of being caught in the act, I supposed I really was still just a number, bound by the rules of my position.
Drake sank another glass of priceless wine and Kyra started copying him, not seeming remotely affected by the alcohol as she knocked back glass after glass and I continued to savour my single cup.
“Oh, Cass ,” Drake said dramatically, and I frowned at the nickname he was insisting on using for me. “Drink it, will you? There's an endless amount. And we earned it.” He rested a hand on my shoulder, and I grappled with my inner restraints.
I'd never taken more than I'd needed of anything. Food, water, clothes. I was taught to live within my means, and the last time I had overindulged on alcohol, Captain Marik had severely punished me for it. I wasn’t the only guard who had met that fate either. Once, one of my fellow guardsmen had turned up to training hungover and Marik had had him run laps of the palace without shoes on until he’d passed out, the ground so burningly hot from the sun that it had skinned his feet raw.
But no one was ordering me around now. In theory, I could do whatever I damn-well pleased, and yet it wasn’t so simple.
My fingers twitched against my cup, but my muscles felt chained to my captain in that moment, holding me there, refusing to let me take even another sip.
“How did we earn this drink exactly?” I asked, the urge to devour the entire chalice of this delicious wine rising in me. Despite the tightness in my body and the years of self-control, a rebellious part of me was clamouring to be heard.
“We survived!” Drake announced. “Another day alive is always worth celebrating.”
“So you’re saying this is a special occasion?
” I confirmed, a boyish grin pulling at my lips as I worked within the confines of my training to try and allow myself this indulgence.
Fuck, why was this so difficult? Marik wasn’t here, there was no whip in sight.
Why couldn’t I just break down the walls of my restrictions?
“Drink it,” Kyra said excitedly. “Drink it, drink it, don't drink it, don't drink it.” She slammed a palm to her forehead. “Wait, it was the first one. Do the first one.”
Drake reached towards her as she went to hit herself again, his hand blocking the path of hers and making her look up at him in surprise.
“Don't do that,” he said with a confused frown and though she moved her arm aside so that he couldn’t touch it, she did stop, blinking at him like he’d just saved her life instead of simply telling her not to hit herself.
“You’re… sort of sweet for such an ugly man,” she whispered, and shutters locked down in Drake’s eyes at that. A chuckle of laughter left me as he sat back with a muscle in his jaw ticking, the dig clearly bothering him far more than it would have any other man.
I looked down at my wine once more as I considered my options. I could have one cup. Those were the rules on special occasions and finding an age-old magical creature who could bestow blessings upon the one who held her coin was surely something of an occasion.
Yes…that seemed logical. Arguably within the rules.
Convinced, I drained the glass in one long, delightful, thrilling gulp. Not a sip. Not a sup. A whole, fucking swallow.
Drake rounded on me with a laugh of satisfaction, his irritation falling away in favour of the wine.
“More,” he said immediately as he refilled his own cup and Kyra’s, but I held mine away, a shudder falling through me as I almost felt the slash of a whip against my back.
I gazed down at my empty chalice as the beatings of my past held me in chains.
I was already a lawbreaker; another round of wine would hardly be a substantial crime to add to my list now.
And yet somehow, I felt as bound to my captain’s rule in this moment as I had during all those years at the palace.
I’d already bent the bars of my inner cage, but now the bars were pushing back, and like a dog who’d been struck too many times by its master, I retreated.
“I can only have one cup. I…can’t have more,” I said in a strained voice, moving to place the chalice down and feeling their eyes boring into me.
Fuck, I felt exposed, like they were seeing me for what I truly was.
Just a hollow man built of steel. One of countless weapons forged to protect the empire, nothing more. Never more.
“But you haven’t had your one cup yet,” Kyra said, a twinkle in her eye like an actual star lived there as she pointed to it. I looked down, finding that the dregs at the bottom of my chalice had now swelled to refill it once more.
“Yeah, mate. Drink up.” Drake breathed a laugh as I gazed at the wine, wetting my lips.
Technically, it wasn’t a second cup of wine. And technically, that made drinking it within the rules.
I found I could easily lift the chalice to my mouth again, my heart thundering with defiance as I drank deeply once more, and every time I swallowed, I found that none of the wine had shifted from my cup at all.
But I was within the rules, wasn’t I? Certainly enough to feel as though I was, the nightmares beyond my cage not creeping in as I worked within the confines of the bars built around my soul.