Chapter 7
Seven
Avalon
We took the night to reconnect, but when the sun rose the day after Lierick’s surprise arrival, it was time to work out what we were going to do, and who we were going to tell.
We couldn’t sit with a secret this big—well, not about the arrival of the Second Line.
We still weren’t sure what we wanted to do about my… abilities.
Lucio and Shay would obviously have to know about Lierick, but Hayle didn’t want to tell the rest of his Line’s conscripts.
Loose lips wasn’t only a human trait; any one of their animal companions could tell its friends, who’d tell their friends, who’d tell their human counterpart, and then the secret was out.
Apparently, the animal companion sphere was like a quilting circle at the local tavern.
Vox had scoffed at the idea of telling anyone in his Line, other than Shay. They were either too loyal or too scared of the Baron of the First Line to keep it to themselves.
That just left the Twelfth Line. I dreaded the idea that they didn’t know, because it would be just one more huge secret I’d have to keep from the people I considered friends.
But if they did know and hadn’t told me?
It was unfair, but I wasn’t sure I could trust them as wholeheartedly as I once had.
I stood outside their door now, Hayle at my back.
Vox was back up at his dorm, keeping up appearances and plotting with Shay in the safety of his dome of silence.
Alucius was with us right now, while Braxus was doing some outside reconnaissance.
Sitting around inside heavy stone walls guarding me must grate on the hound, who was used to running through the great forests around Hayle’s home in Hamor.
The sounds of the Twelfth Line behind the door of their dorm were loud, filled with laughter and shouts, and it made me smile. No matter what the outcome of this meeting was, I’d always be grateful that they’d so easily taken me into the warmth of their Line.
Knocking heavily to be heard over the cacophony, it was seconds before someone flung open the door. I recognised the person, but didn’t know them as well as most. There were so many Twelfth Line conscripts that I’d only had passing conversations with most of them.
But they all knew me.
“Avalon!” the young conscript yelled, grabbing my arm and pulling me inside.
“Avalon’s here! And so is Hayle Taeme and the prettiest hound in all the land,” he cooed at Alucius.
Apparently, being around me and Braxus so often had stripped the Twelfth Line of their fear of the hounds.
“Get the hock we’ve been keeping in cold storage for them.
” The brave conscript reached down and scratched behind Alucius’s ear.
I didn’t know if it was because Hayle had ordered her not to, or because of the promise of a ham hock, but she didn’t bite off his fingers.
We were led in as someone appeared with the bone for Alucius, who sat by the door and went to work on it. Braxus was going to be pissed.
Viana hugged me. “It’s good to see you guys. It feels like it’s been forever. When you guys disappear for your sexathons, we never know if you’ll emerge, or if they’ll eventually find your dehydrated corpses looking like beef jerky.”
“Sex-induced dehydration is no joke, Viana,” Acacia said sternly, giving us both a large cup of something that smelled like lemons. “You need to restore the salts in your body. Drink.”
I rolled my eyes at them both. “Will you guys stop? It’s not like we go at it without a break.
” My face was flaming red. The easy way the Twelfth Line spoke about sex still made me embarrassed, though I was getting more comfortable.
Slowly. “Besides, I saw you guys like… twenty-four hours ago. How dehydrated could I get in a day?”
Viana grinned, looking at her own partners over her shoulder. “If they’re doing it right, really, really dehydrated.” She winked at Link and Polus.
I shook my head at them. “Sorry to squash your orgy dreams, but I spent more than a few hours in the library. With the Librarian.”
Eliot groaned, bringing over a glass of his home-brewed liquor for Hayle. “I’ve seen Librarian Enora.” He bit his fist. “I’d happily spend a few hours with her in the stacks. She could tell me to be quiet for hours on end. There’s something to be said for delayed gratification.”
Acacia smacked him up the back of the head. “Don’t be disrespectful,” she chastised, before grinning softly. “I mean, you’re not wrong, but the Librarian deserves respect.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at their antics. “Unfortunately, all we were doing was research. She received some books from the library in the Hall of Ebrus about my Line that she wanted to show me. Well, my Line and its connection to the Second Line.”
It was subtle, and if I hadn’t been watching for it, I might have missed the shift in the vibe of the room.
“A history lesson outside of class? Sounds boring,” Link huffed. But there was a small tic in his jaw.
I pushed a little further. “Mmm, apparently, the last great Seer of my Line was being courted by one of the Second Line Heirs, back before she disappeared. And before the Second Line was obliterated, never to rise again.” I knew Hayle was watching them closely too.
He’d pick up more of their tells with his enhanced senses.
“That sounds super interesting. Even the Twelfth Line has heard of Ellanora Halhed, though. She had a lot of prophecies, even some for the Twelfth Line.” Acacia’s voice was light, but still interested, trying to turn the conversation away from the Second Line without tipping me off.
I knew then that they knew. All of them. The whole Line. But I didn’t want to reveal my hand too early. “Oh? Like what?”
Vianna waved a hand. “I can’t remember, really. Sometimes about which crops would flourish, or who to elect as leader for the greatest benefit, that kind of thing.”
“Maybe about turning to the mountains when you have nowhere else to turn?” Hayle suggested lightly.
If they had no idea about the Second Line, there was nothing too indicative in his statement, but the way they all froze was a dead giveaway, even to me and my dulled senses.
I stood. “You knew. You all knew the Second Line still lived, and you said nothing.” I kept my voice low, because if being with both Vox and Hayle had taught me anything, it was that the walls had ears.
The shock that rippled through the room had less to do with the revelation that the Second Line lived and everything to do with the fact that I knew.
That was confirmed when Acacia frowned. “How do you know?”
Crossing my arms over my chest, I scowled back at the woman I’d considered a friend. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She looked at me like I was an idiot. “Why would we tell you a generational, Line-wide secret? Have you told us all your secrets?”
Shame burned in my gut. No, I hadn’t. Even before this giant secret I was carrying around now, I hadn’t even shown them all of myself. I didn’t trust that easily. How could I expect something from them that I wasn’t willing to give?
“No. I guess not.” I still needed to leave. “If you want to know how I know, perhaps you should go speak to the Eleventh Line.”
I moved toward the door, where Alucius got to her feet immediately, abandoning the hock. She was such a good hound. Hayle turned to look at the Twelfth Line, but he said nothing. He didn’t need to; his face said it all. Hurt me, and he’d hurt them tenfold.
I loved that man.
Stepping back out into the stairwell, I closed the door softly. Hayle rested his hand on my spine, standing close to me as we climbed. “I know you feel kind of hurt right now, but I see their side.”
Sighing, I canted into his body a little more. “Me too.”
“And it will be good not to have to keep this secret from them,” he murmured softly against my hair. He was right again. I was being unfair.
“I just hate it when I’m the only person who’s oblivious to the truth.
” Especially when it was something that was going to alter the course of my life forever.
I didn’t just mean the Twelfth Line, though.
“I feel like I’ve always been a pawn to be moved around.
First by my father, then by Boellium.” I dropped my voice again. “By the Second Line. By the Goddess.”
Hayle kissed my temple. “You aren’t a pawn, Avie. You’re a queen. The world is just forming on the board around you.” He laced his fingers through mine. “Come on, let’s get you something to eat, then we’ll head to the roof to watch the stars with Vox.”
It might be the last time we could slip out so Vox could watch the stars, for me to sketch them on paper while Hayle read on the couch. To make love on the heavy rugs under those same stars.
It felt like the end of a chapter that had barely begun. And worse, I felt unprepared for the next one.
When we made it to the food hall, though, my feet stuttered to a halt.
Leaning against the wall at the end of the long trestle tables of food, was Lierick, surrounded by female conscripts.
Most notably, Ephily Ingmire. She was leaning into his body, her hand lightly gripping his bicep as she laughed at whatever he was saying.
“Apparently, her disdain for the Lower Lines only extends to those she doesn’t consider attractive,” I muttered to Hayle, who chuckled softly.
Shaking his head, he leaned closer. “She’s like a leech. She can sense his power and she wants to attach to him like a parasite with a host.”
Lierick looked up, and his crooked grin had me glaring at him. Running my tongue across my teeth, I turned away and grabbed my plate. “Hopefully, he isn’t stupid enough to trust her.”
Hayle took the plate from me, putting it on a tray with his own, adding the foods that he knew I liked. He skipped the greens, but added more potatoes and ladled a generous portion of the soup I loved into the bowl section. At the end of the row, he stacked a handful of chocolates beside the plate.
He made all the same choices I would’ve made, without a single word from me. Like he’d been watching, cataloguing what made me happy. Not because he wanted anything from me but to show me that he saw me. That he loved me.
My chest swelled.
Unaware of the fact that I was falling more and more in love with him, Hayle continued. “Lierick seems like many things, but stupid isn’t one of them. He also doesn’t seem to be the kind of man who’d be easily blinded by surface beauty.”
He directed me toward his Line’s table, where I sat down beside an oddly solemn Lucio.
I could see the same emotions on his face that I felt in my chest: confusion and doubt, unsure if everything you knew as fact was actually a lie, uncertainty about what you were meant to do with the knowledge you now had.
I bumped his shoulder with mine. “How’s the second most handsome man in the Third Line doing tonight?”
Giving me his signature crooked smirk, he quickly transformed his face into a faux-outraged mask.
“Second? Avalon Halhed, I’ll have you know, I’m the first most handsome man, not just in the Third Line, but in all of Boellium War College.
” He went off on a tangent about all his attractive qualities, including standing on the table and taking off his shirt, causing a chorus of whistles and catcalls.
Hayle squeezed my hand appreciatively. He didn’t need to, though; I was his Soul Tie, and one day, this Line would be my Line too. But more than that, Lucio was a friend. His happiness was as important to me as my own. His safety was as important as mine.
And that was why I was going to help the Second Line overthrow the Baron of the First Line, and start a revolution.