Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Kindness
MAGNOLIA
Irealized I needed a new tactic. In the past two days, I’d only been able to snoop for information a few times.
I was used to sneaking off at night. It was when most of my hunts for Dahes took place—I was used to blending into the fog, used to the limited people awake, used to the isolation—not that it mattered that much in Moriann since it was always dark, but everything was so much harder during the day here.
I was definitely not used to the suns.
The king forced me to eat every meal with him—which was three a day.
My stomach was so bloated it hurt. I ate way too much at breakfast the first time that I threw everything up an hour later in my room.
I knew I should have stuck to eating the meat to not upset my stomach, but I couldn’t help it.
I kept eating the fruits, the breads, the pastries—literally anything and everything that Dahes detested went into my mouth.
And despite the cramps and nagging headaches, I loved it.
I tried to pay attention to the politics during the meals, but it changed too frequently to draw any clear conclusions.
The people rotated from day to day. The only thing that stayed the same was their seats.
Whenever someone attended another meal they were previously at, they’d sit in the exact chair as before.
Well, at least, I noticed the drakin rider did.
I was always to the right of the king, and Cash—the leader of the Wielders—to his left, and whenever the rider with the pale brown eyes ate with us, he was diagonal from me.
Some part of me hated that whenever he showed up, the female with veracity always sat next to him.
I learned her name was Lira, and that she was a powerful Wielder the king kept close.
Every meal I ate with her, I was on the edge of my seat, trying to phrase my wording perfectly, terrified that she’d out me with her Token.
I knew she wanted to. She eyed me the most at the table, studying my mannerisms in a way that unnerved me, and the king didn’t shy away from asking questions regarding Moriann.
Every meal felt like a silent battle no one knew I was fighting, like I was being held in the middle of an interrogation and one wrong move would cut me to pieces.
It made it harder to figure out who Hael was. The more questions I had to side-step to answer, the less I could eavesdrop on what else was being said.
The moments between meals, I was usually free, which turned into my only time to hunt.
Bran escorted me back to my room, and it was my cue to gather as much intel as I could.
A lot of it came from Bran himself whenever he was in a good mood.
But some of it I found out from walking the gardens and overhearing hushed conversations.
Bran told me as long as I didn’t leave the castle, I could explore the grounds—I just couldn’t take the stairs down to the Dome or walk either of the paths that led to Soffikane or the Grigg.
It was still a leash, just a much looser one that made it easy to forget I had limits.
But I didn’t mind. If Hael was at the castle somewhere, I didn’t have a reason to leave, for now.
The strangest thing to get used to was having dragons fly overhead. No one was alarmed. No one was running. In Moriann, if you heard anything inhuman, you ran. If monsters were on the streets, it only meant one thing. Dahes sent them to kill.
But in Viven, the people acted like seeing a dragon was nothing more than having a northern singing bird above you. Maybe that was how it was supposed to be, how peace could look when you weren’t terrified that everything was going to kill you.
I kept having to remind myself not to gawk, that people didn’t openly stare up at the sky with their mouths hanging open whenever I was exploring outside.
So far, I walked through two different gardens and a circular pit that I guessed was where Wielders trained.
The only problem was, none of the information I was gathering was useful.
The only thing I learned was that whoever this Hael person was, most people found him attractive.
There was a lot of talk revolving around who he’d sleep with during the Vargothi, and in general, which drakin they wanted to hook up with.
I didn’t understand the culture and had no idea if the Vargothi was known for that sort of thing, but I was starting to think it was just as much of a sex event as it was an actual tournament for dragon riders.
The only conclusive thing I gleaned was that he was at the castle.
Somewhere. I just had no idea where.
It was infuriating.
I knew it would have been easier to gather intel at night. It was usually when people had conversations they didn’t want anyone else to overhear, but Cash stayed in my room almost the entire night.
And by the time he left, I was so mentally and physically drained from using my Token, that I crashed.
To make matters worse, Cash’s training was relentless.
I was starting to dread it as much as when Dahes used to visit my room.
He constantly pushed me past what I was comfortable with.
He kept trying to grab me, kept taunting me, kept making his own assumptions of what caused my Token to manifest just to make my cheeks heat and my blood boil.
I hated it. I hated that I hated it. Hated that it was controlling me.
But tonight, Bran told me I wouldn’t have training. It was the first day of the Vargothi.
I was starting to get anxious. A week had passed—most of which I was unconscious because of the altitude—and I still didn’t know what Hael looked like.
But after today, I’d finally know who he was. I could start tracking him, learn his routine, see who he spoke with and who he avoided. I’d finally get to put a face to who I was hunting.
I didn’t want to think about what Dahes would do if I returned without any weaknesses. I had to figure it out.
Failing wasn’t an option.
Bran picked out my outfit today. He made it abundantly clear that my fashion sense was nonexistent and that the Vargothi was the event of the century—literally and figuratively.
I was wearing a cream gown that hung off my shoulders by gemmed beads, and various golden jewels lined the entire bodice that made walking without making a sound impossible.
“Don’t you want to see what you look like?” he asked.
I glanced down at the bodice again. It was cut low enough to glimpse the top of my cleavage, but I surprisingly didn’t hate it.
The material was tight, and although it clung to me, it wasn’t transparent like the gowns Dahes would force me to wear.
It felt like the perfect blend between showy and conservative.
“I can see the dress just fine,” I responded before meeting his gaze.
“I meant in a mirror.” He rolled his eyes.
Oh—OH. I shook my head. “No.”
His gaze narrowed. “Why?”
Because I didn’t want to see my eyes. I didn’t want to see the blue band around my irises. No one in Viven would know that it wasn’t a part of my natural gray coloring, but I could glimpse it in Dahes’ own pupils to know that my own had changed.
And the moment I saw them, I would know they weren’t the same from when I was fifteen, making a deal with the devil.
And beyond the physical proof that Dahes owned me, I didn’t want to see the mental toll. I wasn’t ready to know how much I had aged, to see how much life had drained from me over the past seven years. I wasn’t ready to know I wasn’t the same anymore, and that meant he wouldn’t be the same either.
It hurt too much.
“I don’t care what I look like.”
It was a lie. I knew it, and I was pretty sure Bran knew it too, but he just shrugged before walking out of the room.
I was familiar with the walk we were taking. Going there three times a day, it was the first thing I had memorized about the castle. “Why are we going to the dining room?” I asked Bran as he guided me down the familiar hallways. “I thought the tournament was starting today.”
“It is,” he said, not stopping to respond.
If I hadn’t known he was a commoner without any powers, I would have thought his Token was agility, because I was constantly struggling to keep up with him.
I couldn’t even blame it on the altitude poisoning anymore.
I was feeling great. Better than great. But Bran walked like a Tallik was chasing him.
“You’re dining with King Elion. The Vargothi starts after breakfast.”
I entered the dining room early for once, courtesy of Bran waking me up before the suns to get me ready.
Elion was at the table with Cash, and my heart stopped when I noticed the drakin next to him.
In the nine meals I’d had so far—now ten—I only shared four of them with him, and I had no idea why my stomach was doing somersaults seeing him now.
He didn’t talk to me. He never acknowledged me or anyone for that matter.
Whenever the king spoke to him, he’d answer, but other than that, he was reserved.
He ate his meal in silence, barely bothering to even look around the table, and usually left the second it ended.
Completely unlike Cash who was unabashed and outspoken and made a habit of staring at me during every meal.
“You look divine in my clothes,” King Elion crooned, as he eyed me. “Vivenian fashion suits you.”
“Thank you,” I replied as I took my usual seat to his right. My heart nearly pounded out of my chest, and I swore the jewels on my gown were rattling because of it. The drakin rider was staring at me—and he wasn’t looking away.
I was used to always being watched by Dahes, but I’d never had so many eyes on me at once. Back in Moriann, I was invisible to everyone else, except Dahes.
But here, I couldn’t blend in. Besides Elion putting me on a pedestal and flaunting me during these meals, I was the runaway from Moriann. The only person to ever escape Dahes.
Which wasn’t even true. It was all a lie. No one could escape Dahes—especially not me.
“Are you excited for the tournament, Nollie?” King Elion asked as I started filling my plate with fruits and pastries.
“I am.” He was watching me as I took a bite of a coral-colored fruit. A sticky sweetness immediately flooded my tongue as I bit into the skin, and it took everything in me to keep paying attention to the king.
“Good.” He nodded, then drank from a glass of wine. “You won’t be sitting in my private balcony, but you’ll have the next best view. If there’s anything you need, don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Thank you.” I knew I shouldn’t push my luck, but I had to. “Actually there is something I want to ask.”
King Elion smirked, waiting for me to continue, and I immediately got the feeling that it was all formulaic.
“I was wondering if Bran could attend the tournament with me.” Half of me was asking for Bran’s sake.
He told me a little bit about the etiquette of the Vargothi while he helped me get ready this morning.
Unless a servant was hosting, they didn’t get to attend—ever.
I knew he’d be elated if he could watch, but I also needed him there.
I wanted to be able to ask any questions I had freely, and if Bran felt like he owed me a favor, I knew he would answer.
He was also one of the few people here I trusted.
Well, trust wasn’t exactly right. I didn’t trust anyone anymore.
But he was authentic at least. I knew exactly what I was getting with him.
He was who he was, and I found it intoxicatingly gravitating.
“Why do you want to watch the Vargothi with a servant?” the king tsked, his amusement fading to disgust. He had a slight crinkle around his eyes I hadn’t noticed earlier, and whenever he wasn’t smiling, it gave him a harsh demeanor.
“I’ve never seen it before, and I’m sure I’ll have a lot of questions. I didn’t want to bother anyone with—”
“I don’t let just anyone witness it,” he cut me off. “The Vargothi is a prestigious event. The only servants allowed are the ones working it.”
I stopped eating, a pit forming in my stomach, as I turned to look at him. Maybe I went too far…
“Despite not being from my kingdom, I extended an invitation to you as a show of my good graces, and you mock me by wanting to go with a servant,” he sneered and I cursed myself, wondering if he was going to uninvite me.
I needed to watch it. I had no way of finding out who Hael was without seeing him in person.
Elion leaned back in his chair as he assessed me.
“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling my cheeks blanch at his words.
“Arrik will escort you to the tournament,” he said after a long pause. I was about to ask who that was before he added. “Since he brought you here, he can answer any questions you have, and maybe teach you basic court etiquette.”
I tried to compose my expression as realization dawned on me that I was going to have to spend the entire tournament with the rider who found me. At least I knew his name now.
“I appreciate your kindness,” I forced myself to say carefully.
“I don’t offer things out of kindness.”
The table was starting to fill around us, but I refused to look. I kept staring at the king, waiting for what he was getting at, as my heart pounded faster and faster.
“I expect a show of your Token once the tournament’s finished.”
My posture relaxed a fraction when he turned toward Cash and started talking about something else, but I couldn’t get myself to eat the rest of my breakfast. The little bit of sweets I already ate stirred, turning my stomach.
It wasn’t until everyone was clearing the room that I looked up and noticed the drakin rider was staring at me. He hadn’t moved from his seat, but Cash had.
Cash walked around the table before standing in front of me. “I’ll be in the same balcony,” he said, looking me up and down before winking. “If you get tired of Arrik, come find me.”
His smile shifted into a smirk before glancing back at Arrik. The latter had a withering look on his face, like the idea of having to sit through the tournament with me was punishment for something.
I honestly didn’t know what to say. Years of talking to absolutely no one had completely ruined any socialization skills I might have possessed when I was fifteen, and now, I barely knew how to act. I almost just got myself uninvited to the tournament.
A chair scraped against the floor and echoed across the room. Arrik stormed toward me with a scowl on his face.
“Come on,” he growled. “Let’s go.”