Chapter 9 #3
Arit’s face stiffened as though she was trying not to show her feelings. She shrugged. “I have no idea. It’s none of my business where he is or what he does or who he sees.” She drank more beer.
“If it were any of your business, where would he be?” Aradella persisted.
Arit grimaced. “My sister is here with King Aramus. She is beautiful beyond belief. It’s said that the moon asks her for beauty
advice. Any male who sees her, no matter his size, declares his eternal love for her. It’s a love that can never be broken
since she’s so . . . so . . .”
“Glamorous?” Aradella said. “Dazzling? She enters a room and everyone runs to her? No one even sees you after she appears?”
“Yes, exactly,” Arit said.
Aradella refilled the thimble. “Did Ian actually run off with her or are you assuming—based on past experience—that he’s fallen
for your beautiful princess cousins?”
Arit and Hale looked at her.
“What did I say?” Aradella asked, then remembered. “I was just pointing out that I understand due to my own life experience.
Is your sister why you’ve always been a bit cool to Ian?”
“I refuse to have my heart broken. I know he’ll leave me as soon as he sees—”
The familiar sound of a Never buzzing came through the window, but this was a lower, deeper vibration. It was Ian. In place
of the half of his leg that he’d lost, was a beautifully carved piece of wood. Aradella had seen it before. In a room where
Olina held meetings was an elegant clock that had belonged to the former king. On one side was a carving of an old man with
a cane. That cane was now strapped to Ian’s leg.
Aradella couldn’t resist saying, “Does your leg tell time?”
Ian gave a chuckle of understanding, then lit on the table to stand across from Arit.
“Peace at last.” He picked up her thimble of beer, drained it, then grabbed a handful of beef and ate it in one bite.
“It’s bad out there. Sawdust is flying everywhere—and all the men are half naked.
The dust is sticking to their sweaty skin and it itches them, but they will not put their shirts on. It’s very strange.”
The three women looked at each other.
“Sweaty men,” Aradella said. “Half naked.”
“Covered in sawdust,” Arit added.
“I could scratch a few backs,” Hale said.
Ian looked at the women in chastisement.
Aradella cleared her throat. “But the men aren’t touching the women, are they?”
Ian drank more beer and ate more of Arit’s beef. “No! No matter what the women do to get their attention, the men don’t touch
them.” He looked at Arit. “Four of your sisters are here.” He said it as though it was an accusation.
“Oh.” Instantly, Arit looked sad.
Ian clamped his teeth together. “Those women rolled dice to decide who . . .” He didn’t finish.
Hale and Aradella leaned forward. “To decide what?”
“Who would get me as a . . .” He took a breath. “As a prize.”
Aradella and Hale closed their lips to keep from laughing.
Arit, with no hint of humor in her eyes, said, “Who won you?”
Ian drained another thimble of beer. “The oldest one, I think. I’m not sure.”
Arit looked like she might cry. “Tink is beautiful, don’t you think?”
Ian wiped his mouth on his sleeve and scratched his leg above the peg. “She certainly thinks she is. She even told me that
she is.” He looked up at Aradella. “Mekos’s grandfather arrived on a dragon. That creature glistens. I’d like to have one
of his scales for a shield. That giant was very glad to see Mekos.”
It was Aradella’s turn to look sad. “Is he with the sawdust boys?”
Ian grinned, then went to the pincushion and stretched out on it, his hands behind his head. Arit remained sitting close by him. He looked extremely pleased about something. “Mekos and I sneaked into the palace and rescued my sister.”
The women looked at him in surprise.
“Tell us,” Aradella whispered.
He shook his head in memory. “Mekos moves so fast even I can hardly keep up with him. He only stopped to listen. I don’t know
what he heard, but then he’d sprint through the halls. We had to go down two flights of stone stairs. Did you know there are
underground rooms in that old palace?”
“Yes,” Aradella said. “I used to play in them when I was a child.”
Ian nodded. “We had to go through four locks to get to the room where my sister was kept.”
“And you opened them all.” Arit sounded proud.
“I did. And there she was, my dear sister, Laylit.” He smiled for a moment. “The good part was that her guard was an old woman,
and they’d become friends. Laylit was given the freedom to fly about the room and they talked. The woman used fabric scraps
from Olina’s clothes to make dresses and a little bedchamber for my sister. Mekos had a piece of swan cloth with him and he
gave that to her.”
Aradella said, “Mekos is very kind, and he thinks about other people. He can move silently and he hears everything, and he—”
She broke off as they were staring at her. “Where is your sister now?”
“Home, I hope. I sent the woman to the Lair. I think she’ll like Valona’s old maid.” His eyes sparkled. “You and Mekos are
heroes to those women. They’d do anything for you.”
Aradella smiled in memory. She knew that whatever happened, she’d always remember those days at the Lair as the best of her
life.