31. 30 #3
He swiped the horn back from the nearby hand, and his voice was a triumphant yell once more. “Live well now. Live here in this land as best you can. Laugh, revel, and enjoy each hour before you are called to move on.”
Hollers and cheers erupted.
“The night comes for us all, but we can choose how we meet it.” It was a caution, but a war cry, too. “We can choose to enjoy our time, and live here, and not in the comforts of our childhood or the threats of tomorrow. For our world could end tomorrow. For our world could end tomorrow!”
The crowd yelled it back like a choral wave.
“Find a friend!” He raised his horn. “Kiss a lover!” He raised it again, to louder jeers. “Find a friendly jug!” He raised it a third time. “Let us ward off the night now, and forever, until Samiscus is ready for us!”
The crowd was the loudest it had been all night, yet it didn’t feel overwhelming. I was soaring on the backs of it, swelling with it like a ship atop their tide. I could not help but yell with everyone, letting out a loud yelp my lungs had rarely had occasion for.
Then, in a line, I was sobered.
Davian hushed the crowd, with one gloved finger to the mouth of the black helmet. “Now, it is time for your Prince of Darkness to find his princess.”
Again, there was a loud roar, but this time it was more lecherous and far more amused.
I stilled, knowing I was about to watch this Prince select a woman from the crowd.
The wine in my head made the moment feel woozier, uncertain, echoing.
The hazing smoke of the candles drifted in the night air, and everything felt off. Changeable.
Once the crowd had settled, Davian made a show of bending his knees and putting his hand to his brow, scouting out as a sailor might watch for land. “Are there any amongst you with a willing maiden?”
A second’s pause.
And then a woman hollered, pointing aggressively at a shorter woman beside her. “I have a maiden, Prince!”
Another woman called out ten feet to our left, shoving her friend forward as they both laughed raucously. “Here is a maiden for you!”
Davian jumped down from his chariot, and my heart leapt as he snaked through the crowd. Everyone parted for him like he was Samiscus himself, waiting to see who he would pick. Davian made a show of it, walking in a slow stalk around each proffered maiden.
He circled them like prey, before walking to the next. I hoped this was the extent of it, this performance of selection. A show. Acting for his crowd.
“Choose me, your Grace!”
This call, from only a few heads in front of us. Once more, the crowd parted, until there were only two rows between us and the wide circle of room around the woman.
My breath was held tight in my chest, and my hands clenched tighter still, as Davian approached with deliberate and calm steps. He lifted his legs, exaggerating his movements. I hated that I was still looking for a limp, still worried he might be in pain.
When he reached the woman, his gloved finger came out to push back her hood. Blonde hair came into view, and I thought I might be sick as he stepped around to the front of her.
I turned back to leave the square, and Fella’s hand fell onto my shoulder.
She raised an eyebrow at me, and then she yelled into the anticipation clouding the square. “I have a maiden.”
I swivelled back to Davian, my cheeks heating in a second. Fuck. I wanted to yell at Fella, but many eyes had turned to look at us, and then down at me, and I could say nothing.
Davian had stiffened at the call. Only slightly, but enough for me to notice. Then, the performance continued. He completed his turn around the woman in front of us, and just like that, far too soon, he looked our way.
He must have known Fella’s voice. He must have guessed her intent, because he turned in our direction, and the crowd parted to reveal me as his next prey, and he did not falter.
He was the Prince of Darkness in this moment, not my Davian. I tried to remind myself of that, and keep my chin high, even as Fella stepped back and away from me. Even as the nearest one hundred people watched him prance towards me.
I shifted my weight from foot to foot, just barely, but enough to stave off the nervous energy as he reached me.
He bowed before me, and I curtsied back instinctively.
“My lady,” he said.
“My lord.”
Then he did to me the same as he had for the other maidens, as the crowd swelled and pushed for a better look. Davian was tall enough, and his horns high enough, for him to tower over most, so I was sure one thousand people could see his helmet as he circled me.
He pushed my cloak back, and I inhaled through my nose. His gloved finger moved a lock of my hair behind my ear, and he leaned in.
Under his breath, he whispered near my neck. “Will you be my maiden?”
I shuddered as a pleasant shiver crept up my spine. I fluttered my eyes closed at the warmth of his breath. “What is required of me?”
He kept circling, reaching my other ear. Time was running out. “A kiss, before the crowds.”
A kiss? After everything we had spoken of? After our last two conversations?
What would that mean?
I sighed, and poured all of my confusion into one whispered word. “Davian.”
“I know,” he said, and for the first time that night, he sounded like him, and not like the Prince of Darkness. “But you are here, and I can pick no other.”
My eyes snapped open and I stared at him. He waited before me, the silver heat of his eyes molten as he swept into another bow, and extended his hand.