Chapter Ten
“Because you’re fourteen,” I heard Shi’s voice as I approached the arena for training.
There were now two people he could be talking to, Fin and Lloyd.
They were the only two minors at the fortress now.
Not obvious friends, but they had a lack of choice in the matter here.
I stepped in to see my son circling on the mats against Lloyd while Flight Captain Shi watched from the edge.
They were all stripped down to trousers only, as I was.
Fin was easily as tall as me now, the scars on his back were more visible than I would like, but his efforts in working out and working with the dragons were showing in just how muscular he was.
Like me, he kept his hair cropped close to the skull. Unlike me, his was still all black. Evanov’s pink skin only showed his few scars now because the pair of them had clearly been working out for a while and they were both hot and sweaty, making his skin pinker.
But it was the sight of Ang Shi that dried my throat. His long hair flowed like black silk. The pale gold of his skin flowed over the movement of muscles that shifted him with the grace of a dancer. He bore the scars of our kind, yet they did not detract from the — what was I thinking?
The boys clashed and Shi kept a critical eye over the match.
I tried to as well, but my thoughts were scattering.
The boys were doing well. Not perfectly, but they were getting there.
Fin had a grip around Lloyd that should take him off the mat, but Lloyd made a move I couldn’t see from where I stood and Fin flinched.
“Break!” Shi shouted.
The two boys moved apart and stood facing each other, ready for the next round. Fin’s back was to me, so I couldn’t see his expression, and I didn’t want to intrude. Lloyd on the other hand looked smug.
“Mister Evanov, that was an illegal move. There will be discipline.”
The grin fell off Lloyd’s face.
Shi was clearly rankled. “Enough for today. Leave.”
Both boys snapped a salute to Shi, then walked off the mats. Lloyd tapped Fin on the arm. Fin looked at him like he’d kill him, until his eyes slipped up to me. At which point Lloyd quickly grabbed his jacket and virtually ran past me.
“All right?” I asked Fin.
“Mostly.” But he turned back to Shi. “Flight Captain, sir?”
Shi stood tall, his hands clasped behind his back. “Yes, Mister Segast.”
“What did you mean about being fourteen?”
Shi sucked in a breath. “You are aware that Supreme Marshal Tiernan is a father?”
Fin looked at me. “The Dragonlord got promoted?”
Tiernan, as Supreme Marshal, was leader of the Riders, the Infantry, and the Tidewardens.
The man with more control in all Gultima than anyone outside of the Church of The Nine.
There really was no one else. The bastard.
And though he had not been the one to pass me the order to relocate to Unkea, I knew he was the source of that command.
I nodded. “Yes, we know he has a daughter.”
“He has sent her to a College of Riders already.”
That couldn’t be. “But she’s barely fourteen,” I said. “She won’t survive any rider college.”
Fin turned to me, his face pale. “By the Gods, he really was trying to kill her.”
It was an uncomfortable idea. I jerked my head towards the door and Fin rushed out. My hands were clenched by my sides. The idea sickened me.
“Segast?”
Shi’s voice was quiet, but insistent.
“Which college?” I demanded. Though what I could do about it, I didn’t know. Nothing, obviously.
“Reports vary, and all have been suggested, so I cannot be certain.”
“That bastard,” I grated. “We told the truth and he posted us out here. When all the while—” I caught myself and stopped.
“All the while?” Shi asked, moving to stand in front of me.
I wanted to say. I needed to say. The truth of it had been eating me alive for a long time.
“There were rumours that— On the day that—” It was harder to say than I expected.
“By the Gods, I don’t know how any parent could do such a thing.
” I gulped and tried again. “There are rumours that Tiernan tried to kill his daughter by throwing her off the battlements of Pasaocea Fortress.”
Shi paled under that golden skin.
“She had just turned five.”
His lips parted. The statement hung in the air like the frozen breath of a white. After all these years, I still found the idea incomprehensible. Unsavoury.
“Is that the unpalatable truth you think got you sent here?” Shi asked.
I swallowed. After so many years I wanted to say, but…
“You have been here nine years, Flight Sergeant Segast. What possible harm could it do to tell a truth one more time?”
We had Precept Whetu Himona come over every other month to preach, take confide and preside over any necessary ceremony.
Include Fenwick and Jimny’s marriage. But I had never confided this truth.
Himona wasn’t due for another five weeks.
But if I told Shi, he would certainly remember, and I could not have —
“Sullivan,” Shi said carefully. “I would not betray your confidence. I have always known your posting here had something to do with Supreme Marshal Tiernan. I do not understand what happened. If I did, I might be able to help.”
“With all due respect, sir. No, you wouldn’t.”
“You don’t—”
“I saw a silver dragon.”
Now Shi looked at me, his jaw slightly loose.
He knew. He knew it was blasphemy to say such a thing. There were black, white, blue, purple, red and orange great dragons. It was fabled that a gold had one existed. But the Church was adamant that no silver dragon did, or could ever, exist and that it was an insult to the Gods to say otherwise.
“I see,” he said.
“Do you?”
“I see why you have not mentioned this. Be assured that neither will I.”
Because blasphemy was punishable. Thinking of the punishment brought me back to the moment.
“What illegal move did Evanov make?” I asked. “I couldn’t see from where I stood.”
“His hand went to Fin’s groin.” Shi’s tone darkened at the explanation.
“Tell me he was trying to punch—”
“The matter will be dealt with,” Shi cut me off.
I dragged in a breath, my pulse banging in my ears. Just how far did I have to go to protect my son?
“Punishment is my purview not yours, understand?” Shi demanded.
I kept my head up, but my eyes off Shi’s. Though staring at the perfect length of his neck wasn’t much of an improvement. “Yes, sir.”
“Hmm,” he grunted. “I would suggest you start with the punchbag.”
* * *
“I hope you’re happy now.”
I looked up from my desk. “Rider Evanov,” I said into the ruddy face of the man barely holding back his snarl.
“My son is scarred for life because of you.”
I didn’t blink. “I do not have the faintest idea what you are talking about.”
Eye blazed in that red face. “He was beaten for daring to touch your precious boy.”
“No,” I said, pushing down my heart rate and the urge to grind my teeth. “Lloyd was punished for making an illegal move on the mats. But not by me.”
“No.” Evanov smacked his hands on my desk and leaned in threateningly. I did not move. “But we weren’t allowed near the only healer in the fortress. You refused to help him.”
“I was at no point asked to help him,” I stated, which was a fact. “Now, Rider Evanov, I will remind you that I am a Flight Sergeant. Your superior officer. There are rules about the way lower ranks should respect their superiors.”
His lips pressed together.
“Leave now and drop the attitude and there will be no need for more to come of this.”
I wasn’t a fool. Even as the man stomped away, I knew Evanov would still want his revenge.
Men like that always did. My guts tightened because I knew that the likeliest target for his revenge would be Fin.
It was all I could do to complete my reports before I rushed back up to my rooms and found Fin sitting there right as rain, studying.
“Hi.” I slipped into the seat opposite him. “How’s it going?”
“Slow,” he said. “Did I do something wrong?”
That surprised me. “No, why do you ask?”
“The Evanovs,” he said and the blood froze in my veins. “Lloyd won’t speak to me and Rider Evanov spat at me.”
Bastard.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” I assured him.
“Is this about what happened on the mats?” he asked.
I nodded. “Rider Evanov blamed me today for not healing his son.”
Fin frowned. “Were you asked to heal Lloyd?”
“No,” I admitted. “But given that he was punished for an act against you, I’m not sure I would have helped much. I mean, I would have closed the wounds, because, well, I would have. But I would have left it at scabs to scar, too.”
He nodded. Twirled his pen between his fingers. Chewed his lip.
“Fin?”
He put the pen down and looked at me. “I asked Jimny about it.” It was like he was forcing the words out. “You know, what Lloyd did.”
“I see. And what did he say?”
Fin shifted in his chair. “He said that sometimes a touch like that is a calculated foul move to put an opponent off their fight.”
I could tell there was more, so controlled my reactions and waited.
Fin licked his lips and looked away, his cheeks growing darker. “He also said it could be a flirtation technique. If … you know … a boy likes a boy …”
His voice trailed off, but I found myself calmer than expected. “And which do you think it was from Lloyd to you?”
“It didn’t feel flirty. Or arousing,” Fin said. “It felt … premeditated.”
There was no loss of tension, no sense of relief or release. I was glad Fin hadn’t found it arousing, but suddenly, other issues pecked at me.
“Fin, I don’t like the Evanovs. They strike me as …” How to put it?
“Bullies?” Fin suggested.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “That’s as good a description as any. Bullies. If you start getting trouble from either of them, report it. Tell Flight Captain Shi about what Rider Evanov did.”
“Won’t that just make things worse?”
“A fair question,” I said. “I don’t think so, it’s more the case that I think Shi will be upset if you don’t tell him, but if you want to, tell him that you’re telling him as a … friend … not as a commander.”
Fin nodded. “I’ll think about it. You should know, I want to be a dad someday. Have a wife and family of my own.”
That made me smile. If there was one thing Fin had, it was evidence of good fatherhood, and not all of it from me. “That would be nice.” I nodded. “Yeah, the thought of bouncing a grandchild on my knee is appealing.”
“Since you’re here,” Fin said after a while, “do you know anything about the geology of volcanoes?”
“They are hot, they’re high and they spit lava,” I said. “I think that wild black dragons originally came from the Diablomaw Mountains, the volcanic range in central Gultima. But that’s about the extent of my knowledge. Sorry.”