CHAPTER 22 #4
“Second blessing,” he corrected, tapping his chin. “I can’t see how this relates to the thorns. Don’t you know what type of bird that is?”
I sighed, not wanting to give him another thing to lord over me. I patted the bird’s head, more blue-gray than black in the sunlight, then took the bait. “What is it, then?”
“A sparrowhawk.”
“And?”
“They’re meant to be trained.”
“To do what, run messages?”
“Doubtful, but you could try. They’re hunters.”
“Great.”
“And they mostly eat other birds.”
I eyed the little beast, who puffed his feathers.
He looked distinctly content as he settled his head into his fluff and closed his eyes.
A savage pride filled me at the thought of him soaring over our tomato patches, picking off the finches that kept eating the little yellow ones I liked before they ripened.
“Good. As soon as he can fly, I’ll put him to work. ”
That’s when the questions really began. I thought he was being exhaustive before with the physical training. I was So. Very. Wrong.
“Can you talk to him?”
“No.”
“Can he talk to you?”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“Could you sense him from across the room?”
“No.”
“Can you give him commands?”
“Sleep and ignore me. Wow, he listened!”
“Can you see through his eyes?”
That one startled me. “Is that a thing?”
“Can you beckon him? Does he beckon you?”
“No. Are we done yet?”
“No. Do you feel a kindred connection to him?”
“Do you? You both seem to be the same shade of grump. Maybe I’m cursed to be attracted to the surliest things on Jaeda.”
Wep sat up straighter. “You’re attracted to me?”
I balked. “N-no.”
His smirk was as delicious as it was infuriating.
“Don’t make me sic Sprakt on you,” I warned.
“That’s his name? Did he tell you that?”
“Dragon’s scales, no.”
“Where’d you learn that word?”
“It’s a name, idiot, not a word.”
“Hmm.” I hoped I would finally get a break, but he continued, “Can you share thoughts?”
I glared. “You asked that one already.”
“Fuck, it’s like you’re not even trying. It’s obvious there’s an understanding between you two.” He tossed his ledger aside, got to his feet, and began pacing.
“This is exhausting.” I poked at Sprakt. He hopped off my shoulder and glided to a boulder a few yards away.
“You’re telling me,” he groaned.
“You’re the one putting us through this.”
“Trust me, I’m not.”
Not for a second had I forgotten that little ledger of his would find its way back into Dane’s hands.
I kicked out my feet, fell backward, and lay there flat against the grass.
It was thick and long, plush as a cushion.
I closed my eyes. Through the earth, I could feel him claim the patch of grass beside me.
I imagined him with his ankles crossed and hands laced behind his head, lounging like he owned this clearing—and, maybe he did.
Or his father did, rather. The details of land ownership in Drakh weren’t clear to me yet.
In Cavendaffe, we owned the entire province, and everyone who lived there leased the land from us.
Of course, there were many contracts ensuring rights of tenancy that passed through generations.
We also paid hefty tithes to the king each year, whether in coin, crops, or militia, as did all lands across the kingdom.
We were owners in name and title, so long as the king willed it.
“Who owns these lands?” I asked, needing to sate my curiosity.
Wep shifted, and I imagined him examining me. “They belong to Drakh.”
“So Dane owns them?”
“Hmm.” He paused. “No. Dane’s responsible for them.”
“Who gives him the responsibility, then?”
“The last dana, his mother.”
“Not his father?”
“No, éalren was the chosen leader, so he bears her name, not my grandfather’s.”
I lapsed into silence. I knew women had more freedom in the Riht, but I hadn’t connected the extent of it. Freedoms I would lose if I were ever forced to return to Inra.
“How can you own land?” he asked, interrupting my thoughts.
I opened my eyes. Turning to him, my breath hitched. He was lying in exactly the position I’d imagined, but with his head to the side, eyes locked on mine. He was a lot closer than I had thought. Our faces were barely three feet apart. If he moved, his elbow could brush my shoulder.
“You control who lives on it,” I breathed.
His brow furrowed. “You can’t keep animals from living where they please.”
“Animals don’t count.”
“Oh, don’t they? Today suggests otherwise.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I really don’t—”
A horn blared in the distance. Then a second. Then a third, so close the ground rattled.
Wep was on his feet in an instant. “Get your bird. We have to get to the keep.”
“What?”
“Now, Serae.”
I jumped up and called to Sprakt, who flew back to my shoulder.
I’d need to figure out something about his death grip, or I’d be permanently bleeding from my clavicle.
We ran back to the keep, twisting through alleys to get there more quickly, and I relied solely on Wep to know the way.
As we sprinted, I held a steadying hand behind Sprakt to keep him from being jostled off.
He couldn’t fly alongside us with clipped wings.
That thought boiled my blood.
We were just outside the portcullis when Wep turned to me and gripped my arms. His eyes were intense. “I need to go to Dane and get orders. Stay inside. You’ll be safe within the keep walls. Don’t leave for anything unless Dane himself tells you. Don’t go outside.”
“Okay…”
“Please, Serae.” It was the second time I’d heard my name as a plea on his lips in a few scant minutes, and it pulled something in me. “I have to trust you to keep yourself safe. Can I?”
“Safe? What’s happening?”
Instead of answering, he released my arms, surged forward, and kissed me.
Sprakt squawked and fluttered on my shoulder, but Wep’s hands stole my attention.
One cradled the back of my head while the other slipped to the small of my back, pressing me into him.
The kiss was hot and firm and igniting, but it was over just as fast.
“I will answer all your questions when I return.” Then he left.
The entrance to the keep swallowed him before I regained my wits.
I was standing in the bustling courtyard where people ran back and forth with supplies of every kind—cloth, grain, swords, leathers, bags, crates, and baskets.
Not one person glanced my way. Not one person seemed to care that Wep had just kissed me in the open, in the middle of the most jam-packed courtyard I had ever seen.
Sprakt shuffled on my shoulder, grounding me. “Sorry, bud. Let’s go in.” I’d barely turned three corners inside the keep when I ran into Callagh.
“Thank the Great Dragon, you are here.”
“What’s happening?”
“Ships were spotted. Unfriendly ones, but that’s all I know. They’re hours away from our ports. I’m sure Dane thinks they mean to attack.”
“But we won’t make it to the docks in time!”
“We aren’t going anywhere. The company stationed at the docks has already set sail. Dane is conferring with Wep. They’ll be sending reinforcements to arrive before sundown.”
A thought struck me, locking my limbs and stealing the breath from my lungs. They’re coming for me. “Who are they? Is it Inra?”
“Inra?” Callagh’s brow furrowed. “I sure hope not. Do you know something?”
“No, no, of course not.”
“Do we need to go to Dane?” she asked, her voice low and even.
“Callagh, no. I don’t know why I thought that.”
She eyed me, unconvinced. “Let’s get to your rooms. We’re just in the way here.”
My rooms, however, were a massive mistake.
I had nothing to do but pace back and forth, despite Callagh’s repeated pleas to sit down, stop pacing, and my personal favorite, you’re making me dizzy.
It was a credit to her concern for me that it took until the evening meal for her to ask, “What’s with the bird? ”
Sprakt perched atop the back of one of the empty chairs, snoozing. His blue-gray head was tucked into his orange-striped breast.
“It’s a long story.”
“Did Wep buy him for you?”
“Reluctantly, yes.”
Callagh cackled with glee. “Only you could bend that man to your will.”
I rounded on her. “Meaning?”
“Oh, come on. He’s the most stubborn person in all of Drakh, even more so than Dane. The only reason Dane ever gets his say is because Wep bends to him. But you come in with your sharp tongue and big teal eyes, and that man turns to a puddle.”
“He does not!”
She laughed again. “He does, and you know it.”
I didn’t know it. I had no idea how to respond, so I clamped my mouth shut, which only made her laugh harder. I crossed my arms and turned away from her.
“Oh, Serae, please. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh. It’s a good thing! It means you two are well-matched.”
“Fat lot of good that does me,” I grumbled, but Callagh only smiled and rose to clear away the dishes.
Alone in my room, I looked at Sprakt, still asleep on his makeshift perch.
“It better not be my father,” I whispered to him. “I’m never going back.”