Page 27 of Shadow Throne King
“Has this happened before?” My words came out sharper than I intended, the worry and guilt mixing together into something like anger. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Not the feeling of being frozen while I sleep. But I used to get the same headaches and nosebleeds.” He shook his head. “When I was a child on the road with the military. I never told anyone. I already assumed they thought I was weak. It would have given my father one less reason to trust me.”
As though that monster’s trust ever meant anything. I reached up, finding Tallu’s damp hair and nudging his head forward just enough that we could see if he was still bleeding. He removed my stained towel, and, other than a trace of red around his nostril, there was nothing.
Tallu’s eyes searched my face, and he shook his head. “Come.”
He took my hand, and we stepped outside. I was suddenly aware of the chill in the air that hadn’t been there when we’d entered the inn.
Outside, the bath was lined with large stones, a small set of stairs leading down into the basin. On top of the wall, a carved dragon spilled steaming water from his open mouth into the bathing pool. Not an ice dragon, then.
“Where does the water come from?” I asked.
“If they don’t have their own hot spring, likely it comes from a heater deeper in the building. They would need an electro mage to run it,” Tallu observed. “An injured soldier or a child too young for service.”
His eyes were fixed on the bath as he stepped in, tossing his towel on the bank behind him, and then I was watching his lean body, his muscles so perfect that I could almost believe he was a dragon reincarnated as a man.
He sat in the water, settling on an invisible bench along the edge, and I followed behind him. If the shower after so long onthe road had been a relief, this was bliss. Even my first bath after arriving at the Mountainside Palace had been nothing in comparison to this, relaxing next to my beloved.
Settling on the bench next to Tallu, feeling the warm, smooth stone at my back, I closed my eyes. I drowsed, so much at ease that my mind swirled with hope and fear at the same time.
Miksha had told me that whatever Kacha had ordered Fimo to do had scrambled me, left me impossibly broken. But Naî told me that my loss had allowed her to teach me magic—old magic, magic that no human had ever learned before.
And I had to believe that if I could learn impossible ice magic, I must be able to relearn the magic that had been with me for so long. When a young child first stared up at birds, their head cocked, listening as though they heard something not quite there, how did their mothers teach them? What was it my mother’s second wife had said when she caught me whispering to a new litter of puppies?
Above me, I heard a familiar voice, as though echoing from a great distance. “…food. I saw what he ate today, and he won’t even leave us scraps of that…”
“Airón?”
I blinked open my eyes. Tallu stood, not quite looming above me, his dark hair curling around his face. His russet eyes stared at me, searching my face.
I blinked, looking around. The light had changed, going pink, hinting at the coming sunset.
“I’m sorry. I guess I fell asleep.” I tried a smile and felt something crack on my face.
Tallu reached out and tugged something off my cheek. In his hand, the shard of ice melted almost immediately.
He frowned at me, his questions clear, but he glanced behind me. Sagam said softly, “The horses are rested.”
He retreated, and Tallu looked down at me again, rubbing a thumb across my cheekbone, now clear of frost.
Bending low, Tallu whispered into my ear, “You will tell me later?”
The words were an order, but the question at the end turned them into an admission of trust. Tallu would never demand of me, would never require, would never insist. He trusted me, the way I now trusted him.
I nodded, and we rose out of the bath, dressing in silence. I pulled my hood up high, hoping no one would notice that I now missed the sheen common to all imperials. The innkeeper provided us with a traveling meal, and when we got back into the cart, Topi glared at us pointedly.
“Did you enjoy your bath?” Her words were venomous, and I shot her an amused smile.
“My dear lady,” I said as the drivers snapped the reins on the horses, “I did. It is a pity you could not join us; I’m sure you would have been a great addition to our party. How was yours?”
“Cold,” she huffed, looking away, cheeks bright with anger. She opened her mouth, but then shut it, her glare turning into a tightened jaw, and she worked her mouth for a moment before shaking her head.
I raised an eyebrow, glancing at Coyome. “Was the bath secretly torture? Did they submerge her in ice? You know in the north, that is a normal part of our bathing ritual and considered an honor.”
Coyome faced me, but his eyes slid to Topi. Finally, he said, “It was not the same quality as the baths at the palace.”
Topi flushed, looking at him accusingly. “No. It wasnot.”