Page 90 of To Touch A Silent Fury

Braxthorn extended a finger towards my neck, and my heart clawed at my chest.

Then he stroked the back of it down the dragon’s spine. I suppressed the shudder as best I could, the feeling coming out as a small gulp.

The king smiled, showing two rows of perfectly straight teeth. “You made the right decision, bringing him to us. We know how to look after you both. If you are loyal to us, Vorska, we will treat you as one of our own.”

24

Lang

Iadjusted my deep green doublet and let out a breath, leaning against the balcony. The air was balmy as evening fell over Droundhaven. The deepening sky was the backdrop to the city I had always loved. The lighthouse, known as the Crook’s Spire, sat across the dark canals, the fire already blazing from its twelfth floor and its golden shepherd’s crook curling against the coming night. I stared out, wishing selfishly I was on the other side of it, just a fisherman waiting for dawn.

“We should go back inside,” Foxlin said.

He had arrived not two days after me, much to his delight and my fervent relief. One of his captains had sent word to the Vidarium on his behalf, and Ravi had arrived at the barracks the same day Tanidwen and I had left. A flight on a wyvern is faster than a horse, but a good deal slower than a dragon. They had rested in the Flourine foothills and then in Manniston before arriving here.

I ran a hand over my hair, feeling the loss. “My head feels cold now.”

“At least you still have some hair. I had to lose my entire beard,” he lamented.

I glanced at him, taking in his freshly shaven face. There was no rule of the City Watch to be clean-shaven. “You had to?”

He sighed wearily. “For the good of all women.”

I smirked. “Well, there’s nearly thirty of them and their mothers in there. You can fill your boots.”

My father and aunt had taken it upon themselves to find me a wife, and their approach was to invite every eligible noblewoman in the Triad between four and eight spans to spend their Tanmer court season in Droundhaven. That did not surprise me. Whatdidsurprise me was how many showed up. I might be a prince, but I was also the Scourge of Courvin. There were greater catches in the realm than a murderer.

Maybe my aunt had threatened them.

Regardless, they had favourites, and I was certain my father would make them known to me before the week was out. So this early exercise was not only pointless but entirely exhausting.

Foxlin grinned. “As soon as you’ve picked one, I’ll take the rest of them off your hands.”

“You’re a saint.”

“So you have until the end of the season, then?”

“By the end of Tanmer, I must have chosen a bride,” I said, repeating my father’s words.

Foxlin turned, leaning against the balcony. “He sounds more and more like those moonfuckers every day.”

I couldn’t help but think of Tanidwen. Since she’d been dismissed from the war room a couple of days ago, I had not seen her. I knew the wing she was in, and the names of her two guards. Why I had decided to discover those two facts was afucking mystery even unto myself, but I found myself feeling responsible for her.

I would have checked on her if my brother and father hadn’t been keeping such a close eye on me. No. It was better that I kept my distance from her. I didn’t want them to find a connection between the two of us. She and her dragon should stay as far away from me as possible.

“If you don’t marry,” Foxlin said, interrupting my thoughts. “What will he do?”

I shrugged. “I’m sure there are many punishments at his disposal, though I imagine the most pressing one for you would be my disinheritance. Quite the step down, from the friend of the Crown Prince to the friend of a general.”

Foxlin frowned. “He would name the Wragg in your place?”

“He would threaten to.”

Foxlin stared at me, waiting for me to continue.

“My brother is too easily driven to rage, flights of fancy, and ill-thought action,” I said, carefully. “My stealing of Chaethor justified my father to name me in his stead.”

“So the threat is just that?” he asked.