Page 49 of To Touch A Silent Fury (The Bride of Eavenfold #1)

Years of memories flowed through me. The good moments were like stars amongst the black sky of hardship.

A first sun after a long Domin, a warm hearty meal I’d caught myself, a smile shared with Yvon.

But I didn’t want to talk about all of it now.

There was too much to unbox, too much to remember.

Too many hungry and lonely days. So instead, I tried to smile. “Cold.”

He shook his head. “I cannot imagine how you must have lived.”

“It is a tale for another time,” I said. I meant it. At some point, with wine and a night to talk, I wanted to speak on my time there. Everything I had learnt, everything I had survived. But that day was not today.

“And,” he started, circling his finger towards my lap. “How is that? ”

I rolled my eyes. “Come over here, you oaf. He probably won’t bite. I don’t think he’s got to that phase yet.”

He looked a little grey at that, but he came over nonetheless, approaching the bed with fear. “There’s a biting phase?”

I tapped the space beside me, and as we had so many times before, he sat down, and I felt his warmth against my leg.

The tears threatened again then, the sadness amongst the joy.

I had forgotten what this felt like: to find home in people.

I had to bury the memory of that knowledge in the snow to survive, I had to think only of my next move.

“Gently,” I said.

His hand shook as he reached out and touched the baby’s back.

In an instant, the dragon stirred. Stranger?

Seth pulled his hand away as if bitten by a snake.

Friend. I reassured him. Then I grabbed Seth’s hand and put it back onto his back, holding his hand against his side. The dragon only breathed.

I felt Seth’s fear dissipate into awe, and I smiled up at him.

He watched the dragon’s breath. “He’s so warm.”

I nodded. “Vellintris breathed a lot of fire against him, it’s no wonder he’s kept some of its lick.”

Through his touch, I felt his concern flare. “Why did you come here, Tani? Braxthorn is not a kind master even to his family. Surely there was some place else you could have gone? Or some place you can now run to?”

I dropped my eyes to his legs as I allowed myself to feel all of his emotions. I was out of practice, and yet I knew Seth enough to know there was not even a sniff of ill will there. Any negative emotion was only from a place of care for me.

He would not willingly betray me. And I needed allies now, more than ever .

“You do not have to be so concerned for me,” I said, tapping his hand and meeting his gaze again. “I have a plan.”

“What plan?”

I smiled. “To marry the victor of the Laithcart Games, of course.”

He blinked, and then shifted, turning on the bed to face me and look at me properly. He did not remove his hand, and his concern for me only spiked. “Tani, there was no victor. You saw that, right? That’s why you left. They all burned.”

My heart thudded in my chest. “Don’t worry, I recall the events perfectly. I’m not insane. The forest didn’t distort my memory.”

Seth blinked, and he then pulled his hand from under mine with a disgruntled noise. “Did you read me?”

I only stared at him.

His breath came heavier. “You can still feel.”

“I can still feel. And I seek my Fate’s conclusion.”

“You’re not Broken?” he asked, his voice higher. “How are you not Broken?”

“Langnathin killed all of the others. All of them fell,” I explained. “All but him.”

“But he burned them, he stopped the Laithcart Games for good when he killed those men. It was only careful manipulation that stopped the Triad from dissolving entirely.”

“Yes,” I said. “I was wondering how he managed to get away with killing half the Triad’s sons.”

“Braxthorn announced that if you were able to meet your Fate, that you would endanger the world.”

I laughed humourlessly. “They had a lot of faith in me.”

Seth only ran his fingers through his hair, looking more confused than ever. “Are you telling me that you believe Langnathin was the victor of those Games? ”

I raised my hand, flexing my fingers. “I still have my power. He was the last man standing. It must be him.”

My childhood friend leant forwards, his elbows sinking to his knees. “This is a lot to take in.”

I waited for him to paint it all together, to weave the threads of the tapestry from the last five years. My hand drifted over the dragon’s sleeping back, finding comfort in his heat.

“And your Fate?” I asked him. “You finished your Service?”

He grimaced. “Eight years with Groulin.” His mouth pulled downwards. “The last four were heartily the worst.”

“But you have it now, your full powers,” I stated, staring at his Mark. His visions had always been so narrow, and so near in time. How much had it changed? “What do you see?”

Seth sighed. “More than I wish to. I have visions of others, now. My curse is trying to work out when they will happen.” He gripped onto my arm, and his eyes were thick with unshed tears.

“I wish only that I had seen you coming back. A vision of you, sat here with me now, would have kept me going far better through the years.”

My bottom lip wobbled. “I wish you had seen me, too. But I am here now.”

“And you have returned to marry Langnathin?” His question was full of grim resignation. “He killed our cousin, Tani. Without blinking.”

I shuddered. I had hardly forgotten. Brascillan, a man who had once wanted my hand. Their cousin. A second son and strong duellist, burnt to death in his prime.

“I overheard a conversation back on Eavenfold, when the Dragon Prince visited,” I said, measuring my words.

“He spoke of an ancient weapon to be found in Gossamir. When I realised my Fate was to marry Langnathin, I knew he would never marry me if he would burn his own men to prevent me from gaining my power.” I shrugged at Seth.

“And so, I travelled to Gossamir. I thought if I found the ancient weapon myself, I could claim it and trade it with him in exchange for his hand. If I could convince him I was no threat, that I was Broken… I hadn’t really thought it through.

But then I discovered the truth of the weapon. ”

Seth nodded, knowing the answer. “Vellintris’ last egg.”

“The egg was hope,” I admitted. “I could change my hair, my clothes, but I could never change my eyes. Langnathin would have always known who I was and likely rejected me for it. But with a bonded dragon, I could be someone else.”

“Vorska of Gossamir,” Seth said. “You know, Braxthorn has tasked me with discovering more about you. Your heritage.”

“Vorska exists,” I said. “She is a young woman of a forest tribe, and she travelled to Gossamir as a child with her mother. Just as I told him. Though I would be obliged if you wouldn’t tell him that she remains there to this day.”

Seth stood up then, his hands clenching at his side as he paced across the room. He whirled around and gasped. “I can’t believe this is all happening. I cannot believe you are here .”

I smiled sadly. “I am very glad that you are here. I need all the friends I can get.”

He shook his head. “You know Braxthorn has lined up his own brides for Langnathin, and he’s only given him a season to pick from them. He’s the Crown Prince. He’ll never marry you, not when he believes you’re a backwards forest dweller who got lucky and found the egg first.”

I stiffened.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “That wasn’t—”

“It’s fine,” I interrupted. “I know you weren’t being cruel. Even with a dragon at my side, having no title would make my odds slim. And yet, slim odds are the best I’ve had in some time.”

“But if he accepts you, your Fate will be met. You will be Marked and known by all as a child of Eavenfold,” Seth argued .

I nodded. “Yes, I have thought of this. But he would have married me in front of the world. I know his pride, and Braxthorn’s. I have seen it. They might choose to claim they knew of my power all along. Attempt to use me for their benefit. I only know I cannot let him win.”

“You would risk everything on your impression of his pride?” Seth asked.

I shook my head. “No. I risk everything for myself. If I tell the world the truth, that I am not Broken, then his family will kill me as they tried before, or find a new way to Break me. If I do not meet my Fate, and the whole world believes me Broken, then again, I am nothing. What place will accept me? There is no place for a male Broken, and I was not even blessed with that. My whole life will be what it has been for the last five years: a lie I tell people to stay alive. I will not let them bully me away from the life the Threads chose for me. I want to help this world, not fade into its frayed edges.”

Seth paced back to the window by the bed, peeking through the curtains towards the small courtyard.

I thought again of the Dragon Prince finding me in the tree.

There was an intimacy to that moment, almost a wistfulness, like it was a fragment of the full moon and now it was gone.

A trick of a witching hour, placing us together.

Seth turned to me with a determined look. “Months after we returned to Eavenfold, after I thought you were Broken… Theollan returned.”

At first, the name fell into my mind dully, like metal awaiting the hammer. Then it clanged. “The Knowledge Fate,” I said. “The one tasked with working out how a woman could ever be a Brother.”

Seth nodded. “He didn’t find the answer, and he never made his Mark. But he found something else.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What is it? ”

“Tell me something, Tani, and tell me true. If you succeed, they will discover who you really are. There will be no hiding it. The king will ask this of you.”

I wrinkled my nose. I had very rarely lied to him, and never maliciously. I could not think why I would start now. “What, Seth?”

Then he said four words I never expected to hear. “Is your brother alive?”

“My brother?” I echoed, the words sounding too loud even to my ears. “I have no brother.”

“Your twin brother,” he said, sternly. “He’s dead?”