Tavi glanced at Alera and felt his cheeks warm a little. “Um. Yes, well, that’s the proper way to go about it, but it isn’t what everyone always does…”
“She informs me,” Kitai continued, “that those of your rank commonly take courtesans to your bed for simple pleasure—and set such baubles aside once you have found a proper wife.”
“I… some young Citizens do that, yes, but—”
“We have been together for years,” Kitai said. “We have shared a bed and pleasured one another on a daily basis. For years. And you are finally becoming competent.”
Tavi thought his cheeks might actually burst into flame. “Kitai!”
“I am informed that the fact that we have been together for so long will be the source of much mockery and outrage among the Citizens of Alera. That they universally regard me as the Princeps’ whore.” She scowled. “And for some baffling reason, that is considered to be a very bad thing.”
“Kitai, you aren’t—”
“I will not be treated that way,” she snarled. “You idiot. You face problems enough in assuming the Crown without giving your enemies in the Citizenry such an obvious weakness to exploit. How dare you allow me to be a means by which you are brought to harm?”
Tavi just stared at her helplessly.
The anger faded from her expression. “Of course,” she said, her voice very quiet, “this all assumes that you intend me to be your wife.”
“Honestly, Kitai, I hadn’t… I hadn’t even thought about it.”
Her eyes widened. Her mouth dropped open in an expression of something almost like horror. “You… you hadn’t?” She swallowed. “You plan to take another?”
Tavi felt his own eyes widen. “No. No, crows, no, Kitai. I hadn’t considered it because I never thought it would end any other way. I mean, it wasn’t even a question to me, chala.”
For an instant, her uncertainty was replaced with relief. And then that expression gave way to another in turn: Kitai narrowed her eyes dangerously. “You just assumed I would do it.”
Tavi winced. Again.
“You assumed I would have no other option. That I would be so desperate that I would be forced to become your wife.”
Clearly, anything he said would only make things worse. He kept his mouth shut.
Kitai stalked over to him and seized him by the front of his tunic, lifting him several inches, despite the difference in their sizes. The young Marat woman was far stronger than an Aleran her size, even without employing furycraft. “This is what is going to happen, Aleran. You will no longer lie with me. You will treat me in exactly the fashion that you would any proper young lady of the Citizenry. You will court me, and do it well, or so help me I will strangle the life from you.”
“Um,” Tavi said.
“And,” she said, a massively threatening quality in her tone, “you will court me properly after the ways of my people. You will do so with legendary skill and taste. And only when that is done will we share a bed once more.”
She spun on a heel and stalked back toward the pool.
Tavi stammered for a second, then blurted, “Kitai. It might help if you told me what the customs of your people involved.”
“It might have helped had you done me the same courtesy,” she replied tartly, without turning around. “Find out for yourself, as I did!” She stalked out onto the surface of the pool as if it had been solid ground, spun, and gave him one last indignant look, her green eyes flashing, and vanished into the water.
Tavi stared after her numbly for a few seconds.
“Well,” Alera said. “I’m hardly a good judge of the intricacies of love. But it seems to me that you have done the young woman a grave disservice.”
“I didn’t mean to!” Tavi protested. “When we got involved with one another, I had no idea who my father was. I was a nobody. I mean, I never even considered that a proper courtship might be necessary.” He waved a hand at the water. “And it wasn’t as if she wasn’t willing, bloody crows! She was more eager than I was! She barely gave me a choice in the matter!”
Alera frowned thoughtfully. “In what way is that relevant?”
Tavi scowled. “You’re taking her side because she’s a girl.”
“Yes,” Alera said, smiling. “I may be no expert, but I have learned enough of your ways to know which side of this debate I am obliged to support.”
Tavi sighed. “The vord are on the verge of destroying the Realm and the world. She could have picked a better time for it.”
“It is entirely possible that there might not be another time,” Alera said.
Tavi fell quiet at that, staring at the rippling waters of the pool. “I’d better figure something out soon, then,” he said, finally. “I’m fairly sure she won’t accept the end of the world as a valid excuse.”
Alera let out another laugh. “Let us continue,” she said, mirth coloring her tone. “We will begin with proper bonesetting, after which we will resume flying lessons.”
Tavi groaned. “How much longer do we keep at this?”
“Another half dozen flights or so,” Alera said calmly. “For tonight, at any rate.”
Half a dozen?
Tavi suddenly felt very tired. His imagination provided him with a sudden image—himself, lying in the snow like a sea jelly, every bone in his body smashed to powder, while a furious Kitai squishily strangled him.
Alera looked at him with a serene smile. “Shall we continue?”
CHAPTER 1
There was a quick rap on the cabin door, and Antillar Maximus entered the cabin. One of Tavi’s oldest friends, Maximus had shared a room with Tavi for the better part of three years at the Academy and was one of the few people in the fleet who would have opened the door without being bidden to.
“Thought you should know,” Max began, but then he stopped and blinked at Tavi. He shut the door behind him before blurting out, “Bloody crows, Calderon. Are you sick or something?”
Tavi looked blearily at Max from where he sat at the cabin’s small writing desk, poring over maps. “Didn’t sleep well last night.”
Max’s rough, handsome face flashed into a quick, boyish grin. “Aye. Tough to go back to a cold bunk once you get used to a warm one.”
Tavi gave him a steady look.
Max’s smile widened. “Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s always a good thing when your Legion’s captain is more relaxed and calm than he might be otherwise. I’m all in favor of the captain having a woman. I could see about maybe finding some kind of replacement if you aren’t too terribly particular, Captain.”
Tavi picked up his cup of tea. “If you don’t finish before I’ve drunk this, I’m throwing this mug at your fat head.”
Max folded his arms and leaned back against the door with a serene smile. “Of course, Your Highness.”
The honorific stole whatever faint amusement Max had brought with him. Tavi knew that his grandfather was dead, but he had not spoken to the others about it. He had no way to prove it, after all—and Alera had made clear that she had no intention of displaying herself to others in the fleet.
Besides, there was a considerable difference between being the rightful heir and actually assuming the office of the First Lord.
Tavi pushed the thoughts from his mind. Those problems would attend to themselves in time. First, survive today.