Teb clenched his jaws, watching her, sickened. Unicorns were rare creatures, never seen on these lands anymore, though their pictures were painted on the walls of the ancient sanctuaries. Rare and valued creatures—if one had any sense of value. The king’s guard lizards were as big as horses, with triple rows of razor-sharp teeth and claws, as long as his hand, like sharp curved knives. The king had shown him two, his first day in the palace, pointing them out from a slit window, where the lizards paced in a small inner court.
Accacia’s knee brushed his leg, and the candlelight shone on her hair. Teb wanted to ask more about the prisoners, the enemies of the king. But Abisha across from him heard every word, though the pale, flabby man ate methodically with no change of expression, except an occasional small frown at his fiancée. Teb didn’t dare ask outright how many dark leaders came here, or who they were.
The king was watching him, too, whether because of his questions about the games or because Accacia was leaning too close to him, smiling too much, Teb wasn’t sure.
But it was not only the king’s stare or Accacia’s too warm attention that made Teb edgy. There was something else, something beyond this table, a presence or a force that stirred in him a sharp pang of unease. This was not the first time he had felt it. It touched him like a cold hand, then vanished. A dark threat, telling him to beware.
Roast lamb was being served and trenchers of vegetables and warm, fragrant breads. Teb fell to with enthusiasm. For nearly five years in Nightpool he had lived on nothing but fish and shellfish—raw at first, then cooked inexpertly by his own hand. And before that, there were four years of dry bread and table scraps when he was prisoner in his murdered father’s palace. He wished now he could simply enjoy the wonderful food and not have to try to work information from a woman who, too obviously, had more intimate things in mind, and who drew the eyes of both king and prince to him too critically.
“It is a fine dining hall,” he said, speaking up table to the king, “beautifully appointed, and the food is superior. I would guess there is no grander hall or fare anywhere on Tirror.”
The king smiled. “The carvings are from the eastern mountains of the Reinhollen dwarves, brought by barge when my father ruled. The jewels were dug from our own mines, of course, as jewels are dug, still, by my slaves.”
It surprised Teb that the king’s father would still be mentioned, that any tradition was spoken of here. Wherever the dark insinuated itself into the land, the past was wiped from the memory of men, or at least from their conversation and caring. He studied the hall. Its ornate, crowded, heavily carved panels were more oppressive than beautiful. The mountain’s black stone at the back lost itself in its own shadows, except where water dripped out from underground springs, catching the candlelight. Teb thought of another hall, his home in Auric, with walls of the palest masonry and banks of windows. There, sunlight seemed always to touch his mother’s face, and bright tapestries hung everywhere.
By the time he was twelve the tapestries were gray and tattered, the palace a dismal, smelly camp for Sivich’s soldiers. His mother was gone. His father was dead, and he and his sister, Camery, slaves to Sivich, his father’s killer. He was startled when Accacia leaned over his arm.
“You must see the city for yourself, Prince Tebmund. There will be no entertainment tomorrow, but I can show you Dacia. We can ride out early in the morning if you like, and—”
“A party to view the city,” Prince Abisha interrupted. His look at his fiancée was cold and knowing. “A fine idea. I will arrange it. But not tomorrow. Grain and stores will be shipped tomorrow. The streets will be jammed with carts. The next day, perhaps. We shall see.”
She glared, then retreated into an icy smile. “Directly after breakfast would be best, while it is still cool.”
Abisha didn’t bother to answer her. He signaled for more roast lamb.
Teb thought in the morning he would take his mounted trainees down into the city on the excuse of giving them experience on crowded streets. . . . It would be some action, something different, and he might see something of value. He itched to be away from the supper table and up above the earth looking down between Seastrider’s wings. He hated waiting each night until the whole palace slept.
It was bad luck he had been assigned rooms just below Accacia’s apartments and that she could see the stable from her windows. It was interesting that she had made mention of it this evening as he accompanied her into the dining hall. But there was no law against his going to the stable, or against riding at night.
“Do you not have stone carvers in Thedria?” the king was asking.
“No. No dwarfs of any kind, nor have I ever seen one,” Teb said truthfully. He could answer that kind of question. The history of Tirror’s peoples was a part of all dragon-song lore. It was questions about small new customs that worried him and that could draw wrong answers.
“Then how do you decorate your palaces? And what pastimes, Prince Tebmund, do the folk of Thedria find appealing? Do you not have stadium games?”
Teb laughed. “I’m afraid our two palaces are mostly rough and undecorated, King Sardira. And as for pastimes, I suppose our folk have little time to pass in recreation. They farm and fish, and even those of the palace find common work to do when they are not working with the colts. I’m afraid you would find us a dull lot in Thedria, quite unable to offer such luxuries as this grand banquet, or such entertainment as your stadium games.”
It seemed forever to Teb before he was alone in his chambers. He pulled off his fancy clothes and changed to his leather trousers and tunic, folding the stolen clothes over a silver clothes stand. The red wool was soft, very like a red dress his mother had worn. Red was her favorite color. A picture of her filled his mind; she was dressed in red, her silhouette sharp against a red tapestry as she turned to look out her chamber window, the sun full on her face.
She seemed to him, now, so much more than his mother. He knew only that she traveled in worlds beyond Tirror, searching for her own dragon mate. As a child he had not known, nor would have understood, her need, though he had felt that she yearned for something, something secret and wild that she would not share with him and Camery. It left him puzzled and excited.
He and his mother and Camery were all flung apart now, so they might never see each other again. He hoped it had been Camery whom Nightraider sensed there on that small island. He could see her in memory, a skinny little girl riding pell-mell down the meadows on her fat bay pony, her knees tucked in and her pale hair flying; he could hear her laughter when she beat him in a race, and see her green-eyed scowl when she didn’t.
He paced his chamber, avoiding the heavy furniture, watching the palace wings through his velvet-draped windows. How long it took for all the windows to darken and the palace to sleep. The wind was rising. He could feel Seastrider’s impatience on the dark hills as the white mare snorted and pawed.
He guessed he didn’t take much to court life. He’d lived too long in his simple cave among the otters of Nightpool, and then in the dragon lair. He guessed animals were more open in their dealings than humans, not so impressed with ritual. The animals had ritual, too, but of a simpler kind. The foxes of the caves of Nison-Serth had their family rituals, but they were gentle, loving ones, like bathing together in the household pool.
The otters’ rituals had been more complicated. But they were directly connected with council meetings, not used for vanity, nor as background for mating, which the otter families handled more directly. Teb was not without desire for women, but he didn’t much like complicated flirting, particularly when it concerned Accacia’s meaningful glances.
She had come to his door last night very late because, she said, she heard noises on the stair. He had pointed out to her that if the noises were on the stair, she would have been safer behind her own bolted door. She had flashed him a look of cold anger and left quickly, her blue robe swirling around her ankles.