Page 9 of Kingdom of Spirits

“No, you won’t,” Marius said. “You are a knight now. You cannot simply leave. We must work out our differences and grow trust as we fly together.”

“Knights have been dismissed though, right, High Captain?” Justus said.

Titus leaned back in his chair, his sharp-edged jaw working like he was gritting his teeth. “It would be dishonorable.”

“For her.” Maiwenn drank the last of her mead.

“For us,” Titus corrected. “Dismissal is a dark spot on the order’s history. We choose. We train. We hold fast.”

Maiwenn stood up and glanced at Claudia. “We are admitting humans now. Our order is changed. We have altered the rules. The moment our king lowered himself to marry one of them,” she said, giving Tahlia a flat look, “the whole realm has gone to shite.”

She strode away, Claudia joining her.

Sweat trickled down Tahlia’s back. She’d thought the other riders, except Maiwenn, were coming around, but obviously Claudia and Justus were less than thrilled at her presence. She was pretty sure Titus was on her side and maybe Ewan. But what about Atticus and Enora? What about the riders who hadn’t evenshown up tonight? Marius had led her to believe it had only been a secret order to unit one, so the others weren’t in defiance of the High Captain or anything, but they weren’t here and their absence spoke volumes.

Titus whistled through his teeth quietly. “Well, that was dramatic.”

“Treason usually is,” Ewan said. “Will you report her, High Captain?”

Enora hummed. “That wasn’t really treason.”

“It was close enough,” Atticus said. Then he exchanged a whisper with Enora and they both glanced at Tahlia.

Marius’s eyes flashed with restrained rage. “I’m not reporting anyone.”

Tahlia felt a tiny bit bad about how much she loved how angry he was on her behalf.

“We need time to heal this order,” he added. He took a pull from his mug, then set it back down and eyed her over the rim. “We will be stronger for it when we are through this challenge.”

Ewan nodded as Enora, Justus, and Atticus murmured words of agreement.

Tahlia had to improve the mood. She hated conflict like this. “If that’s done for this evening, can we play some dice?”

Ewan clapped his hands once and laughed loudly. “Aye. Now, this is what I came here for.”

A ghost of a smile crossed Justus’s mouth, but his eyes were cold.

Marius gave Tahlia a measured look. He had more to say on the topic if she had to guess, but he seemed all right with letting it go for now.

Taking the dice from one of the small bags tied to her belt, Tahlia looked over her shoulder to make certain Fara, who had a serious weakness for gambling, hadn’t slipped in. “Let’s start the pot at two gladecoins.”

“Can we play the night version of Fly or Die?” Atticus asked, grabbing another stool to sit on.

“Sure. Threes are wild?” Tahlia wasn’t certain how they played the basic dice game up here on the mountain.

Atticus went over the rules, politely addressing everyone, even though all knew it was only for Tahlia. She felt more of an outsider than ever. She knew so little about the culture here. Maybe she needed to talk to Fara about it. She knew more.

The game went on, everyone taking a turn, losing and betting as they went. The tray of food was polished off. The barkeep brought out bowls of stew and a bottle of crystal wine.

“Ewan, you must have some sort of blessing from the Old Ones.” He’d been rolling pretty much perfect numbers. She leaned toward Marius. “You should bet big against him on this round. He’s due for a fall, surely.”

Marius glanced at her, amusement brightening his eyes. “I don’t doreckless.”

That voice. The low sound of it in that whispering tone turned her stomach into a thunder of tiny dragons flitting from side to side.

“Not even in a game?” she asked.

“Never.”

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