Page 24 of Winds of Destiny

“Naturally,” Cam mutters under his breath, his voice full of disdain. “Since ‘on your own’ seems to be your preference.”

Shit. I’ve still got a lot of work to do to lessen his hurt. Ilovehim—it shouldn’t be so hard to remind him of that. I wouldn’t leave him if I hadn’t been directly ordered to by the king.

I’ve got a few weeks to try and improve things with Cam. Surely I’ll break through to him at some point?

If I don’t, I might have to accept that the price of my choice is a broken heart that will never heal.

Chapter Fourteen

Cam

I don’t know why it surprises me that Kai is agreeing with Turo. They’re not friends, I can tell that much—certainly not in Turo’s eyes—but they’re…amicable. They’re being friendlywith one another, very deliberately. Maybe to counter some of the stupidity that seems to run through Kai’s men—cut their losses and run, really? Ha. Embros would never.

It strikes me that I should maybe, possibly, potentially consider telling them that the man who tried to make off with me during the attack was Embros himself. There was too much going on back home for me to even remember after the attack was over—Doric to mourn, a proxy wedding to arrange, a betrayal to coordinate.

Which reminds me: I’m still mad at Turo. His making limpid, octopus eyes at me isn’t going to change my mind, although it is nice to be the focus of his attention. I’m angry, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate his gaze. If nothing else, it gets Kai looking at me, too, and there’s all sorts of potential there that I’m eager to consider.

What would it be like bedding Kai? We’re proxy husbands, after all, and he’s been very upfront about how liberal Prince Eleas is, sexually speaking. There’re two whole weeks, maybe more, to go before we make it to Huridell. Surely I can convince my “husband” to give me the fucking Turo won’t between now and then.

I wish Turo would, though. I’ve wanted it since I was old enough to know what desire was, and while I might be spitting mad at him for abandoning me, that hasn’t put my desire to rest. If anything, being around another man I find wildly attractive just makes my attraction to Turo feel even sharper.

Hmm. What would they be likeat the same time…Oh, now there’s a thought.

“Here.”

“Hmm?” I mentally wake up just in time to take a plateful of food from Kai. Braised fish cheeks, fresh salad, our soft, fluffy bread… It’s all the nicest food we’ve brought, the things that won’t last more than a few days on the road. After that, we’ll be eating rougher fare, but for tonight it’s not unlike eating with my family. Maybe even nicer, because I’ll be spared the scholarly arguments between my sister and father, as well as my father’s criticism of my “comportment.”

“Don’t know why anyone’s interested in that stinking swamp in the first place,” Rusen declares as he makes up his own plate. “There’s nothing out there.”

“There was, though,” I say before I can help myself.

Rusen rolls his eyes. “It’s aswamp. Your man said it himself, there’s nothing but—”

“It wasn’t always a swamp, obviously.” I don’t know when I became so bothered by ignorance, but if Rusen is typical of the level of learning back in Huridell, I’m going to have to work hard to keep my mouth under control. I turn to Kai. “What do you know of it?”

He does me the favor of seriously considering my question. “Our oldest tales speak of a night of fire that split the earth, when the ground trembled so hard that a hole opened in the middle of the vast grasslands of the peninsula and filled with pure, clean water. Years later, a city was built on the single island in that new sea.”

“Inarime,” Turo murmurs, pinching up some of the fish with his bread and eating the two items together. It’s only then that I realize we don’t have any utensils.

Lovely. Looks like I’ll be shoveling salad into my face with my fingertips tonight.

“Inarime, the legendary city,” I agree, and I meet Turo’s eyes for all of half a second before loftily looking away again. He can have a taste, but he doesn’t get any more of my attention than that. Not until he earns it. “I’ve never heard any stories go back as far as the creation of the sea, but Inarime was supposedly built long before the other four biggest were. The people who lived there were incredibly powerful in magic. They were said to draw most of their power from their city god, a chimera, but—”

“What’s a chimera?” Jeric asks.

“It’s a very special sort of beast with the front half of a lion, a venomous snake for a tail, and a goat’s head sticking up from its middle. That head was reputed to breathe fire,” I add.

“It sounds like bullshit,” Rusen puts in. “Nothing but pure imagination.”

I smile thinly. “You speak from the perspective of a man who’s never seen very many interesting and unusual things, have you?”

“Hey, I—”

“I’ve seen fish that walk on land,” I press on, because I’vehadit with this rudeness. “I’ve seen sea creatures with all their eyes on one half of their body and none on the other. I’ve seen snakes with two heads and water that lights up when you brush your hand through it at night. Zephyth’s city god is a sea serpent large enough to swallow a man whole. Antasa’s city god is a lion withwings. To say something is impossible just becauseyoudon’t have the imagination for it is rather shortsighted, don’t you think?”

It’s getting dark enough out that I can’t tell if Rusen is flushed with anger, but his posture certainly says he’s uncomfortable with the way the conversation is going.

“What else?” Jeric asks quickly. He’s so sweet. If I didn’t want to climb his superior like a mountain, I’d consider taking him to bed, too.

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