Page 14 of Fox of Fox Hall

Fox caught the howl in his throat and looked atthe mountain with fury. “Fuckyour pity.”

“Is this pity?” The mountain continued to standhis ground. “What did he do, Fox?”

“Fuckingbyr,” Fox swore, giving Conall along, fierce stare before he tore himself away. He pulled in abreath, then let it out, releasing most of his anger with it. “Youlet me yell at you. Why did you do that?”

“I’m used to sparring. Some bruising won’t killme.” Conall may or may not have been making a joke. Fox stared athis aching feet in his delicate slippers, then back at Conall. “Itcan feel like being indulged,” Conall said next. “For a while, itcan. Being permitted to do as you please as long as you entertain.It will also feel that way for the knights who do well in thistournament when they are celebrated and praised, until they areforced to relearn how expendable they are. I try to warn thembecause I don’t want them hurt, but neither do I want them todespair, so I must be careful.”

Fox grimaced for both the lives of the knightsand the quiet pain behind the words. “I shouldn’t have yelled atyou, used to it or not.” He sent another glance around them, hopingthey hadn’t attracted too much attention. Moonlight and starlightwere more than enough to tell Conall’s bulk from the small anddistinctly unknightlike Fox.

“Maybe you needed to yell,” Conall answeredbefore hardening his voice. “What did he do, Fox?”

Conall would find out by tomorrow if the storywas still of interest to the byr, which of course it would be, justin places where Domvoda wouldn’t hear.

Fox made his tone light and airily waved a hand.“One day with the knights and I foolishly tried to defend them.Ridiculous, aren’t I? I don’t know why I… no, I know why I did it.But it was still foolish.” He expected silence, not an immediatesoft question.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m tired,” Fox replied without thinking, hisshoulders falling the moment it was out. He straightened an instantlater. “It’s nothing. I need to eat, I suppose. Have something todrink. It was warm today and I’m… I’m so tired.”

That was what came of speaking the truth, itbecome natural again and he kept doing it.

“Is it the noise?” Conall glanced back towardthe hall. The doors were open, sending the glow from the fireplaceout into the courtyard. “Or the room here does not suit you? Or… isit that you would still rather be in an entirely differentroom?”

Fox stared up at him blankly, then understoodall at once. Conall meant in the king’s bedroom. Fox quickly shookhis head and started to speak, his voice too high. “The king…”

“Perhaps whatever you are about to say would bebest said in private,” Conall interrupted, sensibly lowering hisvoice even more.

He was right but Fox glared at him anyway. “Iwould find no rest there,” he hissed, but quietly. “Which you knowas well as I.” His own words brought a new heat to his face, whichonly made him want to hiss again. “Not in any sense of rest,” headded furiously.

“And you are already so tired,” Conall answered,as if he truly understood.

Fox stared at him, unaccountably lost. His angerwas still there, but set aside while he gazed wonderingly atConall.

“Why do the others speak of you as though yourone use is violence and even that use is fading?” Fox had thoughthe’d marveled at the splendors of the king’s court when he’d firstbeen introduced to them. But he looked at Conall now in confusedawe. “Because you fought a dragon by yourself? As if one deed isall there is to you?”

Conall closed his mouth on whatever he’d beenabout to say and glanced over his shoulder toward the hall.

“I wasn’t meant to be by myself,” he said as heturned back. “The song says what happened but it tells it all asthough I chose to be the Dragonslayer, and not that the dragon hadkilled all the others with me.” Fox froze. Conall gave him thestory in clear, simple words. “That’s what happened. I’m not surewhy it took me instead of killing me like the others. To eat me?”Conall suggested it calmly. “Everyone assumes that but do dragonsactually devour us? Outside of stories, is that true?” When Foxshook his head because he didn’t know, Conall glanced over hisshoulder again. “They destroy plenty, and eat livestock, but us?I’ve never seen it. Have you?”

Fox shook his head again.

“The deed disturbs others,” Conall continued.“Not that I killed something, but the way I did it. Those at courtcan’t imagine themselves climbing scales that cut through glovesand armor, or digging with their bare hands to get a hold. I made awound to kill it, and I fell with it, and I was with it as it died.Just the two of us.” He still appeared calm. “It is not somethingthey can imagine themselves doing, so that makes me unusual.Frightening.”

He met Fox’s stare. “And now I might not be ableto do that anymore, which makes me slightly less frightening, sothey say what they will say and think of themselves as the onesslaying dragons. Do you know,” he went on before Fox could summonany sort of remark, clever or stupid, “it had a nest nearby? Theydiscovered that later. Sometimes I wonder what I am not supposed towonder; if it was defending its nest from us and if it was rightto. You have to smash the eggs to make jewelry from the shellpieces. Only the byr wear that jewelry.”

“Conall,” Fox murmured, then fell silent becausewhat was there to say to that?

“As someone else who has dug in and held on byhis fingernails, do you still feel like picking a fight?” Conalldared to give Fox a small, quick smile after saying what he’d justsaid. “It’s understandable. And as I told you, I can take it.”

Fox dropped his head, then slowly raised itagain. He couldn’t make his face blank although he let his tailfall. “And I’d be like all your baby chicks in there?”

“Oh, the older knights do it too,” Conallassured him. “Usually before riding out, since fewer of themcompete in tournaments. But the older knights also have a lesscontentious way to relieve tension—well, less contentious most ofthe time.” He gave Fox his small smile again. “The younger oneslearn it from them. It still creates problems, but at least notinjuries.” He paused to frown. “Well, that’s also most of thetime.” Fox must have looked confused, because Conall added, “If youcan’t expend your excess energy and nerves in the sparring ring,fuck them out elsewhere.”

Fox didn’t mean to squeak. He didn’t even knowwhere the sound came from and suspected it was caused by Conallsaying ‘fuck’ so bluntly.

He pulled in a breath and hoped anyhungrynoises he made would be ignored. “That explains thescenes and arguments that have been waking me up.”

Conall nodded.

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