Page 78 of Thorns & Fire
Wren pushed past Torj, whose jaw was clenched, a muscle twitching visibly.His broad shoulders stiffened, and his hands gripped his hammer hard enough to make his knuckles bone-white.
With a grimace, Farissa bade Wren a quiet farewell before slipping away.
Wren turned to Darian.‘What are you doing here?’
‘There’s to be a gathering of influential figures of sorts,’ Darian said, a slightly sour note to his tone.‘Hence the presence of Father dearest.’
Torj seemed to come back to himself, and he faced Darian.‘This is no place for your dealings, Devereux.’
‘I can’t say I’m thrilled to be here either, old friend, but since I am...’The nobleman’s gaze flicked to Wren.‘I may as well make the most of it.’
A guttural sound of aggression came from Torj, unlike anything Wren had heard before.
But Darian sought her.‘I’d like a private audience with you, Elwren, if you’d allow it?’
‘Over my dead body,’ Torj growled.
‘So dramatic,’ Darian scoffed.‘Are you her keeper?’
‘I’m her protector—’
Wren had had enough.‘I can speak for myself.Darian, I’ve got three minutes.We can talk in the healer’s workshop.’
The vein pulsing in Torj’s neck looked as though it was about to pop, but Wren closed the door between them and turned to Darian.He looked like he’d just stepped out of a royal court, but beneath the polished exterior, Wren sensed something dangerous lurking.
‘You’re deliberately antagonizing him,’ she observed, not that she was one to talk.
Darian smiled.‘It’s one of life’s simpler pleasures.’
‘Why?What happened between you?’
The nobleman’s smile faded.‘I’m sure the Bear Slayer gave you his abridged version.The simpler one.’
‘I wouldn’t call it simple,’ Wren replied.
‘I suppose not...Nothing is when the Devereuxs are involved.You had the pleasure of hearing my father before.I’m sure you can imagine how many of those conversations go.’
Wren folded her arms over her chest.‘I couldn’t say.’
‘My father and I have played this game for as long as I canremember, and we’ll play until one of us doesn’t walk away.’There was a note of bitterness there that was gone in a flash.
‘Why are you here?’Wren asked bluntly.
Darian’s sly smile was back.‘To make our warrior friend sweat.Though would you blame me if I said I enjoy the pleasure of your company?’
‘Blame you?’Wren scoffed.‘No.Believe you?Also no.You want something.This is an academy for alchemy.We do important work here.It’s not a drop-in spot for bored noblemen.’
‘I’m well aware.And I’m not the only one,’ he replied, his voice turning serious.
Wren narrowed her eyes.‘What do you mean?’
Darian made for the door, coming face to face with the enraged Bear Slayer on the other side.It didn’t seem to faze him.
Now, he spoke to both of them.‘My father and I weren’t the first to arrive here today.And we won’t be the last.’
Darian’s warning stayed with Wren long after she’d left the nobleman.Whatever the reason, Drevenor becoming a meeting point for influential figures of the midrealms couldn’t be good.In her experience, men like them only hungered for one thing: power, which meant that it was changing hands as she walked the academy’s very corridors.
Later, she was in the archives, palming the grit from her eyes as she pored over yet another history text on Delmira.She had been reading since after supper and the words were starting to blur together, the blocks of text taunting her.There was so much more to get through and so little time.She had no concept of the hour, only that it was late and all the private study rooms had emptied hours ago.
