Page 24 of A Song of Air
The room was actually filled with the rest of their companions. The Resistance, or at least the inner circle of it. A few key players were missing, like Weylyn and the Seelie King, but everyone was otherwise in one spot.
Shula and Ryker, the fire Elemental and the group’s scarred healer. They sat in wait with Basil in Shula’s lap like it would become his permanent home. Her old maids, Gale, Juniper, Wren, and Dawn, stood off to the side with bags piled on their backs.
Corvina knew they were carrying her things. She’d told them that they were no longer bound to serve her, as she was no longer princess and Tobias was dead. They were free, and in their freedom, they could choose to do whatever it was they wanted.
What they wanted was to stay with Corvina.
She was humbled when they’d all said the same thing. Humbled that they liked her enough to stick around, even when she had no means to free them of their chains in the past or help them through life in the kingdom. They’d known that she was as much a prisoner as they were, even if she wore finer silks and gowns and jewelry.
The fact that they didn’t look at her and have the urge to flee the other direction meant a lot to her.
Though she would have to take them aside and remind them they didn’t have to carry all of her belongings. She could do it herself. There was nobody alive who would reprimand her for doing it.
“So, when are we leaving?” Clay asked, drawing attention away from them and the activities they’d been doing.
Prince Valerio stood gloomily to the side next to his guard, Uric. They both seemed particularly put-off today, and it seemed like shadows had perpetually settled over their heads.
“As soon as Weylyn deigns to grace us with his presence,” the prince said.
Julius snorted. “As soon as he finishes sucking off—” Iona’s elbow to his ribs stopped him from finishing that sentence.
He didn’t even need to.
They’d all known what he meant.
Since they’d brought Corvina into the fold, there was something she’d realized about the inner workings of the Resistance. It was by observing, listening, and looking at things from an outside perspective.
It was the way Valerio stared at Shula that spoke of extreme pain. It lived on the expression and the panes and lines of his severe face. Much the same way Uric looked when he stared at the prince.
Corvina knew that Julius and Iona were a pair made from Mana, and their passion burned as hot as the Danarish sun.
She knew that Shula and Ryker were tentative, quiet lovers.
And she knew that nobody, not a single one of the Fae present, trusted Weylyn Xanth.
Which was a shame, she thought, because she found the mysterious, golden Fae rather lovely.
Even when nobody else did.
