Page 26 of The Silver Spider
“You cannot obstruct her free will,” Yuruth said.
“The way your Lord suborns it, even now?”
“It is not his fault,” Yuruth said. “Birth binds us all, whether we will it or no.”
She didn’t know what the hell was going on, but she wanted answers. She could walk through that gate, but that seemed a more permanent decision than turning back, and assessing what had happened.
“Will the geas prevent me from leaving?” she asked the guard. She would not ask him the nature of the geas. It would only put her in the position, where she’d be forced to negotiate with him, and she didn’t want to negotiate, when she was the ignorant party.
“It is not my place to say. Come.”
Serephone took one breath, then another. And whispered to her spiders. They woke, crawling on her arms, tiny feet sinking into her skin. The pain was immediate, red-hot, the exact barrier she needed to clear her mind.
“Who is your Lord?” she asked.
Yuruth watched her, saying nothing at first. And then he nodded, slowly. “Dawnthorne.”
* * *
“You’re in a foul mood, darling.”
Persia scowled into her mug of beer. She’d come to the tavern to get away from the nosy eyes of her stepbrother. Nuaddan slunk away into the forest that morning until Hrutha yodeled him out. Literally. She’d surged out of bed very early, almost breaking her neck as she tripped in the sheets, and rushed to her balcony because itsounded like the third apocalypse. She fully expected that the dragon’s loud high-pitched undulations were the sounds of another rip in the dimensions happening right outside her balcony. But she’d looked down to find a purple and green dragon…singing.
Whatever he was doing worked, because moments later another came flying out of the forest, spewing fire into the air. Then Nuaddan landed, shifting to human and threw a punch at Hrutha, who was already pulling on pants and a shirt, laughing like a madman.
“Father said to stay out of your cave,” Hrutha sing-songed, dancing away from his brother’s swings.
“You fiend,” Nuaddan said, swearing.
“I’ll greet the sun with my song every morning unless you are in the castle.”
Persia shuddered. If Hrutha had been her brother, she would have drowned herself at birth.
“I’m drinking,” she said. “Go away.”
“Drinking alone isneverfun.” He slid onto the stool next to her, gesturing to the bartender. “There’s not a tavern in the dragon city that doesn’t have my name on a plaque.”
She snorted.
“Truly.” He nudged her shoulder, pointing. “Look. See?”
Persia glanced over at the wall behind the bar, squinting. And shook her head in annoyance. “So you’re a drunk.”
“That is beside the point. The point is that not a bartender in town will forget to inform me if one of my lovely sisters shows up.”
She looked at him. He lounged with one elbow on the counter, tousled blond hair over his shoulder, shirt half unbuttoned as usual. He was likely barefoot as well. “You’re the most annoying creature.”
Hrutha smiled. “But fun. Come, come. What will you have this evening? Music, dancing, a man? A woman?”
“Can you please go away? I want to brood in peace over my sister, and now my mother, abandoning me.” Kailigh and Maddugh had left the prior evening with firm instructions for the other children not to follow them.
“Well, you’ve another sister to tend to, and best keep your eye on her or you’ll find her wedded, bedded, and a mother in nine-months. The sharks are circling now that Papa Dragon has flown away with Crazy Mama.”
She rolled her eyes. “No one calls them that. You just made it up.”
“Oh, really?”
Persia slammed her beer down on the counter, fished a coin out of her pocket, and slid off the stool. “If your aim was to chase me out, you’ve succeeded. Damn. A woman can’t even get a drink anymore.”
“I’ll see you for dinner,” he called as she stomped out.
