Page 25 of Sonnets and Serpents
Begrudgingly, Silas admitted, “You said, ‘Don’t leave without—’”
“Don’t leave without saying goodbye. Oh, so you do have human ears in that snake skull!”
“I saw your husband in the market,” he said, as if that made it better.
From her expression, it did not. “You spoke toBarisbut not to me?” She loosed a string of colorful curses. Yvette was the source of Silas’s most delightful Pravish expressions. “What did I waste all my time on you for? Ungrateful student!”
She threw her hands in the air, and, beside him, Eliza flinched as if the professor had threatened a strike.
Yvette turned, finally noticing Silas wasn’t alone. “Who’s this one? Your wife? Is that why you’re gone and back so soon—your father arranged a marriage?”
“I’m not hiswife!” Eliza squeaked out, face reddening like a tomato.
It was Silas’s turn to blink. Yvette knew Loegrian, but she hadn’t spoken any in this conversation, so Eliza shouldn’t have been able to understand anything.
Addressing the princess, he asked, “Since when did you learn Pravish?”
“She’s speaking Loegrian,” Yvette said.
“Yes, I—” Silas huffed. He raised his wrist, shoving the goldenband into Yvette’s view. “It’s this cursed thing. This is why we’re here.”
Yvette’s ranting demeanor vanished, replaced by the intrigued professor hooked on a mystery. She took Silas’s wrist and turned it this way and that, rubbing her thumb across the flattened stone. Where her touch passed, a faint golden glow trailed, quickly fading.
“Oh,” she murmured. “Oh.” Anything left of the statue softened, and she looked up at Silas with concern, reaching out to grip his shoulder. “Are you all right?”
He frowned but nodded. “I just want it gone. Can you read the Cast?”
“As clearly as any book. You won’t like what it says.”
Before he could ask, Yvette moved to stand in front of Eliza and crossed her arms like a chastising parent.
Eliza shifted from one foot to the other, head bowed before the stony professor.
In Loegrian, Yvette said, “Eyes forward, girl, and give me your name.”
To her credit, Eliza followed the instruction without bluster. Then she grew nervous and stumbled into the rest of the story—Henry Wycliff and the shipwreck.
Yvette studied the girl’s bracelet just as she had Silas’s before she prompted, “Dear Eliza, what have you done?”
Eliza looked at the floor, whispering, “I just wanted ... I needed to speak Pravish.”
“And the Caster you hired to help—you told her you needed a leash for this boy who slithers out of everything?”
“Excuse me?” Silas spat.
Eliza’s face turned red once more, and she sputtered.
Yvette lifted the girl’s arm calmly, gesturing at her bracelet. “This Cast binds you together. I’d estimate you can’t go more than twenty feet apart without one bracelet pulling the other.This is a wrist-to-jaw Cast, a common bone pairing, so the magic is rooted in the jawbone and worn against this prominent carpal on the wrist. It’s surprisingly strong. You found a good Caster, or one who was particularly enthusiastic about your request.”
Silas seethed more with every word. “What exactly did you request?” he demanded of the princess.
Eliza shrank. “I—I just said I needed to speak Pravish! Then she started talking about a boy, and I didn’t realize—”
“And you made this requestin Pravish? Which youdon’t speak?” Silas groaned, imagining the vast multitude of malapropisms she might have performed in that single request. “How did you refer to me?Erkal?” He gave the most common, age-neutral male identifier, already knowing it would be wrong.
Eliza huffed. “Well, I thought we were speaking of Henry. Besides, she’s the one who mentioned it first, so I only mimicked her phrasing.Erkek.”
Yvette busted out laughing. Silas gave her a flat stare.
