Page 61 of Golden Queen
"Tell me about Darkwatch," I coaxed. I already knew that Taiger was a part of Io's court. They lived in Dragon's Reach, the fortress that served as the gateway to Darkwatch—and beyond it, to the rest of Nightfall.
I wanted to hear about the kingdom within a kingdom from someone who lived there as one of its subjects.
Taiger waxed nearly poetic about his home, his face lit from within by some passion I could hardly comprehend.
"The sky..." he looked up at the clear blue sky overhead, smiling and shaking his head, as though he could see it. "—it's beautiful. The stars are somuch more numerous than they are anywhere else—or if not more numerous, more visible through some trick of nature."
He described the ever-present aurora in the sky, calling itaheavenly wonder of light and color that more than makes up for never seeing dawn.
"The colors of Darkwatch are somehow more vibrant, even in the muted starlight. The purple grasses of the Iyridian Valley are alive with some color that the eyes here just cannot fathom."
I listened to the boy, marveling at the way he spoke of his home, and feeling jealous of the way he spoke of his people.
"We are somehow more connected—kinder, more respectful. We do not put as much stock in classes or titles or wealth. There is no lord or lady in Darkwatch save for Amon, and people rarely even usehistitle."
Taiger looked wistful as he stared out across the portion of the city that was visible, the streets and buildings spreading out beyond the wall. "The people of Darkwatch do not suffer with want, and if they did, it would be because their lord also suffered. They work for living wages, and no one looks down on you that your mother was an Obeskan whore who left you on the steps of an earth temple in the freezing cold."
I watched his face grow poignant, his eyes focused far away. My heart ached to imagine him as that child left in the cold north of Obeska, where I knew the climate could be extremely harsh in winter.
I reached out and looped my arm in his, and he smiled at me, surprised. "I'm so sorry for that, Taiger," I told him.
"Don't be," he replied. "The lord found me there, no more than a moment after she had walked away. He said I lifted my arms to him, and he picked me up without thinking."
I tried to imagine it—him no more than a toddler, pink cheeked in the cold. Io could not have been much more than a teenager himself. Unless, I realized with a start, he was much older than he looked, as was common with the fae.
"He flew me back to Darkwatch on Veles—the one time the big grumpy dog ever allowed another soul on his back—and he put me in service to the dragon masters in the Reach."
"And your mother?" I asked, feeling the question might have been a tad too prying.
He gave me a tight-lipped smile and shook his head. His normally pale face was slightly ruddy, the spattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks standing out against the heightened color. I thought he likely struggled as much as I did with hiding emotions on an expressively blushing face.
"I like to think she knew he would find me—that she planned it for precisely when he would walk by." He huffed a laugh. "It's unlikely, though.She would have no way to know, as most do not, that he is not the fearsome lord of nightmares that everyone outside Darkwatch believes him to be."
"I'm sure she only did what she thought was best, in any case," I told him. "I don't pretend to understand what it must feel like to have a child you cannot feed, cannot protect."
He seemed to appreciate the thought as we looped back around the wall-walk, heading toward the castle again.
"I want to change Windemere when I take my throne," I admitted as the pale dragon's wings appeared once more in the sky. "I want to rid the kingdom of the evil things that plague us—hunger and slavery and the class system—and the ridiculous laws that say I cannot rule in my own right because I am a woman."
"Perhaps you could visit Darkwatch someday," Taiger said, grinning. "Take some notes on how to rule without stepping on the people, as even the king in Orin cannot always manage to do."
"That would be wonderful," I told him, but my heart sank as I heard the low and sonorous bellow of a horn sounding from somewhere to the west, followed by the loud clanging of the city bell.
They wouldn't allow me to ride out into the city, even as I was mounted on Etreyiu and stood at the gate of the inner fortress.
Baron Mandelian rode up to me.
I could see in his eyes that he regretted having to inform me that I could not go. "We do not yet know what danger has come to Albiyn. You should remain in the keep, in case it's more than just outlaws or a raiding party spoiling for a fight."
I knew he spoke the truth, but I did not like the feeling of impotence that ran down my spine as I dismounted and let the blonde-haired stable boy lead my horse back into the barn.
"Bryce," I called, suddenly.
The baron turned his striking blue eyes back to me. I thought his smooth brown skin looked a touch paler than it usually did.
"Take Etreyiu," I told him, motioning for the stable hand to return my Artaxian stallion.
"I could not," the baron said, holding up his hand with a look of surprise. But he quickly dismounted his horse and took Etreyiu's reins, likely remembering the way his horse had balked in the godsgrass before the dragons.
