Page 57 of The Last Wish of Bristol Keats
“The Lumessa refused to have anyone else but her and the Sisters in the room. There was no arguing.”
“Why?” Eris asked.
Dahlia shrugged. She didn’t know, but Jasmine’s last words to her made her uneasy. What desperate choice was she contemplating?
Eris angled his head toward Tyghan. “How is he doing?”
She sighed. “Not well, I suspect. He wouldn’t talk to me. He says he needs to be alone. To think. He’s barely moved a finger. But he needs to talk to someone—someone who ismorethan an advisor. The girl may die, Eris.” She tilted her head toward Tyghan in that way she had so many times over the years, that tilt that said,Tell him, but it had never swayed Eris. Some things were buried in the past, and it was too late to dig them up. It wasn’t even his right to dig them up. That didn’t mean his heart wasn’t torn. It always had been.
Eris walked into the parlor. Tyghan glanced up and waved him away, but Eris continued walking and stopped in front of him, blocking his empty stare out the window.
Tyghan’s gaze slowly rose to meet Eris’s. “As Avery would say, I need space.”
“Waiting is a hard business,” Eris replied. “Especially when you’re waiting to hear news about someone you love. I know what it’s like.”
“But there is still no cure for waiting, is there? Time always wins.”
Eris noted the flatness of Tyghan’s voice, and yet his fingers fisted and unfisted, like he was preparing to smash them through something. The sight transported Eris back twenty-seven years to when the queen had lost her third husband. She had been listless for weeks—except for the rhythm of her hand kneading the corner of a pillow in her lap. Eris had impulsively pulled her to her feet and into the garden for fresh air. They had even danced. He had grossly overstepped his bounds in that moment, but she was glad for it. They both were.
“You don’t need space,” Eris told Tyghan now. “You need to expend some energy.” He walked over to a rack on the wall that held several ancient collectible swords. He grabbed two. “I don’t think Jasmine will mind.” He tossed one to Tyghan, who jumped up and caught it, his training kicking in against his will.
Eris turned his own sword, examining it, and adjusted his grip. “Not exactly the best balance for me, but let’s go out to the rooftop garden and spar a bit. No magic, just—”
“What? No,” Tyghan said. “Me spar withyou?”
“Afraid? It would do you good. I promise to be gentle.” Eris was already walking out the door to the garden that glowed with the soft light of lanterns. Tyghan grumbled and reluctantly followed.
“Ready?” Eris asked.
Tyghan refused to lift his sword. “You’ve never used a sword in your life. What’s this all about? I don’t need distracting.” He started to turn away, and Eris swung.
Tyghan’s razor instincts blocked Eris’s powerful blow before the reality had even sunk in.Eris is swinging a sword like he knows how to use it. Tyghan stumbled back a few steps, bewildered. “Where didthatcome from?”
“The usual places.”
“Do you practice alone?”
Eris advanced, offering gentler thrusts and skilled cuts, the beats of their blades falling into a rhythm. “I haven’t lifted a weapon in almost three decades, but some things you never forget. I once served in the Elphame court. For nine years I was First Officer to Queen Lilias.”
“You, a First Officer?” Tyghan laughed. “You’ve always been a counselor. Only a counselor. What are you really—”
In a quick move, Eris swung, knocking Tyghan’s sword from his hand, and then pressed the edge of his own blade to Tyghan’s neck. “You’re good, but I’m better. Never underestimate the value of age and experience.” Eris lowered his sword, his point made.
Tyghan stared, silent and listening.
“I gave nine years of impeccable service to the queen of Elphame,” Eris continued, “but then one day, after my wife became violently ill and died in my arms, I attacked an esteemed member of the queen’s court. I thought he was responsible for her death, but I was wrong. As a result, I spent a month in custody, then was banished from court.”
“What do you mean, you attacked him? Physically?”
“I gathered every molecule of energy in the room into my hand and slammed him into a wall. Then jumped him, pressing a sword across his throat so he couldn’t breathe, with every intention of killing him. I watched him gasp for air, the way my wife gasped in her final moments. It took three guards to pull me off.”
Tyghan shook his head, trying to absorb Eris’s words. “How did your wife die?”
“She had secretly consulted with the man I attacked. He was the court alchemist, and he gave her a potion to help her conceive. I learned later she was only supposed to take one drop per day on her tongue, but after two months with no success, she swallowed the whole bottle.”
Eris heard himself going on, telling Tyghan more than he intended, about his service at the Elphame court, his wife who was desperate for a child, her last words to him, his grief, and the shame of his expulsion. Somehow it was easier to tell Tyghan about his sordid past than to tell him the biggest secret he had ever kept in his life. Whatever relationship he and Tyghan had, he didn’t want it destroyed by the truth. If Tyghan rejected him, it would be more than he could bear. Still, he heard the wordstell himand saw the insistent tilt of Dahlia’s head.He deserves to know.
Tyghan studied Eris, like he was looking at a stranger. “How did I not know any of this about you?”
