Page 82 of Daughter Of The Ninth Line
First time I’d wondered ifIwas enough.
Knocking lightly on the door, I was met by one of Taeme’s hounds. The mean one. Actually, scratch that, they were both mean. This one was legendary, though. Braxus. He’d once brought down an entire gang of thugs who’d been terrorising the Third Line’s outlying villages, and had ripped through their ranks, all by himself.
Even the First Line were impressed by the efficiency of the Third Line’s animal companions. It made them fierce warriors, and the whole reason they were such a threat.
I also had my suspicions that they could speak to Taeme somehow. I looked down at the hound. “Tell your master to back the fuck off, or we’re going to have a problem,” I muttered in a low voice. The giant hound’s muzzle came up to my chest, and you’d have to be a fool to look at those flashing teeth and feel nothing. I held my ground, hearing the soft footfalls of Avalon.
“Braxus, it’s fine. We’ve arranged to meet up.” She shuffled around the giant beast—who’d taken more lives than most instructors in this college—and stroked behind his ears like he was an overgrown pet. “Stay here. I’ll be back.” Then she kissed the top of his head.
Kissed it.Fuck me.
I gestured toward the stairs. “We are headed to the roof. There’s a telescope up there that’s one of the most powerful in all of Ebrus.”
She followed me without comment, and I was glad that most of the other conscripts had fallen into their beds hours ago. It meant that the atrium was blissfully silent, and as I led her up the stairs to the roof, we didn’t run across anyone else.
Not that I thought anyone would say a word, except maybe Taeme. But either his precious hound hadn’t been able to get word to him fast enough, or he was biding his time, because no one appeared.
I bypassed the First Line dorms and climbed one extra flight to a door that led to the roof. Technically, this level sat parallel to my room, but the Dome which held my domain sat dark, magic making the glass one way.
The rooftop was pretty; I’d set up a small area with a chair and an easel behind a large brass telescope. I’d also acquired a large amount of artistic supplies and pretty lanterns that set the place in a gentle glow.
I stood to the side as Avalon stepped into the area, her eyes taking in everything in the space. The small burning lights thatilluminated her workspace, the pens and inks and brushes and anything else I’d thought she might need. The large telescope.
“It’s beautiful up here,” she said softly, and I made a hum of agreement.
“It’s my favorite place.” Not just in Boellium. In all of Ebrus. And sharing it with her felt so right. I waved a hand at the chair. “Your throne, Miss Halhed,” I murmured. “Will these tools suffice?”
She snorted rudely. “A box of crayons would suffice, Your Highness,” she replied snarkily. “This is more than adequate. I’m not sure what you expect from me, but I think you’re going to be disappointed.”
I couldn’t be disappointed, because I had no expectations, except that she be here. With me, where I could… what? Convince her to go to bed with me? To enter a relationship that was doomed to fail?
Shaking off the thoughts, I gripped her elbow before she even had a chance to sit. “Let me show you the stars first. I think you’ll find yourself inspired.”
I didn’t need all the answers yet. I just needed a chance.
chapter fifty-one
Avalon
Vox Vylan was standing reallyclose. The heat from his skin was soaking through my thin, handwoven shirt as he directed me in the art of using a telescope. When he shifted me into a better position, I went where his hands guided and tried not to think about how big they were, how they spanned my hips easily. How they felt pressing lightly into my flesh.
Fuck me.
“The large glowing discs are stars. There are millions of them across the night sky. So many that we could spend every night for the rest of our lives up here cataloguing and counting them, and we’d die before we were even one percent through.” He moved away, giving me a chance to look through the eyepiece. “This telescope is enhanced with magic, and its magnification is second only to the official observatory in Fortaare. They were created by the same engineer, Roulo De Smaar, and whatever techniques he used were buried with him.”
His tone was light, informative, but with a small undercurrent of joy. Like he was excited to share this with me, this little piece of himself, and I found myself relaxing into his tutelage, even if I didn’t think I was going to share quite the same passion for astronomy as Vox.
“We’ll start at Ebretha, the Goddess of our people. Or at least her celestial constellation. See the star that burns brightly in the center of the view? That’s Ebretha’s Heart, the brightest star in the sky. Some of the greatest minds in Ebrus think that it is a great sun, similar to our own, and that perhaps there is life out there, flourishing beneath that sun the way we live beneath our own.”
When I thought I had a grasp on what I was seeing, I went to the easel and sat down, closing my eyes and drawing the constellation first, then little points. I imagined it like they were freckles on the skin of Ebretha, little marks that enhanced her divine beauty. Then I added further stars, little pieces of stardust around her shoulders and falling down at her feet. While I worked, Vox wrote in a thick journal, and I could see his own scrawled notes from across the table.
We worked in silence, though occasionally I stood and looked back through the telescope, making sure the distances were correct, burning the image behind my eyelids until I was sure it was perfect.
I didn’t know how long we were out there, but eventually, the chill of the sea breeze began to raise goosebumps on my arms. I rubbed them gently, and the movement must have reminded Vox that I was there, because he looked at me and frowned, his metal pen between his teeth.
“You’re cold? I thought you were from the mountain tundra of Rewill,” he teased.
Scowling, I went back to working on my star grid. “Apparently, these warm southerner temperatures have turned me soft.”
