Page 36 of Knightfall
His eyes met mine and he held them for a long moment.
“I’m fine—” I started.
“Why’d you say to multiply sand?” he asked. As if that question were the most pressing thing despite everything that had just happened.
“Because it can smother a fire. Of course, I didn’t realize you’d go overboard and fill the entire room—”
“That salamander was still actively on fire.”
“I had calmed him down. He was still.”
“Really?” Declan raised a brow. “The room’s contents suggest otherwise.” He eyed the ruined tapestry and the two burnt rugs.
I glared at him.
“Back to the sand,” he dismissed my anger as if my emotions were unimportant. “What specifically made you recommend it?”
I shrugged. “When I was in the village of Lucha, I saw an execution by fire. At the end, they used sand to douse the fire instead of water. Kept the wooden pillar from rotting. Easier clean up and re-use, the village executioner said.”
“The future Queen of Evaness takes advice from executioners?” Declan asked.
“He knew what he was talking about.”
“He did?”
“They have a lot of pillaging from Rasle’s mountain clans. When winter closes in, Lucha has a lot to handle.”
“Did he say what kind of sand, or the quantity to fire ratio?”
“You are not asking me that.”
Declan looks startled. “Yes, I am.”
“The type of sand is irrelevant. Right now, we need to change. We need to get this room cleaned up. And we’ll need to keep this all very discreet.”
“What? Why?” Avia pulls me around to face her.
“Because I think someone let that salamander in here on purpose. I think you were just attacked.”
Chapter Eleven
Ryan walked into the room. “You won’t believe what happened. There’s a huge pit that opened up in the courtyard. As if a giant hand scooped up a ton of sand. What the hell—” he stepped around the puddles that dotted the floor. “What happened in here?”
“Fire salamander. I had to decrease the sand to make more water in here. The blighter must have tried to get out of the cold.” Declan replied as he stripped off his soaked coat.
I couldn’t help admiring how his white shirt clung to his body, even as his words stung. I’d just said I’d thought this salamander had been sent deliberately, hadn’t I?
I met Declan’s eyes. “You think a fire salamander scaled four floors of palace walls, bypassing the many warm cozy fireplaces on the lower floors and just happened to end up here?” I glared at him as Avia’s lady-in-waiting and maid appeared.
They shrieked, and immediately hustled my sister out of the room to bathe and get re-dressed so she wouldn’t ‘catch her death.’ I waved them off when they offered me the same. I was too furious to deal with servants. There was no coincidence here. That salamander did not just wander in.
Ryan’s eyes flickered between my anger and Declan’s dismissive head shake. His lips quirked in amusement.
“Don’t go turning a salamander into a dragon,” Declan said over his shoulder as he walked toward the door. “They sneak in during winter.”
“It’s not winter yet.”
“It’s not an attack. It was a tiny salamander.”
