Page 114 of A Scar in the Bone
The soldiers behind Stig broke out in murmurs.
“Settle yourselves!” Stig twisted around to glare at them all. “She lies! Dryhten is dead!”
Havard looked genuinely curious. “And where has he been all this time?”
“His lordship”—I stressed the use of his title—“was taken by raiders. I only just secured his return.” This was the story Fell and I had concocted to explain his long absence. It was far more plausible than the truth. I had not worried too much about the details, knowing Fell would be the one to do most of the explaining. It would be his people wanting answers, after all, and they would be so overjoyed to have him back, they would likely not scrutinize his narrative of events.
And it didn’t matter what Stig thought, as Fell was determined to see him dead.
I didn’t expect that I would be without Fell—or be the one pressed for information—but here I was.
Havard motioned around them. “Where is he now?”
“Damn you,” Stig cursed, glaring at Havard. “She lies! There were no raiders. And there is no Dryhten.”
I blinked and reached deep inside myself for equanimity in the face of his fury. I resisted taking a step back, refusing to show weakness. His deep brown eyes that once brimmed with warmth and affection for me were now all reproach and bitterness.
“Change now, damn it. Show them what you are!”
An overwhelming sense of being here before, doing this, living this moment, washed over me, and I suppressed a tremor, pushing back the swift bite of fear.
I clenched my jaw and spoke loudly enough for all to hear. “I can’t be what I am not.”
He reacted then, hand lashing out to slap me soundly across the face. The action was so unexpected, it snapped my head back on my neck and cost me my balance, toppling me off my feet. Foolish, perhaps, that the blow unmoored me. I should have been ready and braced for it given what I knew of him.
I looked up at Stig, at his seething expression, his relentless gaze. I could not find my breath as I felt myself skinned beneath his hard eyes, all of me stripped bare, exposed to him. He saw me. He knew. And he hated.
He stabbed a finger at me. “You will not do that. Do not lie to me, Tamsyn. I saw you as you really are—a dragon! Admit it.”
“How can I admit such a thing? It’s absurd!”
His face was mottled red, and he shook his head slowly. “It has been lies from the start. I see that now, and I’ll have no more from you.”
Lies from the start? The start of my life in the palace? Was that what he thought? Is that why he was so bitter? So … changed?
I considered the version of myself I had left behind when I married Fell. I could see me now so clearly as I faced Stig. The royal whipping girl, lost and forlorn, searching for her place in the world. So oblivious to her value, so accepting of punishments she did not deserve.
I recognized all that now. I couldn’t before, but now I did.
NowI felt right in my ever-altering skin.
NowI feltrightlooking Stig squarely in the face and lying. Lying to protect myself and Fell and all of dragonkind. I clambered back to my feet and spoke through clenched teeth: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You continue to make a fool of me.”
You continue to make a fool of me.
I lightly fingered my cheek where I could still feel the sting of his handprint, those words running over and over in my mind. “You don’t need me to do that, Stig.”
He lifted his hand again, but Havard stepped forward and blocked me before Stig could bring it down. Where was Havard the night of my whipping? He would have been nice to have around then.
Stig’s eyes widened, and he swept a wild glance over his soldiers. “You don’t know what she is!” In a lower voice, he growled at Havard, “She’s a monster. She changed to a dragon right before my eyes. You must believe me. Dryhten was there. He saw, too.”
“Then when he arrives, we shall ask him,” Havard said evenly. “You idiot! He’s not coming.” Stig’s eyes shot back to me. “She likely killed him, fiend that she is! Did you?” This he shouted at me. “Did you kill your husband, Tamsyn?”
I shook my head. “No! Of course not!”
Havard’s eyes brimmed with sadness as he looked at his longtime friend, and I could only think this helped my defense in the eyes of these soldiers.
