Page 34 of A Scar in the Bone
Alise nodded, satisfied, and cut another bite for herself. “You look quite changed, Tam,” she said, speaking around her food.
“Am I?” I asked, tensing. I didn’t know what I expected her to say. That I looked more … dragon?
“You look older.”
“I am. A year older. As are you.”
A wife now at seventeen. A perfectly typical age to wed. Many were even younger when they married, especially among royal families determined to forge alliances through their offspring. And yet, to me, she was still young. Too young.
My gaze slid to the large bed covered in a brocade counterpane. Absurd. It loomed there as though this was a finely appointed chamber and not a tent amid the wilds of the Borderlands. I forced my attention away from the bed and thoughts of Alise and Stig together in it.
She had not missed the direction of my gaze. A pretty pink stained her cheeks. “I mean to say you appear more … mature,” she said, correcting herself.
I swallowed. The sweet bread stuck somewhere high in my chest, refusing to go all the way down. “Marriage will do that to you. Take you from childhood to adulthood in a blink. How long have you and …” I stopped myself, unable to say his name in conjunction with her.
She smiled indulgently, understanding. “We married a month ago. It was a beautiful wedding. I was very sorry you weren’t there.”
I envisioned it. Alise, an ethereal bride making the same momentous trek to the chapel that I had, amid the deafening cheers and flowers tossed to her in tribute and celebration. I could see it all so clearly, like something from a dream … because I had lived it. Except Stig had been the one waiting for her at the altar. That part of my vision was when the dream turned to a nightmare.
“I wish I could have been there,” I said.To stop it.“And you are happy?”
She blinked as though the question unsettled her, and that was telling. As was her fading smile.
“There was talk for me to wed the king of Meru.” She grimaced. “He’s as old as Papa, though. And the Isle of Meru is so very far away.”
“Are you happy?” I pressed.
She reached for a roll and tore the crusty bread in half with defiant force. “Stig is young and handsome and solicitous. He’s the Border King now. This puts him in an excellent position. Papa will likely name him his successor. He is very kind.” Stig, the king of Penterra. I resisted a shudder.
She still had not answered my question.
The one thing I knew to be true of Stig was that he would accord a princess all due deference. He would treat Alise like every inch the royal she was born, handling her like spun glass. He would not break with that custom. As his lady wife, she would be given every courtesy. He would be to her as he was to me … before I became a blight in his eyes.
“He would only ever be such to you,” I replied, subdued, careful not to spark a disagreement with her. I did not want our short-lived reunion fraught with unpleasantness. Because our time together was fleeting. Stig would be back soon.
I inhaled sharply at the thought of what was coming. At the storm bearing down, at the cruelty and brutality steeped in its winds, ready to consume me.
“He is charming, as you know. I feel quite lucky.” Her voice shook a little on this last word.
“You’ve yet to say you’re happy.”
She leaned back in her chair, her blue eyes snapping, an exasperated look on her face—the kind of expression she usually bestowed upon Feena and Sybilia but not me. “And are you happy, Tam? What are you doing here?” She gestured around us with a flick of her elegant fingers. “What happened? Where have you been all this time? Where is your husband? I thought you dead!” She slapped the arms of her chair. “I’d resigned myself to your death.” She stopped and swallowed, the delicate lines of her throat working as though it were a struggle. “A much more logical conclusion than what Stig would have all of us believe. Stig has these wild notions—”
“I know, I know,” I interrupted the barrage. I couldn’t bear for her to say it, couldn’t see her expression when she said the words—when she uttereddragon.
I didn’t want to lie to her. Of course I would, though. I had no other choice.
I’d never kept anything from Alise before.You never had a secret to keep before.Not like this. Not one that would affect so many.
“Do you?” She shook her head, her gaze fastened on me, searching. “Why did you disappear? Have you been …hiding?” Her voicewas laden with confusion. She was desperately trying to understand, and she never could. Never would. I needed to make certain of that. I had trusted and revealed myself before. A grave mistake that I would never repeat.
I inclined my head slightly. “In a manner, yes.”
“I want to understand. I’m sure Stig is only confused. He was gravely injured. That can … alter a person. Perhaps it clouded his perception—”
“No, my sweet.” A deep voice rumbled across the tent like the suddenness of thunder. “I am not confused. I made no mistake. That is a dragon sitting across from you. Move carefully away from her, Alise.”
The storm had arrived.
