Laurell Hamilton - Never After

“It’s a little painful,” Harwin acknowledged.

Dannette sat back on her heels and looked at her brother. “Do what you can, then I’ll put on salve and bandages.”

“No,” Harwin said sharply, jerking his foot away and tucking it under the chair. “I don’t want his magic. I don’t want his help .”

Dannette came to her feet. “Don’t be an idiot,” she said calmly, using my word again and making Harwin glare. “You don’t like my brother, but you have no reason to distrust him. And don’t say you don’t want to be beholden to him,” she added, raising her voice when he tried to interrupt, “because that’s just stupid. Let him heal you. Or let your foot fester, and succumb to gangrene, and require amputation. That will certainly improve your lot and make your next bride easier to woo.”

As if he couldn’t help himself, Harwin looked directly at me. His face was so wretched that I actually felt pity for him. “Don’t be silly,” I said softly. “Accept his help. Maybe you’ll be able to save his life a couple of days from now, and then you can feel better about it.”

That made Dannette laugh, and even Harwin’s face relaxed into what was almost a smile. He offered his foot to Darius again, who took hold of it in a busi nesslike fashion and began pressing his fingers along the toes and heel. Now Harwin’s expression was one of wonderment.

“That already feels much better,” he said. “What did you do?”

Darius laughed and kept manipulating different sections of the foot. “Magic,” he said. “My greatest strengths are in altering the basic structure of things. So I can turn a butterfly into a bird, for instance. Or I can change a broken bone to a whole one and an infected patch of skin to a well one.”

“It is a most useful skill,” Harwin said stiffly. “I thank you for using your talents on me.”

“I always enjoy the chance to put my magic to use,” Darius said. “It’s like swordplay. If you don’t practice your skills, you lose them.”

Dannette had gone to rummage in her bag, and now she returned with a small bottle and a roll of gauze. She bent over Harwin’s naked chest, examining slash and bite marks on his arms and torso. She touched two of them and shook her head. “You should have had these taken care of before you left the palace,” she scolded.

“I was in a hurry,” Harwin said. He was looking at me again.

I sniffed and tossed my hair. “I suppose you told my father you were coming after me,” I said. “Maybe he even suggested it.”

“I had no conversation with him at all,” he replied.

He didn’t say anything more, but I could read his tone. Harwin had never openly criticized my father, but more than once I had been convinced that he had a low opinion of how my father ruled his kingdom. I knew Harwin had hated the idea of the competition, but I figured that was just because he had so little chance of winning, or so I’d thought. Now I wondered if he had just believed it to be a callous and random way to select a husband for a princess.

Considering who might have won, I had to agree.

Darius stood up and ran his hands lightly over the wounds on Harwin’s upper body, while Dannette spread salve on his foot and wrapped it in a winding layer of gauze. Harwin flexed his toes.

“Thank you,” he said, smiling down at Dannette. “You have a most gentle touch.”

She patted his knee and came to her feet. “There. Now we don’t have to worry about you dying before you can challenge my brother for Olivia’s hand.”

He actually laughed. “It is kind of you both to preserve me for such a future.”

“You deserve to have your life saved, since you saved another man’s life two days ago,” Dannette said. At his inquiring expression, she went on. “During the trial against the fighting dogs. A man had gone down and you went to his aid, even though he was a rival.”

“You saw that?” Harwin asked, gazing up at her. “I didn’t realize the actions inside the arena were that plain to spectators outside it.”

She glanced briefly at her brother. “I had reason to be paying close attention. I thought you showed honor—and bravery.”

Harwin shrugged. “Hard to exhibit either quality in a competition that possessed neither.”

“Well, I observed you, and I was impressed,” Dannette said softly.

He bowed his head and made no other answer. I shifted uncomfortably where I sat. I had seen his act of courage as well, but it seemed awkward and insincere to add my own praises. Oh, yes, now that you mention it, that was a very noble thing to do. It was very annoying to have to feel bad about not being nice enough to Harwin.

“Well, that’s as much as I can do for you,” Darius said, stepping back. “How do you feel?”

Harwin rolled his shoulders experimentally, and the muscles on his chest briefly stood out in relief. “Extraordinarily improved,” he said, standing up. I noticed that Darius looked quite short next to him—although Harwin looked even plainer next to Darius. “You must let me buy dinner for your sister and yourself as part of my thanks.” He glanced at me with a touch of humor. “I will still wait eagerly for my chance to save your life in turn, but perhaps the meal will serve as a stopgap measure of gratitude.”

“Excellent,” Darius said. “I’m starving. Let’s eat.”

The meal was more convivial than I would have expected, for either the act of kindness itself or the sheer relief at being out of pain had served to make Harwin more outgoing than usual. He asked Darius and Dannette where they had traveled and was particularly interested in their expeditions to cities outside Kallenore’s borders. It turned out—I had not known this—that Harwin and his father had pursued commercial ventures in a few neighboring nations but without receiving as much return as they’d hoped, so he was keen to hear their opinion of other markets. Darius didn’t seem to have paid much attention to the possibilities of trade and profit, but Dannette had formed strong opinions, which she was happy to share. I listened, bemused, as she talked about the diamond mines in Liston, the spice routes through Newmirot, and the drought in lower Amlertay that had left the countrymen eager to trade for seed and other staples.

“I do not think I would have learned half so much if I had passed twice as long in any of those places,” I said in an undervoice to Darius.

He was finishing up his second beer, and I held out my glass to silently ask for a refill. I still didn’t like the taste, but I didn’t find it quite so unpleasant, and I did enjoy the way it softened the harder edges of the day. “No, everything that she says comes as quite a surprise to me,” he said airily. “Now, what I noticed while we were in Newmirot was how the women wore their hair, with ribbons braided into it right around their faces. It was so colorful and lovely.”

I felt a moment’s flash of stupid jealousy. “And I suppose all the women in Newmirot were very pretty?” I said.

He smiled and tipped his glass against mine. “All women are pretty in their way,” he said, “but you are the most beautiful of all.”

I laughed, but even that was not enough to earn me more than a glance from Harwin. He didn’t seem to care that I was getting along so well with my fiancé; he just returned his attention to Dannette to ask a question about coin denominations in Amlertay. I took another few large swallows of my beer.

As I had expected, sharing a bedroom with Harwin was even stranger than sharing one with Darius and Dannette. I was always aware that he was on the other side of the room, even though he did not snore, as Darius did, or thrash about, as Dannette continued to do. Merely, I could sense him lying there, disapproving of us all. Well, I would not let Harwin’s presence oppress my spirits. The beer had made me too sleepy to fret for long, anyway, so I closed my eyes and drifted into dreaming.