Robin Hobb - Blood of Dragons

She tilted her head. ‘You don’t want a marriage contract?’

‘I don’t need one. If you want one, you can draw up anything you want and I’ll sign it. I won’t bother reading it because anything you want to say about how it is going to be will be fine with me. I don’t need a paper or a contract or any of that. Just you.’

‘What brought all this on?’ Alise felt flustered.

He shook his head. ‘I knew Hest existed. I knew you’d been his. There were times when I felt like a thief. There was a day when Sedric took me on about it, saying that I was going to ruin your whole life by loving you. Made me feel selfish and low for wanting you.’

‘It seems a lifetime ago.’ She smiled at him. ‘We used to worry about such peculiar things.’

‘It doesn’t bother you now? What Hest might say when he goes back to Bingtown?’

‘After Sedric spoke up? No. I think he will say as little as he possibly can and hope others do the same. Before he leaves, I will speak to him and ask him to give me my nullification. We can draw it up, and there are plenty of possible witnesses. It will happen quietly here. I will send my explanations to my family, and he will have to deal with his.’ She took a breath and met his gaze with clear eyes. ‘I’ve finished with him, Leftrin. Did you doubt it?’

He dropped his gaze. ‘Worst thing I ever heard in my life was him calling you “my darling”. I wanted to rip the tongue out of his mouth. Wanted to tear him into pieces with my hands and feed the bits to Spit.’

He spoke with a low vehemence she had never heard before from him. ‘My dear!’ she exclaimed, torn between shock and laughter.

‘He was frightening you. I could see that, I could feel it. I wanted to destroy anything that could scare you like that.’

‘I was scaring myself. Giving him power he didn’t really have. Just like I used to do.’ She smiled almost sadly. ‘It’s done, Leftrin. All done.’ She stood up and walked around the galley table to stand behind him. She leaned forward to embrace him and spoke by his ear. ‘I’m looking forward to sailing away with you.’

‘Won’t be much privacy aboard for a time until we off-load all those intruders in Trehaug.’ He shook his head. ‘I’ll be glad to give over the judging of the Chalcedeans to someone else. Poor bastards, caught between the mortar and the pestle. Doubt there’s anything left for them to go home to. But I’m not looking forward to having a whole boatload of them all the way to Trehaug.’

She gave him a quick kiss and as he pulled her closer, she said, ‘So perhaps we should use this quiet time well, now.’

‘I can’t be gone long. I’m off watch now, but my uncle will have more work for me. As always.’

‘Keeps you busy, does he?’ Hest was amused. ‘Probably thinks you are too young to manage your own life. That’s often the case with men who take on the care of young boys. They don’t see when they’ve become young men, ready to take wing on their own.’

Davvie’s eyes flickered to Hest’s, neither confirming nor denying that he resented Carson’s control of him. He cleared his throat. ‘I’m surprised you haven’t gone up the tower yourself to take a look around. It’s allowed to any of you. We decided that at the meeting.’

‘Indeed,’ Hest agreed. ‘But looking around from a tower isn’t the same as having someone explain the layout of the city.’ He was letting the lad do most of the talking, and he was talking himself into far more than Hest had thought he could persuade him to. Today, a visit to the tower together. Tomorrow, perhaps, a brief stroll outside. The boy preceded him up the stairs and he had a fine view of the lad’s hips and legs. He was young, younger even than Sedric had been, and even more green to the ways of the world. He’d break easily, Hest decided. Entice him with elegant and sophisticated pleasures he had never even imagined. Tempt his young hunger for adventure and worldliness. Make him see that only Hest could introduce him to that wonderful world.

‘Let me catch my breath, Davvie. An old man like me doesn’t take these stairs as easily as you do.’

The young Elderling halted obediently on the next landing. ‘There’s a fine view from here if the steps are taxing you,’ he offered. ‘You needn’t climb the whole way to the tower top.’

Hest stepped to the window and looked out over the city silently. He had expected the boy quickly to refute the notion that he was an old man. It pricked his vanity that he had not. Don’t let it show. He looked out of the window to feign interest but as his eyes took in the full extent of the city, even his worldly soul was amazed. The view from the river was no way to comprehend the vastness of Kelsingra. From this vantage, the city spread out in every direction. He saw a few collapsed buildings and scattered areas of damage but for the most part, the city seemed intact and unplundered. He could not begin to imagine the riches of the place. His eye marked half a dozen statues presiding over empty fountains. He knew a collector in Jamaillia who would beggar himself to add even one of them to his collection. He ran his fingers along the tiles that framed the windows. Each featured a dragon in a different posture. The lad saw him admiring them.

‘Oh, those are great fun. Watch!’

The boy ran his hand along the line of dragons and they cavorted at his touch. When he stopped, they froze as they were.

‘Amazing!’ Hest exclaimed. ‘May I try?’

‘Of course.’ Davvie had become the guide now, tolerant and amused by Hest’s amazement. Excellent. Hest assayed a clumsy attempt to activate the dragons as the boy had. He missed half of them. He tried again, with as little success. He drew his hand back in disgust. ‘I haven’t the knack for it,’ he exclaimed in disappointment.

‘It’s easy. Like this.’ Davvie took Hest’s hand in his own and ran it over the dragons. This time, they leapt and pranced for him.

‘One more time,’ Hest suggested and set his free hand to Davvie’s shoulder to allow the boy to control his hand more surely. Davvie was intent on his dragon-play. As he drew Hest’s hand once again over the tiles, the man leaned forward and kissed him warmly on the side of his neck.

Davvie sprang back with an exclamation of shock, but Hest managed to maintain his touch on the boy’s shoulder. ‘You are so handsome,’ he said throatily. ‘So exotic. How could you think your scaling ugly?’ He breathed out through his mouth, a sigh of desire, and then caught his breath raggedly. Davvie was staring at him, his mouth slightly ajar. Hest imagined sealing those lips with his own and his feigned passion was suddenly real. He moved toward the Elderling, and when Davvie backed into the wall, Hest pressed his body against him.

‘This is not … I don’t …’ Davvie stuttered. Searing curiosity and fear battled in his dark eyes.

Excellent. Hest risked that he was the sort aroused by danger and the forbidden. He pressed himself against the youngster and spoke by his ear. ‘Sedric broke my heart. I’m alone. You’ve been discarded. What harm do we do anyone if, for a short time, we forget those pains?’ He leaned his weight hard on the youth, and the hands that he put on him were purposeful and demanding. ‘There is so much I can teach you. Ask me to teach you.’ One hand suddenly moved, to grip Davvie’s throat. ‘Say “please”,’ Hest suggested pleasantly.

‘I’m not going to wait on him forever,’ Carson said over his shoulder. ‘He said he wanted to go hunting, and I waited for his guard shift to be over.’ Sedric was trailing Carson as he strode into the baths. The hunter opened the doors to the soaking room and a cloud of humid air engulfed them. Kalo, his eyes closed to slits in pleasure, was dozing in the water. ‘Davvie?’ he called, but there was no response. Sylve looked up from scrubbing Mercor and shook her head.