“The tenth.”
She inwardly cursed: couldn’t have been lucky enough to have the same day. That would be enough to drive the man mad for months. “The seventh.” Perhaps it was a mark of the overall improvement in their relationship that she didn’t lie to him. They began walking again and Arianna let the conversation shift. “Why are there only three Dragon Houses, if there are twenty possible patrons?”
“There were more, thousands of years ago. But the others were killed off until only three remained. House Tam proposed a system to keep things equal among the Houses with one overseer and two Houses to keep them in check. A sort of peace treaty,” Cain explained. “Once every decade or two, some bold upstart works up the notion to have his own House, supposedly called to task by some Patron.”
“But the three in power never let that happen.”
He gave her a nod of affirmation, and silence passed between them once more. She began to steer them in a new direction. Each day she’d used the conversation to distract him long enough to let them wander somewhere new. They strayed from what she’d come to suspect was the “approved path,” into new areas of the Xin Manor. Arianna had yet to find the glider, but she would eventually. And, once she knew the route, she would not be long for Nova.
“How did you learn Fennish?” They had yet to speak in the Dragon’s tongue. It served Arianna better for him to think she couldn’t understand his whispered Royuk to servants about her and her care, or the conversations she could pick up as they passed through the halls.
“Petra’Oji wants all Da and higher in the House to be educated in the ways of Loom.”
Arianna snorted, earning herself a sour look. “If you are as ‘educated’ as Cvareh was before he came to Loom, then your understanding of Fenthri ends at a rough attempt at our language.”
Cain considered her a long moment. Arianna held his golden gaze, unafraid and challenging. Let him try to dissuade her. Let him speak one word counter to her point.
But he remained silent and—dare she say it?—thoughtful.
Shortly after, Cain realized they’d strayed from the course and promptly returned her to her room. No further words were exchanged on the way, but Arianna had learned enough. Judging from the scent, the halls they’d traversed were near the kitchen, and that was not what she was looking for. She needed to pick up the metallic tang of gears and oil. But perhaps that was looking for something that couldn’t be found on Nova. They seemed to have everything but workshops and laboratories.
“Is there something else?”
Cain lingered after he’d released her illusion. Two of the fingers in his hand had broken from holding the magic for so long and they were slowly knitting back into place. “Why have you not yet tried to escape?”
“Escape to where?” If he had a genuine answer to her question, she wanted to hear it. “I can’t fly, I have no glider, no boco—”
“You escaped your room the first day.”
“Only to be returned here.”
“Then you escaped again.”
“Only to be returned here again,” she reiterated.
“I took you for bolder.”
Was there genuine disappointment in his tone? “I’m merely biding my time,” she threatened with a smile.
He faltered. That was the thing about effective threats: they must possess a grain of truth. In this case, it was completely transparent.
“Whatever you’re planning, it will not get past me.”
“Like you didn’t let me escape either of the other times?” Arianna bared her teeth at the man.
His claws shot out but retracted just as quickly. She’d punched a nice nerve. “You no longer have that machination. You will need to depart through the door—a door I guard.”
“You should pray to each of your twenty gods that’s not the case. Because if it is, it will only mean that yours will be the first heart I cut out when the time comes.”
Cain growled. Arianna’s hand was limp at her side, ready to summon her dagger to her palm. If he wanted a fight, she would give him one while there were no others to interfere. His magic flared brightly, assaulting her senses with the smell of wet earth.
But it diminished quickly, fading into nothing more than frustration and a fearsome scowl. The Dragon retreated, slamming the door behind him like a petulant child. Arianna sighed heavily, turning to the window.
She had yet to tire of staring at the sun. For all it hurt her eyes and seared her vision, she was fascinated by its circular presence.
It was also a reminder: Arianna was very far from home, and understood little of the world surrounding her.
12. Florence
The engine that was going to propel them through the dense and dangerous wood known as the Skeleton Forest had seen better days. Better years actually. Long, long-ago years. It was an old and rusted thing, paint peeled at every corner and orange lines of oxidation ran down its sides. Florence didn’t have to be a Rivet to know that the make and model dated before she was even born.
It should be in a museum, or an artifact graveyard, not the overgrown tracks they were supposed to be traveling on.
Even with her minimal training as a Raven, Florence could see the signs of wear that time had abused into the exposed metal. The cranks between the wheels looked brittle and the pistons were in no better shape. The actual Raven of their group, Anders, had been tearing out his hair over it for the past week trying to get it up to par. Florence wished he looked a little more confident now, running his final checks.
“Where did we even find this thing?” Derek asked no one in particular.
“I feel like some questions are better left unanswered.” Nora threw her rucksack into the car that would be their moving home for the next few weeks as they traversed down through Ter.2 into Ter.1. The train was only three parts long—the engine, the tender, the car—and no two parts looked as though they’d come from the same machine yard.
“Flor, come help me with this!” Anders called from the front.
Florence glanced between her chests and the direction the voice had come from.
“We’ll load it up,” Derek offered.
“Carefully,” Florence cautioned. “Or you’re going to blow us straight to Nova.”
“If there’s anything that temperamental in here, we have no chance of making it to Ter.1. I doubt this is going to be a smooth ride.” Nora grabbed for one side of the chest.
“Still, be careful,” Florence called over her shoulder, making her way up to the engine. “Anders?”