Thorne (Random Romance) (5 page)

She gestured for me to follow her out into the night. I couldn’t think of how not to follow, so I followed. Feet clipping against the cobblestones, I took a breath of warm night air, willing my heart to slow. I couldn’t for the life of me work out why this woman wanted me in her home, or why in the world I was going along with it.

People skirted widely around us, not wanting to get too close. We walked towards the towers and the ocean. I recalled Winn telling me last night that the twins came from the cliffs. But that memory made me think of the cave, and the ropes, and the children risking their lives simply to earn that smile of Finn’s. It was glorious, but it was not worth dying for.

‘This must all be very strange for you,’ she commented.

‘You have a beautiful country,’ I murmured. ‘I am fortunate.’

Finn glanced at me, lips twitching. ‘You don’t have to be so polite. There are no royal officials around, waiting to report you.’

‘I was taught that manners show respect.’

‘And who taught you that?’

‘My ma.’

‘The two of you must have a wonderful time, being polite to each other.’

I didn’t bother replying – not if she was going to mock what she didn’t understand. Finn brought me to the edge of the cliff and through a small iron gate. There were steps carved into the side of the cliff. Finn and I descended these a few levels, then turned left to follow a winding path. The view was stunning, even more so than it had been last night, because now the sun was casting a brilliant golden glow over the sea. There were people everywhere – sitting out on their porches, enjoying the sunset, singing and playing music. Children careened along the stone paths and there were crowds of families down on the sand, taking advantage of the perfect summer night. Smells hit me – salt, seaweed, fish and spices, a heady mix that made me hungry and calm at the same time.

I was struck by how beautiful it all was. The sense of community that filled the cliff side was something I’d never come across before. I now understood what Ava had been trying to create in the fortress for the last twenty years – a place where people shared laughter, food and music.

The only problem here seemed to be me. Wherever we walked people stared at me with anything from wariness to open hostility. Finn greeted them all, completely ignoring their expressions. But I couldn’t move past the notion that there was danger in the air, and that I had brought it with me.

Finn stepped up onto the porch of a small house. It had no door – rather, the entire front was open to the spectacular view, and I had the sense that you could walk out and drop right off the edge of the world without meaning to. There was nothing to stop you, nothing to catch you. I wondered how her parents had managed to raise children in such a dangerous spot and a shudder went up my spine as I accidentally moved too close to the edge.

The front half of the house was an open kitchen and living room, and like most houses in Kaya, its roof opened up into the sky. Even though the house was small, it felt spacious.

Finn loped inside to greet her family, who met her with a great eruption of noise and laughter. There were three men – her twin brother, the small red-haired boy I’d seen at the race, whom I did not think related to her by his scent, and an older man who was clearly her da by the look of his face. I stopped and watched, feeling like an unwanted intruder – like their bright, physical warmth should remain untouched by the one who lurked in the darkness.

The boys caught sight of me and stopped dead.

‘What’s the matter, Highness?’ Finn asked innocently. ‘Is our house too small for you to fit within?’

I cleared my throat nervously and gave a quick bow of my head. ‘Greetings.’ I edged forward slowly, not wanting to alarm anyone.

‘Who have you brought, Finn?’ the older man asked, his eyes searching my face warily. He looked tired and haggard, and stood with a clear stoop to his back.

‘My name is Thorne, sir. If it’s not appropriate for me to stay I will leave.’

‘Don’t be stupid,’ Finn said with a roll of her eyes. ‘They just feel emasculated by you, Thorne.’

Embarrassment sliced through me, but her family ignored the comment, obviously more accustomed to her careless barbs.

Her da’s name was Alexi and he spent the next hour in the kitchen, calling for his children to smell or taste something for him, and demanding they explain the results in terms of colour, which I didn’t understand in the least. I sat quietly at the table and listened, bewildered, to Finn saying things like ‘that one tastes of smoky autumn’ or ‘this one’s too hazel’ or ‘can’t you put more sky in it?’

Her brother was called Jonah, and though I could see uncanny similarities between them – the quickness of amusement and the sharp cleverness – I could also see the stark contrasts. Where she never stopped
moving, he was still. Where she was loud and full of laughter, his smiles were soft smirks and he seemed more prone to gravitas. Where she gave voice to everything on the tip of her tongue, he held his, and I found myself liking him more with each moment that passed. If it were not for the cold gazes he sent my way, gazes unmistakably tinged with white, I might almost have been able to pretend I was welcome here.

The little red-haired one was Penn, and I saw from my first glimpse of his eyes all that was missing from his mind.

‘Your hand is huge,’ he said as he shook it, unable to look into my face.

I simply nodded, because it was huge. It made Finn grin, but I kept my eyes on the boy. He was covered in freckles and he had deep chocolate eyes that watched my body with an odd kind of awareness. The top of his head barely reached my ribs.

‘Have you ever killed anyone?’ he asked me next and I felt the blood drain from my face.

Finn smiled; her teeth looked almost sharp in the candlelight.

‘It’s a fair question,’ Jonah agreed, eyes hard. ‘Go on, Majesty – answer him.’

I didn’t look away from Penn, nor did I say anything. I might not have been good at lying, but I was very good at keeping silent, and if these people thought they could earn my secrets with little more than probing gazes and disconcerting confidence they were mistaken.

Penn read my silence, and I knew he knew the answer without me having to say anything anyway. ‘Fish for dinner!’ he announced excitedly, and the moment dissolved.

The wooden dining table was carved through with all kinds of sea creatures. Penn sat beside me and traced the grooves cut into the wood absently, as if he’d done it a thousand times and his fingers had been born to fit within them.

‘Here’s where the sea ends,’ he pointed out. I looked at where the grooves ended with the wood, as if the world had dropped away into nothingness.

‘Here’s where the sea ends,’ he repeated, and I nodded. ‘Here’s where the sea ends.’

Jonah sighed. Finn sat opposite me and watched my face, waiting to see if Penn’s repetition would make me uncomfortable, as I assume it did most.

‘How many times must you say it?’ I asked Penn.

He looked at me, surprised. So did the others, for that matter.

‘Seven.’

‘Four more then.’

Penn finished and fell silent.

‘How many pictures are there on this table?’ I asked him.

The boy’s eyes lit up. ‘Thirty-four,’ he answered proudly. He started counting them for me, pointing out each one with relish. I listened carefully and didn’t interrupt him.

When Penn was done, I asked, ‘Do you live in the cliff?’

He nodded, less excited.

‘How many steps away?’

And just like that, he was bouncing in his chair with uncontained delight. ‘Four hundred and twenty-two. That’s if I follow the path, but when I go over the roofs it’s only two hundred and twelve.’

‘Do you count birds as well?’

Penn shook his head, looking thoughtful at the idea. ‘Crabs,’ he explained with a grin. ‘But birds is a good one. There are plenty around here.’

‘Finn and I saw a pelican on the way. I reckon you could have fun counting those. How many types of crabs are there?’

As Penn launched into an explanation about all the different kinds he’d read about and then spotted, I realised Alexi was standing in the kitchen,
listening. Finn and Jonah were both watching us. I knew about counting: I fell asleep each night to the soft sound of it coming from the next room.

When the meal was served, Alexi said a prayer. ‘We give thanks to Agathon and we honour all those lost in his name.’

It surprised me – Agathon was the first warder of Kaya, the man who’d forged the bond back when the world was young. It seemed very strange to me that a family would worship him like a God, when he had brought them insurmountable pain. Then again, it wasn’t my place to understand Kayan ways. And I had witnessed first hand how much love existed between bondmates. After all, I was on a mission to preserve what Agathon himself had created.

On my plate was a whole fish, its black eye gazing sightlessly up at me. It had been stuffed with something, and the smell of it was delicious – it had been way too long since I last ate.

‘What’s wrong?’ Finn asked me.

‘Nothing at all. I apologise, I was just … I’ve never eaten fish whole.’

She laughed as though this was hilarious. ‘Pick the flesh off with your fork, like this.’ Reaching across the table, she deftly dissected the fish for me. I caught the scent of her and it made something inside me far hungrier.

I put a piece in my mouth and was instantly stunned by the flavour. It was full and spicy and creamy. Everyone at the table laughed at my expression.

‘It’s amazing,’ I told Alexi, who nodded as though this was obvious.

‘It’s Da’s famous spiced cod,’ Finn explained.

‘Famous spiced cod,’ Penn agreed around a mouthful.

I grew quiet, enjoying my food and listening to their easy chatter. Alexi wore a wedding ring, but no one mentioned a wife. He wasn’t eating his own food, nor did he smile once, and I saw Finn watching her da at regular intervals, her expression unreadable.

Penn was mostly quiet, focused on his food. A few times he said ‘famous spiced cod’ under his breath, and I watched him out of the corner of my eye.

‘So, Your Majesty,’ Jonah said.

‘Please, call me Thorne.’

I watched his face. I could see in this boy a kind of bristling protectiveness. This was his house, his family, and it was his sister who had brought me here to threaten all of that. I understood. It was natural to protect what was yours.

‘Why are you here, Your Majesty?’ he said pointedly.

I glanced at Finn. There would be no help there; she seemed to enjoy my unease.

‘I’m here for the treaty, Jonah.’

‘So you say. But do you know what they’re whispering about you in the city?’

Not again. I cracked my knuckles under the table.

‘They say you’re a spy, come to take all our secrets home to your berserkers.’

I wished they’d come up with something a bit more imaginative. My eyes grazed each of their faces and it occurred to me suddenly that this had all been planned. I’d been brought here into the lion’s den to be interrogated by this strange little family. Irrational anger bloomed in my chest, mostly directed at myself. Of course the girl didn’t have any other motivation to invite me here. She simply wanted to poke at the bear through the bars of his cage.

‘What do you think a berserker would want with a Kayan’s secret?’

No response.

‘I haven’t come to spy, or to hurt any of you.’

‘Then why?’ It was Finn this time, and there was something hard in her voice. ‘Why come here?’

The strangest words bloomed in my mind and mouth just then, but I bit them back, utterly bewildered by them.

Instead I said nothing. I would not repeat myself. If anyone in Pirenti treated a man this way they would probably wind up dead or brutalised. Obviously, Kayans didn’t understand when they were offending a person’s honour.

‘He can’t bring himself to lie,’ Jonah declared.

‘I must excuse myself,’ I said, rising. ‘I thank you for the meal.’

They watched me walk to the door in silence, and then she called, ‘Wait.’

I wanted to leave without doing as she’d asked. I wanted never to see her again. But I turned and met her eyes across the room, bound by some strange power she’d cast over me.

‘Forgive us. We don’t mean to frighten you away.’

A part of me hated her, which was strange because I had never hated anyone in my entire life. Well, except for my da. But this girl seemed to effortlessly bring out all the worst parts of me.

‘We’ll see you at daybreak.’

I frowned. ‘Why?’

‘Because you’ll be travelling with us to Sancia.’

My mouth opened but nothing came out.

Finn of Limontae stood and moved a few paces closer to me. In the candlelight she looked dangerous, her eyes glistening with something reckless.

‘It’s why you’re really here, Thorne of Araan. To break the curse of the bond. I want the same end. We might as well travel together.’

And I realised that what I’d thought in the cave was right – she simply wanted danger in her life, wanted adventure and strife and excitement. Which was why the words I had nearly replied were so ludicrous.

She’d asked me why I’d come here, and I’d very nearly replied,
for you
.

Finn

When I was five and my eyes changed for the first time to black, I asked Ma what it meant.

‘It means you have a soul, my love,’ she had answered.

I hadn’t understood at the time, only when I got older. She’d always tried to teach me that it was as important for our eyes to turn black as it was for them to turn yellow and blue and red and green.

But she hadn’t understood what that meant, not truly. She didn’t understand that the colour of loss, the colour of death, was unbearable, because she’d never had any cause to understand. When she was gone, I made up my own mind about a soul. About what it needed. I wanted no shame in my eyes. No fear or pain or hatred. And I certainly didn’t want loss.

But that didn’t stop my eyes from turning black more than any set I knew, for what Ma had neglected to tell me was that black was also the colour of wanting. And when a soul was too big for its body, that soul sustained itself by yearning for things.