by T. A. White
Chapter Six
Most of the gathering was already seated by the time Tate and Dewdrop reached it. Candles glittered in several chandeliers over the table. The Kairi took up half of one side with the humans directly across from them. The Silva were on the opposite end of the table.
Jost stood at the head of the table holding a cup. He glanced at Tate as she entered and nodded toward the only open seat, one between the Kairi man she had taken the stiletto off of and a Silva woman.
Dewdrop muttered, “Good luck with that.”
He peeled away to take up a spot on the wall. She envied him. Sitting between her dinner partners was going to be an exercise in patience and perseverance.
Tate took a seat, shooting both the man and woman next to her a tight smile. The man from before gave her a glare before turning back to his dinner companion. Guess he was still holding a grudge over how Tate had disarmed him.
Tate glanced down at her table setting and bit back a curse. How many forks and spoons did one person need to eat a meal? There must have been at least three of each.
Jost raised his glass. “I thought we could toast to new relationships and the willingness to look past our differences for a compromise that is amenable to everyone.”
There was a pause as everyone glared at one another. A toast was the last thing they wanted to do, especially if it meant acknowledging the need for compromise.
Tate took her glass and raised it.
One by one the others followed her, though more than one grumbled. She didn’t care. She just wanted to get through this evening without things devolving into a massacre.
Observe, her ass. These people were a hair away from attacking each other if they couldn’t even find it in themselves to participate in a simple toast. They’d have no problem getting rid of her along the way.
Jost gestured to someone at the door. Suddenly they were surrounded by servants carrying plates and setting them down in front of each guest.
Jost took his seat and started chatting with his companions, one was Tala, the female Silva. The other was Ronald, who didn’t look thrilled to be sharing Jost’s attention.
Tate couldn’t hear what was being said. She was too far down the table for that. She settled for listening to her companions.
The Kairi at her side spoke in hushed tones to his neighbor. The language he spoke was lyrical, rising and falling like the ocean in a soothing cadence. Tate imagined it made the perfect lullaby.
“Little lizard, I almost didn’t recognize you all dressed up,” the woman next to her said.
Tate choked on the bite of salad she was pushing into her mouth. Salad, bleh. She only ate it when there was nothing else offered. Normally it tasted like dirt and left her hungry. This one wasn’t too bad. It had a tangy citrus dressing and a nice crunch that made it almost bearable.
Tate looked at the woman. She wasn’t the only one almost unrecognizable.
Gabriella was among the group of Silva she’d argued with the day before. Her wild look hadn’t been tamed so much as refined to a lethal edge, sharpened and honed until she radiated a fierce air of mystery.
Her wild multicolored curls, full of browns, golds and blacks, had been partially pulled back from her face in a series of tiny braids and left to curl down her back. Her amber eyes were highlighted by an artful application of paint on her eyelids and kohl to her eyelashes. She wore a golden torque on her throat and an arm bracelet on her bicep in the shape of a howling fairwolf, one of the great beasts Tate had only heard stories about.
She was beautiful, but it was a sharp kind of beauty that could rip your throat out while smiling.
“I could say the same for you,” Tate said.
Gabriella dipped her head in acknowledgement of the compliment. Her smile was missing the sharpened incisors from yesterday. Today her teeth looked normal. Tate took a sip of her champagne while thinking. Perhaps, like the claws, the fangs came and went. Maybe in a transformation similar to Tate’s when she took Ilith’s form but less all-consuming.
“You are the witness for this debacle?”
Tate nodded.
“What are your thoughts so far?” Gabriella asked, her voice a smooth purr.
The Kairi next to her moved. She got the sense he was interested in her response.
She disregarded her first two observations, having a feeling they’d get her in trouble with at least one of her seat companions.
Finally, she settled on something generic and bland. “It has been an interesting evening. Everyone seems to have very strong views.”
There. Nothing in her statement invited offense. Being diplomatic and on her best behavior was difficult. She’d gotten out of the habit and the skill was very like a muscle that atrophied when not used.
Gabriella gave an unladylike snort. “What a perfectly unremarkable response. Come now, surely you can do better than that.”
“It is to the Witness’s credit that she has mastered the art of diplomacy. If only others at the table were so skilled, perhaps we could actually accomplish something during this mediation.”
Gabriella shifted forward in an aggressive movement, almost brushing against Tate. “And maybe if you cold, unfeeling bastards were a little more direct, you wouldn’t act like a poker was shoved up your ass every time someone opened their mouth.”
“And if your kind acted a little less like the beasts the Creators modeled you off, we would not find so much objectionable.”
Tate leaned back as a growl spilled from Gabriella. The two glared at each other across Tate, their eyes locked. Tension practically dripped from them.
Dewdrop stepped into view on the other side of the table and gave her wide eyes, saying without words that she needed to do something. She gave him wide eyes back, asking what he expected her to do. His look said figure it out.
She picked up her fork and bent forward, getting between the two and their stare off. The heat of their glares drilled into the side of her head as she forced another piece of lettuce into her mouth. She chewed, not tasting the food as she thought of a way to distract them from their hostility.
“The weather has sure been hot lately.” There, conversation about the weather should be harmless enough. “Every time I step outdoors I feel like I’m going to dissolve into a puddle of liquid.”
There was a distinct pause as both transferred their glares to Tate. She tried not to let it bother her, but it was like being glared at by two lions upset that she’d interrupted their meal.
She kept her face politely interested as she waited for a response. None came.
“What is the weather like where you’re from?” she asked Gabriella, hoping that the question would defuse some of the tension. At least with these two. The rest of the table would have to figure it out on their own. Tate was only one person. She couldn’t fix the increasing hostility wafting from the rest of the diners.
“It’s more humid than this,” Gabriella said.
More humid? It’d be like wading through soup.
“At least in parts of our homeland. There is a desert to our south that some of the clans claim is much more arid. And hot,” she continued.
“And you, sir? What is your home like?” Tate couldn’t remember the Kairi’s name, if he had ever given it to her.
“It is similar to Aurelia, though perhaps a little less hot.”
Tate felt a spark of relief that they’d responded.
“I hear the Kairi have an island nation,” she said.
“We hold a chain of islands. Not just one.”
“The Silva’s territory is the largest of the three people’s,” Gabriella said, giving a superior smile.
“Only in actual land mass,” the Kairi inserted. “Our islands span thousands of miles. It is much more beautiful and varied than the pile of dirt the Silva claim as their own.”
Gabriella bared her teeth, her fangs on full display, in a sharp toothed smile. “Only to someone with no taste or appreciation for the beauty of a jung
le that goes on for weeks, or the harsh splendor of the Deiron mountain range. Even the Catsinth desert has its own desolate beauty.”
“All things that have nothing to do with the Silva. The Kairi at least have attempted to add to the beauty that is inherent in our islands. Your jungle and mountains do not compare to the hanging gardens of the Kooi or the way the plum blossoms look in spring.”
“It sounds like both places would be worth a visit someday,” Tate interjected before they could continue comparing which place was better. “I’ve never heard of any of those places.”
The Kairi male gave her a disdainful look. “The Kooi gardens are renowned over the world for the ingenuity and the planning it took to build them.”
Tate squashed the defensive words that wanted to fly out of her mouth and gave him a strained smile instead. She could see how the Silva had trouble dealing with his people. He seemed determined to find offense in everything she said.
A snort of laughter escaped Gabriella. “Perhaps your monument to your gardeners is not as famous or beautiful as you were led to believe.”
The Kairi got an offended look on his face, like someone had just goosed him, before turning with a huff back to his meal.
Assured that the two wouldn’t come to blows anytime soon, Tate sat back as a server appeared to take her salad. Almost immediately it was replaced by a bowl of green liquid. Tate eyed it, feeling even less thrilled than she had about the salad.
There were several powerful, wealthy people in this room and this was the best they could do? She could have gotten better at pretty much any food stall in the Lower.
She dipped her spoon in the soup and let it dribble off in a sluggish stream. She tasted it, unsurprised when it was cold on her tongue. It didn’t taste bad, but it wasn’t something she’d go out of her way to eat. It also was not going to do much to keep her from getting hungry two minutes after it was gone. She prayed this wasn’t the last course or she’d spend the rest of the night starving.
“I am told that your bond with your dragon is still new,” Gabriella said. Her nose wrinkled after a mouthful of the soup. She set her spoon down and sat up straighter. Seeing the question on Tate’s face, she said, “I asked around after our encounter yesterday.”
“And what did you find out?” Tate was curious to know what information was out there. As far as she knew, her presence as a Dragon-Ridden wasn’t widely known.
“Surprisingly little since you are the first to bond in the last century.”
“Why do you say that?”
“People have begun to suspect that the days of dragons bonding with any of the peoples are over. Your arrival should have generated ripples that reached all the way to the Silva homeland. Yet we never would have known had we not encountered you and saw the dragon for ourselves. Why is that?”
She’d known her arrival was important to Ryu and his government, but she didn’t know how important. Perhaps this conversation could shed a little light on the questions she had.
“Why would anyone care whether a new Dragon-Ridden had stepped onto the stage?”
“Because people like to know when the balance of power shifts. You’re a weapon. One that has no known loyalties yet. It would be only natural for those that wish to curry favor to seek you out and those who see you as a threat to make plans. News should have spread far and wide as soon as you took the dragon as your bonded.”
A weapon. That confirmed what Tate had suspected. The classes on everything under the sun. A useful weapon was a well-rounded weapon. The more you knew; the more you could do. Whether that be leading armies into battle or attending a high stakes negotiation. Knowledge was power.
“Have you met other Dragon-Ridden before?” Tate asked. The only one she’d met was Ryu, and he wasn’t exactly forthcoming with information. Like how to transform without putting her life on the line, or what it was like to fly.
“Once. When I was a child.” Gabriella’s focus turned inward as if she was remembering something she’d rather forget. “It was a memorable meeting.”
Tate had the feeling she shouldn’t pry, even though she wanted to. She was burning with questions and every time she learned something new, there were just more questions.
She changed the subject. “Do you think the negotiations will be successful in finding a satisfying solution?”
Gabriella frowned. “Unlikely, but your negotiator has succeeded in other far more difficult situations.”
“Jost?” Tate asked before she thought better of it. She didn’t know what name he was going by here, but she doubted it was a name associated with his pirate persona.
“Is that what you call Lord Dampier?”
“Yes.” Tate was grateful for the save.
Lord Dampier? That sounded very official and noble. Tate looked across the table to where Jost was listening to Ronald speak with a thoughtful look on his face. In this setting, garbed in an outfit that probably cost as much as Tate had made in her entire eight months of service on his ship, she could imagine him as a nobleman. Little remained of the pirate she had assumed him to be.
It made her question which version was the real Jost. Pirate or nobleman or spymaster? Perhaps the answer was all.
Her bowl was whisked away to be replaced by a plate of chicken smothered in a dark brown sauce, roasted vegetables and a mashed red paste. The smell set Tate’s mouth to watering.
Gabriella fell on her meal with a level of enthusiasm that had been missing until now. Tate followed her example, pleasantly surprised at the flavors that burst in her mouth. This was the type of meal she had expected.
Several minutes passed before Tate tried to restart the conversation.
“I heard earlier that your people believe that the discovery and all inside belongs to you.”
“It’s a sacred site.”
“That you didn’t even know about until the Academy’s scholars uncovered it,” the Kairi male on Tate’s left said.
His plate had fish and a salad that looked a lot like purple seaweed to Tate.
“As I was saying, our ancestors left records. Our doyenne believes that the tunnels and room they discovered dates back to shortly after the war with the Creators. If that is the case, it means the find, and everything in it, belong to the Silva.”
The Kairi’s grunt of derision made his thoughts clear on that assessment.
“What makes you think that the site in question is the one your records point to?” Tate asked. She kept her voice curious and not at all judgmental, wanting details without angering Gabriella or anybody else. “I assume if you didn’t know about it until now, that the records are not clear about its exact location.”
“Exactly,” the Kairi said.
Tate looked at him out of the corner of her eye. He and his partner were listening intently to this conversation. The humans across the table also seemed focused on the discussion.
Gabriella frowned at the Kairi before she said, “We weren’t looking before. There are many records from that time. The site seemed unimportant until the Academy went looking where it had no business being. We were content to leave our ancestors in peace without disturbing their last resting place.”
“What a load of bullshit,” the human across from Tate said.
She blinked. That wasn’t the type of language she would have attributed to any of those at the table. Except maybe Gabriella. She seemed the sort to say exactly what she was thinking.
“It’s not bullshit,” Gabriella defended. “There are more records than we can easily keep track of. There isn’t time to go digging all over the place. Some records describe burial sites or are of little relevance to today’s society. We will not disturb our ancestors for what amounts to a treasure hunt. Unlike some.”
Her pointed look at the man made it clear who she meant.
The man’s hair was long and tied back from his face. He had a beard and his clothes weren’t quite as nice as the rest at the table. He had the faintest rough around the edges look
as if this wasn’t his world but he’d made an effort to blend.
“And we’re supposed to believe your people aren’t interested in the greatest find of the last half century. That they wouldn’t have gone looking long ago if they’d known about it.” The man’s words were biting with sarcasm.
“I cannot control what a small mind believes,” Gabriella said, her sharp teeth on display.
“I agree with the human,” the Kairi inserted. “You must consider us fools if you think we would believe you had known about the site all this time and done nothing.”
“Why did the Academy investigate that spot?” Tate asked. “I assume they don’t just go about falling into tunnels such as these.”
“It was a happy accident,” the human said. “A farmer was trying to determine whether any of the land could be reclaimed by draining the swamp and repurposed for crops when he stumbled across the remains of an obelisk.”
“An obelisk?” Tate asked.
“He didn’t know what it was at the time. Just that it was made from the same material the ancients used to build their tunnels and many of their artifacts. He contacted the Academy with the find. They sent people out to investigate, as many tunnel systems have been associated with an obelisk.”
“You’re one of the archeologists,” Tate said. It would explain why he looked a little less at home than the rest of the nobles at this dinner.
The man nodded. “My team made the discovery. We have a vested interest in making sure it’s not covered up or perverted for another’s interest.”
By the glare he shot Gabriella and the Kairi man, Tate assumed that last comment was aimed at the two by her sides.
“It is only right that my people profit from a find discovered on their land,” the Kairi said, his voice cold.
“This was discovered on an island?” She knew very well that wasn’t the case. If it had, she doubted the academics would have been given access in the first place. She wanted to know how strong a claim the Kairi had.
“It was not,” the archaeologist said. “We found it at the edge of the Bridled Swamplands, about twenty miles south of here. Far from any island that the Kairi claim as their own.”
