Sworn To Another

Chapter 4: What the Corridor Saw

I avoided him for three days in the corridor, which was far easier to decide than to actually do.

It wasn't that I was being difficult, per say—the castle was large, my schedule was busy, and Kael was a considerate man who wouldn't likely invent reasons to cross my path as I sometimes might have done in his place. I could see him, though, in places I would not normally have noticed before — the training yard I took care to avoid, the east corridor I walked the long way round, the unreadable mask he wore when official business brought us together in the same room and I took great pains not to look at him at all.

Prince Corin, meanwhile, made my life easier by being genuinely pleasant. He brought me out for walks in the gardens, asked me thoughtful questions about Virell customs, and even managed to make me laugh, twice, in a manner that had nothing to do with the carefully practiced courtly amusement I was expected to wield at all times. I found myself strangely grateful to him, even as I realized he did little to distract me from Kael, because the sensation of the wedding approaching was less oppressive when there was another man - another option - waiting in the wings.

"...More settled," my mother observed, on the fourth morning, as she watched me finish my breakfast with the satisfaction of a woman who knew she had been right. "You seem...more settled."

I made no effort to deny it, because it hardly seemed worthwhile. Besides, it was not entirely untrue.

It lasted until the fire.

It began in the West Wing, hours before dawn, and by the time the alarm bells began ringing the castle was already thick with strange acrid smoke, most notably in the lower servants' quarters, where half the household had gathered to watch the conflagration from the safety of the courtyard. I found myself there as well, bundled up in borrowed robes, watching the angry red glow flicker against the West Wing windows as servants and guards formed a makeshift bucket brigade to put it out. I felt rather than saw Kael come up beside me, his voice quiet with something close to irritation as he took in the scene.

"You're not supposed to be out here without an escort."

"Neither are you, apparently, since escorting doesn't seem to be anyone's priority at the moment." I gestured vaguely at the courtyard. "What happened?"

"Something else, probably." His jaw was tight as he watched the fire eat through a second story window. "Old stores, dry wood, an overzealous servant...a number of perfectly reasonable possibilities. I'm just waiting to hear which one of them turns out to be the most inconvenient."

"Something else meaning what?"

"Meaning the Draven envoy arrived nine days ago, and some of this castle's inhabitants would very much like them to leave." His mouth twisted. "Fires that break out in empty stores at dead of night are distressingly common when one considers the number of people who would benefit from them."

"Distressingly common?" I echoed. "You think this has happened before?"

"It has, unfortunately. Someone - not the prince, as far as I know - has taken rather an interest in making sure the union between Draven and Virell goes as badly as possible."

"Is that your official report?"

"It's my unofficial report, Miss Elira." He gestured to the space between the second and third floor where the fire had begun. "You are to stay behind me, watch the well, and wait until I finish checking the perimeter before you even think about coming back."

"I'm coming with you."

"You are not." His voice was steel. "Now let go of my sleeve, Miss Elira, before someone sees it."

"I'm not going to let go of your sleeve!" I hissed, and felt him stiffen with something close to alarm beneath my fingers. I let it linger, for a heartbeat or two, before I relaxed my grip. "If someone planted that fire to distract us, the last place I want to be is standing around waiting for it to be put out while my entire household watches. It's the safest place for me to be is at the side of a man who's vowed to keep me safe."

He was too surprised to argue properly, and merely looked at me in that assessing way he had for a long moment before shaking his head, almost in amusement. "You stay behind me," he said finally. "Follow my instructions to the letter." He gave me a long, measuring look. "I'm assuming Elira Virelli is capable of doing that."

"I'm assuming Guard Kael is willing to take it." I smiled, faintly, and let it slide off my face as quickly as it came. "There's a first time for everything."

A second, almost smile ghosted across his own face before he turned away, and I followed, my cloak trailing behind me as we walked along the courtyard towards the burning wing. We were nearly to the servants' entrance when he paused, a look of something like surprise crossing his face as he halted. I had only a moment to look around before he pulled me down beside him, behind a short wing of the building. His hand went to my waist, light but insistent.

"Quiet."

I waited while he peered through the space between the building and the courtyard. For a long moment, I could see nothing but the glow of the fire, until my eyes adjusted to the shadows and I caught sight of two figures slipping away along the corridor. They moved with the ease of people who knew what they were doing, their movements careful and deliberate, but they wore no livery, and their faces were hidden beneath dark cloaks. They passed within a handful of feet of us before they disappeared entirely behind a corner, and I felt Kael stiffen as he watched them walk, unhurried, into the darkness beyond.

They were gone when he exhaled, a long slow sound that might have been a sigh. I was still very aware of the pressure of his fingers on my waist, and a small, foolish, traitorous part of me wished desperately that he would not move for a moment longer, that he would not remind me, as he was about to do, that this was not the right time or place or any number of other things that had nothing to do with the fact that I wanted him to stay right here and never leave.

"They're gone," I whispered, when the sound of their footsteps had died away.

"I know."

His voice was quiet, and he did not move. I could feel the heat of his gaze in the near dark, and something inside me snapped at the distance in it, the careful restraint, because it was the same look he had worn all those weeks ago in the gardens. I knew what he was going to say, knew it with the same certainty I had known it when he had first looked at me. I would have laughed about it, if it had not been so terribly inconvenient that I nearly choked on it.

"Elira, I need you to tell me to let go of you," he said, very quietly. "Because I don't think I'm going to manage it on my own."

I should have told him. I saw, with terrifying clarity, where this was going, because I had been there in my mind a hundred times before, and I knew what it led to, the inevitable conclusion that neither of us wanted to reach until the night of the wedding, when the whole castle would be watching. I knew my mother's voice in my ear, telling me to keep my chin up and smile, that I was receiving, and that I would be presenting soon as well, and I knew Corin's eyes waiting on the balcony for my answer no matter how that night ended. I should have told him, and I almost did, because it was the right thing to do, and because it was the only thing I knew how to do.

"Kael-"

But it came out a bare breath of sound, his name, and his fingers dug lightly into my waist, and his forehead pressed against mine, and maybe I would have answered him, in the way he wanted, if it had not been for the noise that made. I felt something inside me uncoil, something dangerously close to regret, and his breath against my cheek, and the knowledge that it would be all right, that nothing would change, that nothing ever did, if we just walked away now from this moment, this impossible, wonderful, impossible moment. If we let it slip away and pretend it had never happened, because it could not have, because it was not the right moment or the right place or any number of other perfectly reasonable things.

It was the shout from the courtyard, calling for more buckets of water, that made us finally, reluctantly move. I was the first to step back, because Kael was still watching me with that strange, unreadable look in his eyes, as if he did not quite know what to do with himself, and I had no intention of being alone with him in this place. He followed, slower, looking almost confused as he watched me turn back towards the courtyard.

"We should go while we still have the chance," he said eventually, as we stood in the mouth of the corridor, peering out at the conflagration. "Before someone notices we're both gone."

"Yes." My voice did not quite sound like my own. "We should."