“Everyone except you, hm,” Avi tongued the inside of his cheek, as he tried to understand why. “Maybe Augustus didn’t know either? Maybe Ains wanted to keep it secret from her sibling lot, because she knew if she said anything, you’d lay siege on East Reach and only be satisfied once you got Ashcraft’s head on a pike. Which…” Avi shrugged, viciously making light of the man’s recent death.
“Honestly wouldn’t have been the worst outcome. But who knows what goes on in your sister’s head, Nora. Especially after Ainsley were handed off to that man for all these fucking years. You and me, we’re cut from the same length of rope. I thought she was too but…I don’t believe that’s true any longer.”
Avi looked at Nora curiously. “You don’t find so? That she’s changed?”
Drunk and loud, Avi crowed, gleeful at the prospect of Nora’s plan to trounce poor Alek. Whether it actually happened or not was irrelevant; Avi was just happy to share in the fantasy of violence with Nora, for what it was worth.
“Please stop!” he laughed, waving and teasing as Nora batted her eyes. “You look as if you’ve got some sort of eye affliction. Innocent coyness does not suit you, luv. Leave that to the girls the bards sing about - all that golden hair and big blue eyes. You’re my little wicked djinni girl, innit? Wild and unpredictable, just the way I like ‘em.”
Back out into the streets now, but with a purpose. Avi’s stare was hard and sharp and he was sure Nora’s was the same. People stepped out of their way, which pleased him. Avi couldn’t help thinking about Cat’s life here, the children on the streets. The brothels, with the sullen-eyed prostitutes in the doorways. Avi knew this district well enough, but imagining Cat roaming here ten years after him was…difficult.
“Your dragon’s safe, I hope,” Avi murmured. “You should introduce me one day, I’d love to meet them. Come to Rajayer, fly with the other dragons across the sea…” His invitation stopped short of a warning, after a mysterious storm attacked a dragon with lightning.
“Find your trusted mages, if you know any from your Magaesterium…” Avi recalled Josefin’s affliction. “Do you remember Riza, Ainsley’s tutor? What do you know of her? She didn’t teach you as well, did she?”
Avi stared at Nora, entranced by her words. Once she got going, it was hard to stopper her - not that Avi wanted to. He’d never seen the romantic side of Annora Amaranthe, and it was absolutely glorious to behold.
“Blimey, you’re a poet too?? That was…whew.” Avi fanned himself, grinning as he did. But he reached out to hold Nora, before she got miffed. “No - I’m not making fun of you, I promise! I only wish I had the skill to speak so sweetly about someone. I’m stealing some of that, darling.”
He shook his head though. “And then he disappears on you? You, of all people? Ivar’s fishdick - gamblers are the worst people to fall for, luv. I wish I knew what he looked like so I could hold him down for you as well.”
Avi put his arm around Nora’s slim shoulders, and added drolly, “To punch, of course, not to kiss. Not unless I get some of that action too, with the way you described him. Kata, take my breath away.”
Nora bit the inside of her cheek. She didn’t want to feel left out, or like a young child that couldn’t handle the truth. She attempted to fight the urge to pout. Perhaps she wasn’t the only one who didn’t know. Maybe their brother didn’t know either. “That’s actually what would happen. His head on a pike for all to see.” She’d never placed anyone’s head on a pike but one could dream.
“I think something like that changes you. It has to. When I saw her last, she seemed like the same woman I’ve known, but perhaps there are some things about her I don’t really know at all. Or perhaps we’re being unrealistic in thinking that the years do not change a person.” Though for Nora, thinking that maybe just maybe the years have changed her sister. It may have changed them all. “She simply seemed like my sister doting on her younger sibling. How do you find her?” She wondered.
Her laughter rang loud when he described her attempt at innocent and doe eyed. “I have to mark coy off my list of tactics.” She feigned disappointment before smiling. “Always. I couldn’t attempt to feign innocence even the tiniest bit if I tried. Wild and unpredictable is all I know.” It was true. She often didn’t find anything exciting in life if she couldn’t be wild and unpredictable. “Though that’s much to the dismay of my bonded. She likes when I’m not living life on the wildest side.”
As they walked, she smiled at those she passed, nodding in acknowledgment of those she encountered. She often saw the familiar faces in her nights out. She didn’t know them by name, but she did recognize the faces of those she often encountered nightly. Though Nora often traveled, nowhere in her own biased mind was quite like that of Red Keep.
She nodded when he mentioned her dragon’s safety. “She is. I would be even more distraught should something happen to her. I would love for her to meet you. She’s quite secretive though. It would take time for me to convince her that you mean her no harm.” Nora knew Cressida would much rather have been her human best friend to most rather than her bonded.
“Riza? I’ve met only in a few instances. She’s quite the mage from what I hear. Though I wonder if the stories from those that have been taught by her are glowing because she’s just great at what she does, or if they simply enjoy how she looks doing what she does. She seemed to truly care for Ainsley. No, no she didn’t teach me. But I’m fairly certain anyone you ask has not a single bad word to say about her. Do you know her as well?” Nora asked, not sure why he asked about the mage.
The rare sensation of heat creeping into her cheeks causing them to momentarily hold a rosy tint occurred when he called her a poet. The one thing she never spoke about was romantic love. She never even mentioned it to the man to which her heart had belonged once. “Steal away, loving words such as those would be better suited to someone that can still use them.” Nora had the out look of one and done. She’d tried love and she’d never try it again.
“Even if you held him down, I don’t think I could ever hurt him. The heart is stubborn and at times unyielding in its love no matter how much that same love can hurt.” She chuckled. “Now I would be less upset seeing that kiss.” Nora fanned herself. “My imagination is running wild and it’s all your fault,” she joked.