Alessa poured tea from a floral patterned teapot, the hand-painted blossoms dancing their way around the pot, cerulean on cream. The amber liquid steamed and Blayre leaned over her cup, savoring the humid warmth that rose to meet her.
Alessa's rooms as a whole had an exotic feel, as though the young woman were trying to create an environment for herself, reminiscent of the time she had spent growing up in the south. The furniture was classic and native to the Capital, but she had accented the sitting room with brightly woven tapestries and various pieces of artwork. A richly beaded curtain hung over what Blayre assumed to be the door to the bedchamber. Sticks of incense burned in one corner of the room, giving off notes of jasmine and citrus, and making Blayre grateful that summer was so near.
"So," said Blayre. She felt as though she could recline in the cushioned chair and sleep for hours in the comfort of this room. So it was best to get straight to business. "What was it you wanted to speak with me about?"
Alessa seated herself in a chair adjacent to Blayre. The raven haired woman trailed a golden-ringed finger around the lip of her teacup, gathering her thoughts. Alessa had changed into more comfortable clothing - a diaphanous set of blouse and trousers in plum chiffon over black silk. Blayre looked at the outfit with envy, pulling at the hem of her own uniform which seemed very stiff and constricting in comparison. Perhaps she should have taken Alessa up on her offer to shop back in Port Roubeles. She was itching to get out of this uniform.
"Rory doesn't like Duke Lonan, and he has good reason not to." Alessa said directly. Her hand wrapped around her teacup and she crossed her legs. Dark eyes met Blayre's amber ones through thick lashes. "If it had been up to Lonan, both Rorrick and Briannon would have been sent to his holding in the South to tutor for at least a few years. Briannon went, but Rorrick's father in the Jeweled Isles refused. My father says that Rorrick's mother, Mireah, and Lonan had been intended at one time, but she met Governor de Vihrea at her brother's coronation ball and ran away with him soon after." Alessa gave a wistful sigh and then took a sip of her tea as if it were the most romantic thing she had ever told anyone.
Blayre raised her eyebrows. This had apparently been the court's best kept secret. She'd never heard this story before, and briefly wondered if it were true, or if Alessa just had a flare for the dramatics. Ainslee would have been soaking this stuff up like a rain-saturated blanket.
"So you're saying that one or both of them still holds a grudge?" Blayre asked. It wasn't the story she had been expecting. Not after how ominous Alessa had made it out to be.
Alessa's eyes widened in seriousness and she nodded, "It caused a major rift in the court - the fact that Rory didn't get a 'proper' upbringing in Emares."
"But the Jeweled Isles are part of Emares." Blayre argued.
Alessa looked at her as if she were daft. "They're a territory. They're not the mainland. Lonan thought it was a slight to himself and to the King that Mireah only allowed Rorrick into the capital for brief times after his initial schooling. Mireah was the apple of her brother's eye. While he would have loved for her to marry his best friend, he wanted her to be happy. Happier than he ever was in his marriage."
"Mireah didn't come in for her brother's funeral. Do you think she will attend the coronation?" Blayre asked.
Alessa leaned back in her chair, stretching her arms behind her. "My father thinks she will. I think she didn't have enough time to get here for the funeral. Travel from the Jeweled Isles takes time by both sea and land."
Blayre nodded, sipping her nearly forgotten tea, and savoring the warm liquid with it's hints of cinnamon and orange zest.
"So you haven't discussed the matter with Rorrick?"
Alessa laughed, musically, "My dear, you should be the first person to know that Rory and I are not that intimate."
"Well..." Blayre could feel a flush crawl up her neck.
"Outside of the public eye, we don't even spend much time in each other's company."
"He mentioned that you weren't interested in each other, but I just assumed it might come up."
Alessa snorted, and Blayre hid a smile. "I'm not really interested in his personal life. He's not really interested in mine. I'm willing to put on a show for the time being, but I've got my sights set on someone else entirely. Rory isn't exactly my type."
Blayre, who struggled to keep her feelings in checked every time she thought about the handsome duke, had to wonder how he could manage to not be someone's type. She chose not to pry for who this other interest of Alessa's was. Alessa seemed the type to not hold back if she wanted you to know something.
"Hungry?" Alessa asked, standing and smoothing the chiffon of her outfit. "I'll call for a bite to eat."
"Always." Blayre replied with a smile, realizing she liked Alessa more than she had anticipated, now that she'd given the young woman a chance.
****
That night, Blayre tapped her foot to the lively rhythm of the music playing in the Divine Sword. She and Fletcher watched on as Ainslee and Seaver danced jovially, their feet moving in a lively cadence on the wood floor of the tavern. The merry lilt of the fiddle and drums created an energetic feel that had everyone in the place moving.
"Come on!" Fletcher yelled to her over the sound of the music. He was standing in front of her, his hand outstretched.
"No, Fletch." Blayre said, resisting. She maintained that she hated dancing, though her body betrayed her as she swayed to the beat.
"More whiskey then!"
Blayre rolled her eyes but laughed and allowed her friend to drag her from her chair to the bar where Fletcher called for two shot glasses of the amber liquid.
It wasn't the best whiskey in the city, and it went down with a fierce burn that sent flames through her insides, but once it had settled, her resistance to the dance floor had as good as deteriorated and she followed Fletcher airily to the floor where he spun her into a folk reel.
Ainslee and her brother were still dancing away, and Seaver flashed her a grin as he swung Ainslee around in a circle, her red waves flying in the breeze they had created. Their faces were flushed from exertion, and Blayre had not seen Ainslee in such a lively mood in weeks. Though things remained awkward between them - Ainslee had yet to formally apologize for her behavior, Blayre was happy that she was no longer in the line of fire.
A tingling sensation filled the room suddenly. Familiar and welcome. She turned toward the door to see Caval enter, dressed more casually than usual for him, but still more fine than anyone else in the Divine Sword. No one but the servers seemed to notice, but she saw their heads perk up and read their lips as they intoned that the dark skinned southerner clearly had money.
Blayre flashed a grin and waved at the mage, and Fletcher yanked on her arm to bring her back to the present. "I'll be right back!" she shouted to him, pushing him toward a fawn-haired girl in a goldenrod dress.
"And where were you this morning?" She demanded with a grin as Caval approached.
"Oh, just doing a little of this and a little of that. Reading up on some things mostly." He followed her to the bar, and when she ordered them drinks, his gaze moved to the dance floor.
"I seem to remember you telling me once that you didn't dance."
"I danced with you that night." Blayre argued, "It's on my brother's tab," She said to the crimson-lipped bartender who nodded with a wink and left them to their drinks.
Caval snorted. "If you call that dancing."
"Well," She gestured to the floor. "I'll dance with you now if you'd like."
His rich baritone voice let out a hearty laugh, "While I feel that I should not pass up the offer, I actually had something that I wanted to discuss. Ripley said I might find you here. And he thinks that taverns are a good place to discuss important matters."
Ripley, how did he know?
Caval must have read the look on Blayre's face for he interjected "He's good at keeping tabs on people. A regular spymaster."
Blayre rolled her eyes and pushed her drink further away. She was feeling tipsy as it was, and if Caval had something pertinent to tell her, she'd better not hear it in a complete drunken stupor - though it took her mountain blood more than a few drinks to get completely inebriated, something she and Seaver had always prided themselves on when sneaking drinks from the store rooms in Blumore.
"I would have to agree with him on the matter of the tavern. With a crowd this loud, no one's going to overhear."
"Especially not if I use anti-eavesdropping charms." Caval waggled his perfectly manicured eyebrows and reached into his pocket.
"A powerful mage like you needs charms?" Blayre asked, all innocence and sarcasm.
"Hmph," Caval said. "For a Seeker you apparently don't know much about your quarry."
She wasn't sure how to take that comment. She of course knew all about charms and how mages often stored their energy into them at times when they had reserves to spare. They could then use the charms later on without draining their magic. But what was Caval getting at? A respectable mage, next in line to be the Crown Sorcerer, couldn't be sympathetic to the unmarked ones.
"So what did you want to share with me, oh great one?"
"Well," Caval pulled out a roll of parchment. "I was reading a dusty old history book - and I tell you, the thing has not been touched in years. Caked in a full half inch layer of dust. At any rate, I came across this." He unwrapped the parchment on the table, revealing a faded map. "Were you aware that your mountains were once home to the last dragons?"
"Well, I'd heard the servants and the townsfolk tell stories, but I had assumed that's all they were."
Caval pointed to a spot on the map, labeled in a set of characters that Blayre could not read. "According to this, a massive dragon burial ground is located on this part of the mountains. Perhaps this is where the crystals are coming from."
Blayre was silent for a moment. Her head still light feeling, and lips still tingling slightly from the whiskey. But she'd heard him. It would explain a lot, but..."How do we know this book is real, and not just a dragon tale, like the ones my grandmother concocted for me and my siblings?"
"We find out by going there."
A/N: I want to start a little bit of a shout out to some Wattpad books that I'm currently enjoying! So while you wait for next week's chapter, I wanted to take a moment to recommend Ever So Lightly by @Paisleypikachu. She updates weekly and it's a really unique fantasy with another awesome heroine - if you love Blayre, I think you'll like Zephyr as well :)