Never After

Da

As if he couldn’t help himself, Harwin looked directly at me. His face was so wretched that I actually felt pity for him. “Don’t be silly,” I said softly. “Accept his help. Maybe you’ll be able to save his life a couple of days from now, and then you can feel better about it.”

That made Da

“That already feels much better,” he said. “What did you do?”

Darius laughed and kept manipulating different sections of the foot. “Magic,” he said. “My greatest strengths are in altering the basic structure of things. So I can turn a butterfly into a bird, for instance. Or I can change a broken bone to a whole one and an infected patch of skin to a well one.”

“It is a most useful skill,” Harwin said stiffly. “I thank you for using your talents on me.”

“I always enjoy the chance to put my magic to use,” Darius said. “It’s like swordplay. If you don’t practice your skills, you lose them.”

Da

“I was in a hurry,” Harwin said. He was looking at me again.

I sniffed and tossed my hair. “I suppose you told my father you were coming after me,” I said. “Maybe he even suggested it.”

“I had no conversation with him at all,” he replied.

He didn’t say anything more, but I could read his tone. Harwin had never openly criticized my father, but more than once I had been convinced that he had a low opinion of how my father ruled his kingdom. I knew Harwin had hated the idea of the competition, but I figured that was just because he had so little chance of wi

Considering who might have won, I had to agree.

Darius stood up and ran his hands lightly over the wounds on Harwin’s upper body, while Da

“Thank you,” he said, smiling down at Da

She patted his knee and came to her feet. “There. Now we don’t have to worry about you dying before you can challenge my brother for Olivia’s hand.”

He actually laughed. “It is kind of you both to preserve me for such a future.”

“You deserve to have your life saved, since you saved another man’s life two days ago,” Da

“You saw that?” Harwin asked, gazing up at her. “I didn’t realize the actions inside the arena were that plain to spectators outside it.”

She glanced briefly at her brother. “I had reason to be paying close attention. I thought you showed honor—and bravery.”

Harwin shrugged. “Hard to exhibit either quality in a competition that possessed neither.”

“Well, I observed you, and I was impressed,” Da

He bowed his head and made no other answer. I shifted uncomfortably where I sat. I had seen his act of courage as well, but it seemed awkward and insincere to add my own praises. Oh, yes, now that you mention it, that was a very noble thing to do. It was very a

“Well, that’s as much as I can do for you,” Darius said, stepping back. “How do you feel?”

Harwin rolled his shoulders experimentally, and the muscles on his chest briefly stood out in relief. “Extraordinarily improved,” he said, standing up. I noticed that Darius looked quite short next to him—although Harwin looked even plainer next to Darius. “You must let me buy di

“Excellent,” Darius said. “I’m starving. Let’s eat.”

4

The Wicked Stepmother

The meal was more convivial than I would have expected, for either the act of kindness itself or the sheer relief at being out of pain had served to make Harwin more outgoing than usual. He asked Darius and Da

“I do not think I would have learned half so much if I had passed twice as long in any of those places,” I said in an undervoice to Darius.

He was finishing up his second beer, and I held out my glass to silently ask for a refill. I still didn’t like the taste, but I didn’t find it quite so unpleasant, and I did enjoy the way it softened the harder edges of the day. “No, everything that she says comes as quite a surprise to me,” he said airily. “Now, what I noticed while we were in Newmirot was how the women wore their hair, with ribbons braided into it right around their faces. It was so colorful and lovely.”

I felt a moment’s flash of stupid jealousy. “And I suppose all the women in Newmirot were very pretty?” I said.

He smiled and tipped his glass against mine. “All women are pretty in their way,” he said, “but you are the most beautiful of all.”

I laughed, but even that was not enough to earn me more than a glance from Harwin. He didn’t seem to care that I was getting along so well with my fiancé; he just returned his attention to Da

As I had expected, sharing a bedroom with Harwin was even stranger than sharing one with Darius and Da

I woke up once, abruptly, when Da