Free Land of Night by Kirby Crow Page A

work, so I haven't been hungry."
    Liall grinned meaningfully. “Food is fuel, and we have burned some since we arrived, I do believe.” His good humor seemed to have returned and he grinned at Scarlet boyishly. “Try some of this,” he said, and speared a bit of fish. He held it out to Scarlet at the end of a fork. “It is especially good for you during the winter, when the sun does not shine."
    Scarlet leaned forward to take the morsel between his teeth. He chewed thoughtfully. He thought he would never touch salted fish again, but this was tender and smoky and quite good: leagues away from the leathery, cured fish they had on the ship.
    They worked their way through the rest of the food in companionable silence. Scarlet did not like the eggs with the sauce on them, but the meat was good, and the porridge with thick, rich cream. The pastries were sweet, but he liked more savory foods, and the fish remained his favorite.
    "Now that is a proper Rshani meal,” Liall finally pronounced as he sipped at a steaming cup of che.
    Scarlet was so full he was afraid he would roll if he got up. He told Liall as much, and the prince laughed and made a joke in Sinha that Scarlet understood a little of, save that it was crude. He kicked Liall a little under the table. Nenos came in as Liall was feigning hurt and the old man chuckled and shook his head. Nenos gestured to the servants to clear and left them alone again.
    Scarlet sipped his che. “I will be useless as a pedlar if I get used to luxury."
    "Scant luxury in the Byzan hills,” Liall agreed, but not unhappily.
    Scarlet glanced at the thick, silken-soft wool of the draperies and the warm furs piled on the couch. “If only your people were not so determined to stay isolated. I've never seen such fine things, not even in Morturii. If only they would trade with us."
    "We do some trading with the Minh, mostly through the Morturii in the port of Sondek, and on the other side of the channel with the Volken and the Arbyssians."
    "Why not with Byzantur? I find it odd that so many of the royal court speaks Bizye, but there are no Byzans here and you do no trade with us."
    "It is a long story. Ask me some other time,” Liall evaded, draining the last of the che from his cup. “Perhaps in the future, Rshan and Byzantur will be reconciled. For now, I must go."
    "And secure Cestimir's future?"
    Liall froze, and then turned to Scarlet with a hard line etched between his white eyebrows. “Someone has been talking,” he said.
    "It's no more than every housewife in Rshan knows, according to Jochi."
    "I will have a talk with Jochi,” Liall said ominously.
    "You're being a want-wit,” Scarlet said, putting his cup down and rising. “I can see keeping some things from me, secrets and the like, but you're taking it too far. What are you afraid I'll find out?"
    Liall looked like he had been struck. “I am not ... afraid. I am merely protecting you."
    "For Deva's sake, from what?” Liall's reaction puzzled him. “Liall,” he began, but Liall abruptly turned away and went into the large cupola adjacent to the bedroom, a dressing room he called it, and set about garbing in his court plumage: a long, sky-blue silk virca that hung in folds around his knees, a gold ring in his ear and more on his hands, and a necklace dripping with crystals that Scarlet swore belonged on a woman. Liall had to tuck his homely necklace of a leather thong strung with two cheap Byzan copper coins inside his virca to wear the crystal necklace, and the very sight of those coins made Scarlet wistful. Scarlet had given them to Liall to pay for his toll through a bandit road. He longed to see Liall again as the man had been on the Nerit: a bandit atya with a tribe of Kasiri at his back. That Liall had been rough and arrogant and ill-mannered, but Scarlet was beginning to believe he preferred a bandit to this cold prince.
    "Now that you know why I am here,” Liall said distantly, smoothing his silken clothes. “You