Free A Memory of Fire (The Dragon War, Book 3) by Daniel Arenson Page B

toward the fireplace and soon flames
crackled, filling the room with warmth and light.
    "You are a legionary,"
Rune said, looking around the chamber. "I thought you would
live in a fortress, surrounded by blades and shields."
    Tilla locked the door behind
her, then began unbuckling her armor and hanging the pieces on pegs.
    "The common soldiers do.
I'm an officer. I'm the officer who saved Shari's life." She
gave a rare, crooked smile. "Some comforts are allowed for me
here in the capital. The house is mine. When I asked to be
stationed in Nova Vita, the Cadigus family bought it for me, a place
of my own outside my barracks."
    Rune wondered who had lived here
before Tilla, and if Cadigus had truly "bought" the place,
or if he'd made the previous occupant conveniently vanish.
    "Why did you bring me
here?" he asked, hearing the bitterness in his voice. "To
gloat? To show off your comfort while I languish in a cell?"
    Her eyes flashed with rage, then
softened, and she sighed. She unbuckled her last plate of armor and
stood before him in a woolen tunic. Suddenly she looked so much like
the old Tilla—Tilla Roper from Lynport—that Rune could almost smell
the sea.
    "Not to gloat," she
said. She began to load a plate with bread slices, slabs of ham,
cheese, and grapes. "To share this with you. Come, sit with me
and eat."
    The armchair was wide enough for
two. Tilla sat in one corner, the plate on her lap, and patted the
space beside her.
    "Will you unchain me before
our meal?" he asked, standing before her.
    "You know I can't. Not
yet. Sit by the fire with me. Eat and drink with me. Please."
    He wanted to refuse. He wanted
to barge against the door, break it open, and run into the street.
Yet he doubted he was strong enough. He was barely strong enough to
stand. He was too famished, too thirsty, too tired. He sat by her
in the armchair, his wrists still bound behind him, and let the
flames warm him. It was a tight squeeze. Pressed against him,
Tilla's body warmed him as much as the fire.
    "It's a bit hard to eat
with my wrists chained," he said.
    She held a grape up for him.
"Pretend I'm not your jailor, but your beautiful serving girl,
feeding you grapes in luxury."
    "Is that a joke, Tilla?
You can joke at a time like this?"
    "Eat . "
    He could not refuse it. He
needed this food. He took the grape into his mouth, chewed, and
swallowed. The juices flowed down his throat, sweet and healing. He
had never known food to taste this good.
    They ate, the fireplace warming
them. Tilla held out pieces of cheese, ham, and bread for him, and
he ate those too. He drank wine from her mug.
    "It feels almost like the
old days," she said. "Sitting by the fire at the Old
Wheel."
    He swallowed another grape and
looked at her. She stared at the fire, her face golden in the light,
as if lost in memory.
    "I thought you didn't like
to remember," he said.
    She looked at him, her eyes
soft. "I always remember, Rune. Always. I never forget. We
can have a life again. Together. Here in this home." She held
his knee and leaned closer, bringing her face but an inch from his.
"I spoke to the emperor about it already. He will let you live
here with me." A tear trailed down to her lips. "You and
me together again. Always."
    He looked away from her at the
crackling fire. "And at what cost? I would have to serve him."
    "You would. You would join
the Legions. You would train. The training is difficult, but you
will survive it, and I will be there, watching over you. You will
fight for Cadigus, a soldier like me. You will raise his banners and
bear his sigil. You will hail him in the days like I do. But at
night, Rune... at night you can come back here to me."
    Suddenly the food tasted stale.
    "I cannot serve him,"
he said. "How can you serve him, Tilla? How can you wear that
armor? Bear the red spiral? Worship the man who killed my father,
who burned our home, who crushes Requiem under his heel?"
    "Because I want to live!"
She grabbed his cheeks and forced