"Before," Kelryn said, apparently concentrating more on the need to sound casual than on keeping the story as plausible as possible. Then, seeing a need to explain the oddity, she added, “Our families moved together. Our mothers were distant relatives and close friends. I have a brother Sudian’s age…"
A serving maid approached, a plump teenager with long, dark hair tied away from her face. Kelryn broke off and became suddenly intent on the newcomer, using the interruption to escape the need to create a lifetime of history from air. "Good evening.”
"Good evening, lady," the youngster returned. She took a position between Kelryn and Edward, then curtsied. “Good evening, noble sir." She ignored Nightfall. Servant livery tended to make a man invisible, a benefit in Nightfall’s mind. "Today we have mutton cakes, venison stew, roast pheasant in gravy, and shark steaks. What can I get for you?"
Edward and Nightfall had eaten in so many inns where storage and hunting determined the fare, the choice caught them without opinion. Kelryn, too, remained silent longer than mannerly. The cook in the dance hall surely made a single dish, each meal depending upon available supplies. Likely, however, she had had rare occasion to dine here. Nightfall had also done so, in "demon" guise and as Balshaz the merchant. From experience and gossip, he knew that seafood carted up from the south tended to age more before preparation than the hunted or farmed animals in Noshtillan. He had also learned that Heffrilen’s cook’s talents fell short when it came to spicing fish.
Nightfall broke the silence. "Kelryn, I know your likes and dislikes. Might I suggest the shark steak?"
Kelryn glanced at Nightfall, obviously surprised to find him talking to her. "Thank you, Sudian, but I’ve had my heart set on fowl. I’d love to try some of yours, though." She rescued herself from bad food, placing the onus back on Nightfall at the same time.
Nightfall gave her the win, having little at stake in the verbal spar. Though he knew Edward’s order should come next, he responded to the attention of companions and serving maid, now directed toward him by her comment. “Kelryn, my dear. After our fishing trips on the Lixdar River, how could you forget that eating shark makes me ill? I’ll have the mutton, if my master will forgive my selecting before him."
Prince Edward made a gracious gesture of dismissal. "If you recommend the fish so highly, Sudian, I guess I’ll have it."
Nightfall stiffened. Rescuing his own taste buds had proven easy. Saving the prince would likely become more difficult. "Please, Master. Don’t go by my advice." He tried to look stricken, keeping his voice low. "If your taster gets sick, how will you know…?"
Edward returned his squire’s gaze, brows raised in question. Nightfall had not insisted on testing his food for poison for some time.
Nightfall kept his return stare earnest, hoping Edward would attribute his resurgence of paranoia to the sorcerer rather than Kelryn.
A light dawned in the prince’s eyes, and he smiled at the serving maid. "I’ll have the pheasant, too, please. And a glass of your best wine for each of us."
The server gave Kelryn an envious look that spoke volumes. Her sigh told Nightfall that she wondered how a dance hall girl snagged a prince as handsome and polite as any storyteller’s hero. She trotted off to fill the order, and conversation fell once more to Prince Edward.
"Families so close they move together.” The prince returned to the previous conversation, to Kelryn’s obvious chagrin. "Sudian must have seemed like another brother."
Kelryn glanced at Nightfall who returned a glare in sullen silence. Everything about the current situation irritated him, from the need to guess Kelryn’s motivations, to the prince’s dutiful kindness to one he believed his squire’s friend. Trapped into breaking bread with an enemy, he felt as restless as a child getting lectured, and the serving maid’s assumption that Edward and Kelryn formed a couple raised an anger that seemed dangerous and sourceless. Apparently taking its cue from Nightfall’s consideration of Kelryn as a threat, the oath-bond maintained a steady, head-jarring ring.
Kelryn gave the only safe answer. "Oh, very much so. Like a brother, but without the competition for my parents’ attention. In some ways, he seemed more brother than my brother."
Edward folded his napkin onto his lap and tried to draw Nightfall into the conversation. “And you only said you grew up with her. Was she like a sister to you?"
Nightfall replied dutifully. "Yes, Master. A sister.” He copied Edward’s table manners since he had never been trained to have any of his own. Few places wasted cloth on linens, and it never occurred to him to place one on his lap.
When Nightfall did not go on, Edward pressed. "Tell me what it was like. Growing up together, I mean."
Kelryn also directed her attention to Nightfall, letting him play featured speaker this time.
Nightfall shrugged, in no mood for chatter, especially happy lies. "Master, there’s nothing to tell. Really.”
Prince Edward shook his head, grinning even as he dismissed his squire’s detachment. "Has he always been like this? Modest, I mean. He didn’t even mention to anyone that he saved my life."
"Yours, too?" Kelryn joined the conversation with all the eagerness Nightfall lacked. "He killed a snake that tried to bite me once. A poisonous type. Grabbed it with his bare hands, killed it, and continued a story he was telling without missing a word."
Edward gave Nightfall a pleasant look that both admired and condemned his squire’s humility.
Nightfall shrugged. That incident had happened, though only a few years ago. And, to his recollection, the topic of conversation had remained the snake for quite some time afterward.
The prince turned back to Kelryn. “I got caught in the middle of a bar fight. Sudian grabbed a dagger intended for me in midair. Nearly lost his fingers.” He nudged his squire. "Show her, Sudian."
Obedient to his master’s command, Nightfall gave Kelryn a quick glimpse of the scar. She cringed in sympathy, though whether unconscious or feigned, Nightfall did not try to guess.
"If he makes you his friend, you never need to doubt his loyalty," Kelryn said, the statement sounding ludicrous to Nightfall from the mouth of a traitor. Forming bonds had always proven difficult or impossible for him, and only his friendship with Dyfrin had lasted.
Prince Edward agreed heartily. "Loyal to me before himself. A rare and special squire, indeed.”
Nightfall glanced around the tables at the other patrons, uncomfortable with Edward’s heartfelt but ignorant praise and Kelryn’s fake allegiance.
Kelryn smiled, her plain features alight and almost beautiful in the lantern glow. Even the sunken eyes and bloodshot whites that evinced fretful nights seemed to disappear. "Then you must be very remarkable yourself to earn such treatment.”
"Thank you."
Nightfall believed he saw a reddish tinge to Edward’s cheeks. He hoped but doubted conscience was the thing disturbing Kelryn’s sleep.
Having found a familiar topic of conversation, Kelryn stuck with it. "Sudian always protected me. For instance, he hated that I used to sometimes have to sleep with strangers for money. He’d spread rumors that I had the clap so men would stay away."
"Really." Edward’s tone went thoughtful, and he glanced at Nightfall.
Caught in a lie, Nightfall avoided the prince’s gaze and wished the night would swiftly end.
But it did not. Late evening chased into night, and the conversation scarcely seemed to change. Each of Nightfall’s companions extolled his virtues while he sat in a bitter silence interrupted only by the occasional need to address a direct question. He kept his replies clipped, monosyllabic when possible, and avoided lengthy explanations or descriptions. The food arrived. Nightfall ate quickly, hoping to set the pattern for the meal and the night. But Kelryn dined with her usual slow elegance, and the prince appeared more interested in conversation than food. It seemed an eternity before Prince Edward left to tend to payment in private, leaving Nightfall and Kelryn alone.