Across the way, the Dokiri exchanged looks that pulled into pleased grins. A few watched and rocked gently in time with the music. Some resumed a gentler version of their dance which didn’t require them to call shouts into the cave. A few of them tried to follow what the Ebronians were doing, laughing at the clumsiness of their own attempts.
The music picked back up. Soon, Nadine could hear nothing but laughter, and the rhythm orchestrated by a savage. One she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, was watching her dance like a dragon watches his gold.
All but Nadine’s undershirt and woolen pants lay in a heap on the common room floor by the time the night’s dancing was over. She swept her damp curls off her shoulders, trying to vent some of the warm from her neck. She was still out of breath from all the dancing, and her cheeks hurt from smiling. That made her frown.
Shuraa ket.
She cast about looking for her clothes but had a hard time picking them out from among the piles of identical uniforms. Her scowl deepened when Magnus’s familiar humming came from behind her.
“I know something you would like,” Magnus said in an almost trill that sounded like Yrsa bedding down for a coveted nap.
She rounded a glare on him and resisted the urge to bare her teeth when she saw he was shirtless. Her blood hadn’t yet cooled from the past hours of watching him in the full throes of musical glory. Yudvir, the man could play like he was born to it. Had he been born in Ebron, the court minstrels would have taken him into their number before he’d been old enough to lance. Then the lancing would never have ended for him. She straightened.
“I’m tired,” she snapped.
“And dirty,” he said matter-of-factly. “Bedmeg has its own hot springs, you know. Much better than the one I took you to this morning. Some for men. Some for women.”
Nadine turned and started away from him. The reminder of that time in the springs pricked some nerve she didn’t have the energy to soothe. The wine was affecting her senses and, if she wasn’t careful, she was going to say something to the barbarian she’d regret. Something harsh, even for her. She frowned even as she walked away from him. Why was she feeling so angry? She’d had a good night. Hadn’t she?
“We even have combined springs. For couples seeking a private moment. Just think, we could pick up right where we left off before.”
Nadine whirled on him. “You mean where I explained that your people are the reason I was attacked over and over as a girl before being left to my fate?”
Magnus stiffened. The stricken look on his face shouldn’t have surprised her, but it did fill her with regret. He took a half step back and began to stutter. “I’m s-sorry. That’s not what I—”
Nadine swallowed. “Forget it. I’m going to bed.”
The Dokiri had put them up in what they called a communal bok—a place where their unmarried boys slept together in a large, pocketed cave. Apparently it was the safest way to guard those who weren’t currently on watch. Her men were already there. Nadine had stayed behind to see that everyone had made it to the appropriate place without any fights breaking out or drunken men wandering outside and passing out in the snow.
“There’s one more thing I want to show you.”
Nadine halted and closed her eyes. She didn’t turn. “What’s the point?”
She could practically hear the shrug in his voice. “You might be here a few days. And we are allies. You might as well get to know us a little better.”
It seemed a weak answer, but the mere fact he wasn’t trying too hard made Nadine consider giving in. There was some guilt for having lashed out at him. But more than that, she wanted to go with him, no matter how foolish the desire. With a sigh, she turned and let him lead her through the common area toward a winding stone path at the edge of the great cave wall.
Magnus pulled a torch from a nearby fire as they started up the path. “You dance like flame.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t try to join me.”
“You’d have run had I tried.”
Nadine snorted, though she knew he was right. She would have put him in his place, at least.
Magnus stopped outside one of the blackened holes that disappeared into the side of the cave. “I wouldn’t have risked an end to that show, mu hamma.”
Nadine put her hand near the entrance and peered into the dark tunnel where Magnus was slipping through. He didn’t turn back to make sure she was following and, as soon as she confirmed no one in the common area was paying attention, she went in after him. A faint current of air pulled her forward. The light of Magnus’s torch flickered in the narrow tunnel before spreading out again when Magnus entered a little stone chamber to Nadine’s adjusting eyes.
She stepped through the doorway into a dome-shaped pocket of smoothed-down rock that was similar to the communal bok, only on a much smaller scale. A fire pit crackled low in the ground. It cast a warm glow in the room, highlighting the natural pores in the ceiling which Nadine guessed caused a current and kept the fire from burning up all the air around them.
“How is this done?” Nadine asked, her eyes turned up to the ceiling.
“Not by us.”
“Then how?”
“The boks were made when the mountain was new. Helig—”
“—your earth mother?”
He nodded. “She released a wyrm into the fiery stone that birthed eggs all along the range. Each one hatched and crawled its way out. We sleep where the eggs were laid.”
Nadine blinked, then huffed in amazement at his explanation. The rest of the room had been made into a comfortable dwelling. A huge pallet of rich, black furs lay to one side of the room with a mountain of pillows stacked upon it. Clay basins painted in shades of crimson and purple sat near the entrance. There was a chest stacked with folded wool blankets woven in patterns that would’ve impressed the yarn masters back in Ebron. The other side of the room was rather spartan aside from a large bow that hung longways on the wall. She knew instinctively it must be Magnus’s, for no other man could possess the strength or reach to draw back such a weapon. She looked at him.
This is his home.
“Why did you bring me here?”
He drew in a breath, and Nadine noticed for the first time that trepidation flickered in those hazel eyes of his. Uncertainty. It should have emboldened her, enticed her to gain the upper hand while his weakness showed. She might, yet. First, she would see what he had to say for himself.
“I wanted you to see what it would be like to live here. All of it.”
Nadine drew back her head and opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off.
“I know it’s nothing like what you’re used to. And I can’t . . . I won’t pretend to understand the differences. What you told me in the springs was . . . ” He broke off, and Nadine cringed with anticipation. “I’d never imagined a child being raised like that. I don’t know what it does to a person, or what it would make them want out of life. But . . . ” He took a step toward her.
Nadine straightened. She tried to swallow, but her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth. When had her throat gone so tight? Her instinct was to move away from him as he drew nearer, but she wouldn’t run. Wouldn’t show her fear. And what she was feeling? It was fear. She stopped breathing when he lowered his voice to a murmur.