“If an Ouphe blessed even so much as looked your way, it was because of who you flapped with,” Dri points out, and Sice lifts his metal cup and thunks it with hers.
“Ain’t that the truth,” he agrees, and they both crack up again. “It’s good having friends in high places,” he adds taking deep pulls of his drink.
I chuckle, enjoying the back and forth between them. I pick up my cup and sniff it before taking a hesitant sip. Oh thank fuck, it’s meade. I release an appreciative moan that sends Sice into a choking fit and Dri into a round of giggles. I lift my stein in the direction of the guard who procured it for me and throw my head back and down the contents. The group of guards bang their metal cups on the table in approval and cheer when I hold up the empty cup victoriously.
“The good days, before the wars, when us feral boys stalked mischief and hunted danger,” Sice poetically recalls as I sit back down.
“Hunted danger?” Dri teases. “More like your keepers cleared away any threats, while you boys frolicked around none the wiser, trying to bed girls and climb ranks that were already laid out for you like stepping-stones.”
Sice chuckles. “Don’t let Ryn or Lazza hear you say that,” he jokes, and my ears perk up at the sound of familiar names. “The only one of us to earn a place is Zeph, and look what he did with it,” Sice adds, and Dri immediately sobers and shushes him.
She looks around us, clearly checking to see if what was just said was overheard.
“Watch yourself, Sice. You know what just speaking his name will get you, especially now when the best of us are out there fighting,” Dri warns him.
“Oh cum on the lot of ’em,” Sice declares, but he drops his voice just as he was told to do. “I know who he is now, but it doesn’t change who we all were growing up. You’d think we all grew in the same womb and suckled from the same tit, we were that close. Lazza, Treno, and Ryn can pretend it never happened, but we all know the truth,” he grumbles quietly.
“What do you mean?” I ask, not able to curb my curiosity.
Sice and Dri both look up at me at the same time as if they had forgotten I was even there. Sice’s gaze immediately takes on a guarded glint.
“Nothing at all, milady,” he states, pushing out of his chair, his empty mug in hand.
Dri and I both watch him make his way to the bar in silence. She turns back to me, her stare appraising for a beat before a resolute gleam enters her eyes.
“Your connection to the Altern means it’s probably right for you to know some of the history, no matter how much others may wish to bury it,” she declares, taking another sip of her meade and scooting closer to me.
She runs a hand over her short cropped hair, and her deep purple eyes look around the room once before deciding we’re clear. Eager interest sparks through me as Dri leans closer. I know I’m about to be let in on some grade A juicy gossip, and I’m so fucking here for it. I clear my throat and try not to look like some excited psycho as I play with the handle of my cup and wait for her to spill the tea.
“Sice’s family was very affluent. He grew up rubbing wings with the Syta’s family, the Commander’s family, and the family of the leader of the rebels we’re currently at war with,” she tells me on the faintest whisper.
I lean in slightly to hear her better and ignore the goose bumps that rise up on my arms. My white hair falls forward, curtaining us and giving us even more privacy.
“They were the best of the best of our kind. They practically bled magic and ability, and were the hope of our people after thousands of years of slavery.”
Dri pauses to take a sip of her drink, her eyes far away and her tone hollow.
“The problem was that over time, very different opinions of how to lead our people into the future took root, and a crack formed in the foundation of what we were trying to build now that we were free people again. The boys were young and more interested in their urges to fight, rut, and play, but their families were quick to destroy all of that.”
Loud laughter from a table in the corner catches both of our eyes, and then we settle back down into our whispers.
“Lazza and Treno’s parents struck out at anyone who didn’t agree with their way of thinking. No one saw it coming, but they must have been planning it for some time, because in just one night, anyone who wasn’t for keeping the vow mark was either dead or imprisoned. Many were left broken, Ryn’s family, and Zeph and his brother among them.
“The people for the Vow thought that would be the end of it. They expected the show of power to put people in their place, but they forgot who gryphons are in their core. Plans for retaliation simmered under the surface of the forced peace, waiting for the spark that would light everything up.”
Dri stops talking suddenly like the words in her mouth burn and hurt. Unease trickles through me, and I know the next part of the story won’t be sunshine and rainbows.
“Zeph’s brother, Issak, wasn’t the same after what happened to their parents. They would have been better off if they had been banished or something, but instead, they were forced to spend every day under the boot of the rulers who had destroyed everything they had. They weren’t imprisoned. They were beaten and forced to live life like nothing had happened. Lazza, Treno, Ryn, Sice, Zeph and Issak were tutored together, trained together, took meals together.
“It was as though the leaders for the Vow thought that their bond would erase what had been done to them. Then one day, Issak tried to kill Lazza. He snapped under the weight of it all and almost ended the Syta. In response, Lazza’s father had Issak publicly beaten and his wings sheared off. Our people were all forced to watch. No one was exempt from witnessing them mutilate a boy who had once been a representation of hope to our Pride...and then out of nowhere, they slit his throat.”
I bring my hands up to my mouth, shocked and appalled by what she’s saying. I thought it was bad when Zeph explained to me what had happened to his family, but to hear these added details...it’s infinitely more horrifying.
“Zeph fought to get to Issak, to hold him as he died, and that was the spark that set everything alight. It was too much, too brutal, too close to what we had just fought to free ourselves from. Battles broke out everywhere. There were gryphons fighting to protect Zeph, to protect what his family stood for, to return the violence that had been acted out on too many families in the dead of night.
“It was chaos, and everyone lost someone that day. The rebels fled when they couldn’t completely beat back the Marked. It was brothers against brothers. Families divided and fighting each other. There was never going to be a winner no matter what happened, but the Hidden were born, as were the Avowed. We’ve been killing each other ever since.”
Dri empties her stein and stares off at nothing, her gaze haunted. I sit there, silently reeling, and try to make sense of everything she just told me.
“But why the separate sides? What Lazza’s family did was wrong,” I state, not making sense of why anyone could have sided with them.
Dri chuckles humorlessly.
“If it were only that simple,” she states flatly. “You see, it started with people who cared more for power than for what was right or wrong, but it has morphed into more than that now. Atrocities have been meted out by both sides. Lazza and Treno’s family have been systematically slaughtered. Ryn lost his sister, and the rest of his family slowly took each other out too.