"When do you ever?" He handed the parchment back to her. "Food's ready."

"Yeah, all right." She looked at the other papers she'd set aside. "I think I'll bring these as well." She scooped them up and put them into her travel bag. "Just in case."

Izzy followed eibhear back to the hall, but she stopped and closed her eyes. "Gods . . . that smells wonderful."

"I had to go with boar. There was no lamb."

"I'm so hungry I don't care."

"No wine either. I looked everywhere."

"Oh, I know where that is. He hides it."

"Hides it? From who?"

When she stared at him, mouth open, he nodded. "Right, right. His own offspring."

Izzy went to the closet buried deep in Bram's library where he kept cases of wine and ale and pulled what looked the most interesting. When she returned, the food was on the table and a fire was going in the nearby pit. eibhear had also put out plates and utensils, their chairs cattycorner from each other.

"Will this do?" she asked, figuring the royal would have a better understanding of wine and ale than she.

eibhear took the two bottles from her and blew the dust off them. Then his eyes grew wide when he looked at the seal. "Gods, Izzy. This is my grandfather's."

"Ailean?"

"We can't take these. It's probably all Bram has."

"You mean except for all those cases he has in the library closet?"

"He has cases of my grandfather's ale?"

"Aye."

"That stingy bastard. It never occurred to him to share?"

Izzy took the bottles back and placed them on the table. "Apparently not with you."

"This isn't to be wasted on the meal," he said, moving the bottles away from the plates and moving a carafe of water closer.

"If it's not for the meal, then what's it for?"

eibhear grinned. "Dessert."

"Have you talked to Talwyn?"

Talaith watched her friend. Annwyl had been so quiet lately. Not like her. It wasn't so much that she was a boisterous monarch. She wasn't. But she wasn't so quiet either. So removed. It was like she was waiting for the other boot to drop.

And maybe she was right to be feeling that way. Although Talaith had her own concerns with her child, the Kyvich weren't one of them. As mortal enemies of her Nolwenn sisters since the beginning of time-at least that's what she'd been told from birth-the Kyvich tolerated the presence of her daughter but didn't engage her.

Although the last couple of years, the leader of the Kyvich squad would sometimes watch Rhi. Not as she watched Talwyn, with pure calculation. Instead, Talaith saw concern on the commander's hard face. Which worsened as Rhi's power became more and more obvious.

sta saw Rhi as a threat, of that Talaith was sure. Another reason why Talaith was beginning to think that sending her young daughter to the south might be the best answer for all.

"Talk to her about what?"

"About her relationship with that Kyvich bitch?"

"What is there to discuss? sta and the others are her protectors. Of course she'll feel close to them. They were here when I wasn't."

"Don't," Talaith said, pointing a finger. "Don't you dare go down that winding road, my friend. Sacrifices were made those years by us all-and for damn good reasons. So I won't hear you put yourself down or elevate those cunts because of what you had to do to protect your children. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, yes, you do," the Southland Queen said quickly, her lips twitching as she tried not to smile.

"Good, good. Now if you want, when Izzy gets back we can talk to them both together."

"Gets back from where?"

"She went to Bram's home to get some documents he forgot. That dragon would forget his head if it wasn't attached."

"She went to . . ." Annwyl snorted a little, looked off.

"What?"

The queen rubbed her nose, shook her head. "Nothing."

"What?" Talaith pushed, her butt wiggling in her chair. "Tell me!"

"I, uh, asked that boy, Dagmar's nephew, if eibhear was coming to evening meal tonight and he said he was going to Bram's castle for some reason. He didn't know why. I just assumed Bram forgot something again."

"Does . . . Izzy know that?"

"Doubt it."

Talaith stared at her friend until they both began laughing, so hard and loud that Talaith began to cough and Annwyl cry. It was so bad, Briec walked in, watched them for a few moments, then walked out again, slamming the door behind him.

Chapter 16.

Izzy pushed her empty plate away and, realizing she couldn't avoid it anymore, lifted her gaze to the dragon sitting quietly to her left.

"All right, fine," she finally admitted. "It was amazing."

eibhear patted her hand. "I know that hurt to admit."

Swatting at him, Izzy pushed her chair back, stood, and turned so that she could sit on the table, her legs hanging over.

"Do you have something against chairs?"

"They're confining."

"So's the army."

"That's a confinement I've never minded." She pulled one leg up, tucking the heel against her inside thigh, her body turned enough to look at eibhear. "Truly, though, that was delicious."

His smile full of pride, eibhear nodded. "Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Now, maybe you can tell me what the battle-fuck is going on."

eibhear watched Izzy's defenses immediately come up. Like giant brick walls. "Going on about what?"

"I'll admit, I've not been part of the day-to-day of my kin in quite some time. But I know when something is going on, Izzy. That, I'm afraid, has not changed. And something is going on. And I think you know it."

"Is that why you followed me here? Because you think you can bully me into telling you that which my father and uncles will not?"

"I would never try to bully you to do anything. I would, however, try to cajole and lure. Perhaps lull . . ." He thought a moment. "Is that wrong?"

She stared at him, but did not answer.

"I promise," he went on, feeling a sense of hope from the small smile he saw, "the last thing I'm trying to do is bully you or anyone else. But I want to know what's going on. It's clearly upsetting you and worrying my brothers. My brothers don't worry about anything. They're soulless bastards. I love them," he added, "but they're soulless bastards."

"They are not soulless bastards and you know it."

"Tell me what's wrong."

"Why?"

"Because this is my kin and no matter what my brothers think, I do care about what happens to them."

Izzy's anger eased away, but her defenses were still up. Still ready. "Why would they think you don't care?"

"I don't know," he said, shrugging. "It just seems the decision to make me part of the M-runach has disappointed them."

"Who told you that lie?" When he frowned, she added, "Anytime they talk about you and your barbarian friends-"

"They're not barbarians."

"-all I hear is awe mixed with a bit of fear and a good dose of concern."

"Concern?"

"For your safety. For your life." She leaned in a bit, hands clasped in front of her. "Is it true you go into battle without armor . . . without weapons?"

eibhear leaned back. "What?"

"Naked? Just your claws?"

"Wait, wait, wait." eibhear rubbed his face. "We're warriors, Izzy. Not insane." Gods, what had his brothers been telling her? "We wear light armor and, depending on what our assignment is, sometimes no armor. But we're always armed. More armed than anyone else I know."

"And do you drink the blood of your enemies? And wear their heads as totems?"

"No! What did my brothers tell you?"

"Actually, that last bit was Celyn."

eibhear rolled his eyes. "Figures."

"It's not true?"

"The M-runach have come a long way over the centuries."

"Which means . . . what?"

"We don't drink the blood of our enemies or wear their heads as totems . . . anymore. And I've never done any of that."

Her eyes narrowed as she studied him. "Do you smear the blood of your enemies on you?"

"Sometimes," he snapped, frustrated, "but I don't want to get into it. I can't get into it. There are some sacred rites we still perform that are none of your business. Or the business of my brothers."

"Hhhm." She thought a moment. "Fair enough."

"Look, Izzy, we're what you would call a . . . strike unit. We come in, usually under the cover of darkness, and kill either someone specific or as many enemy soldiers as we can. As you can imagine, full dragon armor or human armor for that fact, would not be in our best interest. So we protect our most important bits, arm ourselves to the fangs, and do what we do best."

"That's a good job for you then," she said after a moment of quiet.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you're a chameleon. You can move around without being detected in the dark or during the day, yeah? But all that armor makes quite a bit of noise, which would defeat the purpose of being able to blend into your surroundings."

Shocked, eibhear stuttered, "Wait . . . what are you . . . I don't know what you . . ."

She waved his attempted lie away. "I know, eibhear. I've always known."

"How could you know? Who told you?"

"No one told me. I can see you."

"Wait." eibhear took a breath, confused. "What do you mean, you can see me?"

"I can see you. I've always been able to see you." She chuckled. "The first time, I thought you were mad. You were creeping around, stepping around everyone. You looked absolutely insane. But then I realized it wasn't that the others were ignoring you. . . . They couldn't see you. But I could. Don't worry, though," she added. "I've never told anyone. About you or Gwenvael."

"Gwen-Gwenvael's a . . ."

"Oh, shit. You didn't know?"

"Does he know you know?"