Chapter Thirty-Two

Devona waited until she could hear the soft sounds of slumber from her mother's room across the hall. She couldn't even gather the excitement of being naughty at this point, having done this same flight from the homestead in the depths of night several times.

Normally, Coran would have left some sort of signal to meet him at their hideout... usually a nondescript courier delivering a seemingly innocuous message to his betrothed that her mother would more than gladly allow her to receive. This time he didn't... but she knew he would be there anyway. He was every year on this night.

After all, it was his birthday.

Devona didn't slink through the mostly empty streets of Rin... she had learned on her first foray that to do so only drew suspicion from the city guard. The best course of action was to pretend that you had every right in the world to be where you were at that point in time. It also kept them from following her around... which was a good thing as Coran and her were running out of hiding places.

This particular place made her slightly nervous, as normally they had some secluded, mostly closed off hideway to duck into… their current meeting point was very much in the open, outside the limits of the city in fact on the boundary of the Green Hills countryside. They would have been clearly seen at the top of the first significant hill looking out towards the Great Northern Wall, visible due to the watch fires along the top of the massive structure.

Of course, Devona had to admit it made the young prince rather easy to find, staring morosely off in the direction of the wall, even though the warrior in training was reasonably certain Coran wasn't so much looking at the wall as through it into space.

Every year at this time, she thought she knew everything there was to know about the significance of this day to the prince she was bonded to, and every year, she was proven wrong. She had learned that contrary to the official story, the queen had died shortly after Coran was born, she hadn't lived long enough to hold her youngest son even once. She learned that Rurik had felt Coran had killed their mother for the longest time, torturing and mistreating the younger son at every possible opportunity until wisdom finally came with adulthood. She learned that the King had blamed himself, insisting that the queen take that fateful trip from Drascir to Rin, where she went into labor. She could only wonder what would be disclosed this time.

Sitting down, and bumping his shoulder with hers jolted him from his stoic vigil. "I hate my birthday."

"I know… it brings up all sorts of bad memories and bitter stories." Devona replied, hooking one arm across his waist comfortably.

"The nobles were asking my father about when I was going to be bonded. My coming of age isn't far off, they say."

That froze the young woman. "Oh. The king… did he…?"

"No, he didn't reveal that I was already bonded." Coran answered, causing Devona to sigh in relief. "My father merely said that he would make that decision when it was best suited for me and the young lady I would eventually marry."

Coran kicked at a stray pebble that had been dislodged from the soil as Devona had sat down. In the darkening night, he watched it tumble to the base of the hillside. "But now that the topic has been breached… the nobles aren't going to let it go. Every other day, some duke or lord is going to conveniently have reason to bring their oldest unattached daughter to the palace, and happen to 'introduce' her to me."

Devona discovered she did not particularly like that prospect at all. "If… if you want… you can tell them about… you know…"

His right hand fell on hers, which she discovered she was wringing nervously. "I don't want you to do that. I understand you're about to be accepted into the officer's corps. Besides, I wouldn't exactly have to pretend I'm not interested."

"You sound so certain."

"I don't know any of those prissy noble girls. From the short encounters I have had with them, I'm not sure I want to, either. I certainly can't trust them… there looking for a quick step up the social ladder… they wouldn't even be interested in an honest friendship if my father wasn't the king. Why would that be appealing to me at all?"

Devona laughed softly. "I sometimes forget that deep down, you aren't all that different from anyone else, prince or not."

"It's easy to forget." Coran snorted disdainfully. "The nobility works really hard to make people think they are very different from the common folk. My father barely manages to work with them, and only because he says it would be even more difficult to gather them all together and lop off their heads… outside of Barradin, he wouldn't trust ten of them as far as he could kick a Dolyak."

"You keep bringing up that 'trust' thing… is that so hard to find among the nobility?"

"Sadly, it is… but that's why I'm glad I'm bonded to you." Coran said, flushing so brightly that it was easily noticed even in the receding light. "I've always been able to trust you, for as long as I can remember. I can't think of anyone else I'd rather be with every day."

Now it was Devona's turn to blush, something that she really didn't like. Warriors weren't supposed to blush. "I'm… flattered… I mean… I'm glad you feel that way… and I feel that way too, of course! I… mmmph!"

She never even realized Coran had leaned in until she felt his lips gently press against hers. Momentarily startled, she melted as his tongue teased her lips and her eyes closed, surrendering to the moment…

… and when they opened again, Devona found herself many years older, her face buried in the shoulder of that very same man aged an equal amount of years. Around them, the heart of chaos beat, but she couldn't let that overcome her… not now.

Hastily wiping away her tears, she looked up towards Coran, and smiled wanly. "You're right, of course. Are you well enough to stand?"

"I suspect so." The headmaster answered, "As I said, you really didn't strike me that badly."

"When you're unconscious for several minutes, that's badly enough in my estimation." She retorted, nonetheless helping him to his feet and cautiously eyeing him for even the slightest bit of wooziness or instability. Not seeing any, she felt it safe to proceed. "Where should we go?"

"Wherever the winds take us, I fear." Her bondmate answered grimly, taking her hand in a tight grip as if to let go would instantly separate them… not that the fear was necessarily unfounded. "As much as my Asuran colleagues would hate the prospect, we can really only hope to get lucky until we somehow figure out the odd behavior of this space around us."