Violet and Verde Read Free Page A

caught and held his yellow-green gaze. “Because of what you once were…a Royal Dancer of Zoth.”
    “Oh,” he whispered, as his face drained of color. “That.” He hung his head and seemed to Ave’s eye to almost shrink in on himself. His wings drew up into a tight, unhappy knot, and he let the silence lengthen, the glass of untouched wine dangling loosely from his fingers.
    “I had no idea,” Ave said, suddenly in a rush to get it all off her chest. “My mother caught me unprepared and unaware. I hadn’t even known you’d been a slave, much less a Royal Dancer, much less the King’s Champion.”
    The wineglass fell from his hands and shattered on the stone floor. Wine and glass flew through the air to form an impact pattern that Rak ignored, even though some the shards of glass had cut him. “Yes, I was a Royal Dancer, a sword dancer,” he said finally. “And I was the King’s Champion, too. Does that bother you? The songs the minstrels sung…yes, I have heard them. Yes, I did those things. I did not want to, but I did do them.”
    “Why?” Ave asked. “Why flay your victims? What possible pleasure could there have been in that?”
    “Victims? Is that how you see them?” Rak looked up at that, a hint of fire in his eyes. “Each man I faced across those bloodied sands was a murderer at the very least, beasts in human form. Each one was tried by the Justicers, their guilt proven from their own minds and memories and condemned to die.”
    “The songs never mention that,” Ave said shakily. “But still, Rak, flaying them?”
    “At the king’s orders,” stated Rak flatly. “Only ever because that is what he commanded of me. Not because he thought to punish them, he knew as well as I that mad dogs, such as these men were, would learn nothing from what I did to them. But because he wanted the kin of their own victims to feel that justice had been done and that the brutal beast that had tortured, raped and murdered their loved ones had been made to suffer even a fraction of what their victims had.” Rak peeled off the couch, swiftly moving to the far side of the chamber, only to return a moment later with a handful of rags that he dropped on the spill of mingled crystalline daggers and blood-red wine.
    “I’m sorry,” Ave offered as she knelt down to help Rak clean up the mess. “I had no idea…but I said that already, didn’t I. I guess that was the worst part, that I didn’t know. You hadn’t told me. I felt a little betrayed that my mother knew, and I didn’t. If we’re going to have a relationship, it needs to be based on trust.”
    Rak set the fouled rags into a metal pail then spread sand over the area to soak up any remaining fluid.
    Ave touched his hand, trying to draw him out of the silent shell he’d locked himself into. It worked.
    He looked up, meeting her eyes briefly before glancing away. “That was a time in my life that I have tried very hard to forget. I did not tell you because I was hoping that you would like me for myself and not because you pitied me. I got enough of that when I first arrived here. Even now, I wonder if my brethren are nice to me because they feel sorry for me.”
    The pain in his voice melted her heart. She wrapped her arms around him and said, “Rak, I liked you before I found out. And I don’t think my feeling have changed in that regard.”
    Rak returned the hug, pulling her against him.
    The sensation of his hard, strong body pressed against hers made her knees feel weak, and she was suddenly grateful that she was already sitting down. Impulsively, she squirmed herself into his lap and snuggled against his upper body.
    They cuddled, speaking quietly of their hopes and dreams, until abruptly, Rak changed the subject. “There is something else I must tell you. Something you will need to know about me, and I pray this will not destroy our relationship.”
    “Tell me, Rak. Whatever it is, I am sure we can overcome it together.” Ave smiled at