Land of Night by Kirby Crow Page A

and closed the door, asking Scarlet to pour him another cup of che before he had to be off.
    "What's that?"
    "It's a hunting virca. See the emblems here? Snow bears."
    Scarlet straddled the couch backwards, putting his knees on the cushions and crossing his arms over the headrest, and looked at the odd virca with interest. It was longer and heavier than most garments and also carried the badges of the House of Camira-Druz. Outside, the snow was falling in that slow, sullen way that told Liall it would last for days.
    Scarlet watched Liall closely. After the ugly scene at dinner with Shikhoza, Liall had not thought it wise for Scarlet to leave the apartments again. So far, Scarlet had not complained much, but only because Liall had not been there to hear it.
    "Are we going hunting?"
    "We? Not at all.” Liall shook his head. “I am going on a bear hunt,” he explained patiently, moving about the apartment.
    Scarlet considered this. “With who?"
    "Many enemies who wish me dead."
    That alarmed him. “Can't you say no?"
    "It is not possible for me to refuse,” Liall evaded carefully.
    "Why?"
    "There are some things only a Rshani would understand."
    Even Scarlet knew this was true by now, but he gave Liall a look that said he was annoyed. “I don't like it. Something bothers me about it, like a voice in my head warning me to—"
    "Hush,” Liall begged. “Do not say such things.” He opened the wardrobe—an enormous thing of dark, polished wood with red fittings—to put the virca away. “In any case, I will not have you to worry over. You are staying where it's safe."
    "No."
    Liall did not take his meaning right away. “No?” he asked idly, inspecting the virca. He was only half-listening: one mistake of many.
    "I'm going with you."
    Liall uttered a short bark of laughter and folded the virca into the wardrobe. He closed it and walked past Scarlet. “That you are not. A bear hunt is no place for a Hilurin."
    "Rshan is no place for a Hilurin, but I'm here,” Scarlet said hotly.
    Too hotly. Liall thought his irritation out of proportion. He turned to Scarlet with a dark frown beginning. “Calm down. I do not wish to quarrel today. Please cease behaving like a child and accept sense for once."
    Scarlet closed his eyes and took a breath before responding. “I'm not a child, a servant, or your property, Liall. Is it still Liall?” He climbed off the couch and took a step towards the tall man. “Or should I call you Prince Nazheradei now?"
    Liall's voice was subdued. “I will always be Liall to you."
    Scarlet ignored that and crossed his arms over his chest. “I feel like your pet dog locked up in here. I'm sure that's how your new friends see me."
    Liall regarded him coldly, and inwardly he was angered that Scarlet should start this again, this petty concern for how others might see him. What did it matter here? He was a Blood Prince and Scarlet his t'aishka and the people must be polite whether it pleased them or not! When was he going to realize they were no longer in Byzantur? Scarlet seemed to cringe a little under Liall's scrutiny, and Liall disliked that. Had he become such a brute to Scarlet?
    "They are not new friends, but old ones I am becoming reacquainted with, and I have never locked you in,” Liall said, but his calm was slipping.
    "No?” Scarlet stalked to the antechamber door and opened it. Nenos was standing there, hands folded and democratically blind. Scarlet slammed the door. “What do you call that?"
    "Nenos is there to care for you, to keep you—"
    "A prisoner!"
    Liall sighed and held his temper in check, but Scarlet was exasperating him. Liall would never curse the fates that put Scarlet on the ship with him in Volkovoi, but sometimes he was tempted to remind the boy that he had never asked him to come to Rshan. “You are not a prisoner."
    "Can I go outside? Can I go to the harbor, on a sleigh ride? Can I even walk beyond these rooms without your permission?"
    Liall glanced away