Finally, Dain batted the lord's sword out of the way, then kicked him in the gut, sending him sprawling across the floor. He looked down at his opponent's limp body with a flat expression and ended the glamor with a dismissive flick of his fingers. The Beast of Phazikai raked his golden gaze across the hushed crowd one more time, sheathed his sword, and sat back down in his throne.

People mostly got the picture pretty quickly after his little demonstration of pique: Leah was off-limits for being casually mean to, unless you were courting steel. Four skulls in four beds had been pretty convincing for murder attempts, and that particular outburst seemed to convince on the count of snide comments and physical bullying.

I didn't love the violence, and I definitely got frustrated with the way that people were leery around me, especially when I was near Dain. Getting treated like some fragile blown-glass butterfly wasn't all that much better than getting treated with disdain, in my opinion.

Still, though, any time I got left alone for more than a day or two the horror and grief descended on me, and I threw myself into Dain's path so I didn't have to experience it alone. It was too hard to have no one but Kamharida, who was kind but with such a vastly different life from me that I struggled to even put into words what was going on inside my head. I couldn't really mourn with Dain, either, nor did I really want to sit next to him and pour out my pain. I did sometimes, anyway, but I at least didn't go to him with the expectation of free therapy. He was as likely to be cutting as compassionate, and I was never sure which Dain I'd get.

He had his own pain, which escaped with as much erratic force as mine, but with anger instead of tears. I knew he had to be able to hear it when nightmares of falling stone tore me out of sleep with screams, because he woke me several times a week with his own terror, but he never mentioned it to me. I gave him the same courtesy. There's some things that aren't worth dragging out into the light without mutual agreement.

I got better at riding deer, and I spent more than one afternoon watching him at sword fighting practice or in open combat sparring. It was fascinating to watch him in battle, and seeing him fight showed me how very much he modulated his movement in polite company.