Dorvin grinned. "It don't stink!" He raised the bottle. "This is special stuff. Not just regular wine and ale like they brew in the north. This stuff's from across the sea. Distilled. Powerful. Like a whole cup of wine with every sip. Want some?"

Surprisingly, Jeid did.

With a sigh, he released Dorvin, and the two men sat side by side and leaned against the tunnel wall. In the distance to their right, rose the sound of prayer from survivors deeper in the tunnels. To their left, Jeid could hear dragonfire roaring as Vir Requis guarded the entrance, taking shifts.

"Pass me that bottle," Jeid said. When he sipped, the drink shot through his throat and stung his nostrils, blazing hot and bitter.

"Good?" Dorvin said.

Jeid nodded. "Good."

For long moments, they sat passing the bottle back and forth—a grizzled, burly king and a wiry, fiery hunter half his age. Jeid looked at the young man—Dorvin's sharp eyebrows, his black hair that always fell across his brow at a jaunty angle, and his cheeks which even here in the caves he kept clean-shaven. A vain boy. A stupid, hot-tempered, rude, useless lump.

The man my daughter fancies, he thought.

He had seen Dorvin and Maev walking alone through the woods. He had seen them sneak together into huts, emerging flustered, their clothes in disarray.

"Do you sing these rude songs around my daughter?" Jeid asked.

Dorvin snorted. "Stars no. Maev clobbers me whenever I sing around her. Damn mammoth arse got fists like two boulders." He rubbed his cheek.

Jeid raised his own fist. "Don't call her that. Show her respect. Especially with her missing, maybe—"

Maybe dead, he thought. He could not speak those words.

Dorvin nodded solemnly. "I meant to say 'Maev.'" He drank deeply and screwed up his face at the flavor. "I respect her, Grizzly. I love the mamm— I love Maev." Suddenly the young man's eyes dampened. "If she's alive, and if we ever get out of here, I'll let her know that. I'd never sing around her again, or call her a bad name, or annoy her, or anything. I'd just love her. Always." He lowered his head and rubbed his eyes. "Stars damn it! Damn drink always gets into my eyes."

Jeid grumbled and patted the younger man's back. "I miss them too. Maev. Laira. Tanin and Issari." He took the bottle and drank deeply, the liquid racing through him like fire. "I wonder if they're under the sky now, watching the stars, thinking of us . . . maybe flying as dragons."