them in the spring, but he didn’t say anything as the human stripped down and stepped in, finding a way to sink in and get comfortable. “Hope you don’t mind. Walking has made my legs sore, and I wanted to soak before settling in for dinner and sleep.”
“I don’t mind,” he said kindly, smiling at the young man. Dave and Trevan looked to be a similar age, but there were centuries between them. “I was just thinking…do you think Alchan will let us stay here once the war is over?”
“I plan to stay,” he said, shrugging. “No one has told me I can’t, but…” The human wisely moved a finger between them. “I won’t be in their hair as long.”
“True,” Trevan agreed, sighing. “I was just thinking about how much I like it here. I don’t want to go back to Elliar.”
“Can you?” Dave asked, obviously confused.
“Well, they could always ask me to go to Olost,” he reminded the human. “There are ways for them to get rid of me once this is over.”
“I don’t think they will. You’re loyal, strong, and Mave’s friend. Alchan might be the king, but there’s very little I’ve seen him not give her. I think if she asked for an entire staff of Elvasi prisoners to clean her house, he would try to oblige.” Dave shrugged. “He can be indulgent with her, not that she would ever ask for an entire staff of Elvasi, she’s not like that. But if she knew you wanted to stay in Anden when this was all over, Alchan would probably help you get a home and work so you could stay. You’re already considered a valuable advisor to him.”
“Really?” Trevan frowned. He barely spoke to the king and for good reason. The male was busy, and he was the king. Trevan just tried to be useful and not cause any trouble that might bring the dominant male down on his head.
“Yeah, he’s spoken about it,” Dave explained. “I hear everything in my place. They ignore me, not in a bad way, but they sometimes forget I’m in the room working on the supply manifests. He, Luykas, and Nevyn talk about everything under the sun. I know they’re annoyed with Kenav right now because some of the former gladiators are ignoring their unit commanders to follow Kenav. Kenav is brushing it off, saying the gladiators want to follow someone they know, and Alchan can’t find a good way to put his foot down.”
“Sounds like trouble is brewing,” Trevan muttered, shaking his head. “Kenav was a problem in the pits.”
“I remember,” Dave said softly. “He pretty much made the gladiators a united front against the guards, didn’t he?”
“Hmm.” Trevan nodded. “I would say eighty percent of the gladiators followed his lead. The other twenty percent were split into much smaller groups—Mave on her own, the other prized fighters in their own small packs, and some stragglers who never made it very long or pissed him off at some point. He would incite violence, but we could never pin it on him, even though we knew it was him whispering in their ears. He never gave us information, either. He caused mayhem because it kept us busy and kept his Andinna safe. He was good at playing us. There was nothing wrong with that because he was just trying to keep them alive, but…”
“We’ve both always been loyal to Mave, so that puts us on the opposite side of him, and we see his actions differently,” Dave filled in, obviously unsure if he was correct.
“That’s right.”
They let silence fall, then Dave left, waving goodbye as he trotted back down the trail toward their home. Trevan sank deeper into the water, resisting the need to check on dinner. He stubbornly stayed in the water because it felt like he would one day lose this, and he wasn’t ready for that. Instead, he thought about training.
Mave’s intentions had been honorable and sound. She was right, the Andinna needed more experience against the newest addition to Shadra’s army. The gryphon riders hadn’t existed during the first war. They were a special project she had secretly developed since then—a thousand years of breeding to create gryphons that would allow a rider. It was ingenious, taking away Andinna advantage of owning the skies.
There was no way to do it safely, which was troublesome. She had mentioned him fighting for the Andinna beside her one day, and he wanted that. He never let himself consider it before