a marriage for you.”
Dak snorted. “With Zirabo? Yes, that was thoughtful.”
“How about Lakeo? She’s expressed interest in your more muscular attributes.”
Dak snorted again, this time waving in dismissal. “First off, she’s half my age. Second, you’re the one she was willing to risk all of our lives to rescue from Snake Heart.”
“What? She’s not interested in me. All she does is make fun of me.”
“While sticking to your side and glowering at anybody who presumes to take that place.” Dak sat back down to contemplate the atlas again.
“I thought Arayevo was the one who talked you into...” Yanko paused. Maybe he shouldn’t explain too much about the conversation he’d had with Arayevo, since she had been accusing Dak of secretly communicating with his people. Which had, of course, been true.
“She didn’t mind going along with the rescue, but she also thought you would be fine with your mother. Lakeo wasn’t willing to take that chance.”
“I...” Yanko shook his head and shook away the conversation. He didn’t see whatever it was Dak thought he saw and could not imagine Lakeo as a lover. Shouldn’t his first time—and there was no way he would admit to Dak or anyone else that there hadn’t been a first time yet—be with someone who loved him? And whom he loved? And who wouldn’t slap him on the side of the head and call him an idiot at any point during the encounter? “This isn’t important. What I really was hoping to talk you into was—is—helping me with Sun Dragon. To... throw him overboard. Or into the brig, if you have a way to keep mages incarcerated.”
“You want to be the one to lead us to this great new land?”
“No, that doesn’t matter. I mean, it does, but most important is for my people to have access to fertile farmland until methods of replenishing the soil back home can be figured out. But Sun Dragon has promised to kill me. I know this sounds cold-hearted and calculating, but I either need to kill him first or find a way to nullify his power, so he can’t strike at me.”
“He hasn’t struck yet. I doubt Admiral Ravencrest would stop him if he tried.”
“That’s comforting. Look, just because he hasn’t done it in the hours since we’ve come on board doesn’t mean he won’t. Maybe he’s just keeping me alive because—”
Yanko stopped pacing, as he considered if there might be some truth to the sentence he had started. Was there a reason Sun Dragon hadn’t struck right away? Yanko had assumed it was because of the Turgonian witnesses, but if the Turgonians cared nothing for him and would not move to stop an attack...
“He’s not an earth mage,” Yanko said, having a hunch that he was right, even though he knew nothing about the man. “I am. Or I would have become one if I’d been allowed to study whatever I wished. Even without having attended any of the academies, I’m good at earth magic.” He felt presumptuous saying such things, especially when he had never known any earth magic masters and did not have a basis for comparison, but in his heart, he believed it to be true. One couldn’t be good at something and have no sense of it.
“And we’re looking for earth?” Dak said.
“Precisely so. I’m sure he wouldn’t admit to it, but he may believe he’ll need me.”
“Let’s wait to see what the moment brings, if it brings anything, before contemplating assassinations.”
“Will you at least... I know you don’t owe me anything, and that I’m a pesky Nurian, but I would be grateful if you would act as my bodyguard one more time if—when—he attacks. Especially if he has the mage hunter acting as his bodyguard. Or if he throws her at me as a distraction.” Yanko winced, having no problem imagining that scenario.
“You might be wiser to find a way to avoid battling him,” Dak said.
“I’ve been practicing my magic. Pey Lu taught me a few things.”
“You were with her for three days.”
“What, you don’t think that’s long enough to master the mental sciences? Where’s your faith? Just because I failed my entrance exams, and he’s a warrior mage with twenty years of experience...”
“Why don’t you wait to see what he does?” Dak picked up a pen and hunched over the atlas, as if to say the conversation was over.
“If I wait for him to attack first, I might end up dead. You know he’s manipulating your admiral, right? Doesn’t your honor—your duty—demand