An Affinity For Fire

16. Heleonne

Leo wasn't sure how he'd managed to get himself dragged into a drinking game, but seeing Clover approaching the table eased his concern slightly.

"Five, right?" a chestnut-haired servant asked, placing five tankards on the round table.

Dallas narrowed his eyes. "Four, isn't it?" He pointed at himself, Clover, Kona and Leo in turn. "One, two, three, four."

"And five," the young woman said, slipping into the seat between Dallas and Leo.

"I thought you were working tonight," Dallas said.

"I am," she replied, raising a jug and filling his tankard to the brim. "I'm serving you."

Leo stopped listening when she started groping Dallas's thigh. He turned to face Clover. "Tarragon not joining us?"

She snorted. "He doesn't drink." She glanced into one of the jugs. "What even is this?"

Leo peered over the jug's rim at the dark liquid within. "I'd guess red wine." He turned to Kona. "You don't happen to know what poison we're about to subject ourselves to, do you?"

The man's face was grim. "Not a clue."

The servant laughed, detatching herself from Dallas. "Trust me, you do not  want to drink this at the same speed as you'd drink wine. It's a spiced cranberry rum from Dzi'Iyka. I've diluted it quite a bit, but it's still fairly strong. Not to mention really damn expensive."

Kona's brow creased. "Does Calio know you opened one of the Dzitan rums?"

Dallas swatted the air dismissively. "I'll pay her for them if she finds out. Anyway, who's ready to play?"

"We don't even know what we're playing," Clover answered, before taking a sip of the rum. Her grimace at the strength of the drink was not encouraging.

"The concept is really simple," Dallas assured them. "We take it in turns to make a statement about ourselves. Then, everyone who thinks it's true raises their hand. If anyone gets it wrong, they have to drink, but if everyone guesses correctly, you have to drink because you made it too easy. For instance, I could say 'my name is Dallas Akari'." The servant raised her hand. Heleonne followed suit, shortly followed by Clover and Kona. "Great. So, everyone got that right, which means I drink." He raised his tankard and tipped his head before taking a sip. "Shall we start?"

Leo took another glance at the ominous tankard of liquid laid out before him. Reluctantly, he nodded. "Let's do this."

Most of the statements involved fears, favourite foods and childhood pets. Some, however, proved to be rather amusing. Among the highlights, Leo discovered that Lord Dallas had once attempted to have sex with someone half-way up a tree, only to then fall out of the tree. Everyone correctly guessed that to be the truth. Lord Kona claimed to have come second in a cow-riding race. He argued that the fact that he actually came first made it a lie, but everyone decided that trick statements were cheating and they made him drink anyway. Clover said she once missed a tutoring session to sleep with her tutor's son. Leo incorrectly assumed she was too committed to learning to do that. Dallas was the only one to guess right that time.

Leo soon figured out tactics for identifying the lies. He found that Dallas tended to tell ridiculous truths and believable lies, Kona almost always told the truth and the woman, who was called Loria, always look someone dead in the eyes when she was lying. Clover, oddly, was the person he struggled the most to read. It didn't help that no-one else knew her so he couldn't just copy the others when he was unsure. The vast majority of his sips were caused by her.

Many songs and countless jugs later, Leo was starting to feel the throne room swirling around him. He would have asked to quit the game himself if Clover hadn't got there first.

"It's been a few hours, I should check on Tarry," she said, pressing against the table to push herself to her feet.

Leo frowned as she swayed about. "You need a hand?"

She scoffed, waving a finger in Tarragon's general direction. "He's only over there, I think I can make it without an escort." She didn't even give him a chance to offer again before stumbling across the throne room.

"I'll head off too, if you don't mind," Loria said, standing. She leaned into Dallas's shoulder. "Maybe I'll find you later?" she muttered to him, loud enough for Leo to hear.

As she sauntered off, Dallas turned to Leo and Kona, blushing. "Sorry. Do either of you mind if later is now?"

Leo shook his head. "Go for it."

He smiled gratefully before chasing after Loria.

Leo cast a nervous glance at Clover. To his relief, Tarragon had his arm around her and didn't look like he had any plans to let go.

As much as he would rather have been the one holding her, she was, at least, safe.

"Congratulations," Kona said, drawing Leo's attention back to the table. "You survived your first Aestasan drinking game. I would suggest we toast to that, but I don't think that would be wise."

Leo gave him a half-smile. He was inescapably aware of the slight fuzziness in head. "Not just my first Aestasan drinking game - my first Aestasan party. Are they all this wild?"

Kona laughed. "No-one's become drunk enough to strip naked and dance on a table yet, so I'd say this party has been fairly tame by Aestasan standards."

"Let's hope it stays that way," Leo said, wincing. He gazed around the vast, vibrant room, watching the dancers until his eyes settled on the flaming hair of the Queen Regent. "If you don't mind me asking, what is your connection to the Royal family? Calio called you a cousin, but that's a pretty broad term."

"I'm King Consort Fynier's sister's son," He replied. "So, Calio's first cousin."

"Fynier's side of the family," Leo mused, trying to remember what he could of the foreign noble houses. "Ocassan origins, is that right?"

Kona grunted. "Half of Aestas has 'Ocassan origins'. The Ocassan nobles seem to like marrying their children off to Aestasans."

The mention of cross-kingdom marriages stirred his memory and he suddenly felt ashamed of squandering his first day in Aestas drinking.

"Is it true the Ocassans gave the Serassi family the last two basilisks as a wedding gift once?"

"They weren't the last at the time," Kona said. "But, yes. Vena and Cava, after the vein. How typically Ocassan."

"Where are they kept?" Leo asked, struggling to keep his tone impassive. "I'd quite like to see them if that's possible."

Kona laughed bitterly. "Good luck with that. They're both dead."

Leo had to grip the table, gritting his teeth in a desperate attempt to suppress his shock. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, they're both dead," Kona repeated. "Happened a few years ago. Sad story, actually. They were a mated pair, so as soon as Vena died, Cava basically went mad. He screamed day and night and refused to eat a thing. One night, he escaped, flew away and never came back. Probably starved in a cave somewhere."

Leo's stomach was churning, and not from the rum. "I'm terribly sorry, would you excuse me?"

He rose from his seat and stumbled towards the door. The room had started spinning.

They can't be dead. They can't be dead. They can't be dead.

He made it to his guestroom and collapsed onto the bed. Trembling, he grabbed a cushion, pressed it to his mouth and screamed.

They can't be dead. Because if they're dead, nothing can save Ellery.