House of Night

chapter 6

Ari now had her very own room in Stone Tower in New Hamilton. She had floor-to-ceiling class windows that looked out onto the cliffs and across the sea. She watched lions and their riders fly across the horizon as the suns set in the Lothern sky, lighting the ashy clouds up in brilliant hues of pink and gold.

Since arriving in New Hamilton, Ari had started a correspondence with Pythos Savvas, who was kept in a New Hamilton prison without any information about the length of his sentence. He wrote to Ari and to his husband every day, but a pile of letters was delivered to Ari once a week. She was tasked with sending the letters on to Raphael City, where Savvas's husband was waiting for news.

The prisoner wrote little about the moments of his daily life - he had briefly touched on the inadequate food and uncomfortable cell - before delving into longer and grander visions of the world. He wanted a Vastien revolution, led by the people to claim back the power that had been taken from them for so long. He wanted true, uncorrupt democracy for Vastier and for Lombardia. And although he never wrote it in the letters, possibly because it would be used as evidence against him, he wanted the King Matthias Stone to be overthrown.

Ari put down the letters she'd been holding and stared out across the darkening sky. She felt frozen by inaction, here in New Hamilton. She was so close to the king, and yet she would never get a word with him. She was just a girl, given a room in a tower because she was a companion to a prince, but otherwise completely powerless.

There had been a time where Ari had accepted just how powerless she was in life. Her whole family had died, and her only hope out of poverty was education. She had thought she could play by the rules. Now, she wanted to throw away the whole rulebook. She had been propelled by the death of her sister, and by Pythos Savvas, into action. And yet now she was frozen with inaction again. She was one person against the powers that be. What could she do?

The knock on her door startled her, and she quickly hid the letters under her bed before she answered. She didn't want anyone else reading Pythos's letters, although she suspected someone must have, before they were allowed to leave the prison. She didn't want curious servants to read the man's spiralling words.

A servant was at the door, to inform her of a change in plans for the evening meal.

"The prince will take his dinner on the roof, and has invited you to join him," the servant informed her.

"Right," Ari said. "Thank you."

The servant was a Vastien boy, not much older than Ari. A few days ago, Ari had asked him whether his family was safe after the invasion.

"My family is long dead," he had told her, in the Starg language rather than Vastien. "The Fire War got to them before the Lombardian invasion could."

"At least our families never saw Vastier overtaken by Lombardian rule," Ari had said quietly.

But the boy had been surprised by this. "I look forward to the day when our islands are as prosperous as Lombardia," he said. "The king will drive out the corruption of the warlords. He will provide prosperity."

Now, the boy avoided more conversation with her.

Ari dressed for dinner. She wore the dagger that Katja had given her at her hip. Her hair was slightly longer now, enough that her curls had returned. She dampened and combed her hair the way her grandmother had taught her to do a long time ago, and then continued to read Pythos's letters while her hair dried.

Viski the wolf watched her with interest, while Warrah the dragon kept his eyes on the horizon. He was as anxious with inaction as Ari was. She could see the way he coiled and uncoiled his long, scaly tail. He wanted to be out, doing something, but he was here in a tower with a winter starrling.