A Touch of Stone and Snow (A Gathering of Dragons, #2)

by Milla Vane

“I may look like a queen as I lounge here amid my many cushions. But I feel like a fool.” “Then be at ease. You might be mistaken for a queen, but no one would mistake you for a fool.” A smile curved her lips. “I see those courtly lessons have begun to sink in.”

he had said that a softhearted girl would be better off tending to the sick and injured instead of fighting. She had said that she wanted to become a soldier to prevent harm from ever coming to anybody, and she could not imagine anything more softhearted than using her own body to protect those she loved.

And hope she would not refuse to speak with him. If she did, or if she ran again, he would likely soon discover how many times a man’s heart could be ripped from his chest. But being with her again would be worth every one.

Voice thick, he asked her, “What do you hope our marriage to be?” “Little different than what we have now,” she said quietly. “Never could we be only friends, Aerax, yet the finest of friends we are still—though we would have that without marriage. There will be time spent in the bed, but we would also have that without marriage. There will be helping each other, as you helped me when all seemed so lost. But we would have that without marriage, too. And always I will love you, with or without marriage. So if there is any difference, it is only that we are no longer Aerax and Lizzan, two people who have come together. Instead we are Aerax and Lizzan, two people who are together, a joining and a sharing in full.” A smile came to her voice. “Though I think we have that without marriage, too.”

“You ease the pain in my heart, Aerax.” “Given a choice, no other purpose would I have.”

“Merely that Koth is not what it purports to be. The idea of Koth, where one might be anything one chooses to be, is a fine one. But simply saying it is true does not make it so. Always, it is a goal to be worked toward—with the full understanding that never will it be true. That there will always be someone who is working hard but still not achieving all they wish. So becoming what Koth wants to be is a struggle that is never finished.”