Page 6 of Hymn of Breath and Bone

This was nice. I didn’t have a circle of friends on the isles who ate dinner or joked with me. As much as I loved and missed Sereia, who was probably mad with worry about me, it wasn’t the same. Yes, we were friends, but she was also employed by my parents, and her primary objective in our friendship had been keepingmeout of trouble.

Caspian looked so at ease around his peers that it was easy to forget he was their king. I found myself staring at him, his scarred golden chest heaving with laughter, when Ana tapped me on the arm.

She and I were sitting on a pile of pillows and furs spread over the ground, since there wasn’t enough room for all of us on the sofa. I looked over to find her smiling knowingly at me.

“They make quite a trio, don’t they?” she mused quietly, flicking her eyes to our respective mates and Astraios on the couch. “It can be intimidating, trying to find your place among them.”

“You seem to fit in well,” I pointed out, noting the way Zephyr’s eyes shifted to her delicate face repeatedly throughout dinner.

“It took a while to get here,” Ana replied, smiling faintly at her mate. “And I’m thrilled we have you now. We officially outnumber the males.”

“Oh,” I said, uncertain whether or not I should tell Ana that I might not be staying. Probably not, since her family was on the council. “I hope so.”

“You will,” she said assuredly. “I know Caspian wants you to, and he usually gets his way when he wants something.” She said this with a warm smile and squeezed my knee. “Plus, I hear you’re going to study our history. I can’t wait to show you the library, and I’ve already pulled several books for you!”

“There’s a library?” I asked, trying not to squeal too loudly.

“Of course!” Ana laughed, shaking her head as if this were obvious, and the three on the couch turned their attention back to us.

“Ana is the head archivist,” Caspian explained, nodding to Zephyr’s mate. “I asked her to start pulling records for you as soon as I knew you would recover.”

“How big is your library?” I asked, looking between Caspian and Ana. We had a small royal library on the Isles, of course, and there were many books in my father’s private archives that the public—which included me—were not allowed to read. I assumed that any library in these cliffs must be smaller than ours.

“Oh, I’m not sure,” Ana said, frowning as she did some mental calculations. “Twenty thousand books, perhaps?”

“Twenty thousand?!” I exclaimed. The library at home had maybe a thousand books, if you didn’t include the ones in the archive. “How did you save that many?”

“She means from the Exile,” Caspian clarified when Ana looked confused.

Her expression cleared and turned thoughtful. “It was the priority of the former archivist,” she explained, studying me with quiet interest. “Why do you ask?”

“We just have so few books on the Isles. And only a few on sirens that I’ve been able to sneak out of my father’s archives.”

“You snuck books about sirens out of your archives?” Zephyr asked, a knowing grin lighting her face. “You little pirate. I knew you’d fit right in.”

“What was in these books?” Astraios chimed in, glee lighting his features. “Naughty things?”

Caspian punched him in the arm.

“Just histories,” I laughed, admiring Caspian’s strong jaw as he glared at his second mate. “Battle tactics and things. Nothing that wasn’t common knowledge.”

“What kind of battle tactics?” Caspian asked seriously. When I faltered in my response, he softened his gaze. “We need to know what the selkies know about us. What your father knows.”

“Mostly just your song magic,” I hedged, trying to recall if there was anything damning in my stolen books. “And that you had female warriors among your people.”

“Still have,” Zephyr replied proudly. “But I think the selkies used to train their females to fight as well.” She looked at Ana for confirmation.

“That cannot be the case,” I scoffed, thinking of my father and Vitulus. “It’s certainly not allowed now. It’s ‘not our place.’”

“Not your place?” Astraios asked with indignation, looking to Caspian for confirmation. Caspian nodded sardonically, and Astraios let out a huff. “No music? No female warriors? No offense, Princess, but your islands have gone a bit backward in the last few centuries.”

I bristled, even though I knew he was right. Zephyr gave him a disapproving scowl, but didn’t comment as Ana patted my hand in understanding.

“I’ll check tomorrow,” she said, smiling with so much excitement at the prospect of digging through books that I realized I’d found a kindred spirit in her. “We have a few books on our shared history. I’ll see if I can find them.”

The rest of the evening passed equally enjoyably. Astraios taught me a card game that I lost thoroughly, despite his best efforts to teach me.Zephyr found some wine somewhere, and I had far more than I should have, the card game quickly transitioning into a drinking game.

I had no idea what time it was when Caspian not-so-subtly suggested it was time for our guests to leave and sent them off into the inky night sky.