Chapter 7: The First Night

Liyan did not sleep.

He lay in the huge east wing bed with Hongde's gold tooth swimming in the dark and the words going round in his head.

*Ask him what he asked for.*

At the third bell he got up and put on his robe.

He did not light a lamp.

The courtyard was silver with the light from the lotus pool.

Mingjue's room was off the far side, a plain door of pale wood that Liyan had passed a dozen times and never opened.

He knocked once.

"Come."

It was a stark room, stone-floored, with a low bare bed, no rug, and one lamp.

Mingjue stood by the window in his white undershirt with his hair loose down his back.

He looked startled, and then he looked careful.

"You should be asleep."

"So should you."

"I do not sleep." A small flicker of something like humor. "You are shivering."

"I'm not cold. I'm nervous."

Mingjue came halfway across the room and stopped.

"If it is my cousin, I am sorry. I did not want him here. I could not refuse him."

"I know."

"If he said something to you in the passage, I would like to hear it."

Liyan breathed in.

"He said to ask you what you asked for. I'm not going to. Not tonight."

The dragon's face went still.

For a moment something raw and frightened showed in it, and then it was gone, and he only looked tired.

"There is a thing I cannot tell you yet," he said slowly. "I want to. I will, I swear, if you ask me straight."

"I'm not asking."

"Why not?"

"Because I came to say something else."

"I've been working up to it for an hour, and if I start asking questions I'll lose my nerve."

Liyan walked the rest of the way across the room.

He had to tilt his head back to look into the pale green eyes.

"I'm not grateful," he said.

"I'm not here because of Ayu, or the village. I'd have stayed for those."

"I didn't kiss you for those."

"Liyan."

"I'm here because when you hold a spoon, I think about your mouth."

"I'm twenty-three and I've never wanted anyone, and I want you."

The silence was enormous.

"Say it again," Mingjue whispered.

"I want you."

"Again."

Liyan stood on his toes and kissed him.

The dragon made a low broken noise and caught him around the waist, lifting him clear of the stone.

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