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During the centuries they had been enslaved and had clashed over and over again, they hadn’t understood why they felt coe and skills they had acquired Even after they had learned they were brothers, they hadn’t realized that this need to protect each other’s weaker side had begun in a childhood they didn’t remember

Lucivar’s shoulders relaxed a little, and the senuine

"You can read," Dae It was always difficult for you Maybe that’s not just you, Lucivar The Eyrien race has a strong oral tradition to pass on stories, but they don’t put much value on the written word"

"Marian reads a lot," Lucivar mu is a feently"

"I don’t sneer," Lucivar said Then added under his breath,

"Wouldn’t dare"

They were circling around the heart of the wound now, so Daemon just leaned back and waited And feltan Eyrienmore muscle than females"

"Maybe"

Lucivar took a deep breath and let it out slowly Daeotten past the worst of this without too many bruises

Then Lucivar looked him in the eyes and the words burst out "I want that for Daee I don’t want him to feel hobbled I don’t want hiht Then sucked in a breath as his back protested But his voice held a chill and an edge not quite honed enough to cut "If that’s your way of saying you feel inferior to me in any way other than that I wear darker Jewels, I will beat you to a bloody pulp"

Lucivar sant sain Just that siain, he allowed himself a huff of exasperation "I’m not blind, Prick So you don’t read for pleasure The mountains won’t fall down because of it"

"Daemonar was shut out of the library"

Daemon threw up his hands "He’s a little boy The only value those books have for his he can throw or tear or chew Lucivar! His grandfather is the High Lord of Hell and the assistant historian/librarian at the Keep When that boy reaches an age when he can understand what is held between the covers of those books, do you really think you can stop his grandfather fro him all it can offer? For thathi him the other side of his education?"

Lucivar tipped his head in a considering manner "Other side?"

"You stand on a mountain and taste the wind That’s what you’ve called it when you’ve tried to explain it You taste the wind And you understand more about what is around you in that moment than I can ever hope to know I can teach Daemonar about books, but you’re the only one who can teach him that"

Lucivar mulled that over and finally nodded Then he took a step back and turned toward the door "Why don’t we get that drink?"

"That bitch is centuries gone If you let her keep jabbing at you, you deserve to be hurt"

Damn He hadn’t meant to say that Hadn’t intended to share that memory But he watched Lucivar turn Saw the look in his brother’s eyes that de," Daemon said No That wasn’t the place to start "I don’t havewith Dorothea Didn’t have any for most ofre Just nodded

"I remember the feel of Father’s arms around me I remember the sound of his voice, the rhythm of it when he read a story" Daeood at reading, but you soaked up a story if someone read it to you or told it to you You res in the story"

"And probably related everything in tered "There was a teacher I don’t remember her na me, but you were there a lot of the time too She used to jab at you Not physically, but she made it clear that you were a waste of her ti for me; impossible for you She did it so you would feel bad And you were so one ho there when Father ca the next chapter of the storytime book, I asked him to read the story to me At first he refused because it was my lesson, and I should read it ave in and read it to me But the third time I asked him to read it, he wanted to knohy"

"Why did you ask hiotten the story the first time"

Daemon looked at the floor "I wanted his cadence, his rhyth of the words" He looked up "I wanted to read the story to you before the lesson, and I wanted the wayhe read the story"

Now Lucivar looked away

"Father would let us get aith little fibs, but he wouldn’t let us lie to him," Daemon said "And he always knew So I had to tell him why I needed to know the story so well And I told hi mean to you because you were Eyrien and you didn’t read as well as I did He didn’t say anything"

Lucivar swore softly "He’s at his scariest when he doesn’t say anything"