The night sky was more beautiful than Olive expected.  She had her first clear sight of it after they left the palace walls.  The gardens surrounding the palace were well-lit by lanterns, obscuring her view.  Cariun wasn’t one to let her look around either, as he hurried her along the paved pathways towards a small side-gate.  She wasn’t one to argue.  She felt awkward in her borrowed dress and didn’t care to encounter anyone else while wearing it.  She only looked presentable from a distance.

But once outside the palace walls, the lights grew more infrequent.  They were in a residential area, it seemed, filled with sprawling houses and adjoining spires.  The architecture was more akin to clutter.  The buildings were built on multiple levels with gardens and pathways cut through the first level seemingly at random.  Towers sprouted from the edges of the buildings and some were even connected to their neighbors by delicate bridges.  Lights hung from the overhangs of the buildings, but very little of it reached past the surrounding gardens to the street.  There were people outside, in these over-landscaped yards, but few were on the road.

At least it afforded her a clear view of the sky.  Olive stared up in wonder.  There were rings across the sky.  Glowing rings, like glittering gems stretching from one horizon to the other.  She slowed to stare at it, until Cariun snatched her wrist and pulled her along.

“Does... this world have rings?” she asked.

It was the only thing she could think of.  Like Saturn.

“It does,” he replied.

“And what about a moon?”

She scanned the sky, but saw only the rings and the stars.

“We have that too.”

It must be a new moon, Olive thought.  A pity.  She was anxious to see it.  She enjoyed the moon back home, so it would likely be quite the experience to see the moon of another world entirely.  As it was, the rings were spectacular to behold.  They fanned across the sky in even intervals, a nimbus of silver light arrayed like ripples in a pond.  It was odd that they covered the entire sky like that, she thought.  But then again, if they were rings in space they were on a scale beyond what she could comprehend.  Perhaps that was just how they looked.  She wondered if they’d appear differently in other parts of the world, where they weren’t directly overhead.

“Do you know why-” she began, wanting to ask him why they were spaced so evenly.

But he rounded on her, his voice low and terse.  His amber eyes caught the firelight of the distant lanterns.

“I am responsible for you,” he hissed, “but I am not your nanny.  I will get you access to the royal library and you can ask the books your questions.”

“If you’re responsible for me, then aren’t you also responsible for my education?” she snapped in response.

“I’ll tell you what you need to know.  Everything else is up to you.”

He turned on his heel and briskly strode away.  Olive cursed under her breath and hastily followed.  She was tempted to just… stop and see what he did.  If he would compel her to come with him.  However, it was a bit chilly out, and she didn’t particularly feel like sleeping on the street if he called her bluff.  They were far enough away from the palace that she wasn’t sure she could easily find her way back, assuming the guards would even let her in.

“You put me in a very difficult position,” she said.  “The least you could do is help me.”

“Do you want to get married?” he asked.

She stumbled, startled by the bluntness of his question.

“Well, maybe,” she stammered.

“But not right now.”

“No.”

“Then you should be thanking me.”

“I’m going to need you to elaborate,” she snarled.

“By angering the king, it ensured that he would find a way to demean you.  Since I was nearby at the time, he had an easy way to do so.  Otherwise, if Tiyrus had his way and presented you respectfully, the king would have then tied you to the royal family by handing you off to one of my brothers as his wife.”

“What!?”

“Probably the youngest,” Cariun said thoughtfully, ignoring her outburst.  “He’s a greedy little shit, but in no position to inherit the throne.”

“You can’t just marry someone against their will!” Olive protested.

Cariun only chuckled darkly.

“That optimism will not serve you well here,” he said.

Olive seethed the rest of the way to Cariun’s manor.  It looked more like a haunted house, she thought, staring at it in dismay through the iron gate.  There were no lights lit outside or inside and the windows were all shuttered.  The garden was overgrown and the weeds were encroaching on the path to the front door.  

“Wretched, isn’t it?  Don’t worry,” he assured her, unlocking and swinging open the gate.  “This is just my house in the city.  My manor in the countryside is worse.”

He confused her.  Some moments he was nothing but brooding anger, but then he also had these flashes of wry, dark humor.

“You don’t have servants, do you?” she asked.

“Not anymore,” he replied.  “I did have one.  Turns out he was accepting bribes from my older brother.  He’s over there.”

He pointed.  Olive reluctantly looked in the direction he indicated.  There, on the gate, facing the street, was a body.  It had been impaled upon the spikes at the top of the fence.  The lower half was missing.  Rotted off, perhaps.  Olive was grateful for the darkness.

“That’s horrible,” she whispered.

“He betrayed me,” Cariun replied dismissively.  “What else would I do with him?”

“At least bury him!”

“No.  They need reminding of what I’m capable of.”

He held the gate open for her while she hesitated to step inside.  She glanced up, meeting his gaze.  His expression was indiscernible in the darkness.

“Am I safe with you?” she asked.

“For now,” he promised.

That, she supposed, was the best assurance she could get right now.  She stepped through the gate and he let it fall shut behind her, the heavy clang welcoming her to her new home.