Page 110 of The Concubine King
“The servants clean the rooms,” Ethyr reminded her harshly.“Not attendants.”
“His Divinity has a point,” Lyrian said solemnly.Ethyr cast him a suspicious glare, which he met with innocuous concern.
“I clean your room, sir,” Satya said quietly.“And you know I did some room tidying on the estate as well.It was only a habit.”
“What were you doing in Poyut’s chest?”Ethyr asked.
“Putting away some of the clothing that was left out, Your Divinity.”
“That’s not what it looked like,” Ethyr said.
“I cannot speak to what it looked like, Your Divinity, only what I was doing.”
Ethyr narrowed his eyes at her.
“Thank you, Satya,” Lyrian said.“In the future, please refrain from these… habits.Now if you’d please, guards, allow me to speak privately with His Divinity.”
The guards looked to Ethyr.He stared back at them, not realizing for a long second that they were waiting for his approval.
“Oh–uh–...yes.You’re dismissed.”
They bent in a slight bow and left with Satya.
“I apologize, Your Divinity, for overstepping my authority again.”
Ethyr turned back to Lyrian, trying to detect any hint of sarcasm or resentment in his tone and body language.There was none, only sincere regret.
“If you’d like, we can go over the options suitable for Head Attendant and I will remove Satya from the position.”
Ethyr set his jaw and watched him.Lyrian blinked back with expectant curiosity.
“Very well,” he said slowly, sinking into the chair opposite the man, still watching him for any sign of dishonesty.
He specifically left the door wide open.Lyrian seemed to know better than to suggest closing it.He presented Ethyr with various names, elaborating on their positions and experience and skill set.When they’d exhausted any possible candidate in the palace, they moved to Lyrian’s estate.Truly, Ethyr had no idea how to choose a Head Attendant, he just wanted to keep Lyrian occupied for the rest of the afternoon, and give himself more opportunity to notice anything amiss.
There was nothing.Lyrian treated him with the same polite familiarity as usual, listened intently to his questions, and paid serious consideration to his opinions.Ethyr ended up selecting a senior attendant within the palace, and Lyrian accepted the choice without a glimmer of resistance or reluctance.
Ethyr ate supper alone in the dining room, mind turning.When he was done, he wandered back downstairs, taking his time and appearing as innocuous as possible, especially when asking a servant about Lyrian’s whereabouts.According to them, Lyrian had left the palace not long ago.Ethyr tried the study door.It was locked.
He didn’t know what he had been expecting.Even Yorith locked the doors at night.
Most of the palace was settling down for the evening.Lamps were lit, the kitchen was quiet, and the only servants still wandering about were those setting fires in occupied rooms or retrieving something for one of their superiors.
If Ethyr had learned anything about the servants, it was which were the lowest—the ones no one listened to but everyone ordered about, who were always awake first and asleep last.Ethyr stopped one of them hurrying past him in the hall.
“Is there a servants’ door to the advisor’s study?”he asked.The girl stared at him like he’d asked her to slit her own throat.“Please,” he emphasized.“You won’t get in trouble.Just show me where it is and then you can continue on your way.”
The servants’ door opened on the opposite side of the study to the desk, with the fireplace to the left.Ethyr looked around, as though anyone was going to be hiding in the room in the dark, before creeping over to the desk.The lantern in his hand cast enough light to see, but not really to read.He held it close to the desktop, glancing over the array of papers and scrolls laying open on it.None of them looked particularly incriminating, just letters to other officials about permits and taxes and court cases.
Lyrian had dumped the scroll into one of the drawers on the right.He opened the top one, flinching as the sound of wood scraping against wood echoed in the large room.
There was nothing in the shallow drawer except pens, letter-sealing wax, and ink.The one below that had a bunch of blank paper.And the biggest one below that, was locked.
“Dammit,” Ethyr muttered.Before he could look for a key, the sound of one clicking in the entrance door filled the room.
He panicked.He snuffed out the lantern and dove under the desk, pulling the chair in close and curling up as small as he could into the corner.Another second and he heard the door open and two sets of feet walk inside.
“—after a certain point,” Lyrian was saying.Lamplight wavered against the walls, coming closer.
