Page 111 of The Concubine King
“I understand, sir,” Jessif replied.The footsteps came around the side of the desk.Ethyr scrunched even further in on himself, holding his breath as Lyrian’s feet stopped in front of him and a hand reached down.
It unlocked the bottom right drawer with a little key and pulled a scroll out, retreating back up.
“I’m running out of time.Malor has her filthy hands in everything and she’s cinching the noose.”
“I’ll leave tonight.”
“I need his unequivocal support, Jes.If he voices opposition you know half your regiment will vanish.”
“I know, sir.I’ll make sure he understands the stakes.”
The two retreated and the study doors closed.Ethyr finally let his breath out and gasped for air.He crawled out from under the desk, poking his head above it to be sure the room was empty before standing and looking futilely over its papers in case the scroll had been left there.Of course it hadn’t.
He was lucky Lyrian hadn’t noticed the cracked open servants’ door on the far wall.The lamplight likely hadn’t reached it.He slipped back into the passageway, feeling around in the dark to return to the main hall and set the lantern back on its hook, before hurrying up to his bedroom.
His heart was still pounding with adrenaline as he closed the door.He paced in front of the fire, thoughts whipping so fast they mostly just tangled together into useless knots.Until, finally, one stood out.
He halted.The room was quiet save for the usual rush of waterfall and the crackling fire.
“Kiaro,” he called into the room.His voice was convincingly confident for the fact that he felt like a mad man.“I know you’re there.I need your help.”Silence.He swallowed.“Please,” he whispered.He didn’t have any other options.
A fluttering turned him around to find Kiaro looming over him.Ethyr stepped back.
“Youarehere,” he said uncertainly.“You’re still following me.”Kiaro didn’t reply.“You saved me from those bandits, didn’t you?”He lifted the folded cloak from the top of a chest.“This is yours, isn’t it?”
Kiaro’s gaze flitted briefly to it before returning to his.“Did you call me here to confront me?”
Ethyr pressed his lips together.“You helped me then with no strings attached.Can you help me again?I think Lyrian gave a scroll to a guard captain—Jessif—and I think whatever is on it is information I need to know.Jessif said she’s leaving tonight, but she must still be in the city.Could you get the scroll from her?Before she goes too far?”
“I can,” Kiaro said slowly.He did not move.
“You’re the one who told me not to trust Lyrian,” Ethyr reminded him.“Are you so reluctant to go against him now?”
“Going with or against him means nothing to me.But once you read that letter, you will place yourself in the middle of this silly mortal squabble and the consequences could be worse.”
“Worse?”Ethyr huffed a humorless laugh.“Worse than what?I’m already in the middle of it!”
“You are not currently an obstacle to Lyrian.If you make yourself one, he will want to be rid of you.If you stay out of this dispute and let the pieces fall where they may, no one has any reason to hurt you.”
“Why do you care if I’m hurt?”Ethyr asked.Something immutable flickered across Kiaro’s face, but he did not reply.Ethyr sighed.“If I started all of this, I have the right to know what kind of plans I’ve provoked.”
Kiaro did not reply, his gaze drifting down to the floor.
“Will you help me or not?”Ethyr asked, exasperated.
Kiaro glanced up at him with an intensity that flipped Ethyr’s stomach, before he shrunk into a magpie and flew out from the balcony opening.
Ethyr had no idea if that was a yes or no.But it wasn’t like he had anything else he could do.He decided to wait and see, and resumed pacing.
Over the next hour, Ethyr convinced himself Kiaro wouldn’t return and that his hope of ever getting to the bottom of things was a lost cause.
Then a bird swooped into the room and in the next second it was Kiaro, holding a scroll out to him.
The string holding it closed was sealed with the Guard Master’s wax insignia.Ethyr broke it open and unrolled the paper.
Most Esteemed General,
I do not write to you lightly.Captain Jessif relayed your concerns and protests to me with care and I recognize your conflict withholds any pleasure at my correspondence.I know the late High Priest was a close friend of yours, but I respectfully disagree that publicly supporting my endeavors is a betrayal to the legacy for which he fought.Yorith understood better than most that the gods no longer have our best interests in mind, and that a king such as we have now is proof of this.He simply did not complete the equation.We can no longer rely on the gods to choose who is fit to rule a kingdom from which they are so detached.
