Page 120 of The Concubine King
“Of course!He always told me any major changes in palace labor.Not that there were many.”
Ethyr stared at him.He didn’t know why he was surprised; obviously Yorith thought far better of Verusias, of any priest, than he had ever thought of Ethyr.
The man laughed, sinking back into the water.“Oh, you’ve really fucked up, you’re right.”
Ethyr frowned.“That’s part of why I came here.I wanted to know if you had any ideas about what to do.You have experience as king and you know more than me about all this political stuff.Can I… do you think I can trust Malor?”
“Oh, Ethyr,” Verusias sighed fondly, clicking his tongue.“You can’t trust any of those bastards.They use everyone and anyone for their own gain.You should start doing the same.”
“Why would I want to do that?”he asked, disgusted.
“Because if you don’t weave your own web, you’re going to get stuck in someone else’s.”
“Well…” Ethyr huffed, exasperated.“How did you do it?”
Verusias smiled.“I didn’t, I simply stayed on Yorith’s web because he was the biggest spider.Sounds like you’ve burnt that up, though.”
Ethyr groaned, burying his face in his hands.
Verusias closed his eyes and leaned his head back.“Don’t worry so much,” he said.“Let the council fight it out and focus on pleasing the gods.They won’t let anything happen to you.”
Ethyr sighed and sank to his chin in the water.
When their meal was ready, Verusias changed into a tight, sleeveless tunic with long slits up the sides but no pants to cover the exposure.Attendants brought Ethyr a clean outfit from his travel chest; fortunately they understood Verusias’s tastes were not universal and gave him pants.
“Go wake the king’s guard,” Verusias told an attendant when they were dressed.“Show her to the veranda.Make sure the other guard is fed as well.”
“You’ll let Poyut eat with us?”Ethyr asked in surprise, hopping to catch up as Verusias strode down the hall.Ithen, who had been waiting outside the washroom, followed.
“Would you rather she not?”Verusias asked.
“N-no, I want her there.”
The veranda was attached to the side of the main house, not so much a room as a roofed floor, all three sides open to the wide view of gardens, orchard, and vineyard.The low dining table in the center of the stone floor was brimming with plates overlapping each other: slices of various roast meats surrounded by cups of different sauces, fried vegetables, crisp raw vegetables, soups, cheeses, fresh fruit, fruit in sugary syrups, and three different loaves of bread.
Verusias sat on one of four floor cushions and Ithen, unclipping his sword belt and resting it deliberately to his side, sat next to him.Ethyr sat across, looking over the sea of food and determining it was not much different from the food in the palace.But he rarely dined with others anymore.He wasn’t sure what to do.
Poyut entered behind an attendant and gave a bow to the table.“Your Divinities.”
“Sit, sit,” Verusias encouraged, gesturing.Poyut looked to Ethyr, confused, but he nodded and gestured too.So she sat beside him, her reluctance making the movement stiffer than she usually was around him.
Verusias draped himself over Ithen, and the man tolerated the head on his shoulder and the fingers in his hair and the palm on his chest, all under Ethyr and Poyut’s uncomfortable gazes.
“You are a terrible host,” Ithen said.
“Don’t talk to your king that way,” Verusias chastised lightly.
“I wasn’t talking to the king, I was talking to you.”
Verusias pulled back, glaring at Ithen with a barely hidden smile.He sniffed, straightened, and turned to the table.“Is there anything missing you’d like?”he asked Ethyr.
“No,” Ethyr said.“This is more than enough, thank you.”
“Then eat, please.”He gestured grandly.Ethyr hesitated, then took some foods from the plates surrounding his.The only food he’d eaten in the last day was a travel meal of bread, cheese, and cured meat—and a pear—so he was starving.But he ate with conscious caution, following all the rules Yorith had drilled into him.Sit up straight, finish a bite before taking another, using a fork for meat and vegetables and a spoon or chunk of bread for soup.Verusias seemed to do it all without even thinking.
It wasn’t until Verusias mentioned it that he realized Poyut hadn’t touched anything.
“Aren’t you hungry?”Verusias asked, sounding almost hurt.
