Page 41 of The Concubine King
“Exactly.It’s about time he stepped up.”
Ethyr didn’t dare ask what they were talking about, but all eyes turned to him anyway.
“Come here,” Ithna beckoned.“Have some wine.”
He glanced at Varuut, but she did nothing, so he slowly stepped off the bench and sat by Ithna’s side.She passed him a goblet.“Do you have a favorite story?”she asked.
He blinked up at her, then around one more time.It felt like he’d been dropped into another world.Anotheranother world.It was vastly different from their interactions before, when he had felt more like a doll than a companion.
“We’ve decided on a punishment,” Gallus explained, gleefully.“For his transgression last time.He will star in a play for you.So what would you like?”
Opening his mouth was a physical challenge.It seemed a risk to say anything at all.“The Farmer and the Hunter,” he said quietly.
“What’s that one about?”Langath asked.“Mortals come up with new stories every hour it seems, it’s hard to keep track.”
Ethyr fidgeted his hands.“A farmer struggles to feed his family during a famine.”He glanced around.They all watched him expectantly.“S-so he makes a deal… with a hunter.The hunter will bring back meat for his family, and while he’s gone the farmer is to test his wife’s fidelity.He’s suspected for some time that she is disloyal.”
“Ooohhh, how perfect!”Gallus sat up, clapping his hands together.“I’ll be the hunter.”
“Shouldn’t I be?”Catocus complained.
“No, you have to play the main role,” Gallus instructed.“And besides, theater is no fun if you stay the person you already are.”He jumped to his feet and hopped over to the other god, dragging him—reluctantly—to his feet.
The others gathered around the table or sat in nearby chairs to watch the show.Gallus turned to them with an overly dramatic bow.“Welcome, and thank you for joining us,” he called across the room.He sounded like a real play master, the ones who went to markets and tried to get peoples’ attention.“Today we present—“ He paused and looked at Ethyr.“What was it called?”
“The Farmer and the Hunter,” Langath said sharply.“How could you possibly forget that?”
“The Farmer and the Hunter!”Gallus boomed over Langath’s last few words.Ethyr bit his lips to stop a laugh.The others clapped so he quickly joined in.
Gallus cleared his throat and sat languidly on a seat, sharpening an invisible knife.After a few seconds he looked pointedly at Catocus.
Catocus sighed with a roll of his eyes.He pretended to rap his knuckles on a door.
“How strange,” Gallus said, looking around.“I have this sensation that someone is at the door, but I hear no knocking.It must be my imagination.”
“Knock, knock,” Catocus said flatly.
“Ah!”Gallus sprang to his feet and went to ‘open’ it.“Oh, the farmer!Whatever are you doing at my door?”
“Help me, my family is starving,” he said, just as flatly as before.
“How terrible!”Gallus stepped aside.“Do come in.”
Gallus closed the fake door behind him and pretended to sheath his knife at his waist.He really was quite good, even his mannerisms and the way he held himself had completely changed.Then again, it would have been strange for the god of theater to not be a good actor.
“Tell me your woes, good sir!”
“Uh,” Catocus sighed, tossing his hands.“My crops have all failed,” he said, with a rather emotionless attempt at emotion.“Now I cannot feed my thirty children.”
“Thirty?!”Ithna laughed.
Catocus turned to her.“I don’t know!How many children do mortals usually have?”
“Half that, at most,” Gnaeus said, laughing too.Catocus returned to the waiting Gallus.
“Mytwelvechildren are starving,” he tried again.“They’ve already gnawed off my hand.”He lifted a hand, only there was no hand at the end of his arm, only a stub.
Ethyr caught a surprised laugh in his mouth, slapping his palm over it before it became more than a snort.
