Page 73 of The Concubine King
“What?”Ethyr scoffed.“He’s the one who had them there for weeks!”
“I’m sure he has his reasons,” Gionan reassured.
“I’m sure he does,” Ethyr muttered.There was nothing to say Yorith wasn’t the one sending someone to spy on Ethyr or rifle through his belongings while he slept.In fact, he was inclined to believe that was exactly what the High Priest was doing, and this certainly wasn’t disproving it.He eyed Gionan.“Is that all you came to tell me?”
“Tomorrow you’ll be with the gods.Given that you’ll have no lessons then, perhaps you’ll consider meeting Dessin today?”
“No.”He started walking again.Gionan cut in front of him.
“The High Priest is eager to see your progress.It would be quite embarrassing for you and your tutor if none has been made.”
“Who’s to say none has?”
“Dessin has indicated that improvement has slowed.”
Ethyr bit his lip and narrowed his eyes.It took him a few seconds of thought to parry.“Perhaps my tutor is no longer suited to the level of my education.”He was, after all, a teacher of children.
Gionan’s incredulity betrayed his doubt of this claim, but he wouldn’t outright call Ethyr uneducated.“If you truly feel that way,” the man replied slowly, “I am sure a tutor trained for a more advanced level can be spared.”
“That wouldn’t be fair to all the priests struggling so hard to better themselves,” Ethyr said with feigned pity.“I see no reason their education should suffer when mine is clearly sufficient for the gods.”
Neutral expression failed Gionan so he instead kept his face tensely flat.“They have years to continue developing skills, but you have years yet to keep the gods pleased, and it is best to be as prepared as possible.I am certain you mean no disrespect to suggest the gods are not deserving of your highest efforts?”
Ethyr grit his teeth and managed to refrain from scrunching his face.When he had no reply, Gionan relaxed into a pleased smile.
“I am glad we are in agreement, Your Divinity.I will ask the High Priest to arrange more advanced education.”He swept into a bow before leaving.Ethyr turned sharply to finish the path to his room and threw himself onto the bed.He should have known arguing with Gionan would result in a worsened situation.
Ethyr woke to the back of a hand stroking his cheek.Varuut smiled with delight when he opened his eyes and looked at her.
“I wanted to call you back sooner but they wouldn’t agree.”She shot a look at the gods around the table, some of whom rolled their eyes and gave minute shakes of their heads.Ethyr's gaze inevitably met Kiaro’s from across the room.This time he didn’t look away, trying to read into the god’s eyes, as though a confession would be written there.But instead of guilt, he saw… sorrow?
Varuut turned a smile back to Ethyr and drew him to his feet before adhering to him, her voluptuous figure replaced with the lithe body of a man.She pressed into his side, one arm squeezing his shoulder while her other hand grazed through his hair, down his jaw and neck, across his collarbone.He couldn’t help his shiver.“Now that Ainder has introduced him, he’s free for us, right?”
Catocus stepped up to Ethyr’s front, twirling a lock of hair off his forehead.“If that’s the case, you have to share.”The god gazed down at him with a soft hunger that stopped Ethyr’s heart in his throat.He tried not to swallow too conspicuously.
“Can you be gentle with him please?”Gnaeus sighed.“He’s still so tender.”
Varuut’s smile took on a devious note as her hand trailed downward.“I would hope so.”
“What do you think, Varuut?”Catocus asked with a smirk, though his eyes remained locked on Ethyr.“On his back or on his knees?”
Ethyr stiffened with the tremor up his spine, breath hitching.Did they understand the limits of a human body?Would they allow him to adjust, as Ainder had, or would they ravage him mercilessly?
Kiaro pushed smoothly from his seat, his approach taking Varuut and Catocus’s attentions off Ethyr.Catocus scowled at him, but it didn’t stop Kiaro yanking Ethyr from their grasps.He stumbled forward, colliding with Kiaro’s torso, but the impact didn’t nudge the god at all.
“Jealousy is all it takes to make you direct?”Catocus sneered.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Kiaro replied impassively over Ethyr’s head.He slid his hand down Ethyr’s arm.For anyone else the action might have been absent, reflexive, but he felt the tense deliberation that marked every fraction of Kiaro’s movements.His fingers wrapped around Ethyr’s wrist with a gentle but inescapable grip.
“You’re the worst!”Varuut complained as Kiaro led Ethyr away.“And you all sayI’mselfish,” she muttered as she sullenly took a seat at the table.
Kiaro stopped at the bench he’d been sitting at before, letting go of Ethyr with a gesture to sit.Ethyr blinked at him.The gods usually pulled and pushed him to wherever they wanted him to be, they rarely invited him to take his own place.The seat was big enough for three people, as all the seats were, but this one had the right-hand side taken up by a game board.He sat uncertainly to the left.It was strange to face the gods from this angle, above them all.He never stayed seated higher than them.They all watched with a cautious curiosity, as though waiting for a contingency or motivation.But all Kiaro did was place himself in the middle of the bench and return to the game as though Ethyr wasn’t even there.Yet it could not have been a clearer claim of possession.
The gods, at least while Ethyr was around, would not fight over it.They returned to whatever they were doing before.Catocus stood the longest, staring at Kiaro with an intensity that was not quite anger, before following Langath’s beckon to sit with her.
Were they all working with the High Priest, or just Kiaro?None of the others had tried to overtly sway his opinion, but maybe they were tasked with other things.Like distracting him.They were certainly good at that.
Somehow, despite this knowledge, the presence of Kiaro beside him did not feel like a threat.If anything, it was strangely comforting.Kiaro, more than the other gods, even more than Catocus, had an aura of danger around him; not like a criminal, but like those moments before the worst storms, when the animals went quiet and even the land itself seemed to be waiting.And yet feeling that force sitting unassumingly beside him was enthralling.He remembered being face-to-face with him, cramped in a doorway, the way Kiaro’s eyes had studied his face, the absent way his fingers had brushed his earring.
