The king did choke a little, but he swallowed reflexively, and most of it went down. Will released him and lay back. Damn, that was probably my last chance to get rid of him. Then he closed his eyes and let the darkness take him.
***
When he woke again, he was still in the underground chamber and he could feel someone watching him. With a start, he realized that Lognion had propped himself up near the wall and was staring at him with baleful eyes.
“I see you’re awake finally,” said the king.
“You too, unfortunately,” admitted Will.
Lognion laughed, but he lacked the energy to do it properly. “That’s entirely your fault.” He held up his bandaged wrist. “Does it feel good to be my savior?”
Will closed his eyes. “I was hoping I’d wake up in a soft bed with friends around me. How long have you been waiting just so you could irritate me? Couldn’t you summon someone to get us out?”
“A few hours,” admitted the king. “I thought we should talk first. Have a little father-to-son chat as it were.”
“You aren’t my father.”
“You married Selene.”
“She doesn’t recognize you anymore.”
The king shrugged. “Too bad. I don’t give a damn what she thinks. You have to listen anyway.”
“Just get it over with.” Will sat up. He still felt drained, but he was no longer sleepy, just exhausted. The potion had had to heal a lot.
“I’m disappointed in you. You had your chance to be rid of me.”
Will shrugged. “I thought about it.”
“If you had killed me, Selene would have been crowned queen and you could have ruled by her side. I probably would have given you my blessing—”
“You’d have been dead,” interjected Will.
“In a spiritual sense. I might have felt comfortable leaving it all to someone ruthless enough to save the capital and murder me at the same time. Instead, I find myself mildly disgusted by your weakness.”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass what you think about me. Selene can’t come back just because you’re dead. I don’t even know where she is. The kingdom might have fallen into civil war before she returned.”
The king laughed again. “So you sacrificed your dream of freeing the elementals, the other wizards, your family—you sacrificed all that just so the kingdom would be safer? A stronger man might have taken the reins of power regardless of Selene’s absence. You’re powerful, William. You might have managed it.”
“Someday. You’ll be the first to know,” said Will, miming the thrust of a dagger with one hand.
“You might just be the funniest man I’ve ever met. I’ll regret killing you one day.”
“That’s where we’re different.”
“How so?”
Will grinned maliciously. “I’ll be a happy man the day I put an end to you. I won’t regret it at all.”
“Work hard. If you can manage it, I’ll cheer you on from the grave. No one has succeeded yet, though many have tried.”
“Today would have been the day. Just remember that.”
“Never fear, I’ve already got your reward in mind.”
“Which is?”
“The Duchy of Arenata. The current heir is weak. I was planning to eliminate him anyway. The reward fits the deed, and I will gain a mighty vassal in the process,” said the king.
“Piss off. I’m not swearing fealty to you.”
“You’ve already given me more reason to trust you than any of the other vipers who have sworn their oaths. I won’t ask for it.”
Will frowned. “The ceremony will seem rather odd then.”
“I’ll confer the title in private. Decorum will be saved, and you will have a proper rank to merit Selene as your wife.”
“Where’s the catch? You never do anything that doesn’t benefit you.”
“The catch is your conscience. You never do anything that doesn’t benefit the kingdom. So long as that aligns with what benefits me, you will be the finest of servants.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
“Say that in public and I’ll have you flogged to death. Remember that. I’ll tolerate your suicidal remarks only in private.”
Wearily, Will got to his feet and walked over to the king, then held out his hand. Lognion took it, and Will helped him up. When the king staggered, Will slipped the man’s arm over his shoulder. “Come on. Climbing the stairs is going to take forever. If we stay down here any longer, no good will come of it.”
The journey up did take forever and there was no one in the house above. Will hoped to find assistance in the street, but while the sun was up and shining the street was empty. He resigned himself to a long walk. Everyone must be sheltering at Wurthaven still, he decided.
The half-hour walk took a full hour since they had to stop while Will gave the king some water to drink. Blood loss had rendered the king painfully weak and tired. They passed the gate to Wurthaven on their way to the palace, and Will saw that the bodies from the night before still lay scattered about. He could see the spot where he had left Tiny, but the big man was nowhere to be seen. I hope he’s somewhere safe. There were no people to be seen anywhere.
They continued on to the palace and found it similarly abandoned. Will helped the king into the palace and half-carried, half-dragged the man to his bedchamber. No servants appeared, and since Lognion looked pale and unwell, Will realized he couldn’t simply leave.
He wound up helping the king remove his boots and then propped him up in bed before going downstairs to find the kitchen. An hour later, he returned with a pitcher of small beer and a platter full of sautéed sweetmeats, primarily liver and kidneys. His mother had always told him they were best for people who had suffered a lot of blood loss.
“Did you find anyone?” asked Lognion.
He shook his head. “Eat up.”
They ate together in silence by mutual accord, and when the king was finally done he remarked, “That was well made. You cooked that?”
Will nodded, grunting around a mouthful of food.
“It wasn’t bad. Not quite as good as some I’ve had but—”
Swallowing quickly, Will growled. “I was in a hurry. Nor did I feel like putting in my best effort, considering the patient.”
The king nodded in acceptance. “I pity the cook that works for you then. For there’s no worse critic of a man than someone else who has mastered his craft.”
Will glared at him. “Do you even know what pity is?”
Lognion shrugged. “I understand it as a concept, though I’ve never felt it.”
The day dragged on, and no one appeared. Eventually, Will left and went to Wurthaven, but the entire campus seemed to be deserted without a soul in sight. A quick walk through the city market yielded similar results.
The city was empty. Will couldn’t help but wonder if he had somehow arrived at the ritual chamber after the ritual had been performed. Maybe they already wiped everyone out? He didn’t know what sort of ritual had been planned. It was possible that it was designed only to destroy people while leaving the buildings unharmed.
But if that were the case, he would have died as well. Unless they did it right after I entered the house and started down the stairs.
Returning to the palace, he asked the king, who answered, “The ritual I had planned was destructive. The city would be rubble now. They must be alive somewhere.”
Frustrated, Will stayed through the afternoon and cooked a second meal, this time with more thought and planning. Not because he wanted the king’s approval, but simply because he couldn’t bear mediocrity in food. This time the monarch was more plentiful with his praise, and Will refrained from any biting responses. Night fell, and though it was still early, the king fell asleep, victim to his recent frailty. Will needed rest too, so he retired to Selene’s bedroom.
Using her signature spell once again, he cleaned the entire chamber, freshening both the pillows and blankets as well as cleaning himsel
f. Then he stripped and climbed in between the sheets. Despite his anxiety over the vanishing populace, he was soon asleep.
Epilogue
Will slept like a rock, but since he had gone to bed early, he also woke early, sometime just before dawn. He didn’t move at first, for there was something in the air that seemed different. Opening his eyes, he lay still, studying the room and trying to understand his strange intuition. The room looked the same, but then he heard a gentle sigh beside him.
Someone else was in the bed.
His heart leapt into his throat, and he suddenly wished he had kept his clothes on before he lay down. He could only see the back of his bedmate’s head, and while his vision was sharp enough, the dim light made it difficult to discern the hair’s true hue. He could only tell it was a very dark shade.
Not daring to move, he studied the invader, and after a brief while decided it was a woman. The shape of her hips and the slenderness of her shoulder made it plain. He quickly ran through the list of women he knew, trying to decide if one of them might suddenly leap over the bounds of propriety and do something so bold.
Laina had slept next to him once before, but this woman wasn’t blond, and he suspected she was naked. Lowering his head, he lifted the comforter slightly to make sure his assumption was correct, and saw a quick glimpse of a shapely back and rounded derriere. Definitely naked. That ruled out his sister—she was no fool. Tabitha? Her hair was dark enough, and she presumably didn’t know he was her brother, but that seemed too far-fetched.
Janice was the obvious candidate, since she had long had a crush on him, but given the way she had acted around Tiny, he thought she had already moved on. Then he remembered her white hair. It definitely wasn’t her.
Darla? The Arkeshi had dark hair, but he suspected her back would carry more scars. He simply wasn’t sure. Will decided it was time to evacuate the bed, but given how close they were, he decided to try one more thing out of curiosity. Craning his neck forward, he sniffed the woman’s hair. His nose was filled with the scent of pines and fresh mountain grass. Will’s eyes opened wide with disbelief, and then the woman sighed and scooted backward, bringing herself fully into contact with him.
“Selene?” It couldn’t be.
She turned and looked at him, her eyes glittering in the darkness. “You woke up. You were sleeping so hard I thought you might never wake.”
He kissed her, unable to do anything else. Clutching her in his arms, he held onto her for several minutes, hoping he wasn’t still asleep. Eventually, he relaxed his grip so he could look at her face once more. “Is it really you?”
She nodded. “It seems like a dream, doesn’t it?”
“How?”
“Your grandmother decided I had passed some milestone and brought me back, though I think it had more to do with the fact that my father’s control enchantment vanished. Things were also getting difficult diplomatically.”
“You can stay?” he asked.
She nodded. “You’re in charge of the worst part of my training.”
“What’s that?”
“She said you’d understand. It’s the first ‘compression.’ Do you know what that means?”
Will grimaced. “She would leave that to me. It’s dangerous and painful. You’re going to hate me before it’s over.”
“I would never hate you,” she insisted.
“So you think. I nearly attacked Arrogan with an axe.”
She laughed. “From what I’ve heard, your grandfather wasn’t exactly brimming with warmth and human kindness.” Her expression shifted, and her voice deepened. If she had been a cat, Will might have thought she was purring. “Say, I’ve noticed something since we’re so close together.” Her eyes drifted downward.
He flushed red. “Sorry, I have to pee.”
She laughed. “Is that all? Then by all means take care of it!”
He slipped out of the bed, feeling self-conscious at his nudity. They hadn’t seen each other in over a year, so it felt strange. Matters were made worse by the fact that he couldn’t find the chamber pot. He scrambled all over the room on his hands and knees, but the vital receptacle was nowhere to be found. Unlikely as it was, he went to the front room to look but had no luck there either. Ah well, the city is deserted, right?
Walking to the window, he opened it and pushed the shutters apart before relieving himself on the rose bushes far below. A mad cackle rose in his throat as he enjoyed the sensation of doing something so obviously forbidden. Then he noticed a guardsman on the palace wall directly across from the window he stood at.
The two men locked eyes in a timeless moment. He was too far along to stop, and he certainly wasn’t going to jump back and get urine in Selene’s room. Despite his embarrassment, Will grinned sheepishly and lifted one hand to wave at the guard.
The other man smirked, nodded, then turned away, allowing Will to finish with a semblance of privacy. When he returned to the bedroom, Selene asked, “Did you just pee out the window?”
“I couldn’t find the chamber pot.”
Thankfully she had a sense of humor. “Did the guard see you?”
“Definitely, but I think we came to an understanding.”
She gaped at him. “Oh, really?”
“He seemed to take it in stride, so I suppose he must see that sort of thing at your window quite often.”
“What are you implying?”
He kissed her neck, then continued, “Well, since there’s no chamber pot, I can only conclude you make a habit of using that window. The roses looked suspiciously healthy.”
Selene pulled his arm out from under him and rolled over on top of him. “How on earth do you think I would manage that without falling to my death?”
Will shrugged. “Just stick your rear out and hang onto the edges of the window. If you’re worried about falling, I could probably rig up a sling or something, maybe add a wooden bar to hold onto.”
Selene was moving in a decidedly distracting fashion. “I think I’ve found something better to hold onto.”
Will was in complete agreement, but he had two reservations. “What about your training?”
She leaned down and kissed his forehead. “She wouldn’t have let me in here with you if that was a concern anymore. Personally, I think it had more to do with her testing me than it had to do with my training.”
“Testing you how?”
“After,” she breathed into his ear. “I’ve been waiting too long.”
He never got around to asking her about his second concern, which was whether she needed to find a chamber pot for herself. The answer was definitely a no. A brief time later, they rested. “Testing you how?” asked Will again.
“I think she wanted to test my fidelity.”
Will’s stomach sank as he remembered his vision of her with another man. “You mean Sylandrea?”
Selene’s head jerked back. “How did you know his name?”
“I saw you in a dream—together. You said his name then.”
“Well, just so you know, that didn’t happen, though I did have some dreams of my own. How could you have learned his name, though?”
Her manner was so relaxed and confident that Will believed her immediately. It took him a few minutes to explain the experience of astral projection, but apparently Selene had read up on it before, so the topic wasn’t completely unfamiliar to her. “Is there anything that you haven’t studied?” asked Will.
“Wizardry, apparently,” she said sourly. “From the way you and Aislinn keep talking about it.”
“So what was the test?” Will asked.
“I thought I explained that.”
He shook his head. “Being alone for a year wouldn’t be a problem. I know you better than that.”
She sighed. “Sylandrea was in heat.”
“Huh?”
“Elven males go into heat once every ten years or so. When they do, their urges become exceptionally strong, and they emit pheromones that tend to elicit a simila
r response in women around them. Unmarried men, like Sylandrea, are kept away from polite society during that period, but drabs like me don’t count. I thought he was being nice, but in reality, he thought I would be a guilt-free outlet for his pent-up frustrations.”
“That’s awful—and don’t ever call yourself a drab in front of me again.”
She smiled. “Can I be honest?”
He nodded, but his stomach sank at the same time.
“I was sorely tempted, Will. I want to blame the pheromones. I’ve never been so frustrated in my life, but even so, I feel ashamed that it affected me so strongly. What you saw in your dream was probably what I was experiencing in my dream.”
Will swallowed. “I trust you. I would trust you even if you made a mistake.” He was struck by a sudden desire to tell her about his recent philosophical revelation. “Lies are like clothes, but trust is allowing your partner their privacy even when you know they need new clothes.” He paused. “Wait, that’s not it. Why can’t I remember it right?”
Selene gave him a strange look, but her eyes were smiling. “Where did you come up with that bit of rubbish?”
“It wasn’t rubbish,” he insisted. “Even your father thought it was logical—I think.”
“You’ve been talking to him?” She rolled her eyes. “I need to hear the story, but first, I think we need to remark our territories again.”
“Territories?”
Her eyes were filled with hunger. “You’ve had enough time to rest.”
It turned out he had, and their second dance was much longer than the first. The sun was approaching midmorning when they finally relented and gave in to the need for rest. They weren’t sleepy, though, so the conversation continued.
“When did you get here?” asked Will.
“Yesterday afternoon,” she told him. “Aislinn left me at our house, but there was no one there, so I went looking. I saw evidence of a lot of fighting, but there was no one around. So I went into the city, but it was also empty. Eventually I came here, but the palace was empty as well. Where were you?”
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