“So we’ve heard,” Thiete said without thinking. “Ow!” he exclaimed as Lucien kicked him under the table.
Still mid-swallow, Jarryn choked on his mead. Once the coughing had abated, his icy stare fell accusingly on Leander, whose cheeks flushed in guilty embarrassment. Leander ducked his head in shame for revealing something Jarryn no doubt wanted kept quiet.
The conversation halted once again. Leander wanted to squirm in discomfort but he forced himself to remain still. He debated returning the topic back to the moral integrity of Vyrica. At least then Jarryn would focus his distaste on the others.
A well-trained diplomat, Lucien was the one to restart the conversation. “My mother’s birthday is in a few months. Weeks, really, come to think of it. There is to be a big banquet, I hope you will all be attending.”
“I doubt my father would let me miss it,” Leander grimaced.
“Nor mine,” Thiete agreed. His father was Vyrica’s highest ranking military general. “And Vivienne. My betrothed is a force to be reckoned with and make no mistake.”
All around the table laughed with the exception of Jarryn. “I will be there, to honour the queen and not because someone demands my presence.”
“Then you are the son my mother always wanted,” Lucien joked lightly.
“Mine too,” Leander agreed.
The minstrels’ melody became more sombre, heardover the hushed conversations held throughout the large room.
Jarryn still didn’t smile. “Turns out my mother was just as ready to believe in my patricide as my brother was, so maybe we should trade,” he said, his expression deadpan.
“I wonder if this is a problem reserved only for nobility, or if sons of whores have the same strife in their lives,” Lucien wondered aloud as his finger traced the rim of his flagon.
“Maybe Jarryn could find out for us,” Thiete interjected with a giggle, followed by a much louder exclamation of pain as Lucien kicked his leg again, this time significantly harder.
This time Jarryn was prepared, and he didn’t even blink. “It would be a shame to ruin a good time asking them about their mothers,” he returned. “In any case, I’m sure you could ask any of the gents in here.”
“Most people in here are nobility, which doesn’t answer my ponderous question.”
“You three haven’t spent much time around the common folk, have you?” Leander asked, then continued as they all opened their mouths to claim otherwise. “No, I don’t just mean ministering to your subjects. I mean really getting to know them. Drinking in an inn besides the Wandering Dragon.”
The nobles looked between themselves.
Leander rested his elbows on the table and leaned in, feeling quite smug. “No, I don’t suppose you have. The people you rule over are no different from you. They have dreams and aspirations, secrets and conflicts much the same as you all do.”
“And you know them so well, do you?” Jarryn asked softly. “The God of Lies, whose battlefield is littered with secrets.”
“No better than the ruling caste. It matters little to me from whom the secrets come. A little princeling’s secrets and lies have their place in the world, just as much as that of a farm boy.”
“What do you know of my secrets?”
“Only that you have them,” Leander shrugged.
Jarryn’s eyes narrowed in distaste and distrust. “Would that you still had your divine gifts. It must make life challenging without them.”
“I’ll manage. But thank you for your concern.”
There was no mistaking it: Jarryn had no love for Leander. He had been raised pious, to worship the Nine, just like every child in Cariun. But Leander had never before experienced such animosity radiating from another, except maybe his father. But this was different still. He could not understand why.
“Have I done something to offend you in some way, Your Highness?” he asked quietly.
“You are younger than me, yet claim some ethereal experience which makes you, by your own admission, superior to me. To us.”
Leander blinked. “You act as though your title grants you immunity from criticism. It doesn’t.”
The prince of Desanne ground out his response. “Always quick to remind us that we are beneath you.”
“At least I embrace what I am.”
