I drop a cube of sugar into my cup, watching it dissolve completely before taking a sip. The minty notes hit me first, my sour stomach settling slightly. “I haven’t had a chance to thank you for securing the Dyrsjel.”
Cade waves a hand through the air and looks anywhere but at me. “Just doing my job, Your Majesty.”
There’s a bite in his tone, but I decide to ignore it. Sighing, I recline back. It’s not unusual for people to avoid my gaze. So many don’t believe in the vision Galen and I have for Teravie. For the future of our people. Ridding magick from those we don’t believe deserve it.
Why should Enchantresses be the only ones who are Mother-blessed? Does Mother Gaia not see all of her children as equals?This is the tale Galen has spun to me over and over again, a tale I’ve spun to myself. It was a way to defy my father, even after his death.
“Something bothering you?” I take another sip of my tea, letting the liquid cool on my tongue before swallowing it down.
“Of course not, Your Majesty,” he says, finally glancing at me. His hazel eyes are cloudy, the lines around them deeper than they should be for a man of his age.
“Are you lying to me, Cade?” I place my tea cup down on the small table to my right before propping my elbows on my knees. “You didn’t show any remorse when you hauled the Dyrsjel in? When you signed a contract to find her, so what’s changed?” A smile turns up my lips as his knee begins to twitch. His nervousness is obvious and for whatever reason it relaxes me. For so long, I was always the weakest person in the room. I forget how wondrous it can be to be on the other side of that threshold. To be the one who holds all the control instead. “I asked you a question, Cade.”
“Sorry—” He takes a steadying breath, rolling his shoulders back to look me in the eye. “No concern, Your Majesty, it’s just that I’ve repaid my debt. I brought you the Dyrsjel and?—”
“Except that you haven’t done your job,” I say. “How is it that for a third time the Dyrsjel has escaped your watch?”
His face blanches.
Reaching inside my vest pocket, I pull out the formal paperwork to release Cade from my guard. I dangle the parchment, his freedom, in the air like a bated line for a fish. “Do you know what this is, Cade?”
He shakes his head, his eyes going wide.
“It’s your ticket to freedom. A pardon from Valebridge, relieving you of your indenture to me.” I toss the paper on the table before reclining in my chair again, threading my fingers together in my lap. “But only until you’ve completed one more task for me.”
“One more task,” he repeats, his voice going up at the end like a question. “But I thought?—”
“Thought what?” I challenge him, sticking the parchment back into my breast pocket. “Thought you’d come here and argue with the king?”
He flinches, his once pale cheeks now tinted red. “No, Your Majesty. Please, tell me of this task, and I’ll ensure it’s done.”
I thrum my fingers against the tabletop.
“I need you to find someone else for me. Someone with just as much value to me as the Dyrsjel. I have an army of men looking for her, but I need your sole focus on this. Can you do this for me, Cade?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” His eyes are trained on his lap, his jaw clenching and unclenching. He thought I brought him here to free him.
Pity.
“I need you to find a man called Sorin Trednik.” Cade’s eyes widen as he meets my gaze. “Oh, yes. You already know of him.” Smiling, I take another sip of tea. “Find him. Bring him to me, and only me, and your debt is repaid. You’ll be a free man, I swear on my father’s grave.”
Cade seems to weigh my offer, even though I believe he knows he doesn’t have any choice in the matter. After an excruciating awkward silence, he stands and bows. “Sir Galen has already sent a search team for the Enchantresses that managed to escape, surely they’ll be looking for Sorin?—”
“I didn’t ask for your opinion on the matter. In fact, I didn’t ask you a question at all.” Standing from my chair, I push my fingers into the wood of the table and lean forward. “You will go, alone, in search for Trednik, and you will not speak to me again until he is found. Otherwise this”—I gesture to the parchment—“will be as if it never existed, just as the delusion of your freedom.”
Cade chews the inside of his cheek before dipping his chin. “I won’t let you down again, Your Majesty.”
“I should hope for your sake, you don’t.” My hand cuts through the air, dismissing him at last.
Faint music from the ballroom ghosts the room as Cade exits the study. It’ll be hours before the party is over, and yet I can’t bring myself to go back down. Even the task of entertaining the Guild leaders has been pushed aside.
I let out a long sigh, basking in the powerful feeling of controlling someone's fate. Even if that someone is just an officer in my guard and even if his fate means sending him on a search for a brother I shouldn’t bother to recognize.
I reach for my tea, annoyed it’s already gone cold. “What are you doing, Roman,” I whisper to myself before snapping my fingers again and demanding a fresh kettle.
Twenty-Four
Elora
