Corallin
Down the hall I can hear murmurs; they are low and yet clearly angry. I tilt my head as I stride toward the sound of the argument. We are currently in the halls of the Family of Night, the abandoned ruins in the mountains where the assassin order my father and I are a part of are based.
And down the hall is my father’s personal study. Who could possibly be speaking to him in such a manner? I can only think of a few fools brave enough to directly confront my father.
I place my hand on my dagger as I creep down the hall. However, as I get closer, I recognize the second voice, and it starts to make sense. Evengi Ichabod. My sister Natasya’s suitor.
Only Evengi would dare to speak to Elwis like that because Evengi is the only one here who isn’t at least a little bit afraid of my father.
I’m not sure why, it could be because he has no survival instincts. Or simply because he is clever enough to have figured out that if my father hasn’t killed him already, he likely won’t. After all, it’s obvious that my father despises the man. In fact, I think it would be harder for him to dislike him more.
Unfortunately for us all, the arrogant priest and all his holy ways is currently untouchable. If not just because Natasya loves him, but because he is brother to a woman, who by all intents and purposes, will likely be our next queen. If her current relationship with the newly crowned king is anything to go by anyway…
It’s likely that Natasya is the only one in the family who hasn’t noticed the tension, but she is blinded by love for them both.
And so Elwis the Eel and Evengi are locked in an unspoken feud where neither one can make too great a move over the other because Natasya stands to be hurt either way, and they will not risk that.
I make it to the entrance of my father’s study. The door is partially open, so I squeeze through, my slight frame not even brushing the door. Neither of the men in the room seem to notice me so I move to a darkened corner of the room and welcome my friends the shadows.
Elwis is sitting at his desk, Evengi is standing on the other side with his hands planted firmly against the smooth wood.
“When will you begin trusting me?” Evengi demands. “Or is a lowly priest such a threat to you that you must have men trail me through the streets? You won’t let me see my sister yet. I am not your prisoner to be kept at your whims.”
“Not my whims, no,” Elwis says dismissively. He glances up at Evengi. “But what of Natasya?”
“Natasya wants me to get along with you. That goes both ways, Eel.”
“Your guards are for your own protection,” Elwis says dismissively. “The same goes for your seeing your sister. Kingmaking is an interesting and messy affair. It’s best to stay out of it till the very end. After all, if someone wished to hurt me, they need only to do something to you and deliver me an irreparable blow.”
Evengi snorts at that. “I think we both know that you would recover.”
“My daughter’s wellbeing is worth more to me than any gold in this world.”
“I would never hurt Natasya,” Evengi claims. He is earnest, and in that at least, I believe him.
Elwis the Eel folds his hands leisurely over his desk. “In that you and I have a commonality. Because I would never hurt my daughter either. It’s why you’re still breathing and why I must be so invested in ensuring that you remain so.”
A weaker man would flinch at Elwis’s threats. However, if Evengi has one redeeming quality it is that he is not weak, and when he looks Elwis dead in the eyes and squares his shoulders, not the least intimidated, I can almost see why my sister loves him. “And my sister’s connection to our new and illustrious king, may the gods bless his reign, has nothing to do with that?”
Elwis lifts a shoulder. “You are convenient, Fyodorov, but there are other ways to influence a king.”
“Then I suggest that you start finding those ways because you will get nothing from me. I won’t let you use Alya through me.”
Elwis nods his head, glancing down at his desk. He begins straightening some scrolls lying across his desk. Likely assassination contracts that he still needs to go through andchoose which assassins to assign to them. “Indeed. Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask, has Natasya said “yes” yet?”
Evengi clenches his jaw. “I’m waiting for the perfect moment to ask her.”
“Yes, of course. I was surprised that you would ask my blessing, but I suppose if we are to be family, we should begin trying to get along now… shouldn’t we, son?”
“So, it would seem,” Evengi manages to get out past his clenched jaw.
Elwis smiles, revealing two of his teeth are slightly more pointed than the others. He lifts a crystalline chalice with a swirling red liquid inside. “To family then.”
“Ugh,” Evengi grunts as Elwis tosses back the drink of blood. He turns and storms out of the study.
Elwis lowers the glass as he leaves. The smile quickly slides off his face as he releases a sigh.
“Are you all right, father?” I ask, choosing that moment to reveal myself.
