The man’s eyes were shiny with tears.
Fourteen
“Now, let us talk plainly,” King Arik said.
I stood before the king’s worktable in his personal quarters the morning after Fell Sulertag had been named Norser on my behalf.I hadn’t seen Fell since he’d left the evening before.And despite my repeated invitation for her to stay, Dania had gone home to her children with a vague promise to return soon and the warning that the sea dogs did not use chamber pots in the way the Islish did, so I must make my way outside should the need strike.
The king had summoned me in the morning himself, guiding me to the room he wished to meet in.He offered me steamed seagull eggs which I looked at in horror before he pulled the plate away and strolled around the table, turning his sword-sharp gaze on me.
“It is of great importance to me that you feel you are well-treated here.You are the child of one of my enemies.You are nearly paired with the child of another of my enemies.How you are treated in my court will teach them more about me than any skirmish or raid.”
The table was carved from driftwood and polished to the pristine white of sea foam.It was the length of a large man and taller than most tables as King Arik liked to stand while he worked.Stacks of parchment, maps, paintings, and trinkets littered the surface, and though I first understood this as disorder, I would come to learn that everything was intricately placed.
My hands were behind my back, my posture rigid, my mind pulling away from my surface as it always did when I was given instruction.At the time, I thought nothing of this.Now, I ponder it a great deal—the quieting of the self.
I took a breath.“I have been well-treated already.You saw to my recovery.”
“I said we were to speakplainly.”
My skin flushed in hurried terror.Youdidsee to my recovery,I thought.I have not lied.Then I rearranged my feeling.
King Arik’s head was cocked to the side, his were eyes narrowed and as sharp as ever.He wasn’t smiling with his mouth, but some other unseen part of him was smiling.“I will teach you a word.It is one I am certain you have little experience with, but it will be of great service to you in my court.Njen.Can you remember this?”
I nodded.
“Let me hear it.”
“Nuh-yin.”
“Good.This meansno.When someone does something you don’t want them to—when it pertains to you, of course, not when they are only influencing themselves—you say this.They will listen.You aresoten.They must listen.Let me hear you say it again.”
“Nuh-yin.”
“Njen.”
“Nyuh-in.”
“Njen.”
“Nyehn.”
“Good.”
His stare was as forceful as a storm, eyes gleaming like candles on the darkest of nights.
“I have heard a little of goldkeepers, so I am expecting you will be concerned about what you were carrying with you at the time of your… mistaken liberation.I give you my promise again that no one will touch it, but I know this is likely not enough.You do not know me.You have very little reason to trust me.You have not yet seen how true to me my raiders are.So, I have devised an arrangement.”
He reached into the pocket of his linen trousers, retrieving a clamouring bundle of metal which he tossed onto the table between us.A series of rings, each holding a cluster of keys.
“These are my personal keys,” he said.“Some have twins.You will see there is a bronze ring—many in my court have twins of the keys on that ring.Guards.Lovers of guards.The additional lovers of the lovers of guards.Now the silver ring—the keys on this one are rarer.Only a few twins exist.Jorn has some.A select few captains.Fell would if he had any interest… But the gold… those are keys that there is only one of.I leave them in your possession until such a time comes that you have found a suitable place to keep your gold.You may remove whichever you like and keep them for the duration of your stay.I trust you will not lose them.”
I looked up at him again.How quickly my intentions morphed when gold was spoken of.I had been determined only a moment ago to please him, but when given the chance to keep gold better, I suddenly couldn’t think of him at all.
“You should, with little difficulty, be able to match keys to doors and chests—many are made from the same metal as their lock pair, but I ask that this one here—” He reached across the table, and his thick, calloused fingers crawled through the keys, until they were holding the smallest key on the gold ring.“I would ask you not to go into the room that this key opens.”
Obedience was my nature at the time.I nodded.
“May I make requests for materials?”I said.
