He laughed lightly as he reached for his second honey cake. “I have not sailed much. I would enjoy hearing your tales of adventure on the Stormhold over a meal with my family.”
I smirked into my mug, my dark eyes latching onto his bright blue ones. “I’m not sure how amusing the queen will find my stories of stealing from her ships to feed and clothe the cold and hungry that the rich cockers of Celear have conveniently forgotten about.”
He sighed. “Yes, Raewyn might balk. Her bloodlines are steeped in sea travel. Still, she should hear both sides of the privateering problem if she is to work to overcome the situation at our new ports of call.”
I was about to comment on the proposed hike in port fees when a cat sauntered into the gallery. My eyes flared as the feline began rubbing against the king’s legs, purring loudly before leaping into Aelir’s lap.
“Is that a Sandrayan sand cat?” I asked while the cat kneaded on the king. Cats cared little for pedigree. Either they liked you or they didn’t, as the crown on your head meant nothing.
“It is. It belongs to Mahouk Nouradi. The twins have a kitten that is generally with Pehdra but seems to be elsewhere at the moment.” Aelir ran a hand down the cat’s back as his king’s guard made his way over. “She was a gift to the children when he arrived several months ago.”
“Let me have her taken back to Teryn’s office,” Pasil said, lifting the Sandrayan spotted cat to his shoulder where she draped herself around his neck like a fashionable stole. Gold cat eyes watched me intently as she was carted outside and passedto a lesser guard. Pasil resumed his stance in the corner, his cheeks pinkened, as the king brushed cat hair from his slacks.
“This castle holds many wonders,” I commented and got a slight smile from the king.
“One never knows what one shall find in the vast halls of Avolire. A Sandrayan spotted cat, an ice dragon wyrmling, a noted pirate.” He gave me a wry smile and leaned up in his seat. “Have you seen the dragon yet? Oh, yes, of course. He sailed with you. Beiro is much in demand at the druid school. Several wardens are on their way here to see the wyrmling as we speak.”
“The wyrmling. Yes, I’ve spent time with him. He’s a little thief so make sure that when he is presented to you that you keep the crown jewels under a tight lock and key. He rifled through my possessions, stole several rings, and then claimed the crow’s nest as his hoarding den. One of my crew was bitten on the arse by the indigo shitter. I had to pay the beast a copper a day to add to his treasure trove for the safety of my crew’s backsides.”
Aelir laughed long and hard, and for a moment, I could see a glimmer of the young boy who stuffed bugs into his pockets. I couldn’t help but chuckle myself. Damn dragon.
“I shall ensure all glittering bits of gold are hidden away in the royal vault,” Aelir snickered and turned at the clearing of a throat behind us. A stout female, round as a barrel with bristly short white hair, clad in the white and blue robes of a healer, stood beside Pasil, his light brown gaze on the floor. “Ah, Healer Vena, I did not realize the time to head to the Hall of the Sanguine was upon us.”
“Our time cycles by the time of His Highness,” she softly replied.
Aelir looked from the cleric to me. “If you have time, I have called up one of our best healers to begin the process of bloodtesting. She has a gentle touch, rest assured, and the extraction of your blood shall only be a minute of unpleasantness.”
“I have no fear of blood or the prick of a healer’s fleam. The sooner we have the testing completed, the sooner we shall know the results.”
“Agreed. Let us get this over with then.” After he rose, he was handed a wet cloth for his fingers and motioned for me to walk with him. I glanced at the healer who seemed shocked to the roots of her silver hair to see me striding along beside the king instead of behind him. Or perhaps it was my outlandish garb or the length of my hair that had her eyes bulging.
Her shock grew tenfold when we stopped at my suite to wake Prescott so he would not fly off into a rabid panic when he woke to find me gone. It seemed none in Avolire had seen a troll/human hybrid with a purple head carrying a child’s picture book this closely. The king, after a brief moment of staring, was unflappable, but the staff…
Several maids, a page, and an acolyte of Ihdos had to be carted to the Hall of Sanguine—a hued, well-lit, airy medical area—to be revived with a mix of ammonia and lavender paste held under their noses. It was rather amusing, to be honest. My crew would have been in hysterics, the ill-bred clods of filth that they were. Just like their captain.
I placed a bet with the king that we would see twenty and two sent to the clerics after suffering the vapors by the morn. As I rolled my sleeve up for the bleeding to begin, he watched one of the healers tumble to the floor when Prescott showed her a duck in his book.
“I say thirty by nightfall,” the king replied and gave me a wink.
I liked the ruler of Melowynn. Probably more than I should. His grand advisor was quite compelling as well. Hopefully, he would sup with us tonight.
UNSURE IF THE CLERICS OF AVOLIREwere truly taking a sample of my blood or trying to drain me dry, I sat through the bloodletting and made witty quips.
Let no one say a Cadere grew wobbly at a little blood in a bowl.
The process would take two days, according to the pudgy healer who had come to fetch me. The blood would be prayed over by several members of the church to purify it. I thought to ask if they did so over the blood of the nobles but bit that tart query back. I was sure I already knew the answer. Then they would call forth the court mages to begin their mystical workings. Rare regents, ancient nodes, scrying mirrors of lineage? My understanding of the old ways and magicks was limited. Amazingly, there must be a few elderly elven mages left breathing who could perform the rites. Most of the city elves had left magicks behind when they turned on the goddess Danubia to create a god that loved intelligence and pomposity over affection and respect for the woods and each other. Perhaps a few scholars had been granted leave to study and keep the old spells alive. Witches know who may need to have their grimy bloodlines tested someday so best to have a few doddering priests with some knowledge of the mystics.
I knew of the magicks my father’s line carried and had learned to manipulate water to my bidding. I’d met elves thatcould control the wind, the ground, and speak to beasts or shift into an animal. But my schooling had been sparse when reading of the ancient elven spellcasters. The druids were looked down upon for their belief in a goddess of the forest, and the wood elves were disparaged for their skin tone, much like the Sandrayans and the Tundra peoples. The dwarves were disliked for their lack of height, refinement, and overall ability to look an arsehole in the eye and call said arsehole an arsehole. The poor were disdained for being poor. Then there were the bandits and the privateers who shared the contempt from those who stood on the throats of those not born in the right house.
As much as it terrified me to think I could be thrust into a nest of hateful vipers, there was a side of me that looked forward to the possibility.
After the clerics had several dainty white bowls of my blood, I was left to rest on a cot by the window. The king sat with me as he told me tales of his youth at Castle Willowspirit. He spoke of his parents, Gialar and Tendarl, who had died when he was an infant of the wasting sickness the humans had brought into Renedith. He told of his mother’s kindness, of how she went out into the streets, a lady of the realm, to help the acolytes and clerics tend to the sick and dying. How she had contracted the sickness, passing it to my father and several others in their service before passing over to rest with Ihdos.
“What of you?” I had asked while sipping on warm apple juice as the sun began to fade behind some thickening clouds. The winds dipped and gusted. Rain was in the air.
“When the plague began, I was sent to Celear with my grandfather, as he was elderly. We stayed in the Stillcloud residence in the southern part of the city. Only when those infected had died and were placed onto a pyre did we return to Castle Willowspirit. Umeris buried his daughter and his son by marriage and then took over raising me,” he’d told me,his words soft as he relayed the past. Even though he had not known his parents, his sadness over losing them was evident, so I spoke of other things until I was given leave to return to my suite.
The king and I separated outside the Hall of the Sanguine. I was led to my room by two armed guards. With a sigh I gave the pull cord a tug. A thin young woman appeared at my door mere moments later. I asked for hot water to bathe in.
