He blushed, bringing his shoulders up.“I have to interact with them, don’t I?I like knowing what I can.”
“You’d do best not to call them by their old names,” she told him sternly.“They don’t take kindly to it.”
Ethyr blinked at her.“Why not?”
“I do not know.Perhaps, like humans, they want to put that period of their lives behind them.”
Ethyr took his pile of books to the sun room.It was where Verusias had liked to read, Klara said.Lounging on a cushioned chair, with the sun beating down on him, struggling to read boring political history, it was hard not to fall asleep.He had no idea why Verusias had preferred this for his pastime.
There wasn’t much new information in the books, simply what Malor had told him repeated in longer form and with more tedious language.Aedus had tried to overthrow the government, and Yorith had stopped him.It was hard to know if he could even trust the stories without any real knowledge of who had written them and why.If they had been in Yorith’s study, perhaps he’d been the one to commission them in the first place.That hardly seemed unbiased.
When he wasn’t fighting sleep, it was Klara’s words distracting him from reading.
Kyarin.
No, it was absurd.The god of deception and trickery wouldn’t save him from robbers.Right?
He was getting nowhere.He sighed and gathered the books up again to return them to the library, feeling thoroughly defeated and useless.Every time he tried to figure something out, he just got more questions and confusion.He didn’t know why he bothered.
The guard at the library entrance took the books from him and he made his way through the halls to the closest exit.It brought him past Poyut’s room.The door was opened a sliver and he could hear her rustling around inside.She must have finished training; maybe she’d walk the gardens with him.He did feel an anxious urge to remedy the rift he’d caused between them.
He pushed open the door to find Satya rummaging through a chest at the end of the bed.She looked up in surprise and quickly straightened.
“What are you doing in here?”Ethyr demanded.
Satya cleared her throat and tucked her hands behind her back.“My apologies, Your Divinity.I thought the room could use some tidying up.”
“You’re Lyrian’s attendant,” Ethyr said sharply.“You have no reason to clean Poyut’s room.”
“I must contradict you, Your Divinity, I am Head Attendant now.”
Ethyr stared hard at her, though he was not surprised.Instead he had something more of a realization.
“Guards!”he called into the hall.
Satya startled.“I do not see how this situation requires force, Your Divinity.”
Two guards arrived at the door.Ethyr nodded to Satya.“Take her and follow me.”
They strode forward and Satya pulled angrily out of their grasps.“I will follow willingly,” she snapped.“I would have followed willingly, Your Divinity.”Ethyr did not listen, stalking out of the room.
The advisor’s doors were closed.They always were, now.Yorith had mostly left them open throughout the day.Lyrian looked up as the doors burst open.Seeing it was Ethyr, he set his pen aside and quickly rolled up the paper on the desk, spreading a smile onto his face.
“Your Divinity!What can I do for you?”His smile faltered when Satya was ushered into the room by the guards.
“Have you replaced Gionan with your own attendant?”Ethyr asked angrily.
Lyrian raised his eyebrows.“Of course.She was Head Attendant on my family estate for over forty years.She’s perfectly qualified.”
“I told you to consult me before any more decisions,” Ethyr barked.Lyrian’s eyebrows rose a fraction higher.“She was snooping around Poyut’s room.Did you tell her to do that, too?”
Lyrian offered a disarming smile and surreptitiously slipped the letter he’d been writing into a desk drawer before holding his hands out.“Your Divinity, please.If you’re going to throw accusations at me you could at least do so with a bit more calm.There’s no reason to work yourself up.Satya?”Lyrian looked pointedly at the woman.“Were you in Poyut’s room?”
Satya lowered her chin.“I was, sir.”
“And what compelled you to be in there?”
“As I told the king, sir, I was only trying to organize it a little.”
