Page 104 of His Realm

“Heaven help us,” Cirillo groaned. “Come now, we need to get back to the main floor, or when Varic arrives, Balon can lie and say we were never here.”

“No,” I said with a yawn. “Varic will find us. He knows our smells, especially mine.”

“I don’t know whether to be comforted or horrified,” Cirillo said, scowling.

“Be comforted,” Carice offered with a smile, and I realized, as I had the first time I’d seen her, that she really was very attractive, with her big sea-blue eyes, voluminous red curls, and peaches-and-cream complexion that was normally flawless but now sported some cuts and bruises. “Varic will save us. Well, all of you. I’ve yet to know what he will decide.”

“Perhaps he will banish you and Alrek together,” I offered. “That could be fun.”

She looked at me like I was insane. “You do realize Alrek speaks only of building. He’s an architect and can weave any conversation back to that which he finds interesting.”

“He’s an architect?”

She nodded. “More of a structural engineer.”

“And Lady Eudora’s children are archaeologists.”

“Yes. My Chryos is a mathematician. Did you know that?”

“I did not.”

“Even though, in my opinion, he is enjoying far too long a vacation in Bali, he is quite learned and holds many degrees in the human world.”

I was drugged, but my brain was still running.

“Many of the king’s children are debauched and useless. There is no arguing that fact. But others, like Alrek and Chryos, like Iorwerth, who is a scholar and teaches many of the younger children to read and write, and later, grasp physics, are filled with thousands of years of knowledge.”

“I thank you for telling me.”

She gave me a slight smile as we all heard a door, or something else, being banged upon.

“Come now!” Cirillo yelled, and we all followed him, running down the rock ledge between the wall with sconces and the water. We came upon the hutches Zev remembered, in the water, built on stilts. There were pools of fish, the fish farming I’d guessed at, and as we ran on, I saw how many there were.

“Here,” Cirillo called out as I saw an arch with stairs leading up.

Turning, we saw the guards coming after us, torches in hand.

“Perhaps I should run on and you all go up,” Cirillo rushed out. “We could divide them and⁠—”

“This is what my consort meant by martyr bullshit earlier,” Keres explained to Carice.

“Ah,” she said, nodding. “In the movies, they always seem to want to split apart, and I never see the good of that.”

“Up the stairs,” I ordered Cirillo. “Are you leading or not?”

He growled but moved, and halfway up, Carice stopped and pointed at a large armoire that was strangely just sitting there. When I opened one drawer, I found it was filled with cutlery.

“Good catch,” I told her.

With Cirillo’s help, we pushed it to the edge of the landing we were on, then tipped it over. The sound was incredible, the crashing and the knives, spoons, and forks flying everywhere, and of course the screams from farther down the stairs as it reached the pursuing guards.

I smiled at her, and she tipped her head, grinning, before Keres grabbed her hand and continued up the stairs. We were almost to the top when the door was thrown open and Balon was there. Before I could even yell out a warning, he ran Cirillo through with his spatha, then wrenched the sword up to his heart.

In seconds, Cirillo had blood gurgling from between his lips. Easing off the end of the sword, gravity took over, and when he fell back, I caught him. Instantly, Keres was there beside me, Carice on the other side, crooning to him, speaking softly.

“I’m so— I didn’t think you could—” Words were beyond me.

“Quiet now,” Keres commanded me, but gently. “Give us your barrier now, my consort, so he can calm himself.”