Divided (32 page)

No, he had to handle this commitment and try and do so with
a little bit of civility.  As much as he did not want to, he was obliged to
this woman to show her a little bit of respect.  She was, after all, a lady. 
Oh, who was he kidding?  He hadn’t respected a woman in a very long time, with
the possible exception of Juliet, and his own mother, on good suns.

Nevertheless, his meeting would be soon, and so he decided
to head there.  Women were always earlier than they should be, and he knew that
if he could start the engagement earlier—that might give him more time to get
to Dark District. 

As he entered the too-large black and red meeting room, he
sighed.  She was waiting at the ornate black table for him.  Her dress was a
bright pink, which was refreshing among the dreary black and red of the
castle.  Still, her dress was far too puffy near the bottom, and he knew that
she must have been uncomfortable sitting.  Still, her smile spoke nothing of
it, and her hazel eyes lit upon seeing him.  Guiltiness set in almost
instantly.  “Good morning, my lady,” he said, with a slight bow.

She stood at once, curtsying to him, just as he had bowed to
her.  She wore a pair of white gloves, but she removed one of them and extended
her hand to him.  He kissed it obligingly, and he thought the smile this
procured from her was much too pronounced.  “How are you?” he asked.

“Well, and yourself?”

“I am also well,” he said politely.  Though she had already
been seated, he made sure to move her chair out so that her return to the
sitting position would be easier.  Then, he sat across from her and braced
himself for what was sure to be an awkward affair.  “You look lovely,” he said,
trying to recall every form of useless conversation he could think of.

After all, she did not look bad.  She was certainly the most
beautiful woman that he’d ever laid eyes on, though that wasn’t saying much, as
he hadn’t been overly taken with any of the women that he’d met.  “Thank you,”
she returned softly.  He took note that her hair was up on her head, but in a
much more contained fashion than it had been at the ball.  It looked more bearable,
though her dress did not.  “I was wondering—the moon of the dance, I am not
sure that this is my concern, but you did not return, and I saw you walk away
from your father.  You looked rather upset.  I… was wondering if you were
alright.”

The forwardness of her question surprised him.  She was
usually one to dance around an issue for many shifts before she finally said
it.  Now, though, her eyes were truly worried for him as she stared into his
blue-green eyes with earnest.  “Oh, that isn’t anything you need concern
yourself with,” he answered easily.

This didn’t appear to satisfy her, but being the mark for
manners that she was, he knew she wouldn’t push it.  “That is good to hear.  I
trust things have gotten better since then.”

He could honestly answer this question.  “Yes, they have.” 
Though,
the interaction with you could not be counted among those things that have made
it better.
  “I do apologize for that evening.  I believe I promised you a
dance that I did not give you.”

“I understood.  Things appeared very serious.  I assumed
that you would not return that evening.”  He was impressed with her ability to
discern and accept that as fact.  He wondered what she’d say if he admitted to
wandering into a dance for commoners and subsequently falling for one of them.

He blinked at her a few times, and then he smiled.  “I
appreciate your understanding,” he said.  “It was impetuous of me to leave,
though, without even saying goodbye to you.”  His voice was as charming as he
could force it to be.  Somehow, he was feeling guiltier about treating her this
way, though.  She seemed almost legitimately interested in him, as a person,
and not just his wealth. 

She smiled.  “Yes, it was, your highness, but I believe that
is part of your charm.”  Another unexpected statement, he thought.  Perhaps
someone who knew him well had coaxed her on how to act. 
Claudia,
he
thought reproachfully. 

His mother would want him to be happy just enough to find
this woman and instruct her on how to treat Calis.  What Claudia could not
possibly account for, though, was Calis’s knowledge of how his mother
worked—and that he’d found a commoner on which to shower his affections.  If
Lee were here, he would say that Calis was drawing assumptions that should not
be drawn with so little evidence.  “Impetuous is hardly charming, miss,” he
said.

“Yes, but you are, Prince Tsrali.”  Her eyes glowed with
attraction as she looked at him.  Then, she looked away from him and bit down
on her lip.  What a curious habit for a woman who normally seemed so detached. 

He said nothing for a long moment.  Before he could come up
with anything, she spoke in his stead.  “My mother expects you to propose to me
soon,” she said flatly.  He started at the candor of the statement.  “I do not
expect as much.”

“You don’t?” he asked, without pausing to consider the
formality of what he was saying.  His foot moved beneath the table, as his body
tried to react to the restlessness that his mind felt.  Perhaps this woman knew
something about him that he did not want known.  Surely, she wanted the
marriage.

He swallowed as he considered what she would say to him
next.  This morning had already been unpredictable, and he was sure that he
hadn’t been in the room for any substantial amount of time.  “I don’t,” she
answered.  “In court, you have never shown interest in another woman, and you
always appear very distracted.  I suppose I haven’t accounted for the fact that
you should want to please your father, and I my mother.”

Unsure on how to proceed, he asked the question that her
words had begged themselves.  “So you don’t wish to marry me?”  This would
provide him with little excuse for not going through with the proposal, but it
might give him a little bit of leverage on postponing it.  Perhaps he could
even say that he wanted to attempt to woo her before leaping into a marriage. 
That would further her loyalty, he could tell Lavus.

Lady Avyon flushed at his question, and though she seemed
able to deliver with frankness, she didn’t seem to enjoy receiving something so
forward.  “I… well, of course I do.  What lady in all of Telandus, or any land,
wouldn’t want to marry you?  You are handsome, wealthy, charming, and every
woman’s dream.  I am simply aware that your affections do not lie in the court,
nor did they lie in Dokak.”

He stared at her.  He could easily combat her statement, and
say that she was mistaken.  She was a woman and so many men discounted them for
being mindless fools, and he could have cited that here.  But he did no such
thing.  “And where do you think my affections lie, my lady?” he asked.

“I do not presume to know.  Perhaps you haven’t found a
place for them, yet.”

His mouth twitched at the statement.  She didn’t know that
he had been stealing away to Dark District, then, and had simply gathered this
from Claudia’s information or her own observation.  Either way, Calis found
that he was more than impressed.  “You speak candidly,” Calis informed her
sullenly.

She smiled.  “I thought that you enjoyed this sort of
thing.  I know that you and your advisor often have unsuitable conversations
with one another.”  He raised an eyebrow at her.  “You are very unorthodox,
Prince Calis.”

“So I am,” he agreed.  “But I am a Tsrali, and therefore I
am expected to propose to the woman who will advance my position and power in
the strongest manner,” he mused aloud.  She must know that if she’d established
the rest of this. 

The two of them shared a moment of not entirely comfortable
silence.  He let out a long breath, trying to figure out how to move forward. 
She was obviously not in any position to release him from the unspoken vow to
marry her, but she was more understanding than he’d expected her to be—which
complicated things further.  “This upsets you,” she told him, as if he wasn’t
already aware.

“I must ask you to filter your language, my lady.  I needn’t
have the entire castle with knowledge that I am unhappy with my present
situation.”  That much was true, and Lavus always had guards listening.  That
was why he was glad Lady Avyon was unaware of his outings to Dark District. 

The lady flushed at the statement, and then she lowered her
head and nodded quietly.  “My apologies, your highness.”

“When did you reach all of these conclusions?” he asked.

She thought for a moment, and then bit down on her lip
again.  “I became curious after I saw you leave the dance so abruptly.”

“Of course,” he said.

He really should have controlled himself at the ball, and he
knew it.  He should not have stormed away from his father, and though Lavus had
not scolded him for it—he knew that the man had seethed over it.  “I…” he
mumbled warily, and then changed his voice to hold its usual authority, “I hope
you are not insulted by this.  You are a truly captivating young woman, and
your beauty is not without immensity.”  She smiled at the compliment.

“I am not insulted, your grace.”

“Then, perhaps we should talk about you.  How have you been
these last five years?”

“There was a love so powerful, so fixed, that no hero or
villain could ever fight against it.”

-A Hero’s Peace v.ii

The inn, Lee thought, was the most established place in Dark
District.  As all inns did, it doubled as a tavern and a restaurant for
eating.  During the sun, though, it was largely deserted and allowed Lee a
place to think without being interrupted by the incessant questions of Dark
District citizens.

Calis’s interest in Kilik was unexpected, at best, and
horrifying, at worst.  Kilik was clearly hiding things.  He was hiding more
than his mere need to parade around Dark District as a masked hero, saving
people who could not be bothered to save themselves.  Kilik himself was
entirely admirable, and Lee found himself fond of the boy without much
knowledge of him.  Nevertheless, regardless of all that, Kilik was very clearly
hiding something.

Naturally, Kilik, like most others, had fallen for Calis
rather quickly.  He had been quite scrupulously forced into it.  Calis Tsrali
had never shown such attention that he’d shown to Kilik at the dance, and he
had not disappointed in his subsequent visits.  Kilik, and rightly so, was
suspicious of Calis’s intentions.  If only he knew how little Calis was
interested in politics, he could relax and enjoy the company of the prince that
he seemed to like so much.

The two of them fit well together, when Kilik was not
urgently trying to end the conversation with some poorly thought out excuse,
and one that Calis could always rebut.  Kilik complemented Calis, when Lee had
thought that no one would be able to.  He had been worried for his friend at the
first mention of marriage, and the way Calis’s hair had proverbially stood on
end at the thought had only added to Lee’s concern.  But the concern had only
extended into the fact that Calis would be mildly unhappy at the arranged
marriage into which he would inevitably be forced.

Lee had never suspected that there would be another
individual to capture Calis’s affections as Kilik had, and now he was certain
that Calis would never let a marriage come about while Kilik was still there to
occupy his thoughts.  It didn’t appear that Kilik was going anywhere, either,
so that meant that there would be a power struggle in the near future, and Lee
had taken his early leave of his father to ponder the inescapability. 

His fingers drummed rhythmically against the wooden table at
which he sat.  The tavern was mostly deserted, with a single barmaid keeping
the place up.  She had long since accepted that he did not need any
refreshments other than the water she had already retrieved for him.  The place
had a wooden floor and was filled with tables of the same material.  The bar
was made of stone, and rows of bottled alcohol sat under and behind the
counter.  As it should, because this place became quite the center of activity
during the moon shifts.  Stairs near the back of the tavern led to a few rooms
where travelers were able to rest for a moon or two.  There were other inns
designated to housing travelers, but Lee found that traders preferred being
near the tavern where they could do more business.  Only men and women who
intended to stay for long periods of time stayed at the other inns in Dark
District. 

Absently, his thoughts returned to Kilik, or rather, the
mysterious boy who presumed to call himself Kilik and the Phantom Blade.  Well,
Lee supposed that the second name had not been created by the boy himself.  But,
Kilik hid a very deep secret, and one that he did not want others
discovering—even those that were closest to him here.  Lee did not think Kilik
was any danger to Calis, but he did know that their feelings for one another
could endanger both of them.

He would never presume to tell Calis not to feel what he felt,
for that was something he learned long ago that he could not do.  In fact, he
wished that Calis could let himself be with Kilik—and that this marriage
business would fade away.  But, with a power-hungry father like Lavus, Calis
would never be left alone to do as he pleased.  Then again, if Lavus wasn’t so
concerned with appearance, he would have been contented to let his only
competent son run off with some commoner and never threaten his power. 

Appearance was important to Lavus, though, and that meant
that Calis would not be left unattended if his affections for the commoner became
known.  That, in turn, would put Kilik at very high risk—coupled with the fact
that Tareth already wanted him beaten and hanged.  Lee knew that this situation
had the potential to get abysmal—it most certainly would, in fact, but he
didn’t know how to stop it, and he didn’t know if stopping it was the proper
thing to do.

After all, Lee hadn’t seen Calis so spritely in a very long
time.  Despite the circumstances, the older Tsrali seemed happy—no, not happy
precisely, as happy would imply contentedness and Calis had been absurdly
disconcerted recently.  But, Kilik had an effect on Calis Tsrali like none Lee
had ever seen.  Kilik made the prince come alive in ways that Calis had never
previously done, as if a fire had been lit within him.  Lee only worried that
the result of this heretical romance would be unforgiving. 

“You appear to be thinking very hard about something,” a
voice alerted Lee to the fact that he had allowed himself to disengage himself
from his surroundings.  That was not something that he liked to do.  When he
looked up, he saw the red-haired woman that he had danced with the moon Calis
had met Kilik.  Katt Manali was her name, and she was also one of his many
informants in Dark District.  Though, she knew him as no more than the man with
whom she had danced at Dark District festival. 

He stared at her for a long moment, trying to find the best
way to answer her unofficial inquiry.  “I am not thinking anymore,” he told her
sorrowfully.  In fact, he did feel a bit unfortunate about being interrupted.

“May I inquire as to what you were thinking about before I
rudely interrupted you?” she asked, in the most impertinent manner that he
thought a girl knew how to speak.  He masked his distaste and smiled.

He wasn’t going to answer her question, of course, but he
didn’t like telling people no outright.  It was far more fun to let them figure
out that he wasn’t going to tell them on their own.  “I am not the one who
dictates what you can and cannot inquire about, my lady, your words are your
own.”

She frowned at him, appearing to catch on abnormally quickly
that she was going to get nowhere with her questions.  Her red hair was tied
back, and she wore a cotton dress.  She worked here part time, so perhaps she
had appeared to relieve the other barmaid of her duties.  “Where is your blond
friend?” she asked.

“He is attending his own affairs,” Lee answered without
cryptic intent.  He did not want to be bothered by anyone at this time, and she
didn’t appear as though she was going to go away in the near future. 

She looked at him, or more precisely, she peered at him as
if she were trying to see through his skin.  He thought of informing her that
no matter how hard she stared—she would not develop the ability to see his
thoughts. “Who are you?” she finally asked.

That was not a question that he had expected to come out of
her mouth, especially without any sort of buildup.  In fact, he had introduced
himself to this girl already—and she had no reason to ask such a question. 
“You know who I am,” he reminded her.

“Who are you really, though?  There seems to be a lot more
to you that I am missing, and I want to know if you’ll tell me or if I’m going
to have to figure it out for myself.”

That sounded suspiciously like a challenge, and one that Lee
didn’t know how to decline.  He was not used to being provoked into
conversation like this, unless the conversationalist opposite of him was Calis
Tsrali.  He twitched a little.  “I do not intend to tell you.”

“That makes it more fun,” she said playfully.  Her tone
disarmed him, and he glanced to one of the windows in the tavern.  Maybe he
ought to revise where he did his thinking, as this place was obviously not safe
anymore.  “You are a friend of Prince Calis?” she asked.

He hoped that she didn’t expect him to be impressed with her
ability to figure that much out.  After all, she wasn’t his informant for the
color of her hair.  No, he had singled her out because she seemed to know how
to acquire knowledge.  Though, the fact that Kilik had managed to hide his
identity as the Phantom Blade from her while spending so much time with her was
a little disappointing.  “Yes,” he answered dispassionately. 

“How did you meet him?”

“How indeed,” Lee echoed her question in the most infuriating
way possible, and he could see anger spark in her eyes. 

There was the feeling that he’d felt the moon that he’d
danced with her.  He stared into her eyes, and he could feel the stirring of
something that worried him.  He didn’t know how to classify it, and he’d always
been meticulous about organizing his own thoughts.  Perhaps Calis was not the
only one being affected by the rugged charms of Dark District.  Lee sighed.  He
certainly hoped that was not the case.  Calis’s feelings were enough to deal
with.  “You have very intense eyes, I think,” she told him.

The words, once again, made very little sense, and his face
twisted into a sort of grimace.  He would have raised an eyebrow had he not
been so perturbed, and so the expression was only halfway there.  “Alright,” he
said reservedly.

A few moments later, the door to the tavern opened again,
and Lee felt himself start a little at who stood there.  Kilik, of all people,
walked in.  Lee noticed the subtlest of limps, still, but then again—Kilik seemed
to be the sort of person who ignored injuries regularly.  When Kilik first
glanced at him, there was guardedness as he looked around, but upon not seeing
Calis, there was relief, and as always, disappointment.

“Kilik,” Katt said cheerfully.  “There you are.  Father sent
me all your earnings, and he apologizes for not having them ready for you last
cycle, so too is he sorry that he couldn’t be here this sun.”

A soft look appeared in those blue eyes, though to say that
would be to state a fact that remained true constantly—Kilik’s eyes were very
rarely not observing someone with tenderness.  No, to say that they softened
further would have been more accurate.  Kilik then maneuvered over to Katt, and
Lee could see the way the limp just barely affected his ability to walk without
noise.

Kilik was a very small person, which may have been another
reason that Calis so desired to protect him.  His body was lithe, though, and
certainly wasn’t that of a child.  Though, the size made him an easy target,
the tone with which his body was shaped would make any intelligent being think
twice.  The face, though, must have been why Kilik was targeted like he was. 
His eyes were large for his face, and his lips were soft and pale.  The face
was that of a child, innocent, and easily manipulated and bullied.

Yes, it was not hard to see why Calis would feel the need to
protect the individual that stood before Lee now.  The blue eyes found him, and
there was the slightest of uncertainties in them.  Kilik was far too polite to
make Lee feel unwelcome, though.  “Good sun, sir.  How are you?”

“Well,” Lee answered easily.  “And you?  I didn’t expect you
to be moving about on your leg so soon.”

“I am… well,” Kilik answered, as he deftly chose to ignore
Lee’s unspoken question about his leg.  That meant that he could still feel it,
and he knew that he should not be out walking on it. 

The blue eyes were desperate for the answer to one
question.  Kilik wondered where Calis was, but he didn’t want to ask.  He
didn’t want to admit that he cared, even that much, about where Calis was. 
“Perhaps we should get to sorting this,” Kilik said to Katt, looking away from
Lee decisively.  Lee allowed himself a ghost of a smile.  “I am going to pick a
few things up for Alyx.”

Katt did not seem at all pleased with this statement.  She
was a healer as much as Juliet was, and she did not like the idea of Taeru
carrying bags in his current state.  Lee wondered what she would say if she
knew that he fought nobles in this condition.  “I don’t think you should do
that, but very well,” Katt agreed.

They went about figuring up what Kilik was owed, and Lee
noticed that Kilik seemed contented to let Katt keep more than what she
deserved to keep.  But, the trader had obviously warned his daughter of Kilik’s
tendencies, and so she doubled-checked everything.  The entire process took the
entirety of a shift, and Lee found himself watching the two of them with
curiosity.  “That should be it, then,” Kilik finally said.

“It has started to rain,” Lee informed both of them.  They
both seemed shocked by this revelation.  Katt looked incredibly discontented
with it, but Kilik didn’t appear to have much opinion.  “I don’t think you
should go to the market in your current state, given the rain,” he added.

As per usual, Kilik looked a little indignant at having been
told what to do.  He seemed to think that he could handle anything.  “I won’t
be there long,” he told Lee seriously.

“No, Lee is right.  You should not go at all.  You had a
fever off and on while you were in bed, and the rain would only make it worse.”

Now, Kilik was on the defensive, because he was being ganged
up on and that meant that he had to fight back with twice the force.  He wasn’t
about to give in, so Lee had no doubt that he would rise to the occasion.  “I promised
Alyx that I would pick up a few things for her.  I am not going back on my
word.”

“I hardly think it’s worth the trouble,” Katt said without
pausing to wait for Lee’s response.  She seemed to be getting irritated, and
Lee imagined her irritation was with Alyx rather than Kilik.  No one ever
seemed really mad at Kilik, only frustrated with him.

Kilik shook his head passionately.  “I told her that I
would.”