The Kingdom of Liars

by Nick Martell

  I stepped on a broken branch and it dug into the sole of my foot, drawing blood. Cursing, I jammed my thumb against the wound, blood running over it, dyeing it dark and red.

  The woods seemed alive with nature’s music. Leaves rustled around me, the wind spinning them upward around my bed like a cyclone, only to ebb away and reveal a well-dressed boy. He was much shorter than me, with a circular birthmark on his temple and muscle he hadn’t grown into yet. An unfinished iron crown was hidden in the tangles of his messy auburn hair, and a sigil that depicted a palm holding out a crown was sewed onto his shirt, over his heart. I couldn’t place the symbol in that moment, so my eyes latched onto it, trying to find it among my memories. All I remembered was my father and our family.

  “Where am I?”

  The boy held his small finger up to his lips. “Too loud.”

  More quietly, I repeated my question.

  “This is where angels come to be feasted on by wolves. Where daemons hide in plain sight, advocating they are the good people in the grand scheme of things. Where dreams come true, legends are born, wars are started… and where the Endless Waltz ends.”

  “Right,” I said, drawing out the word. “Who are you?”

  “Who are you?” the boy mimicked with a smile.

  “Michael Kingman.”

  “A name does not make the man, just like a lie does not tell the full story. Usually you have to read or hear it twice to fully understand.” The boy picked up a rock and held it out to me. “This is a diamond. Do you see?” Before I could protest, the outer shell of the stone peeled away and it began to glimmer and shine, even in the absence of light. “You perceive yourself as clever, but you’re just like that rock.”

  “Oh, do I mature when I’m under pressure?”

  “No,” he declared. “You’re lying about yourself to the world. You’re a child who’s never grown up. But, unlike me, you can change that. If you stop complaining so much.”

  “I’m a child? Do you realize what I’ve had to go through since my father was executed for treason? The abuse I’ve had to suffer from the nobility because he killed the prince? I’ve survived when everyone wanted me dead.”

  The boy shook his head. “You sound like a music box, repeating the same refrain. ‘Pity me. Feel bad for me. Don’t kill me. It’s not my fault. Blah, blah, blah.’ You need to grow up already. Are you a Kingman or not?”

  Off in the distance of the woods, a howl pierced the silent night. The trees swayed in the wind as birds cawed before escaping into the sky. The boy stood unwavering. “Did you know humanity used to fear the woods? Now we fear the city. Don’t you find that strange?”

  “No,” I said. “Cities have people in them. What does a forest have?”

  The howl returned, more bloodthirsty than before. When it faded away, two beady red eyes appeared to the right of the boy. “Animals,” he said. “A forest has animals.”

  A smile came to me. “I’d be more intimidated if this wasn’t just another one of my nightmares.”

  The boy began to evaporate into steam, vanishing into the cold night air. With his last words he simply said, “Get your shit together already.”

  That pair of beady red eyes began to creep forward. Leaves crunched and twigs snapped as heavy breathing filled the air. With every step, more and more of a wolf became visible. It was a massive animal, black with streaks of grey. Its teeth were stark white, completely unfound in the real world. The wolf stopped in front of me, crouching down as it bared its fangs.

  My feet were planted down on the ground. I curled my toes, digging them into a mess of grass and twigs and dirt. “I’m not scared of my nightmares,” I said. “My life is scarier.”

  Its jaw dropped into a grin.

  And I returned it. “Go away.”

  It leapt. The wolf slammed its paws into my chest, overpowering me as its teeth snapped for my neck. It clawed at my chest and forearms, stripping the flesh off me in long, thick sections. I kicked and screamed until the wolf ripped out my throat.

  Dying wasn’t new to me. I had an understanding that it would come for us all one day; all that differed was the time. It was oddly comforting in a way. It was the only time nobles, Royals, and commoners were the same. We all walked into the darkness at the end, meeting whatever waited for us. There were some days that I thought it would be the only time in my life I would be at peace.

  The wolf left me staring at the sky with cold, fixated eyes.

  It was a shame I didn’t die.

  I had shrunk, half the size I usually was. My body moved on its own, taking me down a hallway, fingers moving with the grooves on the wall to feel all the prickly bumps. At the end of the hallway I found a door and pushed it open, entering a bedroom. Against the far wall was a massive feather bed draped in red-and-grey sheets. Only the right side of the bed was disturbed, the left side smooth and flat. Portraits and paintings covered the walls, yet all the faces were blurred as if mist clouded them from my sight. The carpet under my feet was soft and fluffy. My toes clung to it. This was the most realistic nightmare I’d ever had.

  “Are you sure it has come to this?” my father said from the balcony.

  I turned to him, inching closer to the glass doors. There was no one else on the balcony that I could see. Was he talking to himself?

  “There must be another way!” he shouted, a red flush coloring his face. “People will listen to me! I could have dealt with this if you had come to me sooner.”

  My shadow began to dance on the walls, spinning and doing flips around the exit to the balcony. A slow, deep growl began to fill my ears. It sounded like the wolf.

  My father sat down on the edge of the balcony looking out onto the city. His normally neat brown hair was a mess, strands standing at all angles. “No, I refuse. There is always another way. The prince doesn’t need to die.”

  My dancing shadow steadied to the right of the doorframe, its bright red eyes watching me. Just like the wolf.

  “Da?”

  My father jerked around to me, his eyes red and puffy. “Michael?”

  I awoke with a jolt, covered in sweat. The stiff bed I had been placed on was as damp as if I had lost my bladder during the night. Had I dreamed all of that? What had just happened to me? My memories were blurry at best. The details were blending together. And the last part of that dream with my father… I hadn’t dreamed of him in years, my nightmares normally focused on the Kingman Keep riots.

  Gathering my sanity, realizing I’d been stripped to my underwear, I looked around and, surprisingly, discovered I was in my own room in the Narrows. There was half a loaf of stale bread and a bowl of cold soup on the bedside table, old enough that it had developed a thin film of grease. I tore off a piece from the loaf, stirred it into the soup, and popped it into my mouth.

  I could have made my own bread in the time it took me to chew it well enough to keep it down. Which, sadly, was fairly normal when it came to Angelo’s cooking.

  The girl with the electric-blue eyes was sleeping in a chair next to me. She had curled herself up under a thin blanket, her brown hair falling over her forehead like strands of thread. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought it was cute. Was she waiting for me to wake up?

  As much as I didn’t want to disturb someone while they slept, I needed answers—like where my piece of Celona was—so I slammed the bottom of my fist against my bedside table, loud enough to wake her.

  Naomi scrambled, jolting awake as the blanket slid off her and onto the floor. Her words in response were barely audible mumbles, but she had the piece of Celona in her hands.

  “How’d I get here?” I asked as I chewed on another piece of stale bread. It may be old food, but it was food. Couldn’t let it go to waste.

  It took her a few moments to wake up properly, but then she said. “I dragged you here.”

  “How’d you know where I lived?”

  “You told me.”

  “Why were you even there?”

 
“I left shortly after you did,” she said. “I was going to act as your guardian from afar in case you ran into trouble… but by the time I caught up with you, you were already in the middle of a fight. Only thing I could do was get you out of the river.”

  “The Corrupt Prince didn’t send them after me?”

  “No. He would never work with people like that. They were random bandits.”

  “Are you working for him?”

  “Do you really think I would save you if I was?”

  Well, that answered that.

  I threw my legs over the side of the bed. “Is any of my family home?”

  “Commander Shade was. He stayed with me until your chills went away and then went to work. Told me to do the same, but I wanted to stay until you woke up.”

  No doubt he would have a lecture and some choice words waiting for me whenever I saw him again. I hadn’t told him that I was participating in the Endless Waltz, and I doubted having a woman drag me back home while I was delirious was how he wanted to find out.

  “Why’d you stay?” I asked. “I doubt it was for the good of your reputation.”

  She looked downward and laughed slightly. “I doubt my father would care one way or another. He never was one for following the rules of what was acceptable in noble society. And I stayed because you’re still useful to me in the Endless Waltz. I can’t have you drop out so soon. Without you, I wouldn’t be so close to the prince.”

  At least she didn’t pretend she liked me.

  “How long have I been out for?”

  “Little less than a day,” she said, arms crossed. “It’s almost evening again.”

  “Shit!”

  I went to my feet, wobbled, but caught myself before I fell. My body felt weak, stagnant, but I had to stand, so I did, everything shaking. Only for Naomi to push me back onto my bed with a roll of her eyes.

  “Relax. You look as bad as you feel. Take some time to rest,” Naomi stated. “It wasn’t as if there was a time limit on when you had to deliver the piece of Celona.”

  “And show him what he tried to do worked? No, he gets it now.”

  “How do you plan on doing that? It’s not as if he’s still in Ryder Keep.”

  I hesitated. “Where is he, then?”

  “No idea. But I know where he’ll be tonight. He’s having a small party with his Throne Seekers to celebrate the fact you seem to have lost your wager.” A sickening smile spread across her face. “It would be the perfect opportunity to show yourself and claim victory.”

  “Why are you helping me?”

  There was a knock at the door, and Naomi took the opportunity to answer it rather than my question. When she returned, she had a large parcel and a small cloth sack that jingled in her hands.

  “These are for you,” Naomi said, handing them to me. “Man at the door said you’d know who it was from.”

  I opened the cloth sack first and found five suns within, confirming my suspicion. Inside the parcel were fine clothes, almost identical to what I had worn to the first event and ruined after jumping into the river. There was a note on top of them that read For Your Meeting Tonight.

  Domet.

  But how he had figured out what had happened to me, where I lived, what I needed to do… Who was I kidding? It was Domet. He had already proven he had eyes everywhere. This was nothing for someone like him. If anything, I was amazed he didn’t come see me himself to make sure I hadn’t run away.

  “Secret admirer?” Naomi snickered.

  “Jealous?”

  “Not even a little.”

  “If you say so.”

  “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and get some work done,” Naomi said. “I’ll take you to the Corrupt Prince when I’m back.”

  “What am I supposed to do in the meantime?”

  She had her hand on the doorframe as she looked over her shoulder. “Rest.”

  I remained upright until I heard her leave. Despite wanting to do something—anything rather than sit in this bed and recover—I found myself struggling to stay awake. All the stress and exhaustion from everything that had happened recently finally hitting me. So, for once, I rested, and hoped the city wouldn’t collapse in the meantime.

  A GAMBLER AND HIS FOLLY

  We heard the Corrupt Prince before we saw him, something I was beginning to suspect would be a trend. He was nestled deep within the Poison Gardens, playing with fireworks before they shot into the sky and exploded in brilliant colors. Ambassador Zain and the Throne Seekers were with him. Only Trey was absent. A few women had joined them, but, given how lightly clad they were, I doubted they were there for the conversation. Naomi stayed behind at the gates to the gardens, not wanting to be seen at my side.

  I hobbled into the clearing, the piece of Celona shining in my hand. Everything still hurt, despite taking so much time to recover. But this wasn’t the time to show weakness. “Adreann, you just lost a wager.”

  All the laughter stopped. Only Zain looked amused as Adreann Hollow moved a girl off him so he could stand. “What?”

  I held it up. “I have the piece of Celona.”

  “Well, well, you retrieved it. Not my preferred outcome, but I have always wanted a piece, and a wager is a—”

  He went for the piece of Celona, but I snatched it out of reach. “I think you misunderstood the wager, Adreann. I never had to give it to you, only bring it to you.”

  “Which implies that it will be given to me.”

  “It implies nothing. You should have been specific.”

  The Corrupt Prince breathed out of his nose. “If you won’t give it to me, then I’ll simply take—”

  Ambassador Zain stepped forward, a smile on his face. “My dear prince, I’m afraid Michael is correct. The deal never specified you would be given the piece of Celona, only that Michael bring it to you.”

  “Which implies—”

  “Which is precisely what he has done, Prince Adreann. Words are words, and they were your words and are clear as day. If you must rely on an implication, then you were not sufficiently clear. As arbiter of the wager, I declare it won by Michael, and Adreann will keep to his end of it. So says I, Zain Antoun, ambassador for the Goldono Gold Vein Casino.”

  I patted the Corrupt Prince on the shoulder. “Pleasure doing business with you, Adreann.”

  As I walked away, enjoying his fury, I could feel the heat coming from him. “One more bet.”

  That made me stop. “What?”

  “One more bet. You can participate, unopposed, in the Endless Waltz and I won’t whisper a word to my father. The new bet would be your piece of Celona against the deed to Kingman Keep. Or do you enjoy living in squalor in the Narrows, Kingman?”

  Something was wrong. Why was Adreann so determined to have a piece of Celona? I’d thought this a throwaway wager, and Gwen had never mentioned the Corrupt Prince being interested in Celona while they were children. He had never even liked stargazing. My curiosity was making it hard to say no. The piece of Celona had no particular value to me—other than its sale value and its usefulness in annoying the Corrupt Prince—so the chance to win back Kingman Keep was tempting. Could I ever forgive myself if I turned this wager down?

  “What’s the game?” I asked.

  The Corrupt Prince snapped his fingers and one of his Throne Seekers brought over a pair of chairs, a table, two cups, and a lot of dice. We were seated opposite each other, and Ambassador Zain began to separate the dice into two equal groups. “This is a Goldono game. We teach it to children so they can learn the importance and danger of dear Lady Luck. The rules are simple: Each gambler shakes their dice, and then upends their cup. Whoever has the highest score wins the round. The best of three—not the highest total score—wins.”

  “This is just luck. There’s no skill to it,” I said.

  “Oh, there is skill, Michael,” Ambassador Zain said. “The purpose of this game is to teach children when to stop gambling, so if you believe Lady Luck will not favor you, y
ou may walk away at any moment. The wager between you will be nullified. Do you both understand the rules and agree to the wager: a piece of Celona against the title to Kingman Keep?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “Yes,” the Corrupt Prince echoed.

  “Then let Lady Luck choose her winner, and Master Fortune benefit us all. The wager is live.”

  We both picked up our cups and began to shake them against our palms. The rattle filled the Poison Gardens as all eyes were on us.

  “Why the interest in Celona, Adreann?” I asked.

  “We live in a country more besieged by the moon than any other. Who’s to say I’ve not long been curious about Celona?”

  “My sister.”

  The Corrupt Prince slammed his cup down on the table. “She should learn to keep her mouth shut unless I direct her to open it.”

  I put my cup down. “Why? Does it bother you that she knows you as well as you know yourself? That she knows your weaknesses? Your strengths?”

  “Reveal!” Ambassador Zain commanded.

  We did. The Corrupt Prince had twenty-one points, while I had twenty-three.

  “Kingman takes the first round. Reset and shake again when ready.”

  “Your sister knows nothing about me,” the Corrupt Prince spat as we shook again. He didn’t hesitate to begin. Almost as if the piece of Celona was worth more to him than anything else.

  “Then enlighten me. Why the interest in Celona?”

  “Why would I tell the son of a child-murdering traitor anything?”

  “Are you ashamed—”

  “Shame is a foreign concept to me.”

  The Corrupt Prince put his cup down on the table, and moments later I followed.

  “Reveal!”

  I had twenty-one points against the Corrupt Prince’s twenty-seven.

  “Prince Adreann takes the second round. Reset and shake when ready. Final round.”