“Mm, lucky you.” Hydal smiled.
Just what she had been thinking. Even if Zenia hadn’t felt romantic feelings toward Jev, she would have pitied him for having to deal with all these women who, from what she’d gathered, had more interest in him because of his family than because he was handsome, honorable, and a gentleman who brought thoughtful gifts to a woman. Her hand strayed up to touch the chain holding her dragon tear.
“I will let Jev know about it.” Zenia, noticing Hydal tracking her hand, lowered it. She had no idea if more people than Targyon, Jev, and his close friends knew about her special dragon tear, but she didn’t want to call attention to it. “Though he might prefer I didn’t.”
Hydal’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “Likely not.”
“Do you want to sit and wait for him? I’m expecting him any time. We don’t have a waiting area with sofas and the like, but Agent Torson usually comes in late if you want to take his desk. And that’s an empty one over there.”
“Certainly.” Hydal stepped forward, withdrew a handkerchief, and carefully wiped the wooden chair before offering it to his cousin.
Sevy crinkled her nose at the desk, ignoring the chair. “How can anyone work there? Look at that mess.” She held up a paper with the remains of some beverage spill staining one corner, and loose paperclips tumbled onto the desk. “Can I straighten this?”
“We won’t be here that long,” Hydal murmured.
“Captain Cham?” Sevy held the paper up and shook it.
Zenia looked at the contents of the desk, debating if there was any sensitive material there that shouldn’t be shown to outsiders, but she mostly saw pamphlets gathered from the universities in Korvann and nearby cities. Agent Torson kept an eye on student organizations and movements in case anything escalated into a potential problem for kingdom security or zyndar interests.
“Go ahead,” Zenia said.
“It’s not necessary to humor her,” Hydal said.
“Trust me,” Sevy said. “I am not humored.”
She plucked up a wrapper and deposited it in the waste bin.
“You don’t need a job, do you, Zyndari?” Zenia asked, half joking but also thinking of Jev’s suggestion that they hire a secretary.
“Desperately,” Hydal said.
Sevy looked at him. “Hux!” She drew the single syllable out into a couple of extra ones.
“She could use a distraction from relationship woes,” Hydal told Zenia, ignoring the reprimand.
“Don’t tell her that.” Sevy looked like she would pitch over in mortification at some common woman learning about said woes.
“Why not?” Hydal asked. “She’s Jev’s friend.”
“She is? You are?” Sevy’s gaze fastened onto Zenia with new interest. “Do you know Wy?”
“Wyleria? Not well. We’ve spoken a couple of times, but that’s it. I saw her last week when Jev was injured and she came to visit.”
“You just saw her last week? Was she well? Or was she distraught and oppressed by the parochial tyranny of her family?”
“Ah.” Zenia was starting to pick up on the relationship in question, though Jev had never spoken of it with her. “I was more concerned about Jev at the time. I didn’t scrutinize Wyleria for a sense of being oppressed.”
Hydal snorted.
Sevy sighed dramatically. She did, as she sighed, go back to straightening the desk. After a moment, she remembered Zenia’s question. “What kind of job? Do you need another agent? Like a spy? I admit, I’ve always found novels and ballads about such persons quite intriguing.”
“More of a secretary to the spy captains.” Zenia smiled. She wasn’t sure she and Jev could claim to be spies. They were the people who received reports from spies.
“So I’d be working for Jev?”
“Both of us, yes, but more him. His family duties require that he be out of the office often.”
“Up at Dharrow Castle where he sees Wy, right? Does she ever come down here? Have you heard if anyone has shown interest in her mother’s suggestions for marriage yet?”
“Zyndari Sevy, you see, has been forbidden to step foot on Dharrow land,” Hydal said. “Not through any fault of her own, just as a precaution, I understand, so that she and her insidious ways will not unduly influence Zyndari Wyleria.”
“I don’t need you to tell her stuff, Hux,” Sevy whispered, her cheeks growing pink. “But I accept the job. I just finished my university courses and hadn’t decided yet what to do next. The Hydals aren’t rich, so we can’t be like Fremia and Megloni and lounge around, gossiping and scheming all day about how to get men. Who even wants a man?” She wrinkled her nose. “They smell.”
“Really,” Hydal murmured.
Zenia opened her mouth, then closed it. She hadn’t realized the young woman would be interested or would accept the job offer on the spot. Zenia should have done a thorough investigation into her background first. She couldn’t assume that she had the kingdom’s best interests at heart just because she knew Jev’s family. But she did have organizational tendencies, and it sounded like she didn’t have any interest in making trouble for Jev, so…
“I’ll need to do a background investigation on you before making things official,” Zenia said, “but we will be happy to have you. I’ll start making a list of your duties right away.”
“A background investigation?” Sevy squinted suspiciously. “Would you need to do that if some other zyndari wanted the job?”
Confused by the question, Zenia said, “Certainly.”
“My cousin feels that our family does not always get the respect it deserves,” Hydal explained. “Or that zyndar in general are given.”
“Oh. I don’t know anything about your family.”
“Therein lies the problem.” Hydal smiled, appearing more reserved than disgruntled. “Few do.”
“I just want someone good at organizing reports,” Zenia said. “I don’t care about zyndar reputations.”
Surprisingly, Sevy appeared mollified by the statement. “I’m excellent at organizing. I was helping Wy with the Dharrow bookkeeping before, uhm, things.”
Odd how often that word was being used in this discussion. But Zenia didn’t care about zyndar relationships either. All she wanted was a good worker, and she nodded as she noticed that Torson’s desk was already much tidier. This might work out.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to thump her? Maybe this girl would decide you’re not worth the trouble if there was a cranky Crown Agent with a big stick around every time she showed up.”
Jev regarded Rhi—and her big stick—as they walked down the stairs toward the office. He’d run into her as he’d been leaving the kitchen and she’d been walking into the castle, and somehow, they had ended up discussing his engagement. If this could be called a discussion. Rhi had asked if he was still engaged, he’d said unfortunately, and it had quickly elevated to threats of beatings.
“Are you making this generous offer out of a desire to help me, a desire to see Zenia happy, or simply because you like pummeling zyndari women with your staff?” Jev asked.
“Can the answer be yes to all those things?”
“I suppose so. It does make you sound somewhat aggressive and belligerent.”
“Perfect.” She grinned and thwacked her bo against the stone wall.
They reached the office, and Jev held the door open for her, worried his shins might receive a similar treatment if he didn’t. Rhi walked in first but stopped only a few steps inside.
A couple of agents were at their desks, Zyndar Hydal sat near the door, and Zenia was in the back, opening books and folders for a young woman Jev didn’t recognize. By the founders, had she already found and hired a secretary? He rubbed his face, pleased to have an efficient colleague but distressed that she was so much more dedicated to their duty than he was.
The gesture brought a twinge of pain from his ribs, reminding him that he was still recovering from his injuries, but it seemed a poor exc
use. He resolved to sleep less, work more, and figure out why Hydal was sitting at Agent Torson’s desk.
Rhi looked curiously from Hydal to the new woman and back to him.
Remembering that Jev had promised to introduce Hydal to Rhi, in the hope that a romantic connection might be made, he held up a hand when Rhi started toward her desk. Jev didn’t think Hydal was the type of man to be intimidated by a woman with a big stick. He was less certain that Rhi was the type of woman to fall for a bookish man in spectacles.
“Rhi?” Jev said. “Allow me to introduce Zyndar Hux Hydal. He was my lieutenant in Gryphon Company and is very smart.”
Hydal winced. Maybe that wasn’t the best accolade to convince a woman of a man’s sex appeal.
“He’s also well-trained at hand-to-hand combat and has hidden ferocity that makes elves quake in their buckskins,” Jev added in an attempt to improve the introduction.
Judging by the way Hydal dropped his face into his hand, it was possible Jev wasn’t successful.
Instead of appearing intrigued, Rhi looked confused, perhaps wondering why the stranger sitting at the desk across from hers was getting a more thorough introduction than Jev had given anyone else in the office.
“He’s a new informant,” Jev said. “I thought you should know in case he approaches you with information at some point.”
“You thought I should know about his hidden ferocity?” Rhi asked.
Hydal adjusted his spectacles. Un-ferociously.
“Yes, so it won’t alarm you when it appears. Hydal, do you have information?” Since they had agreed Hydal wouldn’t report to the castle often, Jev raised his eyebrows, fearing something important had brought him.
“Some that may catch you unaware later in the day if it’s reported to the office, yes.” Hydal summed up information he’d apparently already given to Zenia, and Jev did his best not to groan.
“Jev?” Zenia called. “Come meet our new secretary.”
“Zyndari secretary.” The young woman sniffed and adjusted her spectacles in a manner similar to Hydal’s frequent gesture. “I’m told I’ll be paid more than Hux.”
“That wouldn’t take much.” As Jev headed to the back of the office, he guessed this was one of the three cousins Hydal had mentioned over the years. Jev hadn’t known Hydal or his family well before meeting him during the war and didn’t think he had met this young woman at any point. Even if he had, she would have only been ten or twelve at the time.
Jev glanced over his shoulder to see if Rhi had stayed to talk to Hydal, but she was heading to her own desk. Hastily. So much for his attempt to play matchmaker.
“I’m Sevy,” the young woman announced when Jev joined them. “Wy’s friend. How’s she doing? Have you seen her recently?”
“She’s well.”
“Well?” Sevy’s brows flew up, as if that was the last answer she’d expected.
“Is she not perhaps pining?” Zenia suggested.
“Pining?” It took a moment for his last conversation with Wyleria to come to mind, the one where she’d mentioned that her mother was seeking a suitable male marriage prospect for her after finding out that her interests lay with women. Was this the woman? Sevy seemed university-aged, but he supposed Wyleria was only twenty-five. She’d always been mature for her age, so he tended to think of her as older. “Yes, that’s possible. Pining.”
“I knew it,” Sevy said.
“Sevy is going to help with your paperwork, Jev, but she’s not sure where to file that.” Zenia pointed to a rectangular gift in brown wrapping paper with a fancy ribbon holding it together.
“Ah, right.” Jev picked it up but felt self-conscious about opening it in front of everyone in the office.
Zenia sat down and pointedly opened a folder. Rhi, Sevy, Hydal, and the other three agents in the office were not so discreet. They watched curiously.
The door opened, and one of the castle pages jogged in. Young Tamordon.
“Zyndar Captain Dharrow?” Tamordon asked. “His Majesty requests you join him for a meeting.”
“Just me?” Jev glanced at Zenia.
Since they were equal rank, he felt they should both be brought in for meetings with Targyon. He could relay information, but he wouldn’t want her to feel she was being left out because she wasn’t zyndar or simply because she didn’t have a past friendship with Targyon. Though it was possible this was about Jev and his family and had nothing to do with work matters. He grimaced at the thought, wishing the entire zyndar world would leave him alone.
“He only asked for you, Zyndar,” the page said.
“All right. Thank you.” Jev plucked up the gift, glad for an excuse to open it somewhere else without looking like he was embarrassed to do it in front of witnesses.
“Aren’t you going to open that before you go?” Rhi asked as Jev walked toward her desk on the way to the door.
“No.”
“He’s probably afraid she sent him lacy underwear,” Rhi said loudly, apparently believing the notion should be shared with the whole office.
“Men don’t get lacy underwear,” Jev stated firmly.
“What about that stuff the king wears that caresses his nether regions?” Rhi asked.
“Those are his pajamas. And they’re not lacy.”
“You’ve checked.”
“I have to go.” Jev picked up his pace, now relieved that Rhi and Hydal hadn’t hit it off immediately. Hydal deserved a kind, supportive, and polite woman who didn’t enjoy thumping people.
“Jev?” Zenia called as he reached for the doorknob.
“Yes?” He turned a little warily. He didn’t think Zenia would bring up the king’s nether regions in public—or at all—but he couldn’t be positive.
“After your meeting, will you be ready to go to the tower?” Her expression was pensive. She must still think those elves were worth investigating.
“Unless Targyon has a new assignment for us, I’ll be ready.”
Zenia nodded and went back to instructing Sevy.
The page glanced at the gift a few times as he led Jev up multiple sets of stairs and to Targyon’s office. Jev tucked it under his arm, determined that he wouldn’t open it in front of anyone else. He was positive Naysha hadn’t given him lacy underwear, but he wasn’t positive it wouldn’t be embarrassing. Just knowing she had brought a gift for him made him feel uncomfortable.
“Go right in,” the king’s secretary said as Jev entered the outer office, shedding the page at the door.
Targyon was alone inside, thankfully dressed in trousers and a tunic and not his pajamas. It was early enough that the latter would have been understandable, but after Rhi’s comments, Jev didn’t want to see them.
“Yes, Sire?”
“Have a seat, Jev. I want to talk to you about…” Targyon trailed off when he noticed the gift.
“Sorry, it’s nothing.” Jev resisted the urge to stuff it behind his back. He didn’t think Targyon would believe Jev had brought him a gift, but it was an admittedly odd thing to carry into a meeting with one’s monarch. The pale blue ribbon was crimped into little feminine bows at the ends. “Naysha brought it to my office a while ago, and I didn’t want to open it in front of everyone,” he added, somehow feeling it needed an explanation.
“That’s your ex-fiancé?”
“Yes.”
“One wonders what your new fiancé will give you.”
“Fremia? Nothing, I hope. I intend to get the old man to rescind that marriage acceptance as soon as I can.” Jev grimaced, worried this opening suggested the meeting would indeed revolve around him and his personal life rather than kingdom matters. Oh, how he would prefer to talk about a new case. Or even the trollish invasion. He made a mental note to ask Zenia if any of the reports that had come in that week had expounded on that.
“Will that be as difficult as I suspect?” Targyon asked.
“I see you’ve met my father.”
“I’ve had two meetings with the zynda
r primes since taking over the throne.”
“Was he equally charming at both of them?”
“Obstinate and set in the old ways would be the way I’d put it.”
“So, you didn’t find him charming? He’ll be crestfallen when I tell him.”
“I doubt it.”
Jev sighed. Targyon had definitely gotten a read on the old man. Sometimes, Jev felt him more like a grandfather than a father, though grandfathers were reputed to be jolly and spoil their grandchildren.
“I suppose that means you won’t order him to cancel my engagement,” Jev said. “He agreed to it without asking me. It’s rather unseemly.”
He’d meant it as a joke, but as soon as the words came out of his mouth, Jev wondered if Targyon could do something. He was the king. King Abdor would have left his zyndar to figure out their own affairs—and the affairs of their children—but Targyon was progressive. Surely, his poetic soul railed at the idea of arranged marriages.
“Quite frankly, I doubt your father would listen to me if I suggested it,” Targyon said. “And if I ordered it… It’s distressing coming up against the limits of my power and influence. I’ve already found the older generation of zyndar are less inclined to listen to me. Kingly status or not.” His lips twisted with bitterness.
Jev wondered how those meetings with the primes had gone. Most of them were over seventy. He didn’t envy Targyon his position. When he’d been Targyon’s age, he hadn’t even liked talking to people who were forty. Odd how that didn’t seem so old anymore.
“If I see an opportunity to talk to him about it…” Targyon started, then ended with a grimace.
Jev could tell the last thing Targyon wanted to do was to talk to the old man about Jev’s love life. He held up a hand. “Never mind. I’ll deal with it. It’s my family.”
“Yes, very good.” Poor Targyon. He looked so relieved. “What I called you up here about is the Taziir.”
Jev straightened, thoughts of marriage dashed from his mind. “You heard about Lornysh? And his problems?”
Targyon blinked. “No.”
Agents of the Crown- The Complete Series Page 87
