by Rae Brooks
“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.”
“Loyal to a fault,” Lee mused aloud. “That seems like a trait that would suit you, Kilik. You must understand when and when not to exert it, though.”
Kilik’s jaw tightened at being spoken to in this way, and then he managed a weak glare in Lee’s direction. “You must be maddening to spend time with, Lee,” he said flatly.
“I am,” Lee answered.
The sound of the door alerted Lee to the fact that people would be coming in out of the rain, when his head moved to check who was at the door, Kilik’s did too. The person who had entered was not who either of them had expected, Lee would guess. Though, in hindsight, Lee decided that the time might be late enough that it was understandable. Calis’s eyes were on Kilik, as though the boy had just committed a crime. “Kilik,” he said, with a worried voice only an infatuated man could manage. “Juliet said you were here.”
“You went to my home?” Kilik said crossly. “You went into my house and asked for me? You should not do that, your highness. You will certainly make Lady Amaral feel uncomfortable, and your interests should not lie with the common people.” Then, the boy flushed with realization. “I—I don’t mean to sound entitled, but I think that you shouldn’t keep checking on me. I am well.”
“You aren’t well, though,” Calis said exasperatedly. “Juliet said that you aren’t well enough to be walking around.”
“I am, though,” Kilik said, as if this was going to diffuse the situation with indisputable swiftness.
Of course, though, it didn’t. “You are not. You had a fever last sun,” Calis pointed out unabashedly.
“Why do you insist on concerning yourself with my affairs? I am nothing to you, your highness, and with all due respect, I don’t think that you need to keep dirtying your boots with trips here,” Kilik said irately.
Lee had noticed that Calis was uncharacteristically composed when he spoke with Kilik, far more so than when he dealt with others. Whereas Kilik said things that would normally set Calis’s teeth to a grind and infuse him with ideas of punching the speaker, Kilik seemed to constantly endear himself to Calis with his remarks. “I have asked that you not call me your highness, Kilik.”
“I will call you your highness, your highness, because you are who you are, and therefore, I would risk execution if I did not show you the proper respect,” the smaller boy answered with the quickness of one that knew he wasn’t going to win an argument.
Then, Calis proved that knowledge correct. “My father would have to execute me if he hoped to accomplish anything of the sort.”
“You—you should not make such flagrant assertions!” Kilik said with a gasped breath as his cheeks turned a soft shade of crimson.
“If you are worried about me being discovered and placed under questioning, my reluctant friend, then you should not call me things such as your highness—as it tends to draw attention.” Kilik looked once again taken aback, and he glared uncertainly at the floor of the tavern.
“I…” Kilik floundered.
Calis’s eyes then turned to Lee with a spark of shock. Had he really not known that his advisor was present this entire time? Then, Calis nodded his head. Perhaps vaguely aware, Lee thought curiously. “Lee,” the prince said.
“How did your… meeting go?” Lee asked immediately, hoping that Kilik would let the issue of Calis not seeking him out so openly drop. Surely, Lee and Kilik agreed on that issue, but they both also knew that Calis would not be dissuaded. Or, Kilik ought to have been able to see that.
Calis thought for a long moment, as if trying to determine how he wanted to characterize the meeting, and then he spoke. “Very odd,” he answered.
“In what way?” Lee prodded. ‘Boring,’ ‘non-stimulating,’ and ‘annoying’ were words that Lee had expected Calis to use, and ‘odd’ had piqued his interest.
In their brief exchange, Calis had made his way across the tavern to Kilik, where he forced the young man onto one of the benches beside the tables. Kilik resisted only momentarily, and then he allowed himself to look up at Calis curiously. “Every way,” Calis answered Lee, unhelpfully.
Kilik wanted to ask about the meeting, and Lee could see the energy he was using to repress his curiosity blazing in the blue irises. Katt, on the other hand, demonstrated no such restraint. “What was the meeting?”
Calis glanced at her, as if she were a flea and needed to be flicked into the distance. Such a different expression than the one with which he regarded Kilik, Lee mused. The contrast was startling. “I met with a lady of another house.”
Kilik was unable to contain his snort, and Calis unable to subdue his smirk at Kilik’s obvious interest in the topic. “Did you propose?” Kilik asked blithely. “Considering your overt way of speaking, that seems natural for you.”
“That is not my way of speaking,” Calis answered gently. “On the contrary, I handled negotiations in Dokak, and you haven’t the slightest idea how delicate and restrained one must be to trick another nation into helping Telandus.” There was the subtlest twitch of Kilik’s features at that. Odd. “I restrain myself very well, Kilik, just not around you.”
“Stop saying things like that,” Kilik snapped.
“No,” Calis returned. Once again, the air was filled with the two of them trying desperately to fight off feelings that would not be vanquished. Or rather, Kilik was still fighting them—Calis seemed embracing of these feelings and intent on making Kilik accept his own.
Lee could not understand why Calis would want to do this. Surely, the prince realized that his marriage to this woman, Lady Avyon—no matter how odd the engagement this sun had been—was inevitable. Kilik, though, was not one to be coerced or dissuaded by Calis’s charm or his own feelings. “I am going.” With a decisive scoff, he started towards the door, brushing by Calis as though he were nothing but one of the benches.
A flourish of his body, and Calis had Kilik by the wrist with a very firm look in his blue-green eyes. “You will do no such thing.”
“Do you intend to exert your will over me, your highness?” Kilik challenged. The challenge, for what it was, was an admission that Kilik knew that Calis would never do such a thing. Therefore, this boy knew in some part of him that Calis meant him no harm. Yet, he would not give himself to his feelings without challenge.
The prince, though, would not back down. He pulled Kilik closer to him with a stormy gaze that looked a tad like his father’s. “I will if I must. You will not worsen your condition to make a point to me, Kilik.”
“Let me go,” Kilik growled.
Rather than obeying the command, Calis took a step forward and grabbed Kilik’s other hand, so that the smaller man was entirely restrained. “I will not.”
Lee noticed for the first time that this entire ordeal was making Katt uncomfortable. She was clearly trying to determine whether or not she should interfere on Kilik’s behalf. He was, after all, her friend, and he was being subjugated into a situation that he didn’t appear to desire. Until now, though, she had remained unfalteringly quiet. She must have factored in the fact that Calis was speaking for her position on Kilik’s going out into the rain. Calis was not forcing Kilik into anything that was not for his own good. The question remained however, whether or not it was acceptable to force Kilik’s own good upon him. In Lee’s own mind, being pressured into realizing his own mortality was precisely what this mysterious boy needed.
After a brief struggle, Calis seemed contented that Kilik wouldn’t go anywhere, and he let the boy move away from him. Lee could see the rattled expression on Kilik’s face, and by the way his breathing had sped up just marginally, Lee was certain that Calis had affected the poor boy more than Kilik had expected to be affected. “You were gone for five years, were you not?” Kilik asked in a harsh whisper. Lee found himself smiling at the fact that Kilik was attempting to keep Calis’s identity secretive, despite pretending not to give a damn about him.
“I do not understand,” Kilik continued, “surely your family must have missed you. Surely, there must be plans for you. How is it that you seem to have so much time to dally about in Dark District, your highness?”
A fair question, Lee thought. Too bad Kilik didn’t seem to realize that Calis was not above entirely disregarding his obligations to his family. Lee preferred to think that Calis was above becoming too tangled within his family’s so-called duties, actually. “There are plans for me,” Calis said thoughtfully. “Plans that I have no particular interest in.”
“Your father has no remarks on your prolonged absences?” Kilik continued.
Their gazes were so locked on one another that Lee wondered if he could have thrown a few of the bottles behind the counter and have neither of them notice. Kilik may have noticed, but Calis would not have, he decided. “My father has no remarks on the things that he does not wish to see.”
“Your father is unaware that you vanish?” the question was much less accusing, and in fact, Kilik almost sounded concerned.
Calis pulled his weight back onto his back foot, and therefore put a little distance between himself and the other man. “You believe me?”
This seemed to take Kilik off guard, and he began struggling with some internal conflict at the question. “I don’t know,” he finally announced. “I do not know the king.”
“I would prefer to keep it that way,” Calis stated idly. His eyes traced Kilik from head to toe, and there was a desire within them that made even Lee feel a might uncomfortable. Yes, Lee thought, he definitely needed a new thinking place.
Another moment passed before Kilik persisted in his interrogation. “And what of your brother? Are you two not close?”
“We are not,” Calis answered without hesitation. There was a note of penitence in Calis’s tone that Lee would never understand. There was positively nothing about Tareth that spoke to friendship.
The younger Tsrali was incompetent, rude, brash, and on top of all of that, he had Lavus’s power-hungry ambitions. A fool that wanted to be what his father was. Tareth had the potential to be even more dangerous than his father, and yet Calis had persisted in trying to become close to his younger brother.
Lee had considered the likelihood that Calis wanted to avoid Tareth’s eventual decline into whatever Lavus had become. In fact, Calis had made admissions that effectively confirmed this belief, but Lee wished that Calis could understand that people could not be changed so fundamentally. Especially when Lavus took part in Tareth’s rearing. That Calis had turned out as he had was, in itself, a miracle.
“You would like to be,” Kilik said, and it was not a question. The boy was biting his lip at once, as though he had just treaded into territory that he knew was better left untouched. But, he was in that territory, and Lee was certain that Calis would not let him out of it.
There was a gentle smile on Calis’s face, and Lee couldn’t hope to understand what was going through the prince’s mind. He hated this. He had become so used to knowing precisely what the eldest Tsrali was thinking, but under Kilik’s influence, Calis was unpredictable. Decidedly, Lee stood. “I should go,” Lee informed the two of them brusquely.
They both started, as if shocked that he was still in the tavern with them. They would be even more surprised to find out that the little red-haired girl was also listening to every word they said. By Lee’s measure, he had done them both a favor. “Will you return to the castle?” Calis asked.
With a shrug, Lee glanced towards the door. He wasn’t sure where he would go, but he did not like being a spectator in an exchange of which he could not foresee the ending. More kindly, Calis deserved some time alone with his fondness. “I’m not sure. I might go to the healer’s,” he said solicitously, “would you be interested in going with me, miss?” He turned to glance at the conflicted girl.
Her flush confused him, but he decided not to worry much about it. For now, he wanted to get out of this tavern. She should probably also be relieved from the situation, as well. “I… I, yes, thank you, sir.”
She hurried to his side, and in her blue eyes, he saw a flash of gratitude. He just nodded faintly and started towards th
e door. “I will see you soon, my friend,” Lee said quickly to Calis.
“Indeed,” Calis answered.
As they left the tavern, Lee couldn’t help but be aware of how extraordinarily close to him that Katt walked.
What an odd girl.
“The kingdoms were divided, and so too were the princes.”
-A Hero’s Peace, v.ii
Chapter xix
Calis Tsrali
Getting Kilik to sit down again was quite the ordeal, as the young man seemed to take it as a submission of his free will. As it was, Calis was working not to think about Kilik submitting to him in anyway. That was unsafe, he thought. Eventually, though, Kilik sat down on one of the benches with a mystified expression.
“I appreciate it, Kilik,” Calis said as he took a seat next to the boy. He had said many, many thanks to Lee after his advisor had left. Somehow, without actually knowing, Lee seemed to always understand when Calis needed him to go. Now, though, the prince was alone with Kilik, and the desire rushing through his system was making him nauseous.
The blue-eyed man hadn’t had much to say since Katt and Lee had left, in fact, he had been contented to stare into nothingness. Calis felt frustration and affection coexisting within him far better than the two ever should. “I am trying to determine whether I anger or fluster you,” Calis said aloud. That, he had been trying to figure out for some time.
“Both,” Kilik answered obligingly. “I do not trust you,” he said flatly. “You have no reason to be around me unless you suspect me of something. If you do, your highness, then I implore you to interrogate and search me. I have nothing to hide.”
That was a lie, and they both knew it, but Calis wasn’t attempting to get Kilik to open up to him about those things just yet. For now, he simply wanted Kilik to know that those things weren’t the reason he was here. “I have no interest in what you are hiding, sir. Well, that is a lie. I am very, very curious about you. But, that is not why I am here.”
