The River King

by Kim Alexander

  The River King:

  The Demon Door Book Four

  Kim Alexander

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Kim Alexander

  Copyright © 2019 by Kim Alexander

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the publisher

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Printed in the United States of America

  October 15, 2019

  ISBN: 9781692605100

  Editor: Carly Hayward of Booklight Editorial

  Cover Art: Mad Hat Studios

  Formatted for Print: by Mad Hat Studios

  Chapter One

  Eriis

  Rhuun covered a yawn with his hand, sat back, and tried to track the events of the previous day; after a year and more of living without her, Lelet showed up unexpectedly as part of the delegation from Mistra. With one look at her face, the idea that he’d ever stopped loving her revealed itself for the bad joke it was. What did she want? Was she his enemy? No, instead she was desperate for his help. She had something to tell him. But she looked at him like it was something he wouldn’t want to hear.

  The party to welcome the humans to Eriis had started with insults aimed at his absent mother and finished with Lelet—again and always. She needed to speak to him privately. No, how could he be alone with her? But how could he refuse? Yes. Yes.

  He must remember to thank Zaii for stepping in and asking awkward questions—although it was a glaring breach of protocol—because it was Zaii who sifted the sand to find the truth. Thanks to him, they learned their separation had been based on a lie. She loved him after all and spent the whole night proving it. And as if that wasn’t enough to shatter his heart with joy, Ilaan appeared out of nowhere and seemed ready to set aside his anger. The fact that his friend’s news was dire and Rhuun’s life was, once again, in mortal danger barely registered. And now the three of them were together in his living room, having coffee.

  Rhuun was feeling pretty good about things, on the whole.

  Ilaan, as always, could see right into his heart. “You seem awfully happy, considering your position.”

  “My position? Probably no worse than this time yesterday. In fact, I’d call it a good deal better.” Beyond having Lelet back by his side, other than Ilaan coming home to him, Rhuun supposed there were a few things he’d have to attend to. “We know about this Auri, for instance.”

  Auri. Who in the space of this one conversation had gone from his rival, his replacement, Lelet’s ‘good, honest man,’ to the puppet of Yuenne: Ilaan’s father and Rhuun’s oldest, first enemy. No, Auri wasn’t a good man in the least, but a liar and a dangerous adversary.

  “Thanks to you,” added Lelet. “We really are grateful.” Despite her words, she looked like she wanted to set something or someone ablaze. Her hands twitched and sparked. She turned to Rhuun. “What are you going to do?”

  “I think it’s more a question of what the two of us intend to do.” He paused. “Auri wants to kill me. I think I’d prefer he didn’t. He wants you, and that’s out of the question. He wants the High Seat of Eriis. Apparently he’s under the impression they’ve removed the ‘being from Eriis’ clause. As much as I’d love for him to have a whack at it, I feel like we’d better stop him there as well. What else was there?”

  “Well, your mother.” Lelet poured herself another cup of coffee.

  “And your uncle,” said Ilaan. “What is it with your family?”

  Ilaan wasn’t wrong. His mother had lied to force them apart and handed the crown to his uncle, his strange and distant Uncle Araan, whose desires remained obscure. “Um, I believe we can also throw your father into the mix, speaking of families.” Ilaan looked away, and Rhuun wished he hadn’t spoken. Things were better between them, but they weren’t good. “You mentioned a plan?”

  Ilaan smiled. “It’ll be terribly unpleasant for both of you and mainly works to achieve my goals. Just so we’re clear.” Rhuun placed his hand over Lelet’s, and they shared a worried look. “I’m thinking we’ll need to start by having the ambassador travel back to Mistra with the negotiating team. That was Auri’s idea, wasn’t it? That Beast, here, helps your brother?”

  That was Auri’s idea exactly—that Rane, accused of the murder of a young demon woman, might be helped by the very person Auri wanted to kill. Rane might be the bait, but if Auri was working with Yuenne, he must know how difficult killing a demon would be. Rhuun couldn’t fathom how Auri thought he might manage it. He did want to help Rane, though, if only to make Lelet happy. And he wanted to see the dead demon woman. How did she even get to Mistra? Who was she?

  “You want to play along, is that it?” Lelet asked.

  “To start.” Ilaan nodded. “So he should think he’s pulling the wagon, as you humans say.”

  “We don’t actually... Never mind. Go on.”

  “All eyes must see that you two are as far apart as you were when you walked through The Door. Barely on speaking terms. It’s only for the great regard Rhuun holds for your sister Scilla and your family that he’s agreed at all. And of course, there’s the matter of the dead woman.” Ilaan scratched his head. “I’m honestly pretty curious about that, myself.”

  “I have to pretend I still want to be with him. With Auri.” Lelet looked ill. “That I begged you to help and you finally agreed but that you don’t want to have anything to do with me. That I groveled. He’ll like that part.”

  “How, exactly, does this help you with your father?” Rhuun asked. He wasn’t ready to examine the details of Lelet going home to Auri, because that led to Auri’s house, and in that house was a room with a bed in it. He’d think about it later.

  “The more you two suffer, the more at ease Auri and my father become. The easier to snare him.” He looked at the two of them, wide-eyed. “Certainly you don’t think I’m taking any pleasure in all of this?”

  He wondered if Ilaan took pleasure in anything, these days. Grief and anger swept his friend’s heart since Niico died, and despite his coming here to help them, Ilaan still
blamed him. If he hadn’t been convinced he needed to look after me, Rhuun thought, he might have saved Niico’s life. Might have. Rhuun cleared his throat. “Moving on. We go back to Mistra. She goes back to his house. I’ll need accommodations if I am to do...um...whatever it is an ambassador does.“ He looked at Lelet. “Any ideas?”

  She was still watching Ilaan through narrowed eyes. “Quite a few.” She set her cup down. “I’ll maintain this fiction and give Auri no reason to think I’m not still dangling on his string. I think we ought to let you set yourself up in town through the Guardhouse. We can even start this performance at the negotiation session with the Guardhouse. You can ask them outright to help you, and we’ll sit at opposite ends of the table and glare at each other or something.”

  “Can you keep this from Scilla?” asked Ilaan.

  Lelet frowned. “She’ll be absolutely furious when she finds out, but yes. What about you?” she asked Ilaan. “What’s your role?”

  “I’m working on something.”

  She crossed her arms. “And it is?”

  “In its early stages.” Ilaan fiddled with the cuff of his robe.

  Lelet snorted. “You don’t have a plan at all, do you? You’re just hoping something happens you can use, and you want Moth to suffer.”

  He looked up at her. “A Door without blood.”

  “A what?”

  “I intend to open a Door without using his blood.” He jerked his head at Rhuun. “To spare him La Naa because he’s suffered enough. Does that sound like a plan to you? You’re welcome.”

  Rhuun leaned forward. “That would be everything. You could go anywhere—everywhere. Without a mage or a knife or me. You could go from anywhere on Eriis to anywhere on Mistra. I’m obviously coming out in favor—and so are my arms. How... Who came up with this? How does it work?”

  “Mother Jaa gave me the idea. She taught me to think about shimmering and Doors in a new way. I’m still learning the mechanics. I actually don’t know if I can do it. I think so, but I have a lot of work to do.”

  To Rhuun, Ilaan looked confident, despite his words.

  “And when you can, you’ll retrieve your father.” Lelet nodded slowly. “I assume he’s in hiding? He can’t very well walk the streets—” She turned pale. “If Yuenne is alive...”

  “I’m sorry,” said Ilaan. “I knew you would ask. I haven’t seen Thayree. I’d tell you if I had. Remember, there’s only a sliver, that I have seen. It doesn’t mean she isn’t alive.”

  Lelet took a deep breath. It was no secret that the disappearance of the gifted little girl still weighed on her mind, morning and night. “Thank you for that. I trust you’ll keep looking? And once you know where your father is—”

  “I have a pretty good idea of where to find him. But it’s up to you to keep Auri placated, because if he has suspicions, he’ll go straight to Yuenne.” He glanced at Rhuun. “They might try to go after the ambassador then and there, if they think you’re working against them.”

  “They can try,” said Lelet. Her eyes turned hard and dark, and then the moment passed.

  “I may not be the most gifted demon ever born, but this Auri is just a human.” Rhuun looked at Lelet. “He isn’t bigger than me, is he?” She smiled and shook her head. “There you go. So yes. Let him try.” He’d already decided that one way or another, he and Auri would have a conversation.

  “How will we stay in touch?” asked Lelet.

  “Um, that’s a thing.” Ilaan screwed the lid back on the coffee container. Their reunion was apparently over. He rose, preparing himself to leave them. “I’m working on it. I’m afraid you must trust me.”

  “Do we have a choice?” asked Lelet.

  “Of course we trust you,” said Rhuun. “Of course we do.”

  But Ilaan was already gone.

  Chapter Two

  Eriis

  Since he’d performed the rite of Silk and Bone and set Niico’s spirit free, Ilaan often found himself in private conversation with his dead lover. It was a weakness of his wits to pretend there was still some sort of link between them, between the path of life and the other, darker path. But it brought him comfort, and he was wise enough to know he needed at least a little of that. Most of the time Niico gave him encouragement and advice and reminded him that he was strong enough to achieve his dream of Doors without blood. Most of the time, Niico had smiles and kind words. Not this time.

  “I noticed a couple of missing pieces in your conversation with Beast and Maaya.”

  Ilaan paused at the entrance to his room at the tents, slipped off his sandals and set them on the mat, and pulled aside the door—the silken flap—and went inside. He hung his traveling robe on its hook. “You shouldn’t eavesdrop. And since there’s no more need for a masquerade and she doesn’t need to pretend to be a demon, she isn’t Maaya anymore, as you know.”

  “And Yuenne isn’t Yuenne anymore, as you know. But they don’t.”

  “If you’re going to try to make me feel guilty, you might as well leave.” Ilaan flopped onto the pile of cushions that made up his bed and waited for the reply. Certainly Niico would have something clever to say. It was as if he’d made a record of everything Niico had ever said since they were children and now his mind found the right one to read back to him. But this time there was no reply, no clever remark. He felt a sliding panic in his chest, even though Niico wasn’t really there. “I didn’t mean it,” he said. “Please don’t leave.”

  “Leave you? When I’ve barely started to tell you that you’re being foolish?”

  Difficult Niico was vastly superior to no Niico. “I have my reasons.”

  Niico laughed.

  That laugh, imagine never hearing that laugh again. “I’ll bet you do. You think you aren’t done punishing him. Am I close?”

  “If anyone deserves punishment, it’s my father. If Lelet discovers the man she’s been sharing a house with all these months is Yuenne, not funny old Uncle Jan, she’ll waste no time in administering justice herself. She cannot have that privilege.”

  “That may be true, but that’s not the real reason. When your thoughts are white with anger, you speak your father’s name. But it’s Rhuun you see in your heart.”

  “It’s because of him you aren’t here. Because of him I have to pretend to hear your voice. What do you think I should do? Act like none of it ever happened?”

  There was a long silence. The wind soughed through the tents, the silk made a shuf-shuf-shuf sound as it rippled in the wind, he could hear the low, indistinct voices of people all around him. “I know what you’re thinking. It wasn’t Beast who sent you away. Who killed you. I could have let him go have his adventures without me. I could have come back and made sure you were safe.” He sighed and raked back his hair. “I thought you’d be fine. And I knew he wouldn’t be.”

  “It’s not too late. You could still tell them about Yuenne.”

  “No, shani. Let’s not argue. They know enough. They know Beast’s in danger. Again. And this is his chance. This time he can do it without me. And then...”

  “You’ll be even?”

  “Of course not, not while Lelet lives. Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t wish that on him. Or her, for that matter. But I’m giving him a chance to save his own life. Then, perhaps, I can be his friend again.”

  “When he finds out what you haven’t told him, he may not want that.”

  “I...” That was impossible to consider. Nothing would be as it was, of course, but they would be as they were, Ilaan and his Beast. It hadn’t occurred to him that Rhuun might feel otherwise.

  “You.” Niico’s voice was warm but far away. “Go practice, you. You can work it into your forthcoming apology.”

  “I hate practicing,” Ilaan grumbled.

  There was no reply. Niico was gone for the time being. One day he’d be simply gone but not this day, at least.

  And Niico, or the part of his mind performing as Niico, was correct—he had work to do. Ilaan rolled off his
bed to retrieve the stones that helped him focus. He kept them out of sight and free of dust under a large red-and-blue silk scarf. Lelet—Maaya—had left it behind, and he’d adopted the bright thing after she’d cast it aside. He tossed it on the bed and lifted the battered brass-and-wood tray, with its collection of bits and chunks of stone, onto the low table in the corner. It was heavier than it looked.

  The practice Mother Jaa had worked out with him was wordless but not passive. He carefully moved his orchid plant in its little blue pot away from the tray, reminding himself he needed to water it soon, then adopted a low crouch—heels down, knees up—and set his fingertips on the tray. This helped form a conduit between Eriis, the stones, and his mind. Now the difficult part: turning off the constant river of thought, memory, feeling, touch, sound—the million ways he might be distracted. He closed his eyes tightly and then opened them, looking only at the stones.

  Slowly, they began to glow. It was difficult not to jump ahead and worry over how he still hadn’t quite gotten the trick of it, opening that Door to Mistra and stepping through it. He could open The Door and peer through it fairly consistently, which was how he’d found his father conniving with Auri to begin with. He could go anywhere on Eriis that he could conceive of—his visit with Beast and Lelet bearing coffee that morning proved that out. But the last piece of the puzzle was having a physical presence on the other side of The Door. The more he chewed on it in his head, the less chance he had of success. He took a breath and blew it out, and in his mind, he used Mother Jaa’s broom to sweep the distractions away.