Nightfall: Book Two of the Chronicles of Arden (10 page)

Zandi openly fumed, and Gib took it upon himself to laugh them out of the awkward situation. After all, it had happened to him more than once while trying to remember the names of everyone at court. He offered his hand for a shake. “I’m Gibben, but please call me Gib. And don’t worry, I wouldn’t remember my name either if I were you.”

Zandi’s grip was tentative as the mage took hold of his hand. “I remember your name, Gibben Nemesio of Willowdale, understudy to Seneschal Koal Adelwijn.”

Gib was at an utter loss for words. If Zandi remembered his name then what were the reintroductions for?

Confusion must have shown on his face, and the mage withdrew his hand with a small smile. An awkward lump rose in Gib’s throat. Had he missed something? Why did he feel like everyone was grinning at him?

“All right. I’ve had enough of this. I’m going back to work.” Kezra snorted and pushed past her brother, grabbing his arm on her way through. “
We
have to go back to work.”

At last, Zandi’s emerald eyes fell away from Gib. The mage gave a curt nod and followed at Kezra’s heels. “Fine, yes. And let me fix your bindi. You look terrible.” Just before they slipped back into the crowd, Zandi looked back one last time. “It was good to see you again, Gib.”

Gib waved, still confounded by the entire meeting. When he turned back to the others, Tarquin and Nawaz were both watching him. While Tarquin tried not to smile too broadly, Nawaz’s grin was nothing short of lewd.

Gib’s eyes went wide. “What? What’s everyone staring at?”

Nawaz clapped him so firmly on the shoulder Gib nearly tumbled. “So tell me, friend, where is Joel today?”

“He had to see his mentor, why?”

Without knowing Nawaz so well, Gib would have been intimidated by their height difference and the lord’s manner. Nawaz bore down on Gib with a wicked beam. “I just have to wonder if Zandi’s greeting would have been so warm had Joel been at your side.”

Tarquin tittered, and Gib could feel his guts twist.
Oh
. He hadn’t realized. “I don’t think that’s what—” His voice faltered. Actually, maybe it sort of made sense. A strange warmth fluttered in his chest like soft butterfly wings tickling him from the inside. Zandi was taken with him? The warmth spread to Gib’s face. He’d never been the object of anyone’s desire before. Well, Joel hardly counted seeing as Gib had longed for the other man first.
Joel
. “Well, I’m flattered then, but he’ll have to look elsewhere.”

Nawaz wagged his eyebrows. “For now anyway.” When Gib shook his head, Nawaz tsked. “You’re no fun. There’s no harm in lookin’. Speaking of which, I’m going to get closer to the stage so I can watch the dancin’.”

“Dancing? Today? It’s too cold for that out here.” Tarquin gasped and glanced toward the raised platform.

Nawaz laughed and slung an arm over Tarquin’s shoulders, leading him into the crowd. “Boy, you worry too much. The cold air is a
good
thing. It makes them blush and keeps things perky.”

A horrified look crossed Tarquin’s white face, and Gib found himself giggling at his friend’s expense.

“We can’t go up there. This is indecent!” Tarquin floundered and looked back at Gib. “Gib! Come with me!”

“Hell no,” Gib laughed. “You two enjoy yourselves. I have a little brother to help with his reading.”

The pair slipped farther into the crowd, and Gib had just turned to make a hasty retreat when he noticed Hasain was still standing nearby, scowling at Nawaz’s back. “Nawaz better watch himself or he may find marrying Heidi his only option.”

Not this again
. Gib sidestepped and tried to excuse himself. “Kezra knows her own mind well enough, and for now, she chooses him.”

“For now, perhaps. He’ll slip up sooner or later, and she’ll see how useless he is.”

Gib didn’t want to become involved in this, but he was about done listening to Hasain’s accusations. “Or you could simply wish them well and be their friend, as they would do for you. Joel and I are as opposite as night and day and so far we’re—”

“Deluded?” Hasain’s words were sharp as a bee sting.

Gib never knew how to take the Radek lord. One moment he was arguing on behalf of the poor and underprivileged, while in the next breath he was belittling anyone who crossed him.

“Where is Joel, anyway?”

Reeling from the fresh insult, Gib considered not answering. His voice was strained when he managed to find it. “He went to see Ambassador Cenric, to sign off on his internship. Why?”

Hasain frowned. “Interesting. No matter, I suppose. But speaking of Ambassador Leal, before I left the palace today, Father was in a fierce mood. When I tried to ask him about it, he shooed me away and was yelling something about ‘sending Cenric or no one.’”

A chill swept up Gib’s spine. He tried to ignore it. “A shame. Cenric only just returned.”

“A good thing for Joel that he’s signing off then.”

Gib nodded and thought to head to the Adelwijn estate. Surely Cal would be waiting by then. Gib hesitated where he stood though, lingering just a moment longer. “King Rishi was visibly upset? You don’t—you don’t know where he was sending Cenric, do you?”

“If I knew, I would have said as much.”

The cold seeped into Gib’s core, bone deep. “You don’t think he’d send Cenric to Shiraz, right? I mean—after Queen Jorja and all.”

Hasain sighed, and some of his rigidity slipped away. “I don’t know. I hope not. He hates—it kills him a little to send others into known doom.”

“It can’t always be avoided. And I suppose it’s better to risk the life of one rather than many in a war.”

“Tell that to the one who is sent. Tell that to their family.”
 

Joel trailed Cenric as they arrived outside the council room doors. Joel’s nerves had been on edge since their hasty summons, and he belatedly realized he’d been wringing his hands the entire way there. Cenric had asked again what the urgency was, but their royal guardsmen escorts could only apologize and lead them onward.

The heavy door swung open before Cenric could knock, and inside, King Rishi’s strange Blessed Mages watched them with eerie violet eyes. Joel began to nod in greeting, but he was pushed along too fast to have a chance.

As the pair of sentinels who’d escorted Cenric and Joel took post outside the door, Koal Adelwijn’s stern voice called out. “Ah, Cenric, sorry to pull you back in here so soon—” The seneschal’s hard gaze fell onto his son and the stilted words made Joel cringe. “What is he doing here? This isn’t a meeting for children.”

Joel frowned. “I’m not a child.”

Before Joel managed to get himself into any more trouble, Cenric stepped in. “Apologies, Seneschal Koal. I tried to ask what this meeting was about, but the guardsmen were vowed to silence. It is common practice for a master to bring his understudy while still on duty.”

He bowed and motioned for Joel to do the same. The look in Cenric’s eye suggested he was in no mood for an unruly student, so Joel complied, biting back any harsh words he’d had for his father.
Right now, he is the seneschal of Arden and I am an envoy trainee. Behave as such
.

Koal’s sharp gaze was heavy, but Joel met those eyes with as much determination as he could muster, a task made more difficult by their current company. Beyond the strange Blessed Mages and the seneschal, the King and his personal bodyguard were also present. Joel couldn’t help but feel he was in way over his head. He clasped clammy hands behind his back to keep them from shaking and took a deep breath. If his father was ever going to see Joel as anything more than a child, now was the time to prove himself.

“Enough of this. There’s no time for arguments.” King Rishi looked haggard, face pale and eyes swollen. He stood tensely by the head of the council table. “There’s been a summons from the Northern Empire, Leal. I have no intention of sending anyone, but Neetra will be here any moment and he’s demanding—”

“He’s nearly here.” The female Blessed Mage, Natori, kept her voice low, but everyone paused to listen to her words. “Hurry.”

The King nodded and an odd look crossed his face, something Joel had never seen before. King Rishi appeared to be—frightened. His voice didn’t shake, but his hands trembled. “You know full well why I can’t send anyone in there, Leal, but the council will demand action if that idiot stirs up enough trouble.”

Koal sighed. “And if he whips Anders and Morathi into some sort of frenzy, who knows what their demands will be. Malin-Rai used to be an envoy before he got caught with his pants around his ankles in Shantar. We don’t need his sort representing Arden.”

Cenric only nodded. “The Empire has stayed quiet almost since the start of your rule, Highness. Why would they reach out now?”

“They’ve expressed a desire to treat with us,” Koal replied. “They’ve invited the King himself.”

Cenric laughed absurdly. “They can’t be serious!”

“It’s a trap.” King Rishi began to pace. “It must be. No one welcomes a traitor back into their midst.”

“Neetra is in the hall,” NezReth, the male Blessed Mage, rasped. His eyes were unfocused, consciousness elsewhere—in the hall perhaps.

Joel felt himself shying away from the strange otherworldly pair of mages despite knowing the King and his father both trusted them, perhaps more than anyone else in the kingdom.

“The King’s right,” Koal agreed. “There must be something more than peace on their minds. The last time they reached out to Arden was to offer a husband for Jorja in an attempt to merge us into their realm.”

“I remember,” Cenric said, a clever smile crossing his lips which was clearly directed at King Rishi. “And it didn’t work out quite the way they’d hoped. Seems an arrogant young prince accepted the marriage proposal but refused the merger.”

King Rishi winced.
“I never said my actions weren’t foolish. Now we have to figure out how to spare Arden from my arrogance—and Neetra’s idiocy.”

The stark change in the King’s demeanor gave Joel chills, and when the doors opened an instant later, he almost jumped out of his skin. His uncle, High Councilor Neetra Adelwijn, strode in with all the authority granted the King himself. At his heels was Joel’s brother, Liro.

Koal balked for a second time. “What is
he
doing here?”

Before Neetra could respond, King Rishi demanded the door be shut and, surprisingly, Liro complied with a cordial nod. He swung the heavy door closed with a bang, and Joel blinked. Where had the Blessed Mages gone? He glanced around, and when he still could not locate them, Joel opened his mouth to ask—a single dark eye met his, and King Rishi’s bodyguard, Aodan, gave a stern shake of his head.
Neetra despises the Mages. I suppose it’s better he doesn’t know they’re here. Or were here. Or whatever
.

“Had I known
everyone
was going to be bringing their apprentices I’d have dragged mine along, too!” Koal pointed at Liro. “He shouldn’t be here, Neetra.”

Neetra’s cold dark eyes narrowed. “Liro is hardly that bedraggled, illiterate waif you pride yourself on ‘saving.’ Liro is knowledgeable and well versed in many customs of the Northern Empire. His expertise could prove invaluable here.”

Joel felt like he’d taken a physical blow. Koal’s voice boomed in the confined space. “
My
understudy is none of your concern—and Liro’s knowledge is secondhand from books and scrolls. Cenric has
actually been
to the Empire. So much for this being a restricted meeting. I suppose the security of Arden is a small matter!”

Liro drew himself to his full height but kept his voice carefully neutral. He’d even mirrored Joel and put his hands behind his back. Fixing an unreadable look on the seneschal, Liro replied, “What’s the matter, Father? Do you not trust me with the security of Arden?” He flicked his eyes to Joel. “And what title does your
favorite
son hold that his presence was requested above mine?”

Koal’s face went an ugly red, and Joel found himself reeling for a second time. He wanted to talk back, to yell and demand apologies from both his uncle and brother, but now was not the time.
You are an envoy, and this is a political talk. Prove to them you can do this
.