Chapter 12 Kerik #3
Seridil is handsome and well-built. He wears a white hip cloth and the planes of his bare, smooth chest are pleasing.
His hair is spun red-gold, curls that dance around his face and onto his shoulders.
His face is long, cheekbones dotted with freckles.
In a soft voice, he says, “Before you give that traitor your devotion, you should know how he treated his last thrall.”
Kerik looks into Seridil’s eyes. They are the colour of honeywine. He can say nothing in response. What is this? A warning. Or a provocation. Did Vane send him?
Seridil says, “Did he promise to protect you? He promised that to me. He asked me to do terrible things, but he swore I would be safe, under the protection of the Queen’s favoured.
But they sent me to the pit when we were discovered.
He could not protect me. He has no real power here.
He cannot protect anyone. Even his own thralls.
And you have seen what my life is now. A toy of the vile creature from the Timeless Court.
Prince Vane might seem cruel, but Perl is worse.
Because he’ll make you love him first before he hurts you. ”
Kerik cannot stop himself. He doesn’t want to stop himself. He makes a noise behind the ball. A sound of protest. Not even a word. More like a snarl. But he has to convey somehow that there is no possible chance of Perl — or anyone — making him fall in love.
The bird-like chirrup sounds. The glowing number one in the air before him becomes a two. If he speaks one more time he fails the test. But it was worth it. He enjoyed snarling at Seridil. Seridil actually looks a little shocked, like he did not expect his taunting to work so easily.
Kerik meets his eyes with a sour expression and Seridil looks frozen, unable to say anything else.
Behind Seridil he hears the sound of idle hands clapping. He looks and sees Vane is walking up onto the platform.
Vane pulls Seridil away from Kerik with a tug on his shoulder. “Oh, leave it alone, thrall. It’s suffering enough.”
Seridil gives Kerik one more look and steps down from the platform. “Go warm my bed,” Vane calls after him. “I will be there soon enough and I will require your body.” Vane watches Seridil go before he turns his attention back to Kerik.
“You really want to pass this test, don’t you?
” Vane says, looking at Kerik with his strange black eyes.
“Would you not rather use it to escape him? Simply make one more sound and he loses you. There are many better fae Masters in the Ice Court. Perhaps it would even be me who ends up taking you on.” He stops and laughs.
Kerik swallows.
Vane continues, “You barely know him. You don’t know why he is the way he is. Why we all despise him?”
Kerik would dearly like to be able to tell Vane that actually he does know. That Vane’s continued hints at Perl’s transgressive desires have made it all very obvious.
But he can say nothing. So he simply stares at Vane as he goes on.
“It’s because of Seridil, you know. He had Seridil do the most foul things for him.
He claimed Seridil was his thrall, but in his bed chamber, Perl was the one who knelt.
Perl, the favoured of the Queen herself.
Until that, we had all hoped so desperately he wasn’t tainted by the rumoured circumstances of his birth, but that confirmed it.
Kneeling for a mortal. Is that the foulness he wishes to draw you into?
” Vane touches Kerik’s cheek with a beringed-hand, pressing against the flesh there so it rubs against the sharp jewels of the ball inside his mouth.
“Fae blood. How did he lure you here? Did he promise you’d learn to use your magic?
If that were discovered you’d both be killed for it. ”
Kerik desperately wants to say something. Make some kind of snarled threat to let Vane know exactly what will happen to him if he betrays them.
He forces himself to make no sound, but his will must be written on his face, because Vane says, “Oh, don’t worry, mortal.
I will not be the one to betray you. I enjoy knowing your little secret far too much.
But you saw how easy it was for me to unveil you.
Surely you must be asking yourself how well that foul creature can protect you if that is all it would take to condemn you? ”
Vane smiles a nasty smile. “You know, if I became your Master, you wouldn't be the first of Perl’s cast off thralls I’d taken on.
I’m sure you’d be obedient to me. Perhaps you’d even tell me his secrets.
Is your presumptive Master following his father’s obsession with the Bellator?
Is he trying to entrap you in that nonsense? ”
The bell rings suddenly. A sound so sharp it seems to break the air into shards. But it is a welcome one.
Kerik looks over to Perl on the dais. Perl shakes his wrist and the iron cuff vanishes. He leaps from his seat, races to the platform and pulls the ball from Kerik’s mouth. It comes away with the thin mixture of spittle turning pink from the blood where it has cut Kerik’s cheeks.
Kerik gasps. He waits as Perl removes the high collar. Then stands, Perl steadying him with a hand on his elbow.
His legs shake. His muscles ache. His jaw aches. Everything hurts. But as he stands he sees Vane, still on the platform, still smirking at him.
Kerik twists in Perl’s grip and spits in Vane’s face.
Vane doesn’t move. He doesn’t even wipe the pink flecked spittle from his cheek. He just stares at Kerik in shock.
Perl simply says, “Oh.”
Kerik can feel Perl’s grip on his arm tighten.
When Kerik looks at him, Perl has dark circles under his eyes and his expression is as shocked as Vane’s. Kerik is shocked too. He can’t quite believe he just did that. Although he does not regret it.
Vane’s voice is brittle, cold as ice. “I trust you will flog your thrall for that, Perlash.”
Perl turns to Vane, moving so his body is between Vane and Kerik. “I will deal with him in private.”
“You will not,” Vane spits back.”I insist you punish it before all. If you don’t, I shall assume it is because you’d rather it was you being whipped. I suppose I could ask Seridil about that. It told me once that you enjoyed the lash in bed.”
Kerik sees Perl suck in a breath, before he lifts his chin, and says, “This creature is my thrall and I will do with him as I wish, Prince Vane. Now get out of my way.” Perl drags Kerik down from the platform and right out of the hall.
Behind him, Vane snarls, “Then I will have to ask Exeinil to declare this test voided and have your creature sent to the pit.”