Chapter 23
PERL
Perl lies in Kerik’s arms. His body is a mess. He is sore and stained but he feels so soft and safe. He has never felt so safe in Vylenor.
He knows Vylenor will never be a place he can truly be safe. But right now, with his head on Kerik’s chest, Kerik stroking his hair — unravelled from its braid now, cascading over his back — and his entire body humming softly from his spend, it is hard to feel any of the things he fears are real.
Not the powerful Queen of the Timeless Court who wanted him dead as a babe, not Prince Vane who hates him for destroying his life and not the demon rising in the Amber Forest.
Softly, he says, “If I had known I could have this with you, I would not have kept you asleep. We could have spent all our time in the Starlight Tower like this while I waited for my power to grow strong enough.”
“Hmm,” Kerik says dreamily. “I know you think I am one of the Five Fae Princes, the Magician, but then there are four others. My brothers. Why not take all of us if we needed protection?”
Perl looks up, a little surprised by this, although perhaps he shouldn't be. Kerik seems to have quite a talent for asking him complicated questions without warning. And this inquiry is a reasonable one. It’s something he’s asked himself before now.
And his answer is the one he always gives himself when he does.
“I followed my father’s prophetic writings.
And then the divination of others.” No need to say her name.
“You all have your paths. I have tried to ensure you are all watched and safe as best I can,” Perl thinks of it then, of the weight of that.
“But you, you were in particular danger, because of things that I had done. I had to protect you.”
“You said that you took me from Lunatum. But I do not remember being there. But I was on my way to Pellex, to Jur-Mattan.”
“You don’t remember Lunatum at all?”
Kerik blinks at Perl strangely, as if the memory is only just returning.
“I did not remember before, but it came back to me. When I was in the ice. Vindar charged me with a mission. I was bound for Jur-Mattan. And.. yes, Lunatum, perhaps I…, the ship stopped there for a day and a night. I went to…” he pauses.
“I had heard there was a luxoli house with a secret place underground where men were auctioned. I found the luxoli house but I couldn’t work out how to get to the lower floors.
When I asked they said they were only for storage.
Unless I went down there and can’t remember that part. ”
“They have to be careful. They are selective about who goes down there. Perhaps not selective enough, but there is a process of sorts.”
“So it’s true? There is an Underground?”
“Oh yes. There is.”
“And they wouldn’t let me in,” Kerik says, petulantly. “Me?” He pauses for thought. “I told them who I was.”
“And you think shouting, ‘I am heir to the Duchy of Fanost’ ought to have meant they should throw open the doors of their illegal luxoli auction rooms?” Perl gives Kerik a smile.
Which he returns. “I doubt they believed you. Because you were still there when I arrived. I met you drinking in the bar. I was there because… as I said, I have been watching all of you. I was in Lunatum to ensure the safety of your brother Lukas.”
“Lukas? Was he in Lunatum too? When I was travelling to Jur-Mattan he had not long tried to kill Selim and escaped the Rose Palace. Or that was the rumour.”
“Yes,” Perl nods. “Those rumours were true. He fled back to the Mortingale Mountains and some moons after that he ended up in Lunatum. I just wanted to be sure he arrived safely. He had a destiny there. Something important he needed to do. But I did not expect to encounter you too. When I did, I knew who you were. I know all of you well. I saw you at the docks and followed you when you slipped away from your ship. It must have been the works of The Aeons, because you went to the Exiled Emperor, the luxoli house, where I could speak with you alone.”
“Of course I was alone. I could hardly bring Azurian guards to a luxoli house.”
“Yes. But those guards were keeping a close eye on you. They were charged to make sure you made it to Pellex.” Kerik looks at Perl as if this is not a claim of particular interest. Of course he would expect the guards that travelled with him to Jur-Mattan’s great city to be making sure he was safe.
He had no idea that they were really charged with delivering their cargo.
“So you spoke with me and decided to kidnap me?”
“When I discovered where you were going, what you were doing, I had no choice. You told me your mission was to trade with Queen Jareleezi, King Ramel’s mother, for some books she had.
Jareleezi was Hevelikar. The last of that line.
Kerik, Jareleezi is the same witch I had drawn to my cause in the hope of obtaining The Books of Alios.
She is who you were being sent to. To trade for those same books I sought. ”
Kerik frowns. “You kidnapped me because you also wanted what I was sent to trade for? Did you mean to prevent my making such a trade and taking those books out of your reach?”
Perl shakes his head. “No. I kidnapped you because of what Vindar was clearly giving her in return for those books.”
Kerik frowns. He truly does not know. “In return for her treasures Vindar was offering peace. That was what I was sent to trade with her. The Azurian army would not invade Jur-Mattan if she handed them over.”
“No. That was not the deal you offered her.”
Kerik sits up, slipping out of Perl’s arms to look down at him. Annoyance on his face. “I think I know what Vindar bid me to do in return for not having me charged with sins of the body.”
“I am sure you know exactly what Vindar told you, but have you ever asked why Vindar sent you to make this deal?”
“I know exactly why. He caught me in bed with my bodyman. A bodyman who was in his pay and he had coached to make sure he could say I forced him to my bed. I had no choice.”
“I am not asking why you took his mission. I am asking why Chancellor Vindar, with the entire Imperial army at his disposal decided to entrust this mission to you? A youth of nineteen turns with absolutely no gift for diplomacy.”
Kerik looks as if he is about to question this assessment of him. But doesn’t and instead says, “Because the mission was sensitive.” But Perl can hear the doubt in his voice. “No one knew where I was.”
“He sent you,” Perl says simply, “because you were the deal. The Books of Alios for you.” When Kerik says nothing else, just stares at Perl, he decides to continue. “Queen Jareleezi wanted you. She had told Vindar to send you to her and she would give him the books in return.”
“Chancellor Vindar would not trade me for some books.”
“Of course he would. He would have traded you for far less. Vindar wanted rid of you. The Rose Court wanted rid of you. I am sure the original plan with the bodyman was simply to expose your sins and have a reason to exile you to Luxoria or somewhere else where you would never trouble the empire again. But then Vindar found something even better, a way to use you to actually gain something he really wanted. Books the Rose Court had discovered the existence of and wanted out of the hands of the Hevelikar. And if you simply vanished after being caught abed with your bodyman, that would be far more simple and clean than a trial that your mother would disrupt as much as possible. And who would consider Vindar had a hand in it?”
“Why did Vindar want the Books of Alios? Does he know about Ur-Durik?”
“He does not. I believe he discovered the existence of the books because of me. Because of someone I charged to continue my work on Batraous’s writings.
When Vindar knew of the book's existence and that they might be in the possession of the Hevelikar, he wanted them back. Because they tell the story of the first defeat of the Bellator, the Darek’s could be threatened by those books, they proved the Hevelikar’s claims to be the rightful rulers of Azuria correct.
He wanted them so he could destroy them and prevent supporters of the Hevelikar ever rallying behind them. ”
“And you took me because Chancellor Vindar was trading me to Queen Jareleezi?”
Perl nods, hiding the way that name still makes him prickle with fear and shame. “I had to. When you told me what you were doing—”
“I simply told you?” Kerik interrupts.
Perl swallows. “I may have ensorcelled you, just a little. I gave you something called the tincture of levelling. It is a fae potion, but designed for mortals. It makes them unable to lie, as we are. I always carry it in the mortal realm.”
“So, you drugged me?”
“I drugged you. But I had to know what you were doing. I had no information about you being in Lunatum. My sources were good, but of course, My main source of information at that time was…” Perl pauses.
“The witch I empowered, I told you she was a Hevelikar. It was Jareleezi. The same queen you were traveling to. I was getting all my information about the princes from her. So when I saw you, and it was unexpected, I was suspicious that she had kept something from me. As far as I was aware, you were in Attar. When I discovered the truth, I suppose I panicked somewhat. I had to stop you reaching her. Luckily you had come to the luxoli house seeking pleasure and it was an easy matter to lure you out and into a cart on the pretext of taking you to my rooms for suck then I gave you a sleeping draught and got you out of the city.”
“And you did not suck me?” Kerik says, with a smirk, perhaps wondering if they had coupled then and he simply does not remember it.
“We did not. I was chaste then. Somehow, I resisted you.”
“And why can't I remember it?”