Chapter 10 #2
“It seems you have a different arrangement, King Kenneth,” Horus said, and he gave me a pointed look.
“Oh, please,” I said. “Just call me Ken, but yeah. I guess I do.”
“So all these women were among King Oberis’ harem?” Horus asked.
“No!” I burst into nervous laughter.
Carissa blushed deeply and pointedly refused to make eye contact with anyone.
“Um, Lady Carissa is a friend,” I said. “Tanell, Yori, and Serra are my lovers.”
“And now your queens,” Horus added.
“Yes,” I agreed. “It seemed the right thing to do. Serra and Yori both act in a royal capacity at my side. I deeply value their opinions and advice. It seemed only right that they hold the same title as Tanell.”
Horus didn’t say anything, but his mouth widened into a warm smile, and he watched me like he could tell there was more to it than that.
“We were also trying to smooth the path with the other royals,” I admitted. “I know how… picky some monarchs can be about the ‘proper way to do things.’”
I added air quotes to the last bit of my statement, and Horus let out a deep, belly laugh.
“Yes, you’re very correct about that!” he chortled. “Though I doubt it did much to assuage Sybil.”
“You’re right about that,” Tanell sighed.
“She was very cold,” Serra said.
“She was hostile,” Yori corrected. “And insulting.”
“Yeah,” I said. “King Horus, can I ask you something that might be a little improper?”
“Please, call me Horus,” he said. “No need for formalities among friends, and of course. I do love a little impropriety.”
He waggled his eyebrows at the women and was rewarded with a series of soft giggles from them.
“Do you think Sybil cares about her people?” I asked.
“How so?” Horus asked.
“Do you think she’ll do what needs to be done?” I asked. “Do you think she’ll be able to put her personal feelings and possibly her pride aside to join us?”
Horus released a heavy breath, and all sense of lightheartedness fled from his face.
“I sure hope so,” he said. “I don’t know her all that well. We only spent a few weeks in each other’s company, and that was some thirty years ago. People change, and she could be someone completely different from the woman I knew in my youth.”
I nodded in understanding. He had a very good point there.
“I must congratulate you, Ken,” Horus changed the subject. “Stories of your rule have reached us in the capital, and I’m rather impressed with the work you’ve begun.”
“Oh.” My eyebrows rose in surprise. “Um, thank you.”
“It sounds like your people are rather pleased with your rule thus far,” Horus said. “That’s pretty impressive after such a short amount of time.”
“I’m just trying to make their lives better,” I said with a little shrug. “However I can.”
“May I ask…” Horus locked eyes with me. “What have you done to make them so happy?”
“Um…” I chuckled as my mind went blank.
It felt like any time I’d been in a job interview, and they’d asked me what kind of things I’d liked to do in my free time. That question always left me forgetting any and every hobby and activity I’d ever enjoyed.
“He helped design a system to transport water to the fields,” Yori said in an excited rush.
“Oh?” Horus leaned forward in his chair. “That sounds like it would make an enormous improvement in people’s lives, assuming it works, of course.”
“Oh, it works,” Tanell said with a proud smile in my direction. “Ken designed a series of… tubes, channels? I’m not very clear on how it works.”
“I have no desire to steal your secrets,” Horus said. “But would you tell me more about this system?”
“Sure.” I grinned.
I spent the next five minutes or so explaining the foundational ideas of the aqueducts, their purpose, and the idea that gravity did most of the work.
“That sounds incredible.” Horus nodded appreciatively. “Very impressive indeed. I foresee a long and prosperous future for you and Nalatria if you keep having good ideas like that.”
Pride swelled in my heart at his kind words.
Horus fell into a bit of a soapbox speech for the next few minutes, and he went on about how important it was to consider the quality of life of a monarch’s lowest subjects. He spoke about how the working men and women of Kestran held up a majority of the economy with their labor.
“And it’s not only the men and women who are masters of their crafts,” Horus said with rising enthusiasm.
“A blacksmith is crucial to our way of life, but without the ore acquired by the miners, he would be nothing. Our finest cooks wouldn’t be able to do anything if not for the back-breaking labor of our farmers. ”
I couldn’t help but notice he never used the word “peasants.” He always referred to his people by their professions or simply as people, and after he closed his mouth, I decided I liked him.
“My apologies,” he said with a bashful chuckle. “I didn’t mean to commandeer the entire conversation.”
“No apologies necessary,” Tanell said. “I rather enjoyed hearing your perspective.”
“As did I,” Serra said as Yori and Carissa nodded.
“Laylia is always scolding me for being too long-winded,” Horus said. “I try to keep my points short, but when I get passionate about something, I really struggle.”
“It’s no problem,” I said with a friendly smile. “I completely agree with what you said. I’m not sure how much of my story has reached you, or what untrue things you’ve heard, but I came from a place where I was one of the common folk.”
“I had heard a little something,” Horus said. “I’d assumed it was a rumor, but I suppose it makes sense with how you’ve chosen to handle things. You don’t rule as though you’ve spent your entire life above it all in the lap of luxury.”
“No,” I snorted a laugh. “I’ve had to work hard my entire life. I know what it’s like to worry about where my next meal was going to come from. Things got better in the last few years for me, but that knowledge of a hungry belly and uncertainty… Once you experience it, it never really leaves you.”
Horus nodded, and his brown eyes were full of understanding. He knew what I meant. I could see it in his face, and I wondered about his life before he took the throne from his uncle.
“What is on your mind, my new friend?” Horus asked. “I can see the thoughts churning behind your eyes.”
“I was wondering…” I frowned as I tried to decide the best way to ask what I wanted to know. “Will you tell us about your life before you took the throne?”
Horus’ eyes lit up, and his smile turned warmer.
“I’d be happy to,” he said. “My uncle had been born into his rule. His father had been a beloved king. Most of my nation’s people were content when the king fell ill, and my uncle rose as the heir apparent.
The people assumed my uncle would rule the same way his father had.
After all, why not? There was no reason to think he would change what had been working so well. ”
Tanell nodded thoughtfully, but Carissa’s eyes flared wide like she could already see how the story was going to go. Serra listened intently while Yori had started digging back into the last bits of breakfast meats we had out.
“Unfortunately…” Horus frowned before he shrugged.
“Or perhaps, fortunately, my uncle cared little for the actual responsibilities of being king. He had been raised in luxury and saw little benefit in ensuring a quality of life for the lowest-ranked people in Kestran. He began taxing the noble families to pay for his whims and desires.”
“But how did that affect the commoners?” Serra asked in confusion.
“Because,” Yori spoke before Horus could answer. “When nobles are taxed, they often take that money out of their servants’ pay.”
“What?” Serra gasped in shock. “But that’s wrong.”
Yori gave Serra a look that said, “Yeah, no shit.”
My silver-haired queen looked at me, and I could see her entire worldview shifting right in front of my eyes. She’d learned a lot about the deeper repercussions of a king’s choices and actions in the weeks since I’d come to Nalatria, but this was clearly something she hadn’t considered.
“Yeah.” I grimaced. “It’s not an uncommon thing in my experience. The rich will do anything to stay rich.”
Horus nodded in a sad kind of way.
“By the time I finished studying at Kestran University…” Horus continued his story. “I had decided what I needed to do. My uncle had no viable heirs. None of his four wives or six concubines had borne him any children who’d lived past childhood.”
“What?” Tanell gasped.
“What happened to them?” Serra asked.
“Bad blood.” Horus shrugged. “My uncle has a long line of inbreeding on his mother’s side. Thankfully, that branch of the family tree is separate from the one I come from, but it meant he was unable to father a healthy child.”
I sucked air in between my teeth and nodded.
“Yeah, that’s not good,” I agreed.
It made me think of purebred dogs, and how humans on Earth had shoehorned specific dog breeds into predetermined bad health for the sake of breed standards, like how Dachshunds had so many back problems because of their short legs and long bodies.
“So there were no bloodline heirs to threaten you if you killed him for the throne,” I said.
“Exactly.” Horus nodded. “It was a great burden on my heart to kill a member of my own family, but it was the right thing to do. He was driving our entire country into the ground. He had pinched every class below his courtiers into poverty, commoners and laborers, the very people who hold up a society like ours, were dying at record numbers because they couldn’t afford to eat. ”
My heart ached for the strangers who’d died decades ago, probably even before I was born.
“Did he not care about the people?” Serra asked. “Or was he doing it maliciously?”
As she suggested the second option, her brown eyes had a hint of hope. I suspected it was easier for her to grasp the idea that Horus’ uncle had been evil rather than simply uncaring. It made me love her even more.