28
The entire city cheers again three days after that, when we kiss at his coronation, and again a month later, when the two of us fly from the balcony of the palace toward the Grey Province to personally oversee the final evacuation of Tularesk.
Most of the Tularesk citizens are already within the safety of Belavrin’s walls, waiting in tents or in the homes of generous citizens until enough forest can be cleared and temporary housing erected in the new state of Iyrandar, along the northern edge of the Red Mountains.
At my suggestion, Vawn sentenced the Redeemers, Lord Steros, and all of Renfrow’s co-conspirators to hard labor clearing out the spidermaws and the wimmets from Iyrandar and constructing protective walls for the new settlement.
Not all of the insurrectionists have been caught—we suspect some of them quietly took off their helmets and resumed their lives once they realized the takeover had failed.
Vawn and I plan to ceremonially welcome the last group of refugees, which consists mostly of the guards from the Tularesk border watchposts and the remaining staff of the Celestial Seat.
-Inaya and Jillia will be among them. Their recent letter expressed their excitement about having a fresh start together in a new place, and it included an invitation to their upcoming wedding at the Chapel of the Fates near Anyssir Castle.
“I’m happy for them,” was all Vawn would say when I told him the contents the letter, but he didn’t look particularly happy about the news.
Maybe he doesn’t want to go to a wedding, or he hates marriage, or he regrets ever mentioning the question that he said he was going to ask me, all those nights ago when we spent our evening of bliss in that abandoned house near the hoarded palace.
Vawn hasn’t said a word about the deal we made that night.
Granted, we’ve both been incredibly busy since we retook the palace in Kyr.
He’s already proving to be an unpredictable and problematic king, at least from the perspective of the pompous old nobles who keep trying to control him.
Contrary to anyone’s expectations, Vawn has apparently been planning how he would rule for much longer than anyone knew, and he has very clear ideas of things he’d like to change.
Not all of them are popular, but most seem quite sensible, at least to me.
In addition to my position as his primary bodyguard, I’ve also taken on a more subtle and threatening role.
During court or meetings, I lean against Vawn’s throne or chair, cleaning my nails with a knife and shooting vicious looks at anyone who dares speak disrespectfully to him.
According to Lady Kaenan’s gleeful reports, most of the nobility view me with terrified awe and tell stories of how I destroyed an entire horde of wimmets and took down whole battalions of Redeemers to protect the prince.
Maybe they are scared of me, but I’ve noticed several of the high-ranking court ladies wearing more black leather and adopting similar hairstyles to mine. I don’t tell anyone how much that secretly delights me, not even Vawn.
Maybe my reputation is the reason Vawn’s retinue didn’t make more of a fuss about him traveling alone with me, rather than with a full contingent of soldiers.
Most of his servants and guards are brand-new anyway, pulled from the Academy, from the loyalists who helped reclaim the palace, or from among the prisoners the Exemplar snatched off the streets.
Those prisoners had no love for Renfrow or the Redemptive Authority, so they’re ideal replacements for any servants and guards we suspected of disloyalty.
For whatever reason, we encountered little resistance when we announced that we planned to travel to the Grey Province alone, just the two of us and the carpet.
Once we get to Anyssir Castle, we’ll have to deal with more servants and guards clustering around us—but for now, I’m enjoying the freedom of traveling as a trio, like old times.
At his coronation, Vawn was given a glyph-graven lute strung with unicorn hair that is always magically in tune and self-corrects when the player makes a mistake.
He loves it, and he serenades me for the first few hours of the flight.
His singing voice has a limited range, but it’s husky and seductive.
I harmonize with him on a few songs that I’m familiar with.
Eventually our voices grow tired, and Vawn simply strums the instrument until the carpet says abruptly, “I have never understood why humans like music. It is just a series of random sounds.”
“You don’t like music?” I exclaim.
“I appreciate a well-balanced set of rhyming couplets, and a precisely maintained rhythm,” Severin clarifies. “But I have seen humans scream for joy or weep copiously because of a song, and that, I cannot comprehend.”
“Another difference between humans and magic carpets, I suppose.” I pat his surface affectionately. “Thank you for putting up with our singing.”
“I’ve put up with far more questionable activities during our travels.”
“Now, now. You don’t need to bring that up.”
“Aren’t you tired, Severin?” asks Vawn. “Don’t you think we should stop for a rest soon?”
“I feel quite energetic, actually,” replies Severin. “I can keep going for another few hours.”
“No,” Vawn says, in a deeper tone. “You can’t. You’re very, very tired. So we’re going to make a detour, remember?”
“Oh… yes, the detour. By the fates, I am dreadfully exhausted. I feel as though I might fall out of the sky at any moment.” Severin drops dramatically, and a tiny scream escapes me at the sudden loss of altitude.
“What is wrong with the two of you?” I exclaim.
“Time to stop for the night.” The carpet swerves eastward. “I’ve been smitten with a dreadful malaise. I shall only be able to fly for another… few minutes?”
“Half an hour,” snarls Vawn.
“Right. Half an hour.”
“I thought you were a flying map with infinite knowledge, including where certain places are,” Vawn says.
“Forgive me, your Majesty. Perhaps some of my threads got crossed after my corner was ripped off and then stitched back on, and then torn off again and re-woven. Or maybe after my tassel was clipped. Or perhaps when—”
“Must you torture me with a complete account of every discomfort you’ve endured?” Vawn groans. “That journey wasn’t always pleasant for us, either. At least you got to be in your case for parts of it. Like that horrible slide out of Zeletas, through the mountains.”
“Oh, that was terrifying.” I shrink closer to Vawn, and he wraps an arm around me.
Much as I enjoy being the new King’s notoriously dangerous bodyguard, I sometimes like to curl up against him and think about how he’s taller than me and stronger than me.
Even if he’s shit at fighting, he can throw me around when I want him to, and I thoroughly enjoy it.
Unfortunately we’ve been too busy and exhausted to do much… throwing.
I’m not sure why we’re stopping so early for the night, or why Vawn and the carpet are acting so strange about it.
We were supposed to fly for another two hours, at least. I suppose we can make up the time tomorrow.
But we’ll have to arrange a midday respite for Severin, in that case.
A frown creases my forehead as I try to figure out how to adjust the schedule.
“You’re worrying about our arrival date,” Vawn says. “Don’t concern yourself. We aren’t expected until a full day later than I told you. Lady Kaenan and the others know we’re making a long stop on the way.”
“They do?”
He nods, but he refuses to say anything else, so I pass the time admiring my latest nail set and resisting the urge to ask him questions.
My nails are painted in the classic fashion, with a black base coat and white glyphs.
Vawn and I thought it best to keep the discovery of the invisible glyph paint quiet for now, but word has already begun to leak into Belavrin society at all levels.
It won’t be long before its existence is out in the open, and the revelation will change the entire landscape of glyph work.
The reality of invisible glyphs will also pose additional security risks, but I already have a few of the palace scientists investigating ways of detecting them.
The researchers assure me that it can be done, either by applying some sort of non-erosive chemical to temporarily reveal the glyphs, or by shining a special kind of light over the nails.
As magical innovation increases, new discoveries will be made and new technologies will appear. It scares me a little, that headlong drop into the unknown, but this kingdom has already survived so much. We’ll adapt, and we’ll find ways to bring fairness and safety to the landscape of magic.
No matter what we do, there will always be people who take a new thing with excellent potential and use it for the very worst of purposes.
We can’t ever create enough laws to prevent that.
But maybe by working hard to make the kingdom a more just and equitable place to live, there will be fewer greedy sons of bitches who want to elevate themselves at the expense of everyone else.
“How weary I am,” drones Severin, gliding over a high hill. “Perhaps we will find a place to rest soon.”
“Alright, enough.” Vawn laughs ruefully. “She knows we’re up to something. You can stop.”
“A pity,” Severin replies. “I was so good at throwing her off the scent.”
He skims down a slope carpeted in lush spring grass. Here and there, trees dot the meadow, and the late afternoon sun throws their shadows in long, dark strips across the golden-green of the grass.
“Why, look, there’s an inn,” drawls the carpet, in a tone of extreme unsurprise. “How fortuitous.”