ESSA #2
Braimar reached for my arm, but Ollie shoved his hand away.
“Not you,” Ollie snapped. The two men squared up, nose to nose.
Braimar was a head taller and a foot broader, but Ollie had the power, training, and poise of a Torouman.
For a long moment, they both stared at one another, their tension balanced on a fulcrum.
Braimar was the one to break the silence.
“Ollie. Are you jealous?” he said, a note of mock surprise in his voice.
“I am her Torouman,” Ollie said. “It’s a bond far greater than love. Or lust.”
Braimar smirked. “Oh, Ollie. I’m not making love to Essa—anymore.”
“Get out,” Ollie said through bared teeth.
Braimar’s lips twisted into a smile. He held Ollie’s gaze for a moment longer, then turned his attention to me. “Remember what I said, Essa. I’m at your service,” he said. Then he turned and departed.
When he was gone, Ollie fixed me with a glare. “I’m not sure about the company you’re keeping these days, Essa.”
“Well, one has to have company,” I said. “The gods know you’ve been nowhere to be found.”
Maryn went to take my arm, but I waved her off. “I’m okay now. Let me stay here, by the fire. You can go.”
She nodded and departed hastily, clearly happy to be away from the drama.
Once the door had clapped shut, Ollie sank into a chair opposite me. He fished a wooden pipe from his pocket and began stuffing it with tobacco from a small jade box.
“By all means, have a seat,” I said, unable to keep the bitterness out of my voice.
“Oh, don’t be so cross,” he said. “You know very well I’ve been working tirelessly on your behalf.”
“I know nothing anymore,” I said. “But I take you at your word.”
“As you should,” he closed his eyes, holding the pipe in both hands, and I felt a faint shift in the air, like a change of wind direction—although all the windows were closed.
As I watched, the dried leaves in the little bowl began to smolder on their own.
Ollie took a draw on the pipe, then exhaled a slow stream of smoke.
“Not only have you picked up bad habits, you’re flaunting your magick now?
” I said. My tone was teasing, but I truly felt disturbed.
Torouman were notoriously secretive about their magick, to the point where most people now thought it was a myth.
Using magick for something as casual as lighting his pipe was something a Gray Brother would do—not a Torouman.
But he only laughed. “I’m out of matches. Besides, I’m hardly flaunting. It’s just us here—unless you have another man stashed away somewhere?”
I narrowed my eyes, giving him my most menacing glare, and he took another draw on his pipe, clearly pleased that he’d gotten a rise out of me.
“It’s good you came when you did. I was about to fling Braimar out the window.”
“It looked like a fling was about to happen,” Ollie quipped, and took another drag off his pipe.
Vexed as I was with him, and ill as I felt, it was good to be with him—someone I felt as comfortable with as a brother.
He looked at me more closely now. “But gods, Essa, you look like a wraith from the pit. Are you sick?”
“I think so,” I said, pulling my feet up into the chair and making a ball of myself. I was shivering now.
Ollie went to a wardrobe in the corner of the room. After some rummaging, he came back with a blanket and draped it over me, then returned to his seat. I snuggled in, feeling somewhat better.
“So,” I said. “You say you have been working on my behalf. What news?”
Ollie blew a stream of smoke out of his mouth.
“Nothing you don’t already know, I expect.
Plans for the bydrune and coronation proceed.
Kortoi and the noble council are delighted that you’ve come around.
Had you listened to me, we might have arrived at this point with considerably less bloodshed, I might add, but we’ll leave that aside… Overall, the outlook is good.”
“No signs they wish to double-cross me?”
Ollie shook his head. “I still don’t trust them. But like all men, they will do what is in alignment with their interests. So long as you sitting upon the throne furthers their aims, we are safe. And right now, it does.”
“And what are their aims?” I asked.
“They seek to maintain and expand their own power and influence. Put an end to the war with the Admites. And cement a strong alliance with the Sylph Lord.”
“The Sylph Lord…” I said. “Why the fascination? Koratain is far away.”
“Far, yes. But powerful. Rich. And ascendant.”
“I’ve heard all sorts of crazy things about the Sylph,” I said.
“That they have an army of goblins. That they possess secret necromancer technologies even more advanced than the Admites. My mother once said they’re so rich because they possess doors to other worlds and trade with beings from different planes of existence. Could any of that be true?”
“I’ve heard the same rumors,” Ollie said. “Though I have yet to learn the truth of them. In any case, I think Kortoi believes that in the end, the Sylph Lord will be the real powerbroker, both here and in Admar. And he’s eager to please him.”
My head was swimming. I felt like I truly might throw up at any second, but I closed my eyes and the feeling passed.
“And what is it the Sylph Lord wants?” I asked.
Ollie smiled. “My, Essa. You’re a shrewder inquisitor than Master Hoatan. You’re asking all the right questions. But sadly, I don’t know what the Sylph Lord wants.”
“Well, if Kortoi and Natath are his puppets, then we’d best find out,” I said.
Ollie nodded, smiling. “Are those your orders, Your Majesty? You’re sending me on a spy mission?”
I managed a smile. “Your whole life is a spy mission, Ollie. We both know that.”
“Very true,” Ollie said. “It is the Torouman’s lot—more’s the pity…”
“Why?”
Ollie gazed into the fire. “Well, if I were a warrior like Braimar or your foreigner, I’d be strutting around rooms of noble ladies. As it is, I am a eunuch who creeps in the shadows, practicing deceit so that my mistress may rule the world... It is a thankless thing.”
“Ollie. Is that self-pity? You are in the rooms of a noble woman right now, let me remind you. And I do thank you.”
He gave a cold laugh. I reached out and put my hand over his.
“Honestly, though,” I said. “Lovers come and go in this life. But nothing can break the bond of a Torouman and his charge. Is that not so?”
“Of course.” He nodded slowly, watching me with his dragon-sharp eyes. “But don’t expect me to believe that your relationship with Charlie was nothing but a casual tryst. I’ve heard you crying at night, back when we were at camp.”
I turned my gaze to the fire.
“You were all too eager to charge into this castle and die a few days ago,” Ollie said. “To throw your life away in your grief… I hope your illness today isn’t a manifestation of that same despair. Because there are many who would miss you, Essa. Othura. The Skrathan. And none more than me.”
“I know that,” I said quietly. “I don’t desire death.”
He arched an eyebrow.
“I miss Charlie, yes,” I conceded. “I may be reckless, but I’m not suicidal. There’s a difference.”
Ollie snorted. “A subtle one, yes.” He stood, straightening his robes.
“I should go. The young nobles are having a jousting tournament at dinner in celebration of the upcoming bydrune. Kortoi has invited me to sit in his box. He invited you as well, but seeing how ill you look, I’ll give him your regrets. ”
“I hope a few of those noble boys impale one another,” I said. “It will make fewer of them to…” I trailed off.
“To impale you?” Ollie supplied.
It was a joke, but it soured fast, chasing the smiles from both our faces.
Ollie came and knelt before my chair. I smelled the pipe smoke on his breath as he kissed my forehead.
“Rest, Essa,” he said. “And know that while I breathe, I’ll be out there turning all things to your favor.”