Chapter 23
A Distracting Disguise
S o? What do you think?” Jeong’s expression was bright and eager as he clutched Luca’s slim shoulders.
The boy’s dark eyes were fixated thoughtfully on the wooden floorboards of the inn where they’d spent their first night in Zinfera. Jeong had just finished explaining his plan: having Tam and Eli pose as a married couple, with Luca as their son. Tam sat off on his own in a corner, poring over a Zinferan map so that he could best understand the new route they would be taking to Junya rather than crossing the wide Torit Desert.
The future duke was far enough away that he couldn’t overhear the conversation, and it most likely was for the better. While he’d mentioned that he planned to talk to Luca about their revised travel plans, he would not have been able to explain the plan with the same enthusiasm as Jeong.
And in response to Jeong’s exuberant delivery method, Luca cracked a smile. “Does that mean I get to call Tam ‘Father’?”
“Of course! It’d be strange if you called him anything else! You’ll have to call Eli ‘Mother’ as well—hopefully that doesn’t bother you!” Jeong responded sunnily.
Luca hesitated, his smile fading.
Jeong, seeing this, changed his mood swiftly to match. “Oh Goddess! I’m terribly sorry! You must miss her! I’m sure we can—”
Blinking rapidly, Luca gave his head a firm shake. “No, it’s fine. I… I want to.”
Jeong winced and started to inch back from Luca as he noticed the gleam of tears in the boy’s eyes.
“Would… Would you like a dumpling? It’s hard to be sad with a dumpling! Here!” Jeong reached over to the table where he had been eating breakfast before Luca came downstairs and shoved two dumplings into his cheeks, making his round face bulge like a chipmunk’s.
“THee? Har’ ta b’ thad!” Jeong waved his hands demonstratively, and Luca couldn’t help but giggle in the face of such absurdity.
“Everything alright here?” Tam’s voice sounded behind Jeong, making him jump.
The Zinferan was unable to respond as he struggled to finish consuming the dumplings.
Seeing this and raising his eyebrows in amusement, Tam didn’t bother waiting for a coherent answer from Jeong; he just turned to Luca who, by that time, looked right as rain.
“Luca, mind joining me outside? I have to go over a few things before we leave today. I ordered breakfast for you, so it should be ready for you once we return.”
Luca nodded tentatively, and so his father reached out and gently guided him toward the door, though the boy still stole a glance over his shoulder at Jeong and gave his best conspiratorial wink. Jeong responded by giving him two thumbs-up with as much of a grin as his bulging cheeks could spare.
◆◆◆
“You really don’t mind having to be involved with this…?” Tam asked his son carefully as the pair stood just outside the inn. Despite being no more than a foot or two from the thick wooden door with its black grate window, the father and son were already on the hem of the morning traffic of the port town, though the clientele that filed by them were not of the clean or refined walks of life.
Luca wrinkled his nose as one particularly odorous fellow stumbled past, clothes tattered, his jutting jaw revealing more teeth missing than remaining.
“I-I’m fine with it. But I… I can really call you… ‘Father’?”
Tam stiffened, his shoulders broadening. “No.”
The tears were instantaneous, and so Luca directed his gaze to the tips of his crude, woven shoes.
“Being called ‘Father’ sounds far too awkward. I call my own father ‘Da,’ so that might be odd as well… ‘Dad’ works. What do you think?”
Luca’s face snapped upward, and for the second time that morning Tam jolted in surprise.
“Wh— Oh… Shit. I’m sorry, Luca! I should have clarified sooner!”
“N-no! I’m stupid for crying!” Luca breathed angrily before wiping his eyes on his right sleeve. “I don’t cry like this! Not all the time! It’s—it’s really, really stupid !”
Tam rubbed his hand over his face in vexation at his own blunder. “No, Luca, I’m the stupid one. You’re getting dragged across a kingdom with your estranged father whom you’ve never gotten to meet until a few weeks ago, and you’re now getting involved in matters I can’t even fully explain. The fact that all you’re doing is occasionally crying is… both incredible and worrisome from my point of view.”
“S-sorry.”
“Don’t be, Luca. I’m sorry. Again. The reason I didn’t want you calling me ‘Dad’ or ‘Father’ before was—”
“THERE’S BONG’S CARRIAGE!” Jeong exploded from the inn, his left cheek still stuffed full, and another dumpling in his right hand that he expertly shoved into Luca’s mouth while pointing at the black peaked carriage approaching them.
Tam turned around to see the vehicle approach, the two horses stomping to a stop and casting clouds of dust up into hot morning air.
Bong opened the door and bounded out of the carriage with a bright smile.
“We got everything for the trip for a young Mr. Luca.” He bowed to the boy, who was struggling to chew through the dumpling, and produced a pair of black leather boots.
“Fank oo!”
“Do not mention it, Mr. Luca,” Bong responded happily while stepping to the side. “But I also have the great privilege of introducing you to your wife , Tam!”
Tam had just opened his mouth to object to the theatrics when Bong swept out his arm and Eli removed herself from the carriage, looking wildly grumpy.
She wore an icy blue top that tied to the side, with pink flowers embroidered near the shoulders, along with a long, full white skirt that Tam instantly thought should be nowhere near the dirty road. Her short hair had been slicked back with water and perhaps a hint of hair oil, but a silver hairpin with a dainty white flower rested near her right ear.
Tam was struck speechless. She had even painted lines on her eyelids and a flattering blush on her lips.
Luca gaped at Eli as well.
Despite having a face full of food, Luca smiled. The smile grew when he glanced up at his father and saw how red his ears were.
“Goddess’s Pool, did you ever make her lovely!” Jeong said.
His brother grinned proudly in response. “I thought so! Turns out our sister does have excellent taste after all. I never would’ve thought listening to her talk about trends would result in me learning anything!”
Meanwhile, Luca, having swallowed his dumpling, kept peering up at his father. Tam continued gaping at Eli, who by that time was blushing herself.
“Isn’t she pretty?” Luca pressed quietly.
Tam cleared his throat and managed to spare a glance at his son. “Er. Yes. Yes, Eli you look… quite nice.”
“Do you think he’s ever had to compliment a woman before?” Jeong whispered loudly to his brother.
“Not one he wasn’t related to,” Bong returned, his whisper even less subtle.
Both Tam and Eli turned to stare at their Zinferan guides wearing flat looks.
The brothers merely smiled, as though they hadn’t intended their conversation to be overheard.
“Well! Shall we let mini-Tam change into the clothes we got him and start our journey toward Junya?” Bong moved over to Luca and, without waiting for an answer, ushered him back into the inn, leaving Tam and Eli alone in the street.
Tam cleared his throat. “You do look—”
“My lord, it is unnecessary.” Eli dismissed his attempts to improve on his compliment, then held out her hand to him.
Tam stared at it, completely befuddled.
When he did at last reach out his palm to her, she huffed. “Your left hand.”
Tam still had no idea what was happening until his assistant shoved a gold band over his wedding finger. Then he noticed that she was already wearing one.
Eli still had not yet been able to meet her employer’s eyes, and when she turned to the inn doors, it seemed she didn’t intend to say anything else to him, either.
“Eli?”
She looked back, and it was plain to see that while she was trying to appear as composed as usual, there was discomfort and vulnerability storming beneath her mask.
Tam understood all too well how to handle the situation.
“Do you think you can finish packing my books, but leave out the maps and the letters that my father shared with me from Lord Jiho Ryu? I want to review what he has said in the past about the state of Junya while we travel today.”
Lowering her chin obediently, her shoulders relaxing, she responded, “Yes, my lord.”
“Thank you, Eli. For… all of this. You’re a loyal assistant, and dedicated to your employer. I’m sure you won’t have any problems in the future finding work with any magistrate you wish to learn under.”
Eli bowed again. “Of course, my lord.”
Was there a hint of a smile on her mouth just then?
Tam gave a quiet laugh as he reached for the door handle. At least they both understood that nothing had really changed between them. Even if they were pretending to be married.
When he opened the door, however, he found their way blocked by Jeong and Bong, who had quite obviously been listening to the entire conversation through the grate.
The brothers remained comically frozen. That is, until Jeong looked to Bong and said, “You know, I don’t hear any termites in this door. The innkeeper has nothing to worry about!”
“That’s truly excellent news for the man! I’ll go share this with him while I pay our bill!” Bong cleared his throat and hurried over to the innkeeper, who had just set a plate filled with rice, kimchi, and a rolled omelet in front of Luca. He stared at the foreign fare uncertainly.
“Yes! Wonderful thinking!” Jeong rushed after his brother.
Tam closed his eyes while taking in a very long, slow breath.
He was having a hard time reconciling the wise, calm Jiho Ryu with sons that were so carefree and energetic.
“Do you think they are going to be like this the entire time we are here in Zinfera?” the future duke wondered aloud with a subtle note of good humor, and a more pronounced level of exhaustion.
“I’m inclined to think so, my lord. Oh… I… I forgot to tell you.” Eli’s voice was oddly high-pitched.
Tam looked down at her. He could sense several sets of eyes swivel toward her from the dim shadows of the inn, as well, disturbingly.
“Because I now look like this…” Eli said haltingly, “you probably should call me by my name.”
Tam turned to fully face her so abruptly that she staggered back a half step.
“Eli, you really don’t have to if you don’t want to. We can make up another—”
“Elisara.”
Tam’s mouth hung open, as he had been in the middle of speaking, but he closed it… Then casually folded his arms across his chest.
“Elliesara? Ellie?”
“Less e sound. More of an eh , and— You’re making fun of me, aren’t you?”
Tam held up his hands in surrender. “I would never. I was just thinking it’s a very Daxarian-sounding name. How about I call you Ellie when using an alias?”
Eli’s eyes narrowed as though she didn’t quite believe his innocent deflection. But she must have been tired from having to wake up early and go shopping at Bong’s unrelenting insistence, and so she let the matter go without any further accusations and stalked over to where Luca sat, joining him on the bench.
Tam saw the way she gracefully maneuvered the skirt, how her back had straightened, and how her movements became gentler… it was as though the instant she had put on those clothes, some unconscious part of her remembered how to act.
Closing the inn door behind himself, Tam was distracted from his drifting thoughts by the glint from the ring on his finger. His stomach somersaulted.
Opening his palm, he stared at the gold band. It was a strange, uncomfortable sensation. But at least when he was busy talking with Eli, he hadn’t noticed it.
Lifting his attention to both Luca’s and Eli’s backs, Tam felt a larger emotion stirring… one that sparked more anxiety than he had ever known in his life, and as a result, he started to feel that damnable surge of magic in his being. It pulled at him, making his movements feel leaden, as it tried to summon him into the black void he feared terribly. He had to lower his eyes as he focused on every step carrying him over to Eli and Luca, hoping that the feeling would not last long.