A Trickle of Soulfyre

Chapter 28: Distortion

Nash hardly dared to breathe. For a tense moment, all he heard was his heartbeat and the wind rustling the leaves. Agent Kilg was silent beside him, narrowing her eyes at Anesse's room. Nash palace was quiet around him as though dreading the revelation that awaited him.

Then something rose above every other sound. Whispers like wisps of the breeze, like autumn leaves being crushed beneath careless heels. Nash strained his ears, but he couldn't understand what the airy, breathy voices were saying. They couldn't be speaking elvish, but Nash could tell they were male.

He thought back to the shapeshifters who had ambushed him in his bed, unwittingly recalling his stifling fear. What if those assailants had attacked Anesse now?

Fear surged through Nash, pushing him forward to his advisor's apartment with his hand stretched towards the doorknob, but Agent Kilg's arm came up in front of him, blocking him from going any further.

Although she was small, her arms were thick for her size and enough of a barrier to Nash, a man much taller than she was.

"What is going on?" A question flew from behind them like a dart.

Nash and Agent Kilg both jumped at Agent G'vat's voice. They had been so focused on the soft conversation happening behind Anesse's door that they hadn't heard the senior agent walk up behind them.

He crossed his arms in front of his chest and glared at Agent Kilg.

"Strange voices are coming from Advisor Lach's room," the junior agent whispered, her voice cracking.

Agent G'vat's face sharpened like a cliff illuminated by lightning. His focus was no longer on his king and his colleague but on the apartment standing before them. Like Nash knew he would, he pushed in front of him and Agent Kilg.

"What have I told you about escorting King Nash around the palace without informing me about your movements?" he hissed back at his junior agent even as he held his arm out in front of her protectively.

"I'm sorry, okay?" Agent Kilg sucked her lips in, but not before Nash saw them tremble. "The pixie royals were getting agitated because Advisor Lach was late. The last thing I wanted was to provoke them to make another declaration of war, so I escorted King Nash to look for her in order to appease them."

Nash gazed at Agent Kilg in wonder. It amazed him how quickly information spread around the kingdom. Or perhaps it was as contagious as a plague within the secret intelligence network.

King Vannix had indeed threatened Elvenland with war, but that was months ago, before his wedding. He had invited Nash and Lyrani to attend the ceremony as a peace offering, and a beautiful one it had been, with pearls set into the glass goblets and unicorns carrying the guests from the palace to the meadow venue where the marriage would take place.

Since King Vannix had said his vows to his husband, he had taken a softer line when it came to dealing with the elves, opening himself to negotiations he would never have entertained before. Nash was sure it was Prince Ivas's doing. He was King Vannix's better, fairer half the way Lyrani was Nash's.

Nash had almost forgotten about that war that had nearly broken out between the two clans, let alone that the first thing he had done was contact Lord Dundor to inform him about it, but Zidaye and Joanas kept that information stored safely in a vault in their minds, ready to access it should they need to. Their brains were incredible.

Their camaraderie, however, was not.

Agent G'vat shot a furious look back at Agent Kilg. "You are not to escort King Nash anywhere without me accompanying you in future."