Ladies, Lords, & Liars

Chapter Twenty-Five: A Viper

   He carefully tore the envelope open and unfolded the sweet-smelling note. Unlike the last one, this one had been perfumed, which made the contents all the more confusing. It was an invitation to some sort of political meeting.

   The wording was strange and it rambled on quite a bit. There was a run-on sentence that took up half of the entire space all on its own. He had to read it several times over just to get a vague idea of what was even going on. He had a sense that the queen had written it. Everything from the flowery handwriting to the too-sweet perfume reminded him of her.

   But why invite him to this? He'd only ever been specifically invited to the dance, which seemed like a relatively special occasion. From what he was able to puzzle out of the note's contents, this seemed like a very routine, standard thing. Not only that, it also sounded boring.

   He would go. Even if his first reaction was almost akin to revulsion. He'd heard and seen nothing good of the politics and ruling of the place. But he would still go. He might figure something out.

   He realized with an inward smile that he was acting exactly like a spy, the very thing Kyra had accused him of being. But he had no malicious intent. He simply wanted to make sense of the patchwork of odd information that he'd managed to gather thus far.

   Then he realized that the letter never specifically mentioned any time or place that he had to be. He hadn't seen anywhere, in particular, that might work for a meeting place, so he couldn't really guess at it. And even if he could, what time would he even show up?

   He might have to just stay ready and alert for a knock on his door to let him know it was starting. And that meant he couldn't change into something more comfortable or even clean up, just in case it was happening sooner than he thought.

   It briefly occurred to him as he waited that the meeting might be happening tomorrow or even days away, but he quickly pushed the thought away. It didn't make very much sense, from what he'd gathered based on past experiences. He hoped he was right.

   The knock came sooner than he expected.

   He was waiting no longer than half an hour before two sharp raps sounded on the hardwood. He was at the door in seconds, pulling it open. It seemed that a new face showed up every time he opened the door, and he hardly saw the same servant more than once. This wasn't one of those times. Camen was on the other side of the door, frowning in distaste, as per usual.

   "I trust you got Her Majesty's message?" he sneered down at Aeric. He seemed to be in an even worse mood than usual.

   "Yes." He nodded. He didn't have the energy to try and combat Camen's grumpiness.

   "Then I assume you know where we're headed." He turned his nose up and started walking without any further warning.

   Aeric followed with only a short hesitation. He could only imagine what had gotten his britches so bunched up. For all he knew, the man had simply not gotten the right tea that morning.

   As always, Aeric had to rush to keep up with him. He didn't seem to be in any hurry, but he certainly walked as if there was a fire at his rear.

   To Aeric's surprise, they didn't descend the stairs into the entrance hall as they normally did. Instead, they kept going straight. It was the same hall that he'd gotten lost in less than an hour before. Was there something here that he'd missed?

   Camen kept walking, passing endless identical doors and never slowing once. Aeric waited for the moment that he would slow and eventually stop in front of one of the doors, but it never happened.