The Prince's Boy

THE PRINCE'S BOY: CHAPTER 21

21: Kenet

I was on time for my meeting with my father, as I had been every time since the winter. We met on his private terrace, high up the side of the castle. Sometimes the castle itself seems like a mountain, as if it formed there by the forces of nature rather than by the work of human hands. From the terrace I could look down one side and over the gardens where I had seen Bear and Jorin practice in the spring.

Father's gaze was for the horizon, so close to us on this side thanks to the mountains. I had often heard it said that no army would find a way to us over those mountains and through those trees, and I remarked on it.

"That is why they attack us by other means," he replied.

"I have heard about the blight in the south," I said, trying to sound more like one of his advisors than like the boy I had so recently been. "Although there is still talk about a battle that took place on the Serde? At Tiger's Mouth?"

My father hissed as if in pain. "If you want stories of battle and glory, go down to the guard barracks and listen to them. But the tale of Tiger's Mouth is not one of glory."

"What happened there?"

"So few survived, we are still not sure," he said, leaning heavily upon the stone wall with both hands. "I suspect that the Night Riders took advantage of some freak occurrence of nature. Even a mage like Seroi could not single-handedly wipe out a garrison of five hundred men."

"What is the Night Riders' most dangerous weapon?" I asked, wondering if there was some spell or fighting technique they used.

"Lies," he said, surprising me. "They are masters of deception and when they infiltrate a town, they spread deceit and distrust. They create rumors against the crown, undermine the local governors and lords, set the people against each other... which weakens an area such that when they attack, the resistance crumbles."

But surely a garrison of soldiers would not be deceived by lies and political propaganda? I opened my mouth to say so, but he had turned toward the doorway and led me into his quarters. There he poured us each a glass of chilled nectar and bade me sit at the ornate table in the parlor. His bedroom was beyond another door; this room was furnished in rich style, with a table that could be set for four or replaced with a larger one, accompanied by a chest of serving things topped with a gilt-edged mirror. A maid had once told me that my father had brought the furniture back from Pellon. Now I wondered if he had acquired it during the tour he and my mother had taken.

I sat gingerly on the edge of the cushioned chair and sipped from the glass. Falla nectar and honey and the deep chilled water from under the mountain.

"How are your preparations for your coming of age ceremony progressing?" he asked. "Seroi has kept me in the dark about the details."

I looked up in surprise. "Did you not have such a ceremony, too?"

"I did, but mine was different from yours. I had different magics worked on me as a youth than you."

"Oh." I felt the heat starting to come to my cheeks as I tried not to think about what Seroi was doing to me to undo the suppressive spells that had kept my sexual urges in check. If not for this meeting with my father, I would have been in his tower today, this minute, doing who knows what to abase myself for the privilege of release. "To tell you the truth, he hasn't told me much about the ceremony either, but we do prepare magically. I believe when the time comes he'll tell me what to say and what to do."

My father nodded, and I could see the indentation in his forehead that the crown he normally wore had left like a dueling scar. "He certainly did for me. He will not give you the chance to fail." At that he chuckled. "I will tell you this much, if he has not. The actual ceremony will be performed in the woods, with just him, me, you, and perhaps two or three others present."