Quiet Courage

1

Cienn hid his frown as he saw Tenur gesture to his secluded table and see the King's face harden into a mask of poorly hidden distaste.Cienn fixed his own into a well schooled polite expression and stood to meet his mother and step-father halfway across the floor.

"Lord Cienn it is so good to see you again." King Kadesh was a well built, middle aged man with a trim black goatee and a sharp angular face.He didn't look a day over twenty-five even though he was fast approaching his fortieth year.Even Cerenae admitted he was attractive, but only in the privacy of their joined suite did she express her true feelings for their Overlord.

"He's attractive and everything," she'd said one night while her brother fiddled with her hair in front of her large vanity."But if I was going to marry on looks alone I'd be a very daft woman."Cienn had to admire his sisters guile, if nothing else she knew what she wanted and wasn't afraid who's toes she stepped on to get it.She'd been Cienn's best bodyguard since they were small, and even now when she appeared as delicate and pretty as an Isaleo Lily, Cienn knew those pretty petals concealed a dangerous array of thorns.

Cienn began to sweat as the King came closer, his mind racing through topics he knew were safe with his temperamental Lord.He wiped his sweaty palms against his pants and was about to speak when Cerenae came into his field of vision.

"Your Majesty," she said to the King with a polite yet quick curtsey before turning to her parents."Mama, Tenur, I know you're both set on holding His Majesty's hand all night but couldn't I steal him for one little dance?" she let just the right amount of whine sneak into her tinkly voice, her hands clasped before her in an apparently innocent way.Cienn saw how she used her arms to cup her chest, accentuating the shadow between her breasts as she looked to the King for an answer, even though the question had been directed at their parents.

The King let out a chuckle as he searched Cerenae up and down."Of course you may steal me away my dear." He offered his arm to Cerenae who took it with a winning smile."We'll be but a moment Tenur."As he and Cerenae left for the dance floor she looked back to Cienn to raise her eyebrows at him.He knew what that meant, he owed her one.Before he was caught by Tenur, Cienn slipped out the nearest door and into the calm cool night.

The party was held in the New Palace, a delicate building of fancy sandstone, at odds with the rough granite of the Old Palace, discernable against the dark night sky as an even darker silhouette.It was a feeble attempt to help beautify the new capital city, the once humble port city of Loris.Cienn had seen the old capital, and nothing could compare to the glittering spires and enchanting beauty of Sundast's former gem, Isaleo.Still the gardens here were plenty pretty, and Cienn enjoyed their soft fragrance as he leaned against the balcony and sighed.

"Not your scene either?" came a voice from behind him and Cienn turned to see the dark body of an unknown person silhouetted against the light of the party.Cienn frowned as the man's face came into view, it wasn't someone he knew.His face seemed rugged, sharp and angular, the face of a man who wasn't apposed to work.His hair was a thick rich brown color, and his skin was as pale as the moonlight he stood in.Cienn couldn't see his eyes but he guessed they must be similar to the rich brown of his, they were certainly dark enough to look that way.

"No," Cienn replied and looked back to the gardens.The man took up a place next to Cienn, his body almost uncomfortably close to his own.

"They can be such pompous arrogant prats sometimes," the man continued, leaning his elbows against the balcony's railing just as Cienn was.The boy noticed how this man situated himself closer to him than most would.Cienn could feel the heat come off from this man's body in waves but was afraid to tell the man to back off.There was something about his company that made Cienn want him to stick around, though he wasn't sure what.