Kingslayer (21 page)

Why that sneaky, conniving, scheming little—so that praise before
had
been political maneuvering! Darius blew out a breath of resignation. Apparently, even with Darius’s words to the contrary, Sego was bent and determined to make Darius’s house into a powerful one. The man had all of the traits of a mountain: stubborn and immovable.

“General Bresalier?”

Darius’s attention swerved away from the two behind him to the person who had appeared before him. He straightened abruptly, a smile lighting up his face. “Raja Amalah, I am delighted to see you here.”

Amalah had a rosy tint to her cheeks that suggested she was fighting a blush and losing, but her eyes met his steadily and an answering smile was on her face. “I wanted to congratulate you. Few are ever rewarded so handsomely by the queen.”

“She was very generous,” Darius averred modestly. His eyes took her in from head to toe in a quick scan. With that creamy white gown and the loose crown of dark curls, she looked even more like the shy maiden than he thought her to be. But his nose detected a familiar scent as well. Taking a half step forward, he inhaled a deep lungful of air. Ahh. As he suspected. “I am glad that my gift met with your approval.”

The blush broke free and Amalah looked toward the floor for a moment, a shy hand touching the base of her neck, where she had apparently applied the aromatic oil. “I was very surprised by the gift. You did not need to go to such lengths to thank me.”

“On the contrary,” he corrected with his best charming smile, “you not only forgave me for intruding on your private garden, but showed me the way without once patronizing me. I appreciated it. You were much kinder than the other two.”

She cocked her head slightly in question. “Other two?”

“My bodyguard and aide,” he answered with remembered annoyance. “They laughed themselves silly when I told them. Now I can barely step outside of my rooms without them making mocking offers to guide me.”

Her hand lifted to camouflage a smile, but it didn’t stop her soft snicker. “But it’s nice, isn’t it? To have people near you that are close enough friends to tease.”

“Oh certainly,” he agreed calmly. “But I’m still putting frogs in their beds one dark night when they least expect it.”

This time she truly laughed, although she quickly muffled it. Darius’s brow compressed for a second in a quick frown. Why did she do that? Was she really so shy that she felt embarrassed by laughing aloud? Or…. He set the question aside for now and said instead, “Raja, I wonder if I might impose upon you once again?”

She lowered her hand, the laugh lingering on her face. “If I can be of help.”

“In truth, I wish to meet more of the people here,” he admitted without a trace of guile. “But I understand that in this culture, it is very rude to just come up and introduce yourself. I wonder, would you serve as my liaison?”

Amalah seemed to stand a little taller under the question. “I would be pleased to.”

He extended a hand. “Then, please guide me well.” As she laid her hand in his, Darius gave himself a mental pat on the back. Not only did he have the perfect guide to help him maneuver this political hotbed, but he had the perfect excuse to stay in Amalah’s company without it raising any alarms. Really, he couldn’t have made out better than this even if he had planned it.

Perfectly satisfied for the first time that evening, Darius set his mind to enjoying the rest of the night.

Hmmm
. Darius stared at the map spread out on his desk, absently stroking his chin as he thought. He’d been neck deep in reports, histories of naval battles, and architectural plans for the past week. He felt he had a fair grasp of how the western port of Niotan had been built. He’d have to go himself soon, just to get a better feel for the lay of the land, but for now this would do.

The port of Niotan didn’t have the natural shape to it that most harbors would. It had, in fact, been constructed in parts by a series of dikes and dams in order to create a deep enough harbor to allow shipping vessels. The main focus when these dikes had been built was to keep water
in
but if they could somehow be modified to let water
out
as well….

Knock knock.

“Enter!” Darius called, making a quick note to himself of a question he needed answered.

Sego entered and for once, didn’t have something in his hands that he intended to give his raj. He did, however, have an expression that suggested he was up to something.

Darius paused, quill posed over the parchment, and looked at him warily. “Yes?”

“General,” Sego started with a benign smile on his face, “I have a question to ask you. Do you intend, at any point, to hire on more staff?”

Staff? Well, that was a thought. If he had a runner or two, he wouldn’t be running Sego off his legs. “Ah, I’d thought of hiring a runner.”

“Splendid.” Sego clapped his hands together, smile turned up another notch. “What about a manservant? And a stableboy for your new stallion? I think another bodyguard would not be amiss either, unless you intend for Bohme to only get five hours of sleep a day and no time to rest?”

“In other words,” Darius rephrased dryly, “you are tired of doing the work of five people and you’ve given up waiting on me to realize that I need to hire on more people.”

“I would never say such a thing,” Sego demurred mock-innocently.

“Ha!” Under all of that ‘suggesting’ that was exactly what Sego was saying. “Alright, fine, go hire people. But Bohme gets to choose who he works with, so take him with you.”

Happy to have gotten his way, Sego beamed and ducked into a quick bow. “Of course, sir.”

Before Sego could take more than two steps, a thought occurred to Darius and he called him back. “Wait, Sego!” His aide retreated far enough to stick his head around the door. “On second thought, I have a preference as well for a runner. Go find Payam for me. If he’s interested, I’d like to have him.”

Sego had that blank, impassive expression to his face that indicated Darius had said something strange. “You want to bring an Army runner, who has no education, here to serve as a runner.”

He met the man’s eyes squarely. “The boy’s a quick study, knows how to work hard, and we already get along. He’ll learn the tricks and nicks soon enough.”

His steward sighed as if he were missing the point. “But he won’t know the inner roads of the palace.”

Hmmm…good point. “Then hire two runners. Shaa knows we can keep them both busy. A palace runner can show him everything he needs to know quickly enough.”

Sego clearly thought the whole idea needed to be re-considered, but he must have also realized that arguing with Darius wouldn’t make him change his mind. “Very well,” he sighed in acquiescence. “I will see to it.”

Making a snap decision, he added, “And we’re leaving for the harbor in two days, so find everyone before then.”

“Two days?!” he spluttered in protest.

“Well, if you need more time, I can make it three,” Darius amended, logistics running through his head. “But I need to go there soon and get a better idea of the layout.” If it truly played out like he thought it would, he had another building project to hand to the queen and it would take months to get that in place. Right now, time was his worst adversary.

“Three,” Sego repeated in despair, his head lifting towards the heavens as if pleading for divine aid. Or maybe he was asking for some divine hand to reach down and smack sense into Darius.

Darius hid an evil smile. His steward could maneuver him into hiring on more staff, certainly, but Darius had every right to torment him a little in return. Trying to keep his tone even, he suggested helpfully, “I’d hire the bodyguard first.”

Sego gave him a glare hot enough to melt steel before giving a short bow and stomping out of the room.

Snickering, Darius went back to planning.

~~~

Once again, Sego proved that when he set his mind to it, he could complete any task—even in spite of impossible deadlines.  Within a mere four hours, he had somehow laid hands on Payam, convinced the boy to come work for the House of Bresalier (which probably hadn’t taken much convincing), and hauled him straight to Darius.

He stood in front of his general now, bright eyed and almost trembling with excitement. Darius looked him over from head to toe. Strange, the boy looked far cleaner than expected. And those clothes…the white shirt and baggy brown pants looked a mite large, but they were in excellent condition. Had Sego taken the time to buy the boy new clothes and get him scrubbed before bringing him here? If so, it was a very kind gesture on his steward’s part. Everyone they passed would have remarked on Payam’s presence and condition. It would be easier on the boy if they thought of him as more than just another street rat.

“Payam,” Darius greeted with a smile. “I see Sego found you quickly.” He gave his steward an acknowledging nod, which Sego returned with a wry smugness. “Since you’re here, I take it you want to be my runner?”

“Yes sir!” the boy snapped out a salute, a sharper one than he’d ever executed before in Darius’s presence. “I’ll work my hardest for you,” he added, clearly enunciating each word in an effort to sound more educated.

“I’ve no doubt,” he assured him gently. “We’ve a great deal of work to do, and Sego will hire another runner that you’ll work with. But in those moments when neither of you have anything to do, I expect you to study.”

“Study?” the boy repeated as if it were some foreign word.

“Study,” Darius repeated firmly. “You’ll learn to read, write, arithmetic and history while working for me. As you get older, I expect you to rise to a higher position than runner. The more educated you are, the higher a position you can earn.”

It was a toss-up on who was more surprised—Sego or Payam. Darius couldn’t see why. He had no intention of keeping the people working for him ignorant. The more educated they were, the more useful they were. And they were usually more loyal to their employer as well.

When the surprise had passed, Payam’s eyes shone with unshed tears. For a boy of his background, the offer probably seemed like a gift straight from the heavens. He gave another salute and said in a choked voice, “I’ll start now, sir.”

“Settle yourself in first,” Darius advised, trying not to laugh at his exuberance. “I trust you’ve informed your family?”

“I actually found him at home and informed them myself,” Sego offered.

“Ah, that’s fine. Then, Sego, settle the boy in the dormitories. Payam, your task today is to figure out the basic layout of the palace as much as you can. Take it a piece at a time.” He grimaced as his own disastrous exploration flashed through his mind. “The place is a labyrinth.”

“Yes, sir.” Hesitating strongly, he finally ventured, “Buskshee tween jobs?”

“Prolly.” Darius outright grinned at him. “I’ve got a lot of words to learn from you yet.”

Sego shook his head indulgingly as they grinned at each other. “Well, the language lessons can be continued later. Payam, follow me. General, Bohme is searching for another bodyguard. I will of course screen whoever he selects before bringing them to you.”

“That’s fine.” Darius waved them out, sitting back down at his desk with every intention of going back to his plans. But the question he had asked Payam echoed within his mind.
You’ve informed your family?

With a sigh, he sat back in his chair and stared blindly at the ceiling. When he’d made the decision to kill the king, he had written a full letter to his family and sent it to them, explaining everything he was about to do and why. But he hadn’t written them since. In part because he had been so focused on just staying alive and undetected from moment to moment that he hadn’t had the spare energy to worry about them. He didn’t know what to say to them either, aside from that fact that he still had his life.

So what had stopped him from writing once he had sanctuary in Niotan?

Had he really been so busy here that he couldn’t spare a few minutes to write a quick letter to them? True, he had been scrambling to put his feet under him ever since accepting Queen Tresea’s offer. It seemed to him that every time he thought he had a handle on this strange turn his life had taken, the handle broke. But surely now, he could spare an hour to write a proper letter to his family and arrange a courier. Especially since he had only good news to convey.

Actually…since his family had merchant ties, they might well find a way to sneak over here to visit him, someday. His heart rose at the thought. After all, if he could somehow secure Niotan’s independence, then it would become a free trade country and any citizen of Brindisi would have unlimited trade access with it. When that happened, then any member of his family could come without being under suspicion of treason.

No, he was getting ahead of himself. If that day ever came, it would be years from now. What he needed to focus on now was the letter and putting their fears to rest.

Determined, he pulled blank parchment out from under the corner of the map, dipped a quill in the ink pot and set to giving a proper account of the last year.