Page 16 of The Empty Throne

Kite woke with a headache, but ignored it androlled out of bed, stumbling to the table where a steaming bowl ofwater was waiting for him, lightly scented of roses. By the time hefinished washing up, he was moderately awake, but his head stillthrobbed fiercely, and fuck if he knew why. Normally his headacheswere stress and exhaustion induced, starting at the back of hisneck and climbing up to his temples.

This was everywhere, throbbing and stabbingin time with his heartbeat, and a general impression of distant,muffled screaming. Lovely, he so enjoyed waking up with new,strange, and painful problems to add to his endlessly growingpile.

Servants helped him dress and fixed his hairfor him, and Kite finally headed off to face the day, bodyguardsfalling in around him as he stepped into the hallway. Clerks alsowaited for him, each with piles of work. "We'll begin atbreakfast," Kite replied, and the group headed off through thepalace to the private dining room where he ate each morning, withlunches usually spent on political socializing and dinners alwaysthe nightly banquet or at one ball or another. The kingdom might belacking a king and on the brink of war, but the feting continuedunabated, probably because nearly everyone in the room stood togain from the wealth that war brought.

Just one reason of many that Kite trustednone of his council and court, outside of Sobeki, Cohea, and Oskia.Even Bittersea was more trustworthy than most of the palaceinhabitants; he could be unfailingly relied upon to kill somebodyin the room before the night was out. Most said Bittersea's bloodyskills with knives were a Kuluris trait, and it was true that theHouse of Kuluris had always been willing to get their handsdirty—but so had all the other houses. Bittersea's zeal and talentfor killing were all him.

In the dining room, breakfast awaited: rice,miso, and myriad other dishes, meant to tide him over for much ofthe day, since lunch rarely actually offered the chance to do mucheating. Today would be a tea, in fact, with some councilors heneeded to cooperate with him, followed by a second tea with somevisiting diplomats from Kenten who'd arrived abruptly three daysago.

He hated it, all of it. He hadn't mindedhelpingthe throne, but being the one all the way at the topwas steadily decaying his sanity. There was nothing for it, though,except to keep going.

So he sat to breakfast with his clerks,bodyguards lining the walls, and listened as the day's agenda wasread out, followed by details for many of the various points, aspeech he needed to go over to read that afternoon, updates on theborders, where far too much activity was happening as theirneighbors prepared to take it by force if another solution wasn'tprovided quickly enough.

The speech he was to give was in fact to theroyal military, who was preparing to march out in just three daysto secure those very borders as best they were able, though theirnumbers were laughable compared to the combined might of Terek,Everage, and Boltane—and whatever allies they'd brought along fromfurther afield with pretty promises.

Cremisio's only hope was that the threecountries got more caught up in fighting each other, though thatwould still be in Cremisio itself. Who cared if they killedhundreds of thousands in the process, along with destroying whatlittle arable land was available? Nevermind everything else.

Nothing for it but to keep pushing forward,doing everything he could to prevent war until the proper heir wasfound and crowned. Kite wasn't convinced that would calm everythingdown, but it sure as fuck was a good first step.

Kite took a sip of tea as the last of thethree clerks began reading off the last-minute changes to theagenda for the council meeting that evening—and nearly choked on itas the door slammed open, making him startle and bringing all hisbodyguards forward with swords out.

"Your Highness!" a guard burst out, andKite's heart lurched to see he was covered in blood. "You must comeat once; there's something wrong with Lord Lysyken, and we can'tstop the bleeding."

Not wasting time on words, Kite surged to hisfeet and out of the room, bodyguards folding in around him as heall but ran through the palace, using private halls and servantpaths to move more quickly without attracting noticing, burstingout onto the second-floor landing.

Racing down the hall, he ran past the guardsstationed at Lysyken's door. The sharp smell of fresh bloodimmediately struck him, and he followed it through the front roominto the bedroom, where he was greeted by a nightmare: bloodeverywhere, frantic servants hovering, and Master Healer Wishtasitting in the middle of the bed, hands and forearms covered inblood, more of it smeared across her face, as she workedfrantically to fix whatever was wrong with Lysyken, sprawled facedown across her legs.

"What's going on?" Kite asked sharply, barelynoting the sharp gasp of Sobeki's arrival.

"We don't know, Your Highness," said one ofthe servants he'd assigned to attend Lysyken, her face ashen. "Icame to wake him up, and when he didn't stir, I went to see if hehad a fever or something. I saw he was too pale and still, pulledback the blankets and saw the blood, immediately went for help. Oneguard went for you, the other for a healer."

"It's a binding curse," Wishta gasped outsharply, never turning from her task.

Kite frowned. "Like Cohea's?"

"Same class, different purpose andexecution," Sobeki said, coming to stand next to him. He jerked hischin at the various servants. "Bring fresh bedding, extra blankets.Bring food, especially fruit and dark, sweet tea, a thick brothsoup. You—" he pointed to a nearby guard "—go into the city,Starlight Court, bring Professor Tolraki with all possiblehaste."

"Yes, Your Lordship," the guard replied, evenas he ran from the room.

Sobeki pointed to another guard. "Mychambers, there are three tomes bound in purple leather with goldleaf accents and thistles on the covers. Bring them to me now."

That guard didn't even bother with a reply,just ran off, the pounding of his boots fading off quickly.

Kite's head hurt more than ever.

"Are you all right?"

"Fine," Kite bit out. "What is going on,Sobeki? Tell me."

"I'll need a closer look to know the details,but broadly, he has been bound to never go further away from aparticular person or, more likely, location. He's gone further thanallowed, and whatever dampening he must have had that let himescape has worn off. The curse is doing as intended, opening aswounds on his back so he is bleeding out and in excruciating pain.It won't stop until we manage to dampen it—which is only atemporary measure—or we break it. Which has no easy solution."

Kite groaned. "Fuck. I didn't think anyoneout there could be stupider and more obnoxious than Cohea and hisShotar-damned ring, but here we are. Who in the fuck would do thisto someone, let alone a man barely out of childhood?"

Sobeki snorted, but before he could reply,the second guard came back with his books. "Thank you. Have someonebring us food and tea—not the same things they're bringing for LordLysyken when he wakes up. I appreciate it." Sitting down at a tablewhere an uneaten breakfast and book sat, Sobeki shoved it all outof the way and spread out his own books, paging quickly and deftlythrough them, one after the other. "Wishta, can you make out anyshapes?"

"Not really," Wishta said. "It's takingeverything I've got just to keep him from bleeding out. I need aweaver yesterday." She glanced back down, eyes gleaming with magicand pain. "A star or something in the middle. Like a compass star,I think."

Sobeki didn't reply, save to nod, attentionon his books.

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