Page 15 of Court of Treachery

Dimitri received little respite, however, for his brothers and father would not be denied.

“I don’t care that he’s been up half the night, probably skulking around with some whore. How dare you talk back to me, servant scum!”

Dimitri roused from sleep at once at the sound of his brother striking Emyria, who cried out in pain. He leapt from the bed and charged down the hall.

“Unhand her at once!” he thundered.

His brother released Emyria, who rose to her feet, gave Dimitri a reassuring nod that she was all right, and fled to her quarters.

“You are not welcome here,” he said flatly. “I will not have you in my home, manhandling my staff. Get out, Dahir.”

Dahir smirked at him. “Father orders you attend him at once.”

“Fathercan shove his orders up his arse.” Dimitri turned away. “Get out, or I will see you cast out on your backside.”

“You cannot defy him, Dimitrius. He is the head of our House.” Dahir did not move.

“A House thatmyhard work gained him, let’s not forget.” Dimitri’s lip curled. “I’ll think about it. I need to sleep. Unlike you, I have a job to do. Get. Out.” Flames flickered to life in his palms.

Dahir scowled at him, but stuck his hands into his pockets and strode away, like he had owned the situation. They both knew he did not have the strength to match Dimitri.Scum, cursed Dimitri as the door slammed shut behind Dahir so hard that the room seemed to shake. He would attend his father—and make him squirm—but he would make Damir wait. First, sleep.

13

DIMITRI

His brothers and father awaited in silence and irritated boredom in the drawing room of Damir’s quarters in a lavish four-storey townhouse in the upper circles of Tournai where the nobles had their city homes. His wife, Dimitri’s stepmother, curtseyed and left at his arrival, regarding him with a flat, cold stare that he replied to in kind.

Dimitri glanced at his brothers. Dahir, the middle brother, who scowled at him. Hadir, the eldest, who utterly ignored him. And Namir, the youngest, who glowered openly at him. Dimitri fixed them all with casual boredom, as usual. The mask he always wore for them. They could not hurt him anymore. The boot was now upon the other foot, and all of them knew it. He leaned against the grand, stone hearth, the fire warming him through, waiting for one of them to speak.

“Thank you for coming, Dimitrius,” his father began.

Dimitri raised an eyebrow.Thank you? What does he want?Damir never had manners with Dimitri unless he had need of him. He looked at them closer.Fear… He did not know what they feared, but he could scent it upon them, see it in the nervousdart of their gazes, sense it in the flicker of anxious movement in their hands. He smiled lazily.

“We need news. Trouble is brewing. We’ve all felt it for some time—both here and at home.” Damir meant the lands surrounding Eyre, the lands of their House, far in the south of Pelenor. “The goblin raids on the east of Pelenor, near our lands, have ceased, but I do not trust the quiet. I fear more is at work than we can see. The scum were getting bolder, yet to suddenly vanish? It makes no sense.”

Dimitri said nothing, waiting for his father to continue.

Damir spread his arms wide. “And here! The queen is ill, and others besides. More use this mystery ailment as an excuse to flee, but why? For what? Others have disappeared without a single word. The court is afire with rumours, but no one knows the truth of the matter. It unnerves me to hear such things. If anyone knows, we reckon it to be you, Dimitrius. And if anyone will keep our House safe, we know it can be trusted to you.”

Our House? Trust?Dimitri nearly scoffed, but curled his lip instead as he eyed them, filled with disdain.Are they so fearful they think pandering to me will help them? Very well. He would beat them at their own game. He would not tell them what he knew, however, or that he was behind it all. They would love a chance to grab more power for themselves, but he was under no illusions. They were not worthy of his trust. He would enjoy this. Damir worried at the signet ring upon his finger as he waited for his son’s response.

“Of course,” Dimitri replied smoothly. “My sources say the goblins are massing. It is of concern that they will strike the south.” At Damir’s lands. Damir paled at the thought. “It is a possibility. Some of my scouts have not returned… and I do not think they will now.” Dimitri let the implications sink in before he shrugged and pushed off from the hearth to stroll to the tallwindows that overlooked the city. “I understand your fears. By comparison, our House is as new as drying ink.”

“And we are grateful for your help in acquiring our fortunes,” his father said cautiously.

Dimitri stalled, his eyebrows raising as high as they could go. Had he heard that correctly?Another thank you?They were truly doomed if his father was so desperate as to be pleasant. It had been Dimitri’s doing, though inadvertently. In exposing the old lord of Eyre and his House’s treason, which had damned them all to death by dragonfire at the king’s orders, a power void had left only one choice. Damir, the then steward of Eyre. He had gladly and greedily taken the reins, proved his loyalty to the king in weeding out any remaining dissent, and promptly been granted all land and titles associated with the House whose name they had acquired.

He pursed his lips. “Yes,yourfortunes. I take no part in them.”Not as an illegitimate child. Not for the first time, he wished his father would reveal which mistress had birthed him, but Damir had never strayed from being tight-lipped on the matter.

“That might well be the case, but we are indebted to you all the same. Aren’t we?” Damir prompted Dimitri’s brothers, who grumbled their assent. Dimitri had never before managed to make them all beg for his assistance. They soon would, he reckoned.

Dimitri sighed and turned back to his father, who waited expectantly. “Fine. If I hear any whisper of the goblin’s movements, I will inform you.”Maybe. Damir’s shoulders sank with relief. “As for the rest of it, keep your noses out of trouble and none will find you.”

“But what of the mystery of the illness? And the disappearances? The withdrawals from court?”

“Keep yourself distanced from it all,” Dimitri said coolly, fixing his father in a stare. “Do your duties.” His gaze flicked between his brothers. They looked away. He knew as well as they did that they had shirked their duties for quite enough time now. The king would notice, eventually, and punish them for it. It was an irony not lost on Dimitri that as the king’s informer, it was his duty to pass on such knowledge. He would spare his brothers—for now. They visibly squirmed as they realised he held their fates in his hands.Not so nice to be the one tormented now, is it?Dimitri thought, viciously pleased with their predicament.

“Take no part in any rumour or gossip. There is more here than you know,” he hinted, piquing their interest, but he would not feed them more than that. “It is critical you are above reproach in all eyes. If you do that, I will ensure we make it through the storm that is to come.”

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