Page 17 of Till Kingdom Come

He gasped and his eyes went wide. I felt another tug at my heart. “B-but why?” he asked plaintively. “Is it because of what Ellien did to your soldier? I heard you talking with Ellien, you know. You talked about a trade.”

“That’s right.”

“Am I it? Am I the trade?”

“You ask too many questions. We’ll talk later when we get home.”

“But I’m not going home.”

“Yes, you are. You live with me now.”

He looked shocked and said something under his breath.

“What did you say?” I asked him, with perhaps a bit too sharp a tone.

“I said, you don’t have to be so mean about it.”

I opened my mouth to tell him to stop acting like a child, but he looked up at me with those eyes again. They were defiant, but those were real tears trembling on his thick eyelashes. I found myself almost apologizing to him, or as close as I ever got to an apology.

“That was not my intention.”

“Very well,” he said in a prim little voice. He sighed and his voice took on a wistful tone, “It’s just that…back at home, it’s summertime.”

Which meant just nothing at all, really.

I thought of and then rejected several sarcastic replies, almost choking on a couple of them and finally settled on saying, “Yes. Time moves differently in each realm. What is it that you’re saying? That you miss the warm weather?”

“Yes, but it’s not just that. Though summertime is my favorite. This realm is so different. I’m learning that. I-I’d never been out of Kent until I came to the Liminal. Or to Solaria, anyway. And now I’m a long way from home.”

“You’ll get used to it.”

“And do you live here all year?”

“I do.”

“What will I do here?”

“Anything I tell you to.”

At least that was what I wanted to say. But one look at the reddened cheeks and those hopeless eyes and I relented. I decided to tell him a small lie to make him feel better.

“No one is going to hurt you, if that’s what you think. Your talk of tournaments intrigues me. Not for any of the silly,thievinggames—war is a serious business and should be treated as such. But I believe you know the basics of those other fighting games. Doing your fake battles and your…what did you call them?Meleesand the rest. I’ve decided that perhaps these Tournaments might be good practice for my soldiers.

His mouth fell open and he stared at me. “Will you let me participate in your games?”

If I ever did, he’d be killed in less time than it took to talk about it.

“Of course,” I lied. “You’ll be helping me with training. You have some experience there, I think.”

“Oh yes. Do you know the Tournaments, sir? I’m very good at them. I’ve been a squire for my father for years.”

“Hm. What about your education? Do you read?”

“Read? Well, no. Not much anyway. My old nurse taught me a little. And I can sign my name…sort of. It’s more of a mark, really.”

I shook my head. “You need to learn more than that. I’ll find you a tutor.” I held out a hand to him and when he took it, I pulled him to his feet and held his furs tightly around his body. No one else needed to be looking at his body but me, and if they did, I’d have to kill them.

“We have a long, cold day ahead of us. Get under the covers so no one can see you and put your clothes back on again and your boots. And bring this fur with you. I’ll try and find you a hat and gloves. Then come out to the fires, and we’ll get you something to eat.”

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