Page 44 of The Night Prince

“Chelios for you,” Michael said as he placed a goblet of cold, white wine in front of Rhalyf who eagerly reached for it.“And here’s a pitcher of beer for you and me, Snaglak.”

Snaglak–whose face had been suffused with happiness–suddenly turned dour when he realized that they would besharing.“Maybe we needtwopitchers, Michael?”

Michael was busy pouring a beer into his glass.“Don’t worry, Snaglak, I won’t let you go thirsty.Here, finish off the rest.”He pushed the mostly full pitcher to the orc who eagerly filled his glass to the brim.“Are you sure that you don’t want anything, Finley?”

Finley shook his head.The thought of eating or drinking anything when Declan was upstairs had his stomach clenching.

“So, dear General, we were talking about Declan.Your orc-defeating son.It’s my understanding that he wasn’t born here,” Rhalyf offered.

“No, no, he was adopted from a place called Ukraine.Across the Atlantic Ocean,” Michael answered.

“Oh, so his parents here weren’t his birth parents?Was he a baby when he was adopted?”Rhalyf asked, nodding to the answers as if they confirmed things he already knew.

Finley very much wanted to stop Michael from answering this question though he wasn’t quite sure why.These things were well known about Declan.And they didn’t reveal anything about him that shouldn’t be known.Not really.

“No, he was about ten, I think.Terrible story.Lost his parents in a car crash.Has no memory whatsoever of his early life,” Michael answered.

Rhalyf’s expression went smooth and unreadable for a moment.“How terrible indeed!And then to lose his adopted parents in the war after that.What bad luck!”

Michael nodded.“He’s been through a lot.”His eyes lifted to the stairs again.“I hope that he’s not in for another hard time of it.”

“Indeed.”Rhalyf took a deep swallow of wine.“That would be unfortunate, especially after surviving so much.”His eyes were on Finley once more.“Surviving the battle here. You did, too, didn’t you, Finley?”

“You don’t have to talk about that, Finley,” Michael interceded swiftly.His expression was stony as he regarded Rhalyf.“As I’m sure you understand.”

Rhalyf smiled.“Oh, yes, of course, I wasn’t–wasn’t going to ask about it.I understand your position on that.”

Position?What position?

The thing was that Michael never did ask him, Declan or Gemma about what happened during the war.He had in the beginning but when it was clear that talking about it was too hard, he’d backed off.And now it was almost verboten.

“My understanding is that you are going to apply to Taranth, Finley,” Rhalyf changed the subject.“Are those your study materials?”

He was gesturing towards the journals that had Finley’s meticulous notes for his games, but before he could respond, the notebook full of his material on Xelroth Vex was suddenly levitating up from the table and shooting into the Sun Elf’s hand.It was done so easily, so beautifully, so without thought to how amazing it truly was that Finley was stunned into immovability.Finley only came to himself when he saw Rhalyf opening the cover.

“Hey, wait!That’s not study material!It’s–it’s private!”Finley cried and tried to snatch the journal back, but Rhalyf easily kept it out of his reach.

“No, this most certainlyisn’tmaterial on the test for Taranth.In fact, if they realize your interest in the Night King, I wonder what they will do,” Rhalyf chuckled as he turned the pages, his eyes flowing over the words.

“It’s for my game,” Finley said with a scowl as he extended his right hand and gestured for Rhalyf to return the journal.He did not.“I’m using the Night King as the Big Bad.”Realizing that this might not mean anything to Rhalyf, he expanded, “The real enemy who is only revealed at the end of the game.”

“Well, you certainly did pick the biggest of the bad, I’ll give you that!”Rhalyf’s expression, which had been amused, suddenly changed.“This is surprisingly accurate.”

“Finley smart.Read big old books,” Snaglak defended him, which had Finley smiling at the orc.

“I told you that Finley is teaching me Katyr.He has his own library card to the Athenaeum,” Michael said proudly.“He’s read through dozens of history books about the Kindreth.”

Rhalyf continued to turn the pages and read his notes.Finley gritted his teeth.

“Can I have that back please?”Finley asked.

“I’m surprised that the Athenaeum has dozens of books on the Kindreth.The Sun Elves like to pretend they don’t exist,” Rhalyf remarked.

“Well, there’s not asmuchlore as I would like, but I’m finding as much as there is out there,” Finley couldn’t help the note of pride in his voice.But then he shook himself.“Not that it matters to you!Now please–”

“What’s this?”Rhalyf had turned to the page with one of his doodles of Illithor, the city he’d seen through the rift.The Sun Elf went rather rigid. His head shot towards Finley.His voice was sharp as he asked, “Did you copy this out of one of those books?”

He’d turned the journal towards Finley to show the illustration.It was just a pen and ink sketch of some of the towers he’d caught sight of and certain arching bridges.Michael took the journal out of Rhalfy’s hands.Rhalyf’s lips opened.Michael gave him a look.It was one ofthelooks he could give that had everyone from presidents to enemy generals quailing.It had the same effect on Rhalyf who slumped back into his chair.

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