Page 64 of The Night Prince

“Where are you off to, Rhalyf?”Aquilan asked, noticing that Rhalyf had risen from his chair.

“I need the facilities.Too much Chelios. I’ll be back in a moment.”Rhalyf pressed a hand on Aquilan’s nearest shoulder and gave it a companionable squeeze.

Aquilan grinned.“I’ll be sure to have another carafe here by the time you return so that you can fill up again.”

Rhalyf took a bow.“I look forward to it.”

He then headed in the direction of the bathroom, but veered to the right at the last moment to head out the door after the Aravae.He was faintly annoyed when he realized that while Aquilan and the rest of the party at the table hadn’t noticed where he was goingFinleyhad. Those glasses made Finley’s eyes look like bright coins in the darkness.

Stay where you are, little scholar.Unless you want to know who and what your friend really is,Rhalyf thought.

Then he was outside.He whispered a tracking spell and passed his right hand, palm-side down, over the ground where the Aravae would have had to have stepped.The two Aravae’s footprints stood out in bright, neon yellow leading around the side of the inn andnotout into the avenue. Rhalyf guessed that Declan had gone around to the stables and the Aravae had crept around the outside of the inn likely to hem him in.Rhalyf did not follow their footsteps, instead he lightly leaped up and caught the edge of the lower floor’s roof and pulled himself up onto it.

The Dawn was shaped like a horseshoe with the stables in the middle hollow part. The first floor stuck out beyond the second so there was plenty of roof for him to traverse.He naturally moved silently–even for a Kindreth–but he had spelled himself to be even harder to hear or spot.He was essentially invisible.

Therefore, he made no more sound than the passage of the wind as he crouch-walked along the outside edge of the roof around to the stables, passing by the inn’s rented rooms. But if anyone was in their beds, attempting to sleep through the ruckus downstairs, they wouldn’t have heard him pass by regardless.

So, unheard and unseen, he made it to the roof overhanging the stables.One of the Aravae’s voices rose up to alert him to exactly where they were before he even saw them.Silent and invisible, he perched above the three of them.Watching. What would Declan do?And then what would he do?

“Vulluin,” the female Aravae hissed the Katyr word for human:magic-less, “you need to stay away from our king.”

Declan’s back was to her.He was holding onto a barrel of wine.The heavy, sweet scent of alcohol drifted up to Rhalyf: Tavistock red.Not his favorite, but a hearty red wine that burned the tongue and went well with beef.Declan was very still.He didn’t turn around or gasp at the unexpected arrival of the two Aravae.He was well-aware that both were there.

Vulluin?What a joke that is!

“You need,” Declan’s voice was low and steady, “to go home.”

Rhalyf drew in a sharp breath.Declan’s voice wasn’t menacing, but he swore he felt the knife-blade threat in every word.Declan was making a simple declaration: I am dangerous.Stay and you will discover this or leave now and save yourselves.Rhalyf frowned.He had been in rooms with the noblest of Kindreth–which meant the deadliest of his people–and Declan put most of them to shame.

Such a contradiction you are, Declan!

“What? We need to leave?!I think not,Vulluin!It is your kind that needs to know their place!Especially with our king!”The male Aravae’s voice rose in derision.

Declan remained standing still as stone.The female Aravae was just two feet behind him.She was up on the balls of her feet, her arms loose at her sides, ready to strike.The male Aravae was to the right side of Declan, a foot away from the barrel of wine the young man held.

You think you have him, but he has you,Rhalyf tutted internally.

“You need to go home,” Declan repeated.No anger.No fear.Just acceptance of whatever was to come based on the Aravaes’ decisions, which surely he already knew would be bad.

“We know you aren’t what you seem,Vulluin.We’ve heard about the orcs and the Leviathan,” the female Aravae hissed.

Orcs and Leviathan?So the stories about Declan are common knowledge.Yet more foolishness to allow them to get around,Rhalyf thought, again annoyed and perplexed by what he saw as sloppiness by Declan. But Declan didn’t seem sloppy at all.Not at this moment anyways.Then again, before I actually met him and saw him keeling over in the Sun, I assumed those stories were just that: stories.Tales to make humans feel less helpless than they actually are.

Declan might have sighed then.“If you know that then why have you approached me like this?”

“Because we’re far more formidable than a Leviathan or some orcs,” the female Aravae mocked.“We know something iswrongwith you and we won’t allow you to bring thatwrongnessnear our king.”

“Wrong?”Declan repeated the word as if it had a taste: quaint and piquant.“A human who is strong and able to fight iswrong? That is what you think of humans?”

Of course, they did.Aravae liked to put things into boxes.The dwarves were tireless miners and clever smiths.The goblins would cheat anyone out of their last copper but then lose it in a game of chance. The orcs were incredibly strong, but paid for it with lack of brains.The fairies would fight to the death over the mildest of insults.Well, the last really was true.The fairies were crazy and loved bloodshed. What these two Aravaeshouldhave been thinking is what box Declan belonged in.He was no dwarf, goblin, orc or fairy.So what was he to do the things people claimed he could do?Not human.NotVulluin. Yet they insisted with the insult.

But he already knew why they hadn’t yet figured it out.It was what allowed him to stay hidden in plain sight with a clever glamour to hide the color of his hair and eyes.The Kindreth had become legendary, more myth than anything else.And, of course, the box that the Aravae had put them in was baby-killing, blood-drinking, insane creatures.They surely couldn’t behave like civilized elves or humans for that matter.

“It doesn’t matter what you are.We won’t let you harm our king,” the female Aravae stated.

Oh, dust and ashes, you are idiots!

Declan was still holding onto the barrel.He hadn’t shifted at all.Nor were there any of the usual magical cues that he was preparing a spell.And yet Rhalyf felt magic.Deep as Under Dark roots and older than the crumbled remnants of the civilizations they found there.It surrounded Declan like a cloak with tendrils running off on either side of him.Declan’s magic hadn’t been apparent to Rhalyf before now.It wasprimaland familiar and yet… who else could do this?Who else used magic in this almostnaturalway as if they weren’t even aware of it serving them at all?

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