Page 71 of Enchanted Heir
He let out a breath that made his shoulders collapse inward. “You were right.”
I pressed my lips together only to be certain my mouth didn’t flop open.
“You and Keir have been right about this, I just haven’t wanted to budge where you are concerned,” he admitted.
I stole a glance at Owen where he roused at the couch, wondering if he knew what the sudden change in Krew was.
“I just spoke with Keir and admitted as much also. He, Gwen, and Nara will also be there tonight. We will spend a lot of the evening planning the tentative trips to Nerede and Rallis for what my father believes will be disloyal hunting.” And then with a huge sigh he added, “And at the end of the night, we should tell him about the forest.”
I was stunned. “Here I thought you were going to demand I stop sulking.”
A tiny smile played on his lips. “No. You’ll have to forgive me, as I am the one sulking. I do not like this, Jorah. Using you to bait him. And I do not wish to drag you any further into this, but it might be another way to keep you safe once he figures out what your blood has done to the forest.”
I gave him a nod. “Okay. I understand.”
“I don’t think you do, but let’s go, love.”
We were walking to dinner with Owen and another of Krew’s guards behind us, our shoes clacking on the marble floors, when I looped my hand into Krew’s arm and whispered, “What is it I do not understand about this, Krew? I see the risks too.”
He was quiet a moment. “The battle that rages within me. The desire to keep the people I care about safe within the sense of purpose in what I have to do.”
“So let us help,” I offered quietly.
He shook his head. “This was never your battle to enter. It was always mine, given to me with my birthright just as much as my noble blood.”
I squeezed his arm as we continued making our way. And I couldn’t help but feel that he was wrong. This was my battle too. Getting rid of the king? It was a battle for us all. All of Wylan.
* * *
The king hadlots of questions for Gwen, Nara, and me about our levels of the kingdom and how a trip there would help. He was more interested in Rallis than Nerede, but that was to be expected. Still, it was odd to see him speak freely about the disloyal and everything going on. For the balls and big functions, he hadn’t wanted to so much as acknowledge the disloyal existed. Yet behind closed doors, he dealt with them quite often.
It was strange sitting on Krew’s side of the table for the meal. I remembered the night I sat on the other side of the table and how I couldn’t stop staring at the portrait of our queen. The night everything had changed.
And now across from me sat Gwen in the spot I had been sitting in. Keir’s arm was lazily draped behind her chair while Nara sat on his other side, and I found that instead of being bothered or jealous, all I felt was relief. He had seemed to truly mean what he said in his letter to me about letting me go. And of course I wanted him to be happy. So if Gwen was that, so be it.
“How large of a disloyal presence could there possibly be in Nerede?” the king asked Krew.
Krew shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve been trying to lurk on my trips there and find out more, but this trip will help. Particularly with Jorah with me. To see if we are welcomed with open arms, or to see if someone makes a move.”
The king turned his attention to me. “Had you heard of the disloyal before coming here, Jorah?”
I shook my head. “No, Your Grace. And I think most of the people of Nerede are honestly too busy to even know or understand there is this rebellion of sorts brewing.”
The king shook his head. “Not for long. We’ve slowly been suffocating it. By the end of the Assemblages hopefully it will be taken care of. Permanently.”
If only he knew.
Dessert arrived and I joyously found it to be a chocolate cheesecake. So maybe there was a god left watching over our realm after all.
The topic changed for a little while to a country named Dra Skor. All I remembered from school was that it was located to the southeast of Wylan. Apparently since the sickness that attacked the other countries’ Enchanted populations, all of the countries were at a mutual but tense understanding for now. Everyone kept to themselves.
“They used to be powerful,” Keir argued. “They matched us coin for coin too, not to mention their land is larger. Much larger.”
The king shook his head. “But they were not able to protect their magic from the disease. They were hit the hardest. And though we have tried to reach out over the years, it has been to no avail.”
Krew’s eyes went to mine. As if we were thinking the same thing. The king probably wasn’t even the reason Wylan wasn’t hit by the disease, but he was surely going to credit himself for it.
I also wondered if it was possible this disease hit the forest but not the Enchanted. Was that truly why the forest was dead? From what I understood, the forest went dead after the rest of the countries were hit by the disease.
