Page 63 of Kingdom of Flames & Flowers
“You’re the fireguard who would give us food in the mud quarter. I remember you. You’d always give me more than the others,” I accused.
He chuckled quietly. “You were always skinnier than the others.”
I thrust the chart out at him again, a silent question in his eyes. His eyes fell down on it. “I don’t want no trouble. But … perhaps I could oversee you while in the archives. It would be irresponsible of me not to keep a close eye on the prince’s promised.”
He moved past me into the archives, glancing around. Spying the table filled with scrolls, he hummed and sat down in one of the old, aged leather chairs.
I stood next to the table, warring within myself. I needed his help to understand the letters, but …
“You let them take me from my home” was what came out instead.
His head jerked at me, and he sighed. To my astonishment, he took the great metal helmet with its tassels and red horse hair off, setting it down on the floor. Underneath the helmet, it shocked me to see … an old man. I don’t know what I was expecting, but fireguards had always been this hard, immovable force in my mind. Seeing just a … man with gray hair was the last thing I expected.
“You got more time than most of them, you know,” he remarked, looking me up and down. “And it did you a lot of good to come here. You look healthy. Muscled. Much different from the little mud rat I was used to.”
I wouldn’t let him dodge his own part in all of this. I missed my mother. I worried about how she was doing without me.
He cut me off as my mouth opened. “Your mother is fine. The others on the street keep her fed. They pool their leftovers together for her.”
My brain stopped. “W-why would they do that?” Our quarter was every woman and child for themselves. The last thing anyone would do was share food.
The fireguard’s face was lined with wrinkles and lines, like a worn piece of leather. “They know it’s only a matter of time before the new mud queen comes back for her mother, and they don’t want to suffer your wrath. They pray you will care for them as they care for your mother.”
Tears welled in my eyes. The mud quarter was a dark and wretched place. People would rather beat you and steal from you than give you a kind look. And now suddenly there was camaraderie? Hope?
“You did that,” he continued. “I volunteered for extra shifts at the palace, hoping I’d be able to talk to you. To tell you.”
None of this made any sense. “Why?” I asked.
“Because … Well, you know what it’s like there. Most of us are lucky to get out. They teach the men to fight, and the pretty girls get to live as Noble wives.”
“But not everyone gets out,” I corrected him, thinking of my mother.
He sighed, running a hand through his short, graying hair. “No, not everyone does. The Nobles want their girls pure, after all. They don’t want the crippled or the feeble-minded. They refuse anyone disfigured or sick.”
“Or used,” I spat back. I couldn’t think about it anymore. The more I did, the more nausea welled in my gut. I was here living the high life, trying to decode letters while they were out there starving and dying.
Was that guilt in his eyes as he glanced away from me?
I eyed the scrolls of our history with determination as he patiently started lighting the candles all around the room. “Tell me what these letters are and what they sound like.”
The fireguard raised a bushy eyebrow at me. “That, I think I can do.”
* * *
Hours later, the fireguard was leaning back in his chair, snoring lightly.
“T-the k-king … d-dom o-of Ah … Ahllddd …” I groaned and gave up on the word, too odd for me to make out. “T-traaad. Trade. Trade in j-joools—jewels—f-from the m-moun … nnnnn … ten. Mountain.”
My head throbbed as I struggled to make out the words in the dim light. The candles had burned down to the stubs, and would go out soon.
Perhaps that was my cue to quit for the night. Or at least for what was left of it.
I didn’t want to; this scroll mentioned mining and jewels, which meant it might contain the information I was looking for about who worked in those mines! Yet, if I tried to do this myself, I’d be the king’s age before I could read any of it.
Gently, I elbowed the fireguard, who snorted and straightened instantly in his chair, trying desperately to look like he hadn’t just been caught sleeping on the job. I ignored his twitchiness and pointed to the scroll.
“Can you read this?” I asked curiously.
