Page 27 of Boundless
She squeezed him tight. “You are precious. I love you, too, Len.”
He kissed her once more, loathe to part but knowing he had to. He pulled out of her embrace and promised he’d return as soon as he could, and then he was off.
The castle was always so strange and terrifying at these odd hours. There were some staff, and some guards, of course, but overall it felt abandoned and haunted, familiar halls and corridors taking on strange countenances. He hurried to his father’s suite of rooms, feeling too exposed, and slipped into the antechamber with a nod at his father’s guards.
“So good to see you’re capable of following directions, after all,” his father drawled from his favorite armchair by the fire. “Youdoknow that when I am gone the rule of Llyvelli falls to you, do you not?”
“I-I do. S-sir.”
“Then you would do well to continue with this trend. Follow my lead, Lenlethael, and heed my counsel.” The king waved a hand at the empty chair pulled up near his own. “Sit.”
Len obeyed, settling gingerly onto the cushion and keeping himself stiff and upright. He waited, hands clasped in his lap, to hear what it was the king of the elves needed from him this morning.
“I understand you took your…wifeand her family on a picnic lunch in the gardens yesterday afternoon,” Haedelon began, leveling a look at his son that made it clear how poorly he thought of that decision. Len’s heart stuttered in his chest, his vision spotting and his hands and feet going ice cold.How did he know?Len wondered, his hands squeezing together.
“Y-yes. I thought—I thought it would be a g-good gesture. They s-seemed to like it.”
“Do you know we’ll have to re-sod a portion of the lawn to repair where they damaged it in their roughhousing?”
Len swallowed, his face heating. “N-no, I hadn’t kn-known.”
Haedelon rolled his eyes. “I suppose it wasn’t an entirely meritless idea. But I don’t want to see it repeated. My gardeners have far better things to do than to clean up after thosepeople.” The king’s lip curled in distaste. “Did you learn anything useful, at least?”
Len’s brows slammed together, genuine confusion settling in. “What w-was I supposed to be l-learning?”
“Whatever youcan, Lenlethael. Must I spell it out for you?” At Len’s blank look the king sighed, shifting in his seat. “This does not leave this room, Lenlethael,” he warned, his blue eyes cold and hard. “Especially when it comes to the princess. But I have reason to believe they mean to break the treaty. To plunge us back into war.”
Len swallowed. “But…but why? Why w-would they want t-to?”
“Because they are battle-lustyanimals, Lenlethael.” The king ground his teeth, the muscles in his jaw ticking. “Why do you think we have been at war with them for so long? They refuse to return our sacred valley to us, insisting it’s theirs, as it sits at the base of the Kellaides mountains, which are indeed their territory. And to add insult to injury, they take countless elvish lives in order to sate their bloodlust. Surely you’ve seen it? By god, they attended a royal wedding inbattle armor!”
Len’s fingers had lost feeling, he was squeezing his hands together so tightly. He hadn’t seen any of that, of course, knew that it was pure fiction at best and hiding a terrible truth at the worst: that it was Haedelon that was lusting for war and bloodshed, that it was the elves who were not to be trusted. But he had to make his father believe he was on the same side.
“C-certainly, I have.” He licked his dry lips. “What have y-you learned of th-their plans?”
“They mean to do you harm,” Haedelon replied, his expression grim. “They’ve seen your weakness thanks to that humiliating display at the wedding,” he sneered, no doubt referring to the fact that Len had fainted, “and they know that you’re the weak link in the chain that they can easily break.”
Len let the agony and betrayal tearing through his chest show on his face; his father would think it was because of the supposed plot, but in reality it was because of what Haedelon was doing, the obvious lies that he expected Len would swallow and buy fully at face value. It was over how little his father clearly thought of him. “What…what do I do?” Len managed, his eyes slipping to the floor.
“Keep a sharp eye out,” Haedelon ordered. “You will report to me regularly so I can pass on the information to my spymaster and the head of my guard. Together, we can beat this. You just have to trust me and do as I ask, Lenlethael.”
Len raised his gaze back to his father’s, those blue eyes hollow and dead. Had he always been like this, so cruel and manipulative? His early memories didn’t feel this cold, but perhaps that was his mother’s influence softening his father’s blows, or the rosy tinge of childhood dulling the edges.
“Of c-course. Father.”
“I ask again: what did you discover yesterday?”
“N-not much, truth be t-told,” Len began, scrambling for what he could say. “They…they s-spoke in Draka for a lot of it. I talked o-of books with Sercha while Daega ent-entertained her other s-sisters.” Telling the truth as much as he could would help him keep his story straight. “And they…th-they asked after my health.”
Haedelon’s fist slammed into the arm of his chair suddenly. “See? It’s just as I said, Lenlethael!” he cried, his dead eyes sparking into furious life. “What did you tell them?”
“That it’s n-not lethal. Th-that it only affects me a-a little.” He bit his lip hard enough to taste copper. “And I t-told them that—that I keep a close eye on m-my body. With my magic.”
Haedelon considered that. “I would prefer they not know that you were gifted, but that was a good move. They might be less likely to try poisoning you. If they’re smart…”
The king insisted on going over the events of the previous day in painstaking detail, grilling Len over and over about every aspect of it until the elf prince’s head swam. The sun was fully risen over the horizon by the time Len was excused with a promise to remain vigilant, a sour taste in his mouth and his stomach roiling.
DAEGA WAS OILINGher leather armor when he finally returned, the cleaned and finished pieces scattered around her on the floor in a ring.
