I HEAR THE BOY A GOOD HALF MINUTE BEFORE HE reaches the metal grate, mainly because he’s grunting and cursing up a storm. The wall square squeaks, then pops out to fall and hit the floor again just before Kel drops into my already-darkening room.
He scrambles up and tries his best to look very serious, which ends up with him merely showing those big white teeth.
“You’re back.”
“Told you I would be.”
“Well? What do you want?”
He shrugs. “Just making sure you’re not doing anything you shouldn’t be.”
Because I assume he’s doing enough of that for both of us. “Who have you been trying to stab this time?”
“I haven’t. I’ve been sleeping mostly. I was listening in on the delegates for a while, but all they talk about is stuff they want from King Eogan. Well”—his face sours—“except for the cranky one. He talks a lot about his head and his back and his hard bed and the ship’s noise.”
I grin. “So does that mean you can get anywhere on this ship?”
His little face turns furiously proud. “Just about.”
I eye him. “Such as the room where King Eogan is?”
He frowns. “You want me to spy on him?”
“It wouldn’t be spying. I just . . . want to know if he’s all right.”
“You want to spy on him.”
“Look, boy—”
“Kel.”
“Look, Kel—”
“Is it ’cuz you want to kiss him?”
“ ’Cuz I want to—what?”
“When a person likes someone and wants to marry them and have babies, they kiss them. And I heard one of the delegates say you like King Eogan. Is that why you’re spying on him?” His tone says he finds this not only unnecessary, but wholly repulsive.
I stare at this boy who is the strangest small person I have ever met in my entire seventeen years. And burst into laughter. “No. I most definitely am not spying on him so I can have babies with him. I simply . . . want to ensure he’s feeling all right. He’s been ill and—”
“Then why’s your face turning redder than the carpet?”
“I am not turning red.”
He rolls his eyes and walks around the room, poking at the walls and lightly kicking the cot I’m seated on.
“Look, can you or can you not get near King Eogan’s room?”
He shakes his head. “The only air vents I can travel are along this and the other delegates’ corridor. Also, the kitchen and bathrooms and a few soldier areas. Besides, I wouldn’t listen in on the king for you anyway.” His face takes on that stoic expression, which is promptly darkened by a flash of fear. “And I don’t think you should have babies with him neither.”
Good, then we’re both agreed. Except . . . I frown. “Did you know King Odion?” I ask on a hunch.
He nods and looks out the window into the night.
“Not very nice, eh?”
“He was a great king, brave and strong, the most powerful in all the Hidden Lands.”
Right.
His small brow furrows.
“But?”
“He wouldn’t have liked you. And he wouldn’t have approved of you coming to Bron—not just ’cuz you defeated his army, but because he wouldn’t have liked that you tried not to harm my people.”
“Not to harm them?”
He nods again. “My people believe power is a responsibility to be used for striking down those who’d endanger our community. They’d think what you believe weakens it.”
I don’t tell him that at the moment I’m tempted to agree with his people and dead King Odion. “And what do you believe?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe power comes in different forms, and maybe we get a choice how we use it.” He glances down and his eyes darken. “Maybe not everything that seems weaker is.”
Then he looks back up. “But I gotta go now.” He climbs onto the bed. “And you’re not going to see me again until you’re in Bron. But when you do, don’t let them know you’ve met me. My father and family, they . . . they wouldn’t like that.”
I almost grab his foot to pull him back as he clambers up through the square hole. He can’t go. I have more questions!
Too late though.
He’s already through and scritch-scritching away.