The Courtesy of Kings | ☑ Queenkiller, Kingmaker #2

05.2

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'You caused quite the stir.'

It was his mother, risen from the dead to rebuke him. Kiet dropped his quill.

She stood by the arched curtains shielding his door; a new instalment after the fire that had destroyed half his bedchamber. She drowned in her ceremonial robes, sleeves so large and long they swept his floor. Her hair was let down in braids, heavy strands fringing her brows.

Kiet lurched in his seat. Light shifted from the windows behind him, revealing a delicate face untouched by age. 'Kiesja. You startled me.'

'Did you think me one of your love-struck girls?'

'You think I'd allow a girl in my private chambers?'

Kiesja's laugh was high and free. 'I'm only a year younger than you, brother, yet you keep treating me like a schoolgirl. I know what you get up to in here sometimes, late at night.'

'If you mean my personal studies, you would be absolutely correct.'

'Is that what you were doing at the academy?'

Kiet sighed. 'You heard about that?'

'Like I said. Quite the stir.' She crossed her arms. 'No less than eight girls are in the infirmary.'

'That—they came out of nowhere! There was a lot of pushing and shoving—'

'Those are synonyms, brother.'

'And really, if you want someone to blame, you should look to Khaisan. Just strolling in there half naked! What a walking heat-stroke!'

'You could have met here. The kitchens! Anywhere else! But no, you two pair of peacocks simply cannot pass an opportunity to infatuate more girls.'

'That is not fair. I went to the athenaeum so early to avoid this very mess. I had business there. I mean it, Kiesja, I'm so close to finding her.'

Kiesja chewed on her lip. A habit she never grew out of, despite their mother's best attempts. 'So you'll be departing again.'

'I have to follow where this leads me.'

'You were gone a full year to some whiteman's land and not six turns of the month after you returned, you left again for another year. Now you're home for, I believe five entire days and already you make plans to go.'

'It will be the last time, this I promise. Then we can settle away from here. Somewhere south of the kingdom. You'd like that. Closer to Mother's home.'

'You want to leave? What then, of her collection? Her entire life she spent building this place up.'

'Her nursery we can take, but the beasts ...' Kiet had forgotten about the menagerie. Some of them had been lost in the attack. Most had since been retrieved, especially the slower or larger creatures, but apes had gone loose, birds scattered through open windows. Jyesta had one day found a snake in her tub. Kiet suppressed a shudder. 'We will have to release them. They belong outside of four walls.'

'You were the one who caught most of them.'

'I indulged Mother, as we all did.'

'And here I thought you were already taking on the tradition.'

She meant the cage by the window, where his swiftlet slept. 'I'm only nursing it to health.'

'Pity. It's a common creature, but Mother would have loved a swiftlet so silver. It's our House colour, after all. She would have kept it in her collection.'