“Stay here.” I knelt down to the children. They stared at me, black bags under their eyes. Each clenched to one side of an oversized wool blanket, they kept close together. We stood in the middle of a hallway waiting behind a door leading to King Xanthus’ quarters. The guards looked at us. I undid my hood and went up to them.

“What about us?” Edwin asked.

“You three especially.” I said. Edwin, Lowell, Kal all stood in a line with crossed arms and waited by the children. To my rear were the balustrades and a large empty balcony, lined with the drooping light vines of Jasmine’s set to every inch of the edge of the balcony drop. I bent my head down and breathed heavy. Morning came up on us, who knows when, in all my thinking and deliberation I couldn’t tell. I only knew that a new day had begun.

I opened the door. It snapped back behind me as I entered. An empty room with a large bed set up, covers still undone. Purple, pink drapes to the side. About two large mirrors both reflecting each other. King Xanthus stood in between them, pacing. I looked to the side to a small round table, a cup of wine was set. Vincent stood there, drinking.

“That is some news for you to bear.” King Xanthus said.

“My liege, if I could explain myself-”

“Shut the fuck up.” He said. “You speak when demanded to speak.”

I straightened up and breathed. Vincent drew his eyes up to me, then closed them and took long sips of his drink. One of the Lianel rugs sat staring at me from the floor, the large head deflated and its fangs sprawled and spread apart.

“Hmm.”

“Following orders is very hard for you, isn’t it?” Xanthus asked. “To kill him. To fucking kill him, do you know how many problems you’ve caused? How many questions his people will need answers to?”

I took a deep breath.

“What?” Xanthus said. “What do you have to say?”

“May I speak?”

“No. Yes. No. Yes, to all hells. Yes, speak.”

“If the point was to get rid of him, why does it matter how I did it.”

“Why does it matter? Why does it matter?” He lost his breath and pointed at me, then looked to Vincent. “This is the man you send to me, Vicentius?”

No answer. Vincent only sipped and stared, red eyes small imputative of some great shame. Of a great judgment. He put the large lip of the cup to his ruby lips and observed. A piece of furniture himself.

Xanthus walked up to me. He drew his hand into a fist and brought it up. He stopped, and instead knocked on my forehead.

“Hello. Hello-oh!” He knocked, knuckles tight. “Anything in there? It sounds hollow. Tell me, what looks better to the public? That the pedophile business man was ran out of the city and his assets seized for the greater commons or that he was murdered in his bed? That half his guards were brutalized? That he was put to death without trial?”

I closed my eyes and sighed.

“You didn’t think about the optics, did you? What mask am I supposed to put on for them? If I stay silent, they’ll presume. If I speak up, they’ll judge. News will spread, do you know that? The horse tamers. The money-men that pass every day through those gates will ask when they come to buy our steel. They will say, where is Venryr? And what will I say for them? Hmm?”

“I’m sorry, my liege.” I said.

“Sorry?” Xanthus said. “And how sorry? Are you sorry enough to die?”

I felt it creep up on my skin. Small little prickles as I stared at Xanthus. His robes ruffled, the button of his tunic coming undone, the pleated clothes falling a bit by his shoulders and waist. He stepped back to the mirrors and adjusted, then slicked his hair back. The sweat dripped from the sides of his forehead. A slick coat of black paint dripped, a few gray hairs showed.

“I could call you petty thieves. Assassins sent by the Kavillians.” Xanthus said. “That would settle it.”

“He’s still a crow.” Vincent put down his cup. “He is entitled by certain liberties.”

“You would defend this man?”

“Yes.” Vincent said. “I would.”

“Then it’ll be both your lives.”

“No need.” Vincent said. “We simply stick to the plan that was to be adhered to. We’ll have the printing presses start up, we’ll destroy Venryr’s name. Delay the news of his dead for as long as we can.”

“So we lie.” Xanthus said.

“Yes. Lie? It’s delayed truth. Nothing more. Venryr was a pedophile. He was deserving of death.” Vincent said. “We destroy his reputation. Then, who would care that he died? What businessman would dare mourn his death publicly?”

“It wasn’t just about taking over his business-” Xanthus said. “What about the other things he knew?”

“Those don’t matter.” Vincent looked to me. “It’s too late for anything more. The dead don’t speak.”

Xanthus punched his closest mirror. The other reflected the broken visage, the spiderweb crack of his face.

“Get out. Both of you.” Xanthus said. “You’ll live. Just barely. But get out.”

I did not even breath. I did not make a single sound, only turned quickly. Vincent put his arm on my shoulder and saw me out.

I hadn’t realized I had my hand on my knife the whole time, not until we were out.

“Great job defending me.” I spoke low.

“Is that sarcasm I’m hearing?”

“Oh, of course not.” I said. “I just had a king almost threaten my life.”

“A threat is better than the actual thing, isn’t it?”

We stopped halfway down the hall, my partners in crime waiting by a turn in the hall with the children hooded and to their side. The moon came behind me, white as milk and casting it’s gaze against the floor. Stone like mica that muted the color of red from the torches, we were so far from the fires by now. So far from the guards.

“I could have died.” I said.

“You didn’t.” He said.

“That man is a psychopath, you are aware of that, right?”

“I would not be here if I didn’t know what we were dealing with.”

“So you brought us to a temperamental little king?” I asked. “All of us? Brought to this petty and may I add, criminal man?”

“Speak low when you speak ill of the king.” He walked up to me and grabbed the back of my neck, bringing my face close to his.

“I sent you on a mission with the full trust that you would deliver.” Vincent said. “You did. Partly. And partly, you failed. Do you know why we needed that kid fucker alive?”

“No.” I pulled away from his grip. My tunic swayed and I took a few steps back away from Vincent. The guards had not moved, had not even seemed to be alive.

“He had been selling weapons to the enemy. Among others.” Vincent said. “Keeping his lodges clean of the deed. Xanthus wanted to know who and how many, to maneuverer and prepare himself. Now Venryr is dead and that knowledge with him.”

“Maybe you should have said so.” I said.

“Would that have changed what you did?” Vincent asked. “You? You’ve always been hot headed Virgil. I don’t think anything would have changed what happened tonight.”

I grit my teeth. My own body disappearing in the shadow of a column. My foot steps loud, and the only sound in that long hall. To my sides were great red windows, ruby reflections that painted back my tired visage a bloody meridian. My head hung low.

“Don’t be so depressed.” Vincent said. “There may yet be salvation for us all.”

I spat to my side and kept walking heavy-heeled. Stomping almost as I approached Kal. He was off the wall and opened his arms to received some news.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” I said.

“That right?” He narrowed his eyes.

“That’s right.” I said. “Don’t worry. I took the blame.”

“You didn’t have to.” Edwin said.

“I did. And we’re fine now.” I clenched my fist. Leather so tightly bound it almost felt like it would snap.

“Now?” Edwin asked. His brother came up below his arm pit, clinging close to his kin. Kal crossed his arms. A torch snapped and broke sidelong as wind struck, then recovered to a partial flame.

“Things are…difficult.” I said. “With the king. I’m sure Vincent will tell you all later. Just go to bed.”

“And the kids?” Kal asked.

I looked down at both of them. They withdrew and brought the cover over themselves.

“We’ll give them shelter and then…we’ll decide.”

“Are you alright?” Kal asked.

“No. I feel like shit.” I said. “But I’m alive. That’s good enough, right?”

They stared. I paused and thought over the words, nodding my head as I did. I turned. Smiled, curt and quick, then speeded off down to the right. Away, far, far away from everyone.