Read Online Land of Night by Kirby Crow - Free Book Online Page B

angry. “What did we ever do to you that made your people hate us so much?"
    "Oh, we ... they do not hate you, ser,” Jochi said, excluding himself from the lot of them. “They fear you."
    Scarlet blinked, trying to mask his surprise, and Jochi watched him closely.
    "You did not know?"
    Jochi had been sincere with him so far, so Scarlet decided to answer honestly. “No,” he said. “I didn't know. I feel like I'm in a story, or a dream that I can't wake up from.” He studied his hands next, tired of looking into the fire, which seemed to wink at him with mocking red eyes. “I've always had a gift with languages, but Sinha is unlike anything I've ever tried to learn before. I'm afraid it will be a long time before I can really talk to people here. And I'm used to talking to new people, being able to exchange stories and ideas with them. Now it seems all I have are you and Liall, and Liall is seldom here.” Scarlet knew he sounded pouting and immature, and so he deliberately pasted a smile on his face. “It's not that I'm homesick,” he said. “I'm never homesick. But at this moment, I want nothing more than to see sunsets and mountains again."
    Jochi's expression was sympathetic. “Prince Nazheradei has many important matters to attend to. He had many friends and allies when he lived in Rshan. He is a trained warrior, and more than that; an adept and practiced leader, a skill that comes naturally to him. People trust his judgment."
    Jochi told him nothing he did not already know from witnessing Liall with the Kasiri. “Why did he leave his home for a life in Byzantur?"
    Jochi shook his head regretfully. “I cannot tell you that, ser, and I am sorry for it."
    "Can you at least tell me what he's doing when he's away all the time? Is he going to be king?"
    Jochi looked scandalized. “Indeed not!"
    Not the answer he expected. Wasn't Liall a prince the same as Cestimir, and older? “Oh ... well. Why did he come back, then?"
    Jochi was silent for a long moment, and then shook his head almost angrily. “Prince Nazheradei wants you kept apart from this, but I cannot see the harm in telling you what everyone at court already knows. Keeping so much basic knowledge from you may prove disastrous at some point, as your question just proved. What if you had asked me that publicly?” He leaned forward. “See? You don't even know why that would be dangerous. I will tell you what I can, most of which is common knowledge in any home in Rshan. Prince Cestimir is the Crown Prince, next in line for the throne of Rshan. His father, Lankomir, was half-brother to Queen Nadiushka's late husband."
    "Liall's father was her first husband?"
    "The same."
    "Did he die a long time ago?"
    Jochi nodded. “Yes. A few months before Prince Nazheradei was born."
    So Liall had never known his father. “How?"
    "By misadventure. A snow bear hunt, so I understand. The queen married Lankomir some years ago. They had several other children together, but none who lived beyond their second year. Prince Cestimir is their only child who thrived."
    Liall's father had died on a bear hunt? No wonder he seemed so unsettled by the prospect of one. And no wonder he didn't want you to go, Scarlet thought with a little twinge of guilt, remembering how he had accused Liall of trying to box him up. “But I thought Eleferi—"
    "He is Prince Cestimir's half-brother, the son of Lankomir by his first wife, as is Eleferi's elder brother, Vladei."
    Scarlet frowned again. “Liall said that name once. I got the feeling he didn't like Vladei much."
    Jochi smiled a little. “No, he wouldn't. That's partly because Vladei, being a nephew to Nadiushka's first husband, the dead king, has a claim to the throne of Rshan that some might accept as more valid than Cestimir's."
    Scarlet wondered if that's all there was to it. “Does he want to be king, this Vladei?"
    "You may depend on it."
    "Do the people like him more than they like Cestimir?"
    "That's not a very relevant