Garden of the Lion and the Dove

Chapter 20

"The King wants to take you hunting?"

Enkidu nodded. "He asked me this afternoon in the gardens. With the baru, Ekur back in the palace, the King wants to go out to the forest for a few days and go hunting."

"What did you tell him?" Hakuno stacked the empty bowls from dinner into a pile.

"I told him I needed to speak with you first." They smiled. "He got a little grumpy after that."

"Of course he did." She sighed. "Do you want to go? Will you be alright going?" Enkidu may no longer feel the same connection to the forest as before, but the forest was a part of them.

"I like it here in the city but it will be nice to see the forests again. Is it weird to admit that I miss it?"

"Not at all. I would be more concerned if you did not."

"Will you be alright here though? I could ask the King to have you come with us."

"No, I should be alright. I have plenty to do here."

Enkidu grimaced. "But I worry about you Hakuno. What if something were to happen to you and I am not here?"

Hakuno grasped Enkidu's hands in her own. "Do not worry. I have allies here in the palace that know who I am. The purpose of me being like this is to find out the truth. I need to find out who it was that leaked the plans and who has allied with the enemy. And I want you to stay close to him, to Gil. Protect him in my place. For now that he is acting more like his old self, they will probably want to strike again."

"And that is why I worry about you." Enkidu pulled their hands out of Hakuno's and placed them on top of hers. "Because you are connected to me, these...people might go after you."

"I will be careful," she replied softly. "And as someone that has been a slave of this palace, I know the backways and can get too many places quickly."

"Am I interrupting something?"

Shub stood in the doorway and looked back and forth between Enkidu and Hakuno and then their clasped hands.

Hakuno released Enkidu's hands. "Did Urash have anything more to add?"

Shub startled and then took her place at the table. "Do you know how hard it is to find him? I think Ekur needs to wear a bell collar or something like that."

Hakuno had to laugh at the mental image. "You did find him though?"

Shub nodded. "Ekur was busy with a divination so Urash was able to give this to me." She pulled a small slip of papyrus from her skirt pocket.

Hakuno took it and opened it. There was one word on it. "Guards."

Of course.

How could she be so blind?

Like the slaves of the palace, the guards were everywhere. They were always patrolling the halls, guarding rooms, being allowed in places that they would not be otherwise. Even she would admit, she did not know the names and faces of many of the guards in the palace.

"Shub. Remember that guard that opened the curtain when we were in the cart and he told me to go hide in the forest?"

Shub's eyes widen. "You do not think..."

"I do not know what to think." Hakuno grimaced. What did that guard look like? So many of them had been brought along as escorts that she had only learned the names of a couple of them. She had wanted to get to know all of them but it made them uncomfortable when she acted less like a queen. If only she knew his name...