CINDE, The Kings Mate (boyxboy) ✓

Chapter Twenty Four

I glared down at what I was looking at, as though I were able to decipher it were I to stare hard enough.

I gave her a confused look.

She had handed me six small circular balls the size of my nail of what appeared to be a dark brown solid. I simply couldn't see how it was anything other than mud.

I lifted it to my nose and sniffed at it.

Nothing, the room seemed to spin a small bit but apart from that, nothing.

"I... Is this a confection?" I asked.

Verity seemed to be enjoying watching me examine the mysterious thing. And had stayed silent and still as I probed about it, expecting it to suddenly jump to life and poke me dead in the eyes.

Was I expecting too much?

It's hard to expect something little when someone introduces an object to you with the phrase of explanation being 'I've found the most marvelous, magnificent, mind blowing invention ever to have found it's way to Aconite. And it's just what the doctor ordered!'

"Verity..."

She stopped me.

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you!" She gave me a cheeky smile.

"What is it?"

"You said you would show me the were sprites yes?"

I nodded.

"Yes however, Verity do not get your hopes too high, Vel-... his majesty will never let me return. Never. And this is not mere speculation, I have asked, more than once, tried to reason. Yet he is stern and I cannot deny that his concerns are not pointless." I had to put it bluntly. I knew she wanted to see a real water sprite but I couldn't let her get her hopes up. Whatever she had planned I knew would not work.

She gave me a pout and huffed. "He is so possessive. Do you never think to go against his word? Just once?" She flushed. "Not that I am insinuating it would be right of you to do so... It... It is simply a question."

I nodded in understanding.

"I know Verity, and believe me I have gone against his command. For starters, I ran away. A treason he could have had me whipped and brailed for." I cast my eyes to the floor. "I have been more than unruly, and yet even in the midst of trying to repair the uncertainty I placed in his heart, I think of escaping the castle and returning... To fulfill a promise that... Is most probably insignificant."

The admittance of my own guilt made the growing resolve in the back of my mind grow, that I would not leave, that I had too much to loose. Veldore's trust.

"You were intending to leave?"

"I was." I nodded, guilt evident in my eyes.

Maybe I should have lied to her there. After all it was she who found my mask and gave it to Veldore the first time I ran. The reason I had been caught.

Yet I knew, inside, that it would have been found eventually, with or without Verity's help. And either way. I was not a liar.

"So... How?"

I sighed and leaned against the desk, the upper half of my body slouching forward as my hands bunched on my knees.

"Maybe lateo odos? To clear my scent... His majesty will be required to return to his duties at some point, in which I would be free to roam the place. However..."

I paused. She looked down at me. She laid the books she had piled in her arms to rest on a nearby table.

She had brought me to the castle library. Not the most comfortable of places and more ominous than the kitchen's had been when I first came to see them.