“And is this how one waits on his king?”
Will nodded slowly. “If one is very tired.” Inside, he was beginning to feel a sense of panic. It’s him. It’s King Lognion, and I’m lying on his floor.
Graciously, the king bent and held out his hands. Will took them, and the monarch helped him to his feet, then gestured to one of the chairs. “Please, sit. When we’re done, I can offer you something much better to sleep upon.”
Will struggled to think. “Is it—is it, a coffin, Your Majesty?”
The king laughed again. “Certainly not!”
“I don’t mind, honestly,” said Will. “The past few days have been…difficult, Your Majesty.”
The king’s eyes grew serious. “I only recently learned you were here. For that, I feel a sense of responsibility. The proper reports didn’t reach me soon enough. You have endured a great deal because of that.”
Will couldn’t believe his ears. Why was the king being so courteous? “The Royal Marshall’s report?”
King Lognion nodded. “That one, among a few others. It seems the marshal was too hasty to judge you. Terabinia owes you a great deal for what you’ve done.”
“Then I’m not to be executed, Your Majesty?”
The king smiled. “Not today, at any rate. I won’t make any promises about the future, but it seems unlikely. I’d like you to tell me of your experiences, leaving nothing out.”
Will started, and then started again when the king asked him to start farther back, beginning with his training in wizardry. Will grew more nervous then, for he wasn’t sure how King Lognion knew to ask about that. It had to be Selene. He tried to remember how much he had told her. A mistake at this point might be disastrous.
He started with a brief description of his childhood, leaving out any mention of Lord Nerrow, then moved on to his apprenticeship with Arrogan, though he omitted his grandfather’s name. The king stopped him at that point.
“You didn’t give your grandfather’s name.”
“Bartholomew,” said Will hastily. “I’m not entirely sure he’s even my grandfather. That’s just what he told me. None of my cousins believed it.”
“Go on,” said the king.
He did, though he left out the details of his training and moved on to his time in the Terabinian army. He described his exploits in the army and then moved on to how he had met Selene and how they had eventually left to destroy the Patriarch’s supply line. When he glossed over the journey back to Barrowden, the king frowned.
“You left out any mention of the journey through Faerie,” said King Lognion, his voice edging toward anger.
Fuck. Will retraced his steps, including the trip through the congruence point, explaining that the presence of the goddamn cat kept that part of the other realm safe from the fae. King Lognion laughed at Will’s name for the beast, but he claimed ignorance of the creature’s true name, chalking it up to yet another mystery his grandfather had left behind.
“And you say this thing hates sorcerers?” interrupted the king.
He hadn’t said anything of the kind, but again Will knew Selene must have given her father that information. Will nodded. “Yes, Your Majesty, though I don’t know why.”
“That’s a shame,” said the monarch. “Such a shortcut would be immensely useful. I almost wonder if we could kill the beast, but that would render the path useless, wouldn’t it? Since the fae would no longer need to avoid the area. Please, continue.”
Will did, regretfully including the information that his family was living in seclusion. There was no way he could hide that fact, since Selene had obviously told her father everything. Lognion nodded, waving his hand to urge Will onward. He didn’t seem interested.
He told the rest without much editing, except to say that he didn’t fully understand how he had been able to turn the fire elementals’ attacks back against their owners. He also omitted Tailtiu’s assistance with his escape. Thus far he had said nothing about the fae, and he prayed that Selene hadn’t mentioned his one remark about learning the trick to seeing in the dark from one of them.
He was relieved when King Lognion accepted his story and smiled, but his stomach dropped when the king spoke next. “You are a remarkably brazen liar, William Cartwright. Not many would have the balls to attempt to hide things from me, especially given the fact that you already know how good my information is.”
Will grew perfectly still, and he and the king fell into a staring contest that he knew he was doomed to lose.
But he didn’t. The king spoke first. “I know a lot more about your charming grandfather, Bartholomew, than you may realize. Is he truly dead?”
He felt as though the breath in his chest would explode, and Will exhaled loudly. “Yes, Your Majesty. He’s dead. I buried him myself.”
“More good news, then,” said King Lognion. “Now, if you’ll be patient, I’ll list all the reasons I have for executing you.”
Will shut his eyes in defeat. I knew it.
“Unlicensed wizardry, harboring and giving aid to a fugitive wanted by the Crown, possible warlockry, desertion of duty, insubordination and disrespect to your superior officer, kidnapping and trying to seduce my daughter—”
“I didn’t!”
Lognion held up one finger, silencing him. “Perhaps, but you admit the rest, don’t you?”
“Not warlockry,” said Will stubbornly.
“Yet I can see their mark on you!” The king lifted his hand and prodded Will’s forehead. “You wouldn’t have received that without making a significant bargain.”
“It wasn’t warlockry,” insisted Will. “I didn’t bargain with anything that was not mine to give.”
The king studied him for a moment. “Arrogan’s lessons must have been thorough. Not many understand the difference. What am I going to do with you?”
Will lowered his eyes. “Something that doesn’t involve being whipped to death, hopefully.”
“Answer one more question,” said the king. “You say you’re not a warlock because you haven’t bargained anything that doesn’t belong to you, but many warlocks only sell their own souls. If they aren’t bargaining with someone else’s life, how is that evil?”
Will had been giving that considerable thought, and he hoped the answer he had was the right one. “Because the soul doesn’t belong to anyone. It belongs to the universe. No one has the right to give or sell it.”
King Lognion nodded. “Not how I would have worded it, but good enough. Based on that and what Selene has said, I don’t believe you’ve prostituted your soul. I’m almost tempted to debate you on your arrogant claim that sorcery is evil, but your opinion means nothing to me on that matter. That leaves only one matter to be settled.”
Will waited.
“You lied to me, William, not once, but several times during our conversation. As a ruler, I cannot abide lies.” Will could see something akin to anticipation in Lognion’s eyes.
“Forgive me—” he began to say, but Lognion leaned forward with unbelievable speed, and Will felt something slam into the side of his head. The force of the blow was so great that he flew backward, causing the chair to tip, spilling him onto the floor.