Chapter 27
Kol had walked over to work with General Marcus. It was time to work on treasury accounts for the military again. It was long and boring. Not that he didn’t like his city or his people being protected; seems like all he did was look at sets of numbers.
She was the last person he expected to see.
There were several large journals on General Marcus’s oversized desk. She was slightly bent over filling out information on different pages of each book. At the same time instructing Max on what she was doing and why. Kol stood watching her. She finally spoke. “You are early, my king. I will be out of the way in a moment. If it is okay, Max is going to stay.”
He didn’t answer at first, watching her was much more enjoyable. “You should wear normal garments more often.”
The shelf next to the door where he was leaning was where the large books got put out of the way. As she shelved a book, she couldn’t help but notice that twinkle in his eyes and that grin. It would do her a lot of good if he would put that grin away. It was so distracting.
She smiled and it melted his heart.
“General Marcus will be pleased that you are in such fine spirits this morning, my king.”
“Will he?”
She wrote something down. Max would not look up from the desk as she came over to put another book away. “I spent a boat load of money.”
He wanted to run Max off, push all the stuff off the desk onto the floor and just take her. Could he do it? He was the king after all. Would she put up a fight? He felt that in a true fight she was much stronger than he was. It would be a fight he would greatly enjoy.
“My King.” Her eyes were smiling at him. How did she do that? “How’s Frego today? Excited for his departure.” She put another book away.
“He would like to go to the island before they leave.”
“When is that?”
“Two months.”
As she put up another book, she leaned a little closer to him, whispering, “you smell good.”
He blushed, “you can smell me?”
“Max,” she called. He finally looked up. “Close your eyes and take a deep breath.” He did. “Again.” He did. “What do you smell? Tell me everything, no matter if you can’t define it.”
He took another deep breath, “polish from the desk, ink, dust from old books, floral honey, and sage?” He questioned “and something else I can’t identify.” His eyes were still closed, “no, not sage. But I don’t know what that smell is.”
“That smell is your king.” She brushed past him on her way out of the room; “And you smell good.” She whispered.
He followed her down the hall, “Kes.”
“Yes, my king.”
“Have you forgiven me for hurting your feelings?”
“Should I?” There was a twinkle in her eyes.
“Yes. After all I am your king.”
She whispered in his ear, “this time my king, you must earn it.” She moved to leave, stopped and moved back to whisper in his ear again. “Meet me tonight on the beach.” Ohh, there was that grin.
He did as she asked. The moon reflecting off the calm water was peaceful. “Thank you for humoring me.” Her soft voice filled his ears. They started walking. “I really didn’t think we should talk in the palace. I found the horse that was attached to the wagon Mordecai was in.”
Kol stopped abruptly, “where?”
“The grand duke has it. I know he could have bought it at the market. And honestly know nothing about the matter. I thought it was best to let you know.”
“That’s most upsetting.” He thought, “when you lowered Frego and Iram from the bell tower, what did you learn?”
“That was 10 maybe 12 years ago. Testing my memory, my king?”
“I can’t remember if you told me what happened.”
She thought as they continued to walk. The night was peaceful and the water calm. “Frego was right. Nothing was locked. I don’t think I gave you a report because there was nothing to say. The guard didn’t pay attention to the locks during his rounds. I knew he was lying but I couldn’t prove it. I think we spent a week looking into the matter but couldn’t come up with any thing.”
“Thank you.”
Poetry & More 