to our ways. To not forget what the Andinna are and what we are meant to be. I’ll miss your quiet guidance, Lord Leshaun of the Andinna.”
Zayden felt the tears hit him then.
“Thank you, my king,” Leshaun whispered. “Cheers to the Andinna and to our king.”
“Cheers, to the newest noble of the Andinna. When you leave here, you’ll find a piece of property waiting for you. A vast valley with a small village. The mativa can’t wait to have you, a noble settling in a well-earned retirement.” Alchan smiled and nodded his head respectfully. “And it is very well earned.” Alchan looked around in the silence after that. “This is where you cheer, and I tell you everyone can eat.”
The raucous laughter that followed was better. As they dished up food, Rain asked for everyone to tell him stories about Leshaun. His son was only just over three hundred. He didn’t have the same time as everyone else got with the old male and wanted to hear all of it.
As those stories began, Zayden was attentive to Leshaun, wanting to be a good host and was feeling too sentimental to leave him alone to his own devices.
“Do you want a refill?” he asked softly.
“Oh, yes, please. You’re a good male, Zayden. I envy your parents. You were probably a dream around the house.”
Zayden chuckled as he took the wineglass to refill it. When he got back, he decided to burst Leshaun’s bubble.
“Not really. I wasn’t really helpful until your family moved into the village and Mat was born,” he explained. “Helping with Mat when he was little was an educational experience. It taught me things I probably wouldn’t have learned for another thousand years. Who knows where I would have ended up if your family hadn’t come into my life?” Zayden had become closer to Mat’s family than his own over those centuries. By the time the war started, he and Mat had already signed up to be warriors and were living far from home. Mat’s family had all been warriors, but not Zayden’s.
“I’m glad we had you then, and I’m so…happy Mat has you now. You’ve seemed much happier since you’ve married Mave.”
“I am,” Zayden promised. He looked at Leshaun, watching his pale, foggy green eyes, and realized there was something wrong. The male looked paler than usual. “Are you okay? Mat, does Leshaun look okay to you?”
Mat came back to the table. He’d been telling Rain stories about the old uncle who kept them all in line at some point or another.
“Uncle?” Mat asked softly.
Leshaun waved a hand. “I’m—” He started coughing, his face suddenly going green. He covered his mouth, and his chest heaved with the force of the fit. He gasped for air.
“Uncle?” Mat grabbed him and tried to stand him up. “Are you choking?”
“Move,” Nevyn snapped. “Let me and Varon see him.”
Zayden looked over, but Varon wasn’t moving, his eyes wide. Slowly, the priest began to shake his head.
Leshaun collapsed, drawing everyone’s eyes back to him, coughing still. Zayden could see the blood now. He was coughing up so much blood.
“I think he’s been poisoned,” Nevyn whispered, going to his knees next to Mat. “Hold on, Leshaun. We’ve got you. Someone run for a healer!”
Zayden fell into a seat, missed it, and hit the ground as Leshaun’s struggle ended. He stopped breathing, and his eyes went blank.
Mat screamed.
“Get Senri out of here,” Alchan ordered softly.
“Excuse me—”
“You’re pregnant, and we don’t know what’s done this,” the king snapped. “Go outside until a healer can clear you.”
Zayden could only stare at his uncle. He couldn’t fathom a world without Leshaun and this…This was gruesome, terrible.
“Bryn, you know how to work out what a poison is backward,” Nevyn said in a quiet voice. “Can you do it now?”
“I’ll need to test…everything. The foods, the drinks…His wine,” Bryn hissed.
Zayden couldn’t bring himself to point back at the storage room. Bryn walked over him, but he just stared at Leshaun’s dead face, unable to process what had just happened.
“Bryn?” Luykas said in a hushed voice, walking into the kitchen. “Is there anything suspicious?”
“Not that I can tell, but some poisons are purposefully slow-acting, and they all require a certain dose. If you put too little in the bottle, it could take more of the drink to really hit the system before it causes damage.” Bryn growled. “It could have been anything.”