The Ippos King (Wraith Kings #3) - Grace Draven Page 0,14
him as they passed under the barbican and into the bailey. A busy place full of clamor and chaos, only the briefest pause in the noise marked her arrival before resuming.
“Watch your step,” he told her, pointing to the depressions in the soft ground where rain had gathered from the day before, then iced over sometime during the night. Even with the sun high, those pools in the shade remained frozen. Winter had been long this year and spring slow to arrive.
He had never known her to be a chatty woman, though she never hesitated in expressing herself. Serovek was familiar enough with the Kai to know her taciturn manner was an individual trait and not one representative of the Kai in general. He didn’t mind carrying the conversation. Anhuset didn’t say much, but she had an expressive face and revealed a lot more than she was probably aware of and would be horrified to learn, especially from him. He bit back a smile.
“Did you have a good journey to High Salure?”
She shrugged. “Good enough. No one tried to kill me on my way here, though it’s damn bright today.”
He ushered her to the citadel’s main entrance. “Let’s get you out of the sunlight.”
Someone on the other side had been waiting for them. The doors opened the moment Serovek’s boot touched the threshold. One of his servants had snuffed out half the candles and lamps while he’d been outside. The great hall was no longer ambient but tenebrous, with most of its illumination emanating from the fire roaring in the hearth.
Beside him, Anhuset gave a small grunt. “You need not go through this trouble for me. I’m used to guard duty during the day. The brightness is an annoyance, that’s all.”
“Are you sure that’s something you can cope with for a prolonged period? We’ll be traveling by day, resting at night.”
“I’m not human.” By her tone, she might well have said “I’m not diseased.”
Serovek chuckled. “Implying you’re not weak. Rumor has it the delicate Ildiko Khaskem took down one of your Kai assassins with a shutter pole. By herself.”
They both paused at the foot of the stairwell. Anhuset dipped her head in acknowledgment of his strike. “Point taken.” She raised an eyebrow when he stared at her. “Don’t look so surprised. Just because you have a talent for annoying me like no other doesn’t mean I won’t recognize you as victor in an argument.”
He let out a long, slow whistle. “Sha-Anhuset, you will never cease to amaze me.”
The look she gave him would have withered a lesser man to a desiccated husk. “It isn’t that momentous, Lord Pangion,” she said in the driest tones.
Despite the bleak purpose of their trip, it promised to be an entertaining one. Serovek grinned. Anhuset’s acerbic wit fascinated him as much as her appearance and demeanor. That fascination only strengthened with each interaction they shared. “Come. I’ll show you to your room.”
They ascended the tightly spiraling stairwell to the second floor, where the space opened up to a corridor lined in closed doors. Serovek led her to one and pushed it open to reveal a sumptuously appointed chamber illuminated only by the light spilling from the fire dancing merrily in the corner hearth. The windows were shuttered against the daylight and the cold, leaving shadows to pool in the niches and under the wall hangings.
“Will this suit?” he asked. “If not, there are other rooms to choose from. My staff can have another ready for you in short order.” He’d inspected this space itself once it was readied, hoping she’d approve. Anhuset though often surprised him.
A flicker of unease darted across her sharp features as she took in the room’s trappings. “You went to too much trouble. I would have been fine with a space in the barracks.”
He had half-expected such a reaction. The Kai woman was far more comfortable among humbler surroundings, but something had urged him to offer her the best at his disposal. Maybe a vanity on his part. He didn’t dwell long on the niggle of disappointment.
“If you’d prefer the barracks, I’ll see to it a space there is set up for you, but I hope you won’t decline an invitation to have supper with me.”
Anhuset shook her head. “This is fine. No need wasting someone’s labor and making them work to prepare a second place for me to sleep.” A slight turn of her head alerted him she watched him from the corner of her eye. “I despise frivolous nitwits