The Ippos King (Wraith Kings #3) - Grace Draven Page 0,76
and closing her eyes, too afraid to look any longer upon his face, or worse, have him look upon hers and see past her outward serenity to the turmoil within.
A companionable hush descended between them. Anhuset breathed the sweet smell of pipe smoke as Serovek burned through the bowl of herbs and leaf. She kept her eyes closed, denying the temptation to look at him. Despite her certainty that she'd stay awake through the night, drowsiness claimed her.
“You are truly the most beautiful woman I've ever beheld.”
Perched on the edge of sleep, she wondered if she imagined Serovek's compliment. She didn't bother to open her eyes. “I don't understand why you think so,” she mumbled.
His voice caressed her, body and soul. “And I don't understand why you do not.”
Anhuset drifted off, waking not long after for guard duty, and discovered a blanket tossed over her. Serovek had returned to his pallet while she slept and now lay on his side facing her. Dawn light gilded his hair, bronzing the red highlights there, silvering the gray ones. His black eyelashes fanned against his cheeks. In slumber, he looked younger, the refined angles of his face softened. If he dreamed, it was of something far more pleasant than the tortures of Megiddo.
Not so ugly this morning, the inner voice mocked.
“Shut up,” she said aloud and tossed off the blanket to stand and stretch. Klanek waved to her from his place by the fire pit. He'd taken the previous watch and now stoked the fire in preparation for an early breakfast.
Serovek neither looked nor acted any differently than he had days or months before, yet that day Anhuset found it difficult not to stare at him. Maybe it was seeing him surrounded by ghosts and holding silent conversations with spectral queens or hearing him recall his wife and daughter with a far-away voice of affectionate memory.
He hadn't changed, but something profound in her had. She'd once thought him a brave but shallow man, arrogant at times, with a peculiar gift of annoying her like no one else could. Except for his courage and her annoyance, she'd been so very wrong about him.
She took up her usual spot as rear guard of their small caravan, with Erostis riding beside her. They weren't long on the road when Serovek trotted back to them and bade Erostis to trade places with him.
“I have a question for you,” he said as Magas settled into a leisurely walk that matched her mount's.
Her alarm bells sounded. He'd knocked her sideways on the ghostly bridge when he asked up front if she'd lost her magic. She hadn't lied when she confirmed his suspicions with a single word, but she would do so if he wanted to know more. That Brishen had stripped all but the youngest of the Kai of their birthright wasn't her secret to tell, but it was hers to protect, no matter the cost. “I don't promise to answer it,” she replied.
Fortunately, he chose not to pursue the subject. “You say you haven't married because you're gameza, but the purity of a blood line is typically only important to noble families scrabbling for power and status. Their offspring are pawns. Even as gameza, you hold a great deal of influence with the Khaskem. You're his sha, even more trusted than his closest counselors. Was there no lover who tempted you into a permanent bonding?”
She nearly wilted in the saddle from relief. An easy question with an easy answer and no need for lies. “No, not a single one,” she said cheerfully. “I can barely stand their company after a few nights, much less years or a lifetime. I'd make a terrible wife.”
He laughed. “You say that with such passion.”
“It's the truth.” One truth, at least. No Kai had ever remotely tempted her to make such a commitment. Her heart remained her own, her devotion reserved for Brishen, and through him, his human wife and the child queen regnant. “I make a better sha than a wife.”
“Brishen is fortunate to have you as his sha, especially now. Saggara is much changed since it's become the new capital.”
He didn't know the half of it. “It was once the old one,” she said. “Before the monarchy moved it to Haradis. Saggara wasn't prepared for the return to its original role.”
Saggara's population had exploded overnight with the galla invasion, straining resources, space, and tempers. A goodly portion of the refugees displaced from Haradis had dispersed to other towns and villages once