The Once King Read online

  “I suppose another pair of hands can’t hurt,” the old cat harrumphed, pointing at the largest stack of rugs James hadn’t been able to make heads or tails of. “Grab those and bring them here.”

  SB bowed again and did as he was told. He was setting the stack down carefully in front of Gray Fang when a young jubatus assistant poked her head through the curtain that separated the small side room from the lodge’s main area.

  “Elder Gray Fang?”

  The old Naturalist looked up.

  “General Roxxy is here to speak with an elf called SilentBlayde,” she said, her voice transforming SB’s name into a long series of whooshes and clicks as she translated the foreign words into the language of Wind and Grass. “She claims he is in your company.”

  James went stone still. Across from him, SB seemed to have frozen in place, his hands clutching the rugs so hard they shook. If Gray Fang noticed their discomfort, though, she gave no sign.

  “He’s here,” she said, using tongs to grab an ember from the iron brazier to relight her pipe. “Send the stonekin in.”

  The girl bowed and vanished. A second later, the hide curtain was pushed aside to make room for the mass of stone and armor that was James’s “little” sister. Tina had to turn sideways to get through the doorway without scraping the carved wooden frame. Once inside, she straightened up carefully, lifting her head until her copper dreadlocks brushed a beam in the ceiling.

  James and SilentBlayde hastily stood up as well, not that it helped. James was tall by jubatus standards, and SB was an elf, a race that didn’t seem to come in heights less than six feet, but they both still had to crane their necks back to meet Roxxy’s emerald eyes, which seemed to be looking everywhere but them.

  “Hey, sis,” James said cheerfully, desperate to break the horribly uncomfortable silence. “What can we do for—”

  “SilentBlayde.”

  James jumped. He’d never heard his sister say SB’s name so sharply. From the look on the Assassin’s face, neither had he.

  “You’ve been missing practice,” Roxxy continued, speaking the words so quickly and precisely James knew she must have practiced them beforehand. “This is unacceptable. Due to your excessive absences, it’s the officers’ opinion—and mine—that Zen should take your place as my second-in-command.”

  James gasped. Next to him, SB went pale as ash. Before either of them could say anything, though, Tina kept talking.

  “But just because you’ve been demoted doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. This is serious get-in-line time. Everyone else in the Roughnecks is bringing their A game. If you can’t do the same, it would be better for everyone if you left the guild entirely.”

  She said all of this in a rush, speaking so quickly and precisely James could almost hear her checking off bullet points—a fitting metaphor since SB looked like he was being shot.

  “I’ve already talked to Cinco and Assets,” she went on, her emerald eyes focusing on the support beam just above SilentBlayde’s head. “They both have agreed to take you if you decide you’d rather not keep fighting with us. I’d suggest the Trade Company since nearly all of them are staying, which means you’ll still have a functioning guild after the rest of us go home. Assets is in tight with the king, too, so he should be a strong ally. Anyway, the choice is yours. I’ve got to get ready for practice with Gregory now, so let Zen know what you decide.”

  With that, Tina turned on her heel and left. She was wiggling her huge stone frame back through the jubatus-sized doorway when SilentBlayde suddenly stepped forward.

  “Wait.”

  Tina stopped mid-stoop. The sudden, perfect stillness of her stonekin was eerie and unsettling, and SB took a shaky breath.

  “That’s it?” he said in a small voice. “I’m cut out that fast?”

  “You left me no choice,” Tina replied, still not looking at him. “You’re the one who decided to keep everything to yourself. If I knew why you were acting like this, I could tell everyone to STFU and give you space. But I don’t, so I can’t. All we know is that you’re not stepping up when we need you to, and that’s unacceptable. But the ball’s in your court now. You can show up to practice as a Roughneck or go join another guild. Or stay here and talk lore all day with James, I don’t care. Everything’s on your terms now, just like you always wanted, so you do whatever. I’m getting back to work.”

  “Tina…” SB said, but she was already gone, ducking through the door so fast she took out a chunk of wood in the process.

  “I’m sorry,” James said when her thundering footsteps faded.

  “Don’t be,” SilentBlayde whispered, his hands clenching so tight James was afraid he’d break something. “I knew this was coming.”

  James sat back down with a sigh. “It’s not—”

  “It is,” his friend said hopelessly. “I overheard Zen talking about this yesterday, not that I blame her. She was absolutely right. My actions have been unacceptable. I’m still—”

  He snapped his mouth shut, and James sighed again. He was happy that SB was taking responsibility, but the tone of his friend’s voice was still worrisome. “What are you going to do?”

  Rather than answer, SilentBlayde leaned down to replace the pile of rugs Gray Fang had asked him to bring her. When they were perfectly straight, he walked to the corner where James had stashed his things last night and started gathering his armor.

  “Sorry I can’t help you, James,” he said in a dull, bitter voice. “But as you just heard, I have to get to practice.”

  James’s face pulled into a furious frown. He wanted to be supportive of his friend, but while he was happy to see SB doing something other than mope, this was ridiculous. He’d thought they were done with the endless will-they-or-won’t-they dance, but there Blayde was, picking up his swords to go back to the Roughnecks. Back into his sister’s life when she’d obviously bent over backward to give him an honorable out. And he’d had enough.

  “Haruto.”

  SilentBlayde went still, and James gritted his teeth. “I say this as your friend and as Tina’s brother: piss or get off the pot.”

  “That saying doesn’t translate well in Central,” the elf said as he continued collecting his things. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “You know exactly what I mean,” James growled. Not a normal growl, either, but the throaty lion sort that only jubatus could pull off. “I’m sick of watching you hurt my sister. She gave you every opportunity to tell her how you felt, and you threw it away. Now you want to run right back to her side like nothing’s changed!”

  “What else am I supposed to do?” SilentBlayde demanded, sliding his weapons into the sheaths at his hips. “I can’t hide in the back with Assets while she fights the Once King alone!”

  “She’s not alone,” James reminded him. “She has a whole guild to watch her back, but you’re the only one who can fix what’s wrong between the two of you.”

  “I’m trying,” SB snapped.

  “No, you’re not,” James snapped back. “If you aren’t willing to let her into your life, then you don’t get to demand to stay in hers. It’s cruel, it’s unfair, and frankly, it’s hurting everyone. It’s hurting you. You’re the one dragging this out, so do us all a favor and stop.”

  “How can you say that?” SilentBlayde demanded, his eyes betrayed above his mask. “I thought you were on my side!”

  “I’m on both of your sides!” James yelled. “I want you both to be happy, or at least to stop stabbing each other in the heart. But frankly, at this point, I think you and Tina would both be better off if you never saw each other again. I hate to say that after everything you’ve been through together, but you’ve proved twice now that whatever secret you’re hiding is more important to you than she is. You can’t say you love her and then refuse to give her anything of yourself. It’s grossly disingenuous. Don’t you see that?”

  Maybe Blayde hadn’t seen it, because the elf stepped back in shock. Since it wasn’t a big ro
om, this put his back right up against the wall of the lodge. The moment he hit the wood, he collapsed in a heap, his long legs giving out to drop him into a pile on the floor. When James reached down to help him back up, though, the elf wouldn’t even look at him.

  “You’re not wrong,” he said at last, his long ears drooping as he slumped even lower onto the floor. “She would be better without me, but I can’t leave her.”

  “Then tell her,” James said, exasperated. “She loves you, you idiot. She’s loved you for years now. All you have to do is let her in, and you’ll both be—”

  “I can’t!” SB cried, his voice desperate. “If I tell her the truth, she’ll despise me forever! I can’t live with that!”

  “You do realize that she’s already dumped you, right?” James snarled, fed up at last. “And you’re on the verge of being kicked out of her guild. You’re already living in the worst-case scenario, so you might as well go for broke. Whatever happens if you tell her the truth, it can’t be worse than this!”

  “You’re wrong,” SilentBlayde said despairingly. “Things can always get worse.” He looked down at his swords again, and then he started the long process of pushing himself up off the floor. “I need to get to practice.”

  James threw his hands into the air. “Did you hear anything I just said?”

  “I did,” Blayde said, glaring over his mask. “But you’re wrong. I still have too much to lose. If staying in the Roughnecks is all I can have for now, I’ll take it, but I won’t give up. Even if she doesn’t want me around, even if she leaves, I’ll never let her face danger alone. I’ll stay by her side no matter what. It’s all I’ve got left to offer her.”

  James growled loudly enough to rattle the floorboards, but as he opened his mouth to tell his friend just how stupid and self-indulgent he was being, Gray Fang burst into a loud, excessively moist coughing fit. In the break the noise created, SB vanished into the shadows. James lurched after him, just in case, but the elf was already gone. Cursing under his breath, he turned to glare at Gray Fang.

  “What was that about?”

  “I had to cough,” Gray Fang said innocently, puffing on her pipe. “And it was the fastest way to knock you out of a rut that was going nowhere.”

  “But—”

  “You won’t change that boy’s mind with words,” she said authoritatively. “Love-stupid people are immune to logic. He has to learn on his own, and you have a job to do. The fools can fight it out later. The best you can do for them now is figure out how to make sure there is a later.”

  Now it was James’s turn to flop. He slumped onto the floor, hands catching his head with a noise of pure frustration. “I don’t know if I can. I wasn’t lying about SB. He really is a walking encyclopedia of FFO lore. I don’t know two-thirds what he does. I can’t even figure out a pile of rugs!”

  “That’s because you don’t know our spoken history,” Gray Fang said, holding up the closest rug with a grin. “These images are just anchoring points and visual aids. They’re pretty useless if you don’t know all the songs and tales that go with them.”

  James couldn’t believe his pointed, fluffy ears. “Wait,” he said, pushing back up. “You mean you let me stay up all night working on rugs you knew I couldn’t decipher?!”

  “Welcome to apprenticehood,” Gray Fang replied, completely unrepentant. “You’re not the first know-it-all student I’ve had. They all strut in with their tails high, but every one of them learns in the end. You will, too. Much faster now that you’ve seen just how much you don’t know. So what do you say to me?”

  Biting back the slew of smart remarks he’d like to say to that, James swallowed his pride and bowed low over his knees. “Wise master, would you help your poor apprentice with his research project?”

  Gray Fang patted him on the head like he was a kitten. “I’d be glad to.”

  Chapter 5

  Tina

  “I am a stone Terminator,” Tina told herself as she stood like a boulder in the middle of the road running south out of Windy Lake. “An emotionless undead-smashing machine crafted by the Bedrock Kings.”

  It sort of worked. She definitely felt like a lump of rock warming up under the Savanna’s intense morning sun, but the chaos of feelings running beneath her stone skin was still far, far too human. Delivering SB’s demotion and “show up or else” mandate had been every bit as painful as she’d feared, and that pissed her off. Seriously, how pathetic could she get? She was the one who’d put her foot down and dumped him, so why did seeing the hurt on his face still make her so upset? How did he still have the power to twist her insides into knots? Dammit, she should be better than this.

  But just like her stone Terminator affirmations, saying the words didn’t make them true. She was supposed to be the tank, the Roughnecks’ fearless leader, but Tina just felt like a big fat fraud as her guild shuffled into the practice grounds. To top it off, the rising sun was blasting her right in the face. But while her instinct was to shield her eyes, Tina didn’t, because the glare didn’t actually bother her. Rocks didn’t need to squint or blink. They didn’t cry, either, which was why she was determined to become one with the fucking stone today. She was repeating this to herself over and over when she noticed a space opening up in the gathering crowd.

  That caught her attention. Normally, her Roughnecks had zero respect for personal space. She didn’t know if they did it for protection or if they were just impatient, but they usually piled on top of each other like kids. If they were keeping their distance, that meant the person was a threat or a pariah. Both were trouble, but when Tina looked over to see who was causing the disturbance, her eyes landed on an elven Assassin in top-tier black-and-red armor with two silver swords strapped at his sides.

  Fuck.

  Tina wasn’t sure if she was relieved or pissed that he’d shown up. Part of her had wanted him to bail if only so she wouldn’t have to face him again, but she should have known better. SilentBlayde would never let her get rid of him that easily, the jerk.

  “What’s shaking, Rocky Road?”

  Tina jumped in surprise and looked down to see NekoBaby strutting over. The short jubatus started climbing her armor the moment she got close, scaling Tina’s sun steel plate like a kitten going up a curtain to perch on her shoulder, a devious smile on her face. “Want to hear the gossip?”

  Her eyes slid back to where SB was standing alone at the edge of the furiously whispering crowd of Roughnecks. “Not particularly.”

  “Don’t be like that,” Neko said, elbowing her in the cheek. “So get this: I had to save Killbox’s life last night. He was hitting on this fly elven Sorceress chick. It started out okay, but then he started ‘being himself,’ so of course she got super offended and hit him with a fireball. I was laughing so hard I could barely cast the water spell to put him out. It was hilarious!”

  “I’m sure it was,” Tina muttered, not really paying attention. When her eyes started to slide back to SB, though, Neko whapped her in the face with her tail.

  “Pay attention! I haven’t even gotten to the good stuff yet! So waaaaaay more important than Killbox striking out, we figured out how the ichthyians get it on.”

  That got Tina’s attention. “You did what?”

  “Don’t get all pearl-clutchy,” the cat girl scolded her. “You know you want to hear about freaky fish sex here! Anyway, after a lot of trial and error, we learned that it takes three ichthyians to do the deed, and one of the guys has to change to a third temporary gender. Also, there’s sex ooze! It’s super gross! And…”

  NekoBaby had a lot more to say on the subject of sex ooze. Tina wasn’t actually interested in listening to Neko judge the shit out of ichthyians’ sex lives, but she still appreciated the effort. NekoBaby might be the queen of drama, but all that gossip hounding had given her a sixth sense for awkward social situations, and it didn’t take a genius to see that Tina was not taking SB’s presence—or the whispers that came with it—well. Seeing her upset, Nek
o had done what Neko did best and brought Tina a distraction, like a cat bringing its owner a dead bird. And as awkward and inappropriate as that was, Tina appreciated it. It was nice to have a friend who cared enough to pull her away from the disaster her personal life had become, even if it did involve graphic descriptions of sex ooze. She was doing her best to look like she was listening without having to actually listen to Neko’s oversharing when she spotted King Gregory coming down the road toward them with a tall female knight at his side.

  “Anyway,” NekoBaby went on, oblivious. “The lore says ichthyians can do it with elves, humans, and jubatus, but like, how does that actually work? We were trying to get two ichthyians and a nonichthyian together to test it out—you know, for science and shit—but no one would volunteer, the prudes.” She stopped, rapping her knuckles on Tina’s metal hair. “Yo, Rockslide, are you listening? This is super-important the-birds-and-the-bees-and-the-fishes knowledge I’m conveying here!”

  “Shhh,” Tina said, turning around so Neko could see the approaching royal party. Now that they were closer, Tina realized she recognized the dour-faced woman walking at Gregory’s side. Neko must have as well, because she gasped, claws digging into Tina’s neck.

  “Holy crappanoli! Isn’t that the Knight trainer lady you took Camp Comeback from?”

  It was none other. Neko scrambled off Tina’s shoulder and back to the raid just in time as King Gregory stopped in front of them, raising his hand in greeting.

  “Good morning, General Roxxy,” he said warmly, gesturing to the knight beside him.. “I trust you remember Dame Fiona Steelwall.”

  “How could I forget?” Tina asked, looking the tall—but still far shorter than her—woman up and down. “She threw a barrel of windfire powder at me.”