Chương 360: 8.5

Evren shifted his coils to allow easier access to the table. Trying to ignore the way that the air played off the patches of recently shaved fur as he moved, it was again the wrong time of year for those patterns to be etched into the fur on his sides and arms. At least the ones doing the shaving had agreed with Evren on that. The man was muttering under his breath about the order from the regent to use a summer festival's pattern so late in the year.

Evren had startled the barber when he'd quietly rumbled an agreement with him. But after that it had been one of the more pleasant mornings. It was so strange to simply know what Fizzbunches assured him was not even all of the languages spoken by 'his people' across Magarska. Evren had struggled with learning High Magarskan before. But his friend could seemingly clear any such confusions simply by speaking to the wyrm for one night. It was a very useful kind of magic Fizzbunches had.

Fizzbunches was not here however, he had slipped away with a very abrupt jolt and departed the meeting hall just as the High King's servants were clearing the dishes still heavy with the evening meal, only mentioning." Something of grave importance calls to me!" Evren had long struggled with the courtly ways, His sheer size and appetite already an insult. But he had found a way past that now. The High King's favorite dishes had filled the table.

And the last of the mounds of rice banquet still lingered in the air, cooked bright orange in spice and beef broth with berries, nuts and herbs. Mingling with the scents of those that had come before. Fried Dough, Fruits and Gourds stuffed with griff pulli meat and grains. It was so absurd to have so much food pass the men eating.

Between all of the other dishes there had been the hillocks of breads of all kinds and shapes, speckled in all manner of seeds and herbs, salt and of course Murad the First's favorite, a glazing of the rich molten fat of the same pulli that had filled the dolma. The variety of palace feasts gave the Wyrm Prince a way around the usual 'insult' of his appetite. Evren had eaten delicately and minimally from all that was given him, for once not having to pretend at his enjoyment.

Although he might have struggled to feel any fullness with the portions, the sheer number of them eased that. The food in Kars was seasoned, but every official meal left him yearning for his mother's treats and more importantly the freedom to fill his belly quickly. The feasts in the capital though? So varied and different the dishes were Evren could almost feel fed. And all the different flavors he had to admit were delightful, but the food was not the most important part of meals in the palace of Terminapolis.

No, as Fizzbunches had instructed him it was the things that were said after around that table that held the most significance, the truth and lies together. Apparently it was revealing even when the speakers tried to hide what they meant, though Evren could barely follow some of the twists the cat shaped wizard did. Once the silent eating was done and the men drinking the rose and juice sweetened waters, discussion and council rose up. This evening the topic was the same as it had been for the last five days.

Coming up again and again amid the murmur of lesser topics was always the same matter weighing on every man at the table. The Countess Wyrm, Shining Doom of Viznove. They would pretend at other matters but even Evren could see that she was never far from the thoughts of anyone who attended this table these days. His 'counterpart' and her imminent arrival never failed to emerge in one way or another every meal."

She's passed south of the iron gate now, that's her last crossing of the Duna on her way to Terminapolis" Evren could smell the hate on the men who supposedly represented the greatest powers of the Kingdom of Magarska. His supposed peers as princes. Even though they barely even acknowledged his existence." It's so convenient how the wallachians did not attack until the beast was there to protect us from them! This business stinks of northern treachery! Viznove and their black knights unleashed that blight upon us!

That serpent is surely colluding with them!" Although they spoke of the Countess hardly better then they did Evren, Which before Fizzbunches Evren might have found comforting. Now he only wondered how much longer the High King would let the growing argument build this time?" She marches with the authority of those so-called Cantorans Reborn and their High King's pet Djinn among her ranks under truce!"

He offered no words, simply listening, as silent now as he had been while chewing the flaky dough stuffed in barely hatched Griff meat, focusing on silence and quiet listening now as he had on grace with his claws and teeth then." She's a beast of that scheming King Stein! The very one who sent the Tepes patricide into Wallachia in the first place! They have already broken any honor of truce or peace you fool!" Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

The same grievances coming out with different words. The same tired grudges, the same allies rallying to one another's side. Outwardly Murad the First was losing his patience, Visibly the Conqueror seemed to be growing annoyed with the squabbling, but Evren knew better. He could smell the satisfaction of the High King when his princes fought over these same old wounds.

"Hear hear! This is war! Over nine Hundred dead along the border! Two whole villages were left with nothing but corpses in their fields and Orad besieged besides!'" Despite all the words and lessons to the contrary, about how no offense should be given to any guest who sits at a prince's table, despite how the lessons say otherwise, despite all of the dozens of things which Evren was forbidden from doing in Kars?

Once the last dish was cleared from the table in the capital they went at each other with malice in their hearts! Fizzbunches would have been here intimating the meaning as to why any other night, but Evren's 'little advisor' was not here. Still the mood at the table was a familiar one.

It 'should' have been making Murad furious every night, but by smell alone it was enough for Evren to know the scheming liar of the High King was pleased with the outcome, and he knew nothing good would come of the man's hidden pleasure. The Wyrm remained silent as the princes squabbled.

"My Vassal Count Parabuch is the one most gravely injured by the Wallachian betrayal, but he still writes well of the Shining Doom and her sincerity towards peace. Silence your tongue! It is not you that will feel the wrath of your dishonor. It is my principality which will suffer the most if we break a peace truce with the north men and their Countess Wyrm!" A shift in the King of Kings, the Ruler over Princes. He who was an Emperor in all but name Fizzbunches called him.

The so-called wolf prince wondered if it would finally come to blows before Murad intervened." You and your father claimed Wallachia was secured under the Árpádok principality! But here you are while one of those sunless northerner's warbeasts dressed up as a Countess marches an army through your vassal's lands!" There was a stronger shift from the High King. The Prince of Árpádok was sitting up straighter from his cushion, on the verge of standing to loom." My father died fighting for Wallachia! Where was yours?!

Where was-" The voice cut through the squabbling like a knife to their throats." Enough! No more of these discussions on the trials of the past! When we have the bounties of the present to enjoy and the promise of the future to decide!" So that was as far as the High King needed his princes to go for tonight? Evren set it to memory, he would discuss this with Fizzbunches tonight when they were alone. He did not know what it meant, but Fizzbunches should have an idea.

Murad the First, Conqueror of Orestias, surveyed his vassals. Each the head of their principality, each a supposed peer to Evren himself. But the High King's eyes did not settle on the Wolf Prince despite his title. No, he looked upon Evren's regent. His grey white brows furrowed together in agitation, but there was victory in his sweat.

"T he Countess of Viznove is my guest in Magarska, She has defended our people at the cost of her own even when we failed to secure our own borders and even before that reached out to aid us during the Troubles with Wallachia." His face remained stern." There will be no more talk of betraying my honor, as host." All the princes bowed, Evren included. The High King's fierceness then cracked into a joy that better fit the scent he was harboring. He clapped his hands. No one spoke into that silence.

Evren focused on the lingering scents of baklava, recalling the heaping platters of the High King's favorite dishes. Sticky sweetness layered in flaky dough thin as paper. Warm and crisp in the air, freshly made. Every few layers starkly stood out on the tooth and tongue, dappled with crumbles of pistachio. Murad had been served first for that of course.

"Now then! Wolf Prince Evren, How have you found your studies of the officer manuals?" Evren twitched as he moved to meet the High King's eyes, taken out of his reverie. The High King was singling him out in the silence he'd created?!

"Uh, They are interesting reading, my king! Thank you very much for providing them, I didn't know there were so many different kinds of men in the armies of Magarska." The high king smiled, but his gaze turned to Evren's Regent.

"Is that so?" The man who had once been the prince of the Vanand spoke up with a bit more stiffness in his tone than he usually managed at the feasts.

"It is less than a year since the Wolf Prince has mastered reading letters, he is still quite young. I was planning to begin with those materials on our return to Kars." Evren did not react, but that lie was so obvious even the High King was raising a brow.

"Well, a precocious young prince is a welcome one! Until you depart I will see that the officers manuals and even the texts for the generals are made available to you Wolf Prince." And then with that the high king was done with him. He turned to one of the other Princes on some other topic. Evren tried to listen but his head was feeling full trying to track all of the conversations and how they might hold secrets.

He almost missed the tell-tale way that a corner formed without a wall next to him and Fizzbunches slipped from around it. The cat rubbed against his side with an insistent urgency." We have a problem."