Fox’s Tongue and Kirin’s Bone

Chapter 97: Until the End

On the sixth day, His Majesty did not leave his bed, and no meetings forced him from it. That night, his letter to Connor was dictated through Princess Rose.

* * *

On the seventh day they had to poison the king twice, as he could not keep the first dose down. Similarly, his meals.

Jeshinkra maintained a steady stream of stories from their time as a team. Years of fighting at the dragon border and the waiting between those fights. Their team was fortunate to have only rarely lost members; those that had first started with them had mostly stayed with them, to the end.

Less fortunate, that.

What of your team? Orin asked, turning his head towards Rose, and smiling, and it wasnt clear which of those was the more tiring action. Have you any stories yet that your commanders shouldnt know?

Rose looked at her brother. Then she stood, and left.

Aaron followed her into the hall, past Adelaides guards on the door, to an empty little study in which she could properly bottle her screams.

Why arent we helping him? she demanded.

He doesnt want it, Aaron said.

We could switch the doses, she said. Youre with Adelaide every morning, I know she keeps them on her; you could do it.

I could.

Then why havent you?

He wants to know what he is, Aaron said, with a shrug.

But he doesnt need to, said the fey-marked princess. Its not worth his life.

He shrugged again, because there wasnt much else to do, and he wasnt about to pretend he understood. But a thing could be important to someone without him understanding it.

Youd do it for me, she said. Youd change the poison without me even asking.

Youd want me to, Aaron said. He doesnt.

Dont you care?

I do, he said. Because the king was a friend, more or less. Someone Aaron would prefer remain alive, certainly; which wasnt the same thing, but it was at least easier to be sure of.

What does caring matter if you dont do something? Are you even trying to save him? there was an accusing sort of hope in her voice, like she wished he was hiding something from her. Something that would make this all worth it.

Im setting things up for if he lives, Aaron said, gentle as he could. Dyings his own choice.

Princess Rose gave him a look exactly like shed given her brother. Then she left him, just the same.

The good lieutenant had followed them from Orins room, with all due discretion. He was standing outside the door when Aaron finally left. Like a guard, or like hed been waiting to be noticed.

You didnt follow Rose? Aaron asked.

She doesnt actually require my presence at all hours, Lochlann replied.

Aaron gave a little mock gasp. He admits it. Are you feeling quite all right, lieutenant?

Lochlann gave him a little shove back inside the room. The lieutenant himself didnt follow, not all the way; he stood in the doorway, keeping an eye on the hall, like a man who wanted to make sure no one could come listening at closed doors. Theirs was a quiet hall, a dead end; down at the next junction, servants and militia were passing regularly.

I dont know what youre trying to do, with whatever games youve been playing, he said. But if King Orin dies, the court is going to press for her testing next. Have you taken that into account?

To be honest, I dont particularly like Orins court, Aaron said. And smiled.

The lieutenant gave that smile the skepticism it deserved, and asked of it exactly as many questions as he wanted answered.

If the king dies, the man continued, Prince Connor will be a child left sitting a throne. The south will press for your sister as regent, but the north will have its own ideas. Humanity could fracture if his councilors choose differently.

Aaron cast his own glance down their still-private hall, then looked back to Lochlann. My dear lieutenant, he said, smile growing, have you been plotting?

Planning, Lochlann corrected. I have been contingency planning, not

The lieutenant drew in a breath, and visibly decided not to justify himself to the likes of Aaron. Youve been planning for if His Majesty lives. If he dies, the man continued. Help me bring them both south. Three Havens would take them in, until Prince Connor reaches his majority.

And Adelaide could serve as Connors regent from the comfort of her own keep, rather far from the ability of anyone in One King to remove her. Not bad, for babys first power subversion. But thenand hard as it was to think of the manthis wasnt Lochlanns first, was it? Not his first time thinking of such things, at least. Hed grown up in Three Havens. Grown up there, because that was where the Iron Captain had taken him, after that night when the Executioner was killed in his bed and Lochlanns grandmother had made herself and her little family scarce.

Still. Connor was one matter, but Aaron could think of one rather large difference between bringing baby Lochlann south for safety and bringing Rose.

Youd trust the south with her? Aaron asked.

We know how to live with the Good Neighbors, in the south, the man answered, rather stiffly. One of the first rules is to not look too closely at their children.

Oh, she would love that, Aaron said. Much as shed loved being treated to half-glances and bowls of milk. Salts Mane had been good for her: they werent so familiar with fey, there. The same couldnt be said of the south, with the Fair Lands their neighbor.

Better milk than iron, though, if it came to it.

If he dies, Aaron agreed.

Lochlann nodded to him once, then left to catch up to his charge.

Aaron took himself out for a walk in the forest. Not the northern one. He cut through the enclavers fields, with their new green shoots; made a great show of knocking on a tree at the edge of the fake boundary, before stepping inside. There werent any oak trees here, he noticed for the first time; none with more than a few hopeful months of spring growth to their name. That must be how the enclavers kept up their fake borderthey killed the Lord of Seasons trees, long before they were old enough to claim a piece of forest for themselves. Aaron walked deeper, keeping a hand on his knife and an eye all about him, until he was close enough to knock again at the real border.

The Spring Lord lowered its head down from the canopy, as if it had always been there. It was taller, again. Black swathes of bark were opening up in the white fur of its legs, like the stripes of a birch tree.

Afternoon, Aaron said. Do you have any acorns I could borrow?

It lowered its head farther, until its antlers pointed to him. Which was a sight that should be more intimidating than it was, but felt mostly like having a sapling be particularly eager to greet him. The acorns sheltered between lichen-draped vines were as green as their season; when he picked them, they aged to brown in his hands.

* * *

Rose returned to her brothers quarters long enough to scribe his letter for him. She shoved it into Aarons chest, the wax still warm, and did not bid either of them good night.

* * *

On the eighth day, Orin did little enough of anything. Rose was too angry to visit with him. Or with Aaron. So Aaron went to keep His Majesty company, with badly read kingdom tales. He omitted the ones with dragons.

When Orin wrote his eighth letter to Connor, it was through Aarons own terribly misspelled hand.

* * *

This was how the last night was to go: Orin would not be alone, at any hour of the day. He hadnt been before, but now there was no acting otherwise. When the time for the final dose came, Adelaide herself would take over for the guard she always posted on his door. The castles doctor was to be on call as well, which was the only remaining pretense to the situation. Orin would live or die, as man or dragon; there was very little the doctor could do. It was not the sort of poison that had a ready antidote.

We could fake the dose, Aaron offered, because Rose would want him to.

His Majesty declined.

Aarons fingers traced over the bezoar in his pocket. He could shove it down the kings throat. But it would be wasted on the man, if Orin let it come to that.

Youre not spending all day waiting forfor that, Jeshinkra said. Youre not. Come on.

Ill not have my last act as king be falling off a horse, His Majesty said. Though hed little enough strength to counter her efforts, as she tugged him upright and off of his pillows.

Youll ride with me, she said. We wont bring anyone else with us, and Ill swear you rode like a prince. A king.

Shed known him far longer, as a prince.

This is humiliating, he said, as she dressed him in the coat Aaron provided.

Its not the circumstances Id pictured, either. But youre getting out of here. And well stay out, as long as you like.

It was a stupid thing, for two people to go off into the woods alone. The kind of thing they might not have returned from.

That was the point, Aaron expected.

Orin didnt have to return. Didnt have to take that final dose. He didnt have to be king, either.

Jeshinkra brought a wrapped package with her, slender and sturdy. When they returned, Orin was holding his head up higher. He stumbled sliding off their horse, but when he walked, it was straighter than hed done that morning, even if it was still with assistance. He wore the sword shed commissioned at his hip. Shed been right: this one really did suit a king. Aaron wondered what theyd done with the old one. It wasnt like humans to abandon a good sword in the woods. It might have been fitting, though, to leave it at the grave of his last chance to walk away.

Night came. So did His Majestys witnesses, and his friends. Even Rose came, little as she had to say to her brother.

Orin took the last dose, grimacing at the taste. Then he settled in his bedchamber, which was entirely too small for a dragon to shift in without pinning itself against the walls. Jeshinkra and Adelaide took up the guard outside. Lochlann and Rose took up the watch, rather nearer. And Aaron and the Lady stepped away. He would come back later, of course; he still had tonights letter to collect. And tomorrows, which he would be sure to remind Orin of, lest he think himself excused. But for the first time since this had started, His Majesty had not immediately sat down to write. Aaron could grant him a bit of space.

Besides, he had questions. The sort he should have thought of nine days ago.

Was that the right dose? he asked, when they were alone. Because at the start of this, Adelaide had asked about ingredients, about effects, but never dosage. And the Lady could have just lied then, could lie now, but

Are you implying that I would stint on the kings own poisoning? the Lady asked. Or the opposite?

It is simply occurring to me, Aaron said, that you might have little use for a strict-kept human on the throne.

Better to be generous in the dosage; better to be sure of forcing a shift, so neither His Majesty nor his subjects could ignore what he was. And if he was merely human, if he had no stronger body to mitigate the poisoning, well. She still had her own heir to the throne, sitting safe with his council in Onekin.

Aaron wondered how shed react, if he and Lochlann did bundle up the royal twins and run south.

Her lips quirked. Foxs tongue or no, she wasnt stupid enough to give voice to a true answer. And whether she had or hadnt, it didnt change that Orin had allowed it.

Did the Late Wake have a hand in his teams deaths? Aaron asked. Because it had occurred to him, too, that there would have been no suspicions to raise, no petition for Duke Sung to have brought forth, no investigation or ostracizing by his nobles or preemptive poisoning without that trail of bodies pointing like an arrow back to His Majesty.

Is it either crime or confession, the Lady asked, to be beaten to the chore?

Well. That was its own problem, then, wasnt it?

She smiled at him. It was a disturbingly genuine expression. Im glad that youre willing to be alone in a room with me again. It has been great fun, trusting you. I hope you can play the same game with me.

A game, he repeated, because what else was he to do with that. Dont you expect it to be real? Dont you want it to be?

In my experience, things are only real until someone changes their mind. Its better to be clear on such rules going in, wouldnt you agree?

And what are the rest of your rules?

I believe weve just gone over the most important. She gave him another wide smile, with perfectly human teeth, much as he looked for them to be too many or too sharp. Dont you trust me?

No, he answered. No kirins bone required, for that bit of honesty.

There was many a beautiful thing in this world. Her laughter was the sort he could have done without.