Page 101 of His Realm

“You could be put to death or, better, as everyone is allowed to drink from the iceni here, your blood would save them all. Would that not be a mythic tale?”

“Was that your intent?” I asked, for some reason, not afraid of him in the least. Perhaps I should have been. Perhaps my exhaustion was coloring my perception, but I couldn’t dredge up any fear.

“It was not,” he told me. “And now I find I have but one desire.”

“And what is that?”

“All I want is to see Isabella dead before I succumb.”

“You want the queen dead?”

“I do,” he said, and I could hear the bitterness in his voice.

“That’s treason.”

“Not here.”

“Because of Leda?”

His grunt ended in a wheeze. “Told you of Leda, did she?”

“She did, as did her son.”

“My son,” he snarled. “He is mine.”

“He’s powerful, second in strength only to the rekkr. He’s my champion.”

“Is he?”

I nodded.

“How fortunate then that I will see him when he comes with the prince for you.”

“I’m sure you will, but you won’t see the queen before you die. You’re wasting away, and I have to wonder why,” I said, leaning forward. “I don’t understand.”

“My reasons are twofold.”

“Tell me.”

“Why do you care, boy?”

I hadn’t been a boy in a very long time, but to him, I probably always would be. “I always like to listen to a good story.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes.”

I’d been all over the world and found that a universal truth was that everyone liked talking about themselves. Decimus was no different.

“Neither Ødger nor Balon were anything like me,” he began. “Neither of them had any interest in building a home.”

I was quiet, listening as I said I would, and Decimus went on and told me that Ødger had wanted to see the world, taste it, drink it down. There were not enough men in Ophir to quench his desire. Decimus had feared that if his oldest left to fuck all over the wide world, he might never return.

Balon, Decimus explained, had been interested in gaining knowledge, in learning as much as he could, expanding his mind. Decimus had feared the same would be true for him. That if he left, there would never be a way to lure Balon back.

“And so you did what? Tricked them into staying? Made them sick so they couldn’t go anywhere?”

“They needed to be committed to Ophir,” he said angrily.