The Prince’s Boy: 40

[ravenna_c_tan]

(Continuing the weekly serial by Cecilia Tan! Need to start at the beginning? Click here.)

40: Jorin

I went to Gresh. Somehow, I knew if I was to find an ally among the Night Riders against Sergetten, he would be the most likely candidate.

I was correct. I shared some cold bread with him as dawn broke and Kan and Sergetten were still in hushed, vehement conference. We sat on fallen logs and broke out the rations, waiting for the others to join us. There would be no cooking fire this morning while we hid from detection. “So,” I said, carefully at first, “Sergetten is Kan’s mentor in Night Magic?”

“Aye.” Gresh gnawed the rough crust of the bread, his eyes never straying far from the tent where our leader and my old tutor were speaking.

“He used to teach me the map of Trest,” I said, “and every time I, or the prince, named something wrong, he would rap me on the back of the knuckles with a stick. I would get that same stick applied to my arse if Kenet drew frits in the margins of a book or daydreamed instead of reading his assigned chapter. But.”

“But?”

“But that isn’t why I don’t trust him.” I chewed slowly, choosing my words. “He is Seroi’s apprentice.”

Gresh grunted agreement.

“And if there’s one thing I know, it’s that Night Magic can twist a man’s desires.”

Now he chuckled, low in his throat. “Are you saying you wouldn’t have taken on the lot of us without it? Don’t fool yourself, Weltskin. You love the thorn of the man as much as the rose of the maid.”

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