Kallen

As I sweep through the halls, the echo of the many footsteps following me has begun to grate on my nerves. Everyone seems to have business with me: seamstresses and nurses and cooks and maids who need answers and assistance, nobles who simply want to breathe the same air as I do.

But I have no patience to deal with them. There are greater matters at hand.

I stop quickly and turn to the group of followers. “You’ll have to excuse us. Madoc and I have business to attend to.”

The group dissipates—all but my trusty aid, who knows I have concerns that need addressing. He waits until the others have gone, then turns to me.

“You’re bothered,” he says.

I nod, and we continue walking. “My brother’s sent for humans without alerting me. This doesn’t bode well. Do you know what he’s up to?”

“I haven’t heard anything about Leander,” Madoc assures me. “But then again, I move in your circles, Your Majesty. Not the king’s. That does raise a question, though. Your brother doesn’t care for humans, so why has he sent for them?”

I frown, quickening my pace through the sun-drenched hallway, eager to escape the light trickling in through the many windows that line the cloister halls. “My brother follows a single school of thought, in which humans are the lesser species to be used to do our bidding.”

“But he’s never met a human before,” Madoc replied. “That one we just met in passing…I wouldn’t say she was any lesser.”

I pause. Not intentionally; my legs simply stop moving. I find myself thinking back to the girl in the hallway. She certainly was not lesser in beauty, but…

I can’t shake the strange feeling in my chest. The exciting jolt within me when I met her eyes.

Madoc seems confused as to why I’ve stopped walking. I continue forward, shaking off the unease in my bones. “There have been humans in the realm for centuries,” I say, the billowing of my cape in my ears. “I fear why my brother has chosen to bring more into Tír na Séasúr.”

***

The thought is on my mind for the next hour, when I finally approach my brother’s quarters.

I knock on his door twice, and then enter without waiting. It’s no surprise that I find Leander tangled up in bed with several chamber maids in varying stages of undress.

“Brother. We need to speak,” I say.

Leander springs up from where he had been buried beneath the sheets, his hair mussed and a woman on either side of him.

“Can’t it wait?”

“I think not,” I reply.

Leander gives a great sigh and waves the maids out of his bed. I turn away to offer them privacy as they scramble to their feet, gather their things, and scamper naked out of the room.

When I turn back, Leander stands there, just as nude and twice as shameless. In our youth, we would have been mistaken for twins, but since his reign, my dear brother has lost all sense of self-control.

He wears his indulgence in the slight pudge of belly that lops over his pants as he pulls them to his waist. In his long, disheveled hair and the scattered mess lying about in his quarters, like he had a party last night. He’s still a striking king, nonetheless, but not quite the muscled, lean older brother he once was.

But underestimating him would still be a mistake.

“What’s so important that it could not wait?” he asks, his voice gruff with the sound of intoxication.

“I ran into a human being escorted through the halls,” I explain.

Before I can say more, Leander lets out a deep sigh. “Oh, did you? I suppose that means the first part of my surprise is ruined.”

“What surprise?” I ask, quirking a brow at him. “What have you got up your sleeve?”

“You think poorly of me,” Leander says. “Are you not excited by the prospect of humans in the realm?”

“Why would I be excited by that?” I ask. “I would like to know what you’re up to. Why have you sent for humans? How many?”

Leander lets out a laugh and sinks to the edge of his bed to pull on his boots. “Why do numbers matter? I’ve sent for as many as necessary for my surprise. Which you’ll have to wait to hear the rest of.”

I open my mouth to argue and Leander stops me, a palm to the air. “Which,” he continues, “I will be announcing at the banquet later. It will be a fun time. You’ll know of my plans then.”

I feel my jaw tense. “Your idea of fun and mine are not nearly the same.”

Leander laughs and splays a hand over his chest. “You wound me, brother. Trust me a for a change. You’ll enjoy what I have in store.”