CHAPTER 49 Keith’s Godmother Was Trying to Kill Him?

Henrietta

Lady Amy peeked behind me and frowned. "Are they coming this way?"

I waved back the way I'd come. "No, they rode toward the castle."

"Great! Then I'll definitely be available to walk you to—Wait, did you say rode? Brightstar, that traitor!" The elf tossed a few sun-streaked brown braids that had fallen forward over her shoulder and let out a huff.

Starting at her widow's peak, two braids swept out and hugged her heart-shaped face with wisps of straight loose hair. The braids looped behind her head and tied into a high-top ponytail that fell in partial braids to her waist. A few flowers and vines had been woven into the strands in places, and the whole arrangement made her look like a proper elven princess.

If you ignored the breastplate, that was. I assumed a real elven princess would be in full armor riding a unicorn into battle, not running around the Dark Enchanted Forest in half armor with her nose stuck in a book.

"The search party seemed very concerned. Are you sure—"

She interrupted vehemently. "I'm absolutely sure. They're not worried about me. They're just upset that I'm not sitting around looking pretty like I'm supposed to."

"I see." That sounded familiar. We started walking at a reasonable pace, though it looked like instead of arriving at noon, we'd reach our destination closer to sunset. "Then sure, join me on my quest."

Lady Amy looked at me with bright eyes. "What is your quest?"

"I'm debating," I told her honestly, "between ramen from Logan's Noodle House or rumblepot stew from the Damp Gizzard."

"Oh." Disappointment flitted across her face. Then she perked up. "If we eat at Olen's, then he gives a discount for a room."

"Then let's aim for the Damp Gizzard. I like sleeping on a real bed."

The trip was longer than it needed to be, but Lady Amy was anything but boring.

"And then His Viciousness walked out of the Green Oak covered so heavily in Venus violents pollen that his skin was dyed purple for a week!" she finished a daring tale of the first time Her Eminence Feliwyn had sent King Keith to test himself against the dungeon in the Hollow.

"Really?" I couldn't imagine how cute a ten-year-old Keith running around casting [Quick Chant] spells must have been. For the better part of the afternoon, Lady Amy had regaled me with stories about the dungeons around the Dark Enchanted Forest. And, even better, stories about King Keith.

"Really! Father was hosting Her Eminence with an elaborate feast when he burst in." Amy giggled. "He was still Royal Heir at the time, and Rufus could beat him with one hand tied behind his back."

"So are you friends with Chloe and Rufus and Keith?" I tried to piece things together.

"Me?! Oh no! Oh no, no, no, no, no," Lady Amy protested vehemently. "My … um, duties kept me from doing more than simply greeting the prince with all the other children. Her Eminence chose Rufus as our king's closest confidant, and it's a good thing she did."

"Why?" The forest around us had become overgrown with brambles and bushes and holly so thick that it was getting hard to see anything but a wall of green.

"Everyone knows how solitary and introverted our king is," Lady Amy explained. "Necromancer Chloe challenged him intellectually, but General Rufus trained with him and handled most of the assassins."

"I thought the assassins didn't start until Keith stepped up as king at sixteen?" I asked.

"Where did you hear—Ah, wait." The elf chuckled. "Yes, Drendil started sending assassins around that time. But no, I meant the other assassins."

"What other assassins?"

Lady Amy listed them off on her fingers. "Royalists during the Sumbrian revolution, the Servalt first prime minister's private army, Her Eminence Feliwyn's shadow corp—"

"Wait?!" I interrupted. "Sorry, did you say Keith's godmother was trying to kill him?"

"I don't think she was trying to perma-death him. She was just sending shadow assassins after him."

"Not to kill him?" I asked, again.

"More like training?" Lady Amy shrugged. "It's the usual upbringing for prospective rulers of the Dark Enchanted Forest. You can't be weak if you want Lithnilheim to acknowledge you."

"Who is Lithnilheim?" I could understand the training. It was actually a wonder my parents hadn't thought of it.

"The forest." Lady Amy nodded respectfully to the general area around us. "It's the elven name for the Dark Enchanted Forest, and where Nilheim comes from. The elves were here first, serving the Hollow, long before the towns or the castle.

"They learned that Doreen the Devourer, Demon of Gluttony, had been mortally wounded and hid in the forest to spend the last of her days. After a few raiding parties tried and failed to drive off her and her minions, a sort of truce was formed because she only had some fifty years to live before her wounds would overcome her.

"But then she had children—a lot of children—and more groups settled here. There have been a mix of kings and queens of all races going back hundreds of years, but every once in a while, the bloodline breeds true and a powerful demon resurfaces. King Keith is only a demi and could have easily been overthrown as a child if Her Eminence hadn't stepped in. But it was a bloodless rise to power, since she did."

"Unless you count the assassins," I said.

"Yes." She chuckled. "But who counts assassins?"