Divided (21 page)

When he walked to the door and opened it though, he was
relieved to see his advisor standing there.  Lee looked disinterested, as he
always did, though he offered a slight smile when he saw Calis.  “Ah, I’m
actually surprised you’re in here.  This was one of the last places I looked. 
I thought you’d be… elsewhere.”

Lee meant Dark District, obviously, but Calis wasn’t going
to comment on that where people could hear it.  So, instead he just shrugged
his shoulders and figured Lee could figure out on his own why Calis wasn’t
there.  Once he let Lee into his room and shut the door behind him, Calis
spoke, “Were you in Dark District?”

“I was collecting information there,” Lee answered, “not fraternizing
needlessly like you seem to enjoy doing.”

Calis hardly thought that was fair.  He hadn’t gone to Dark
District in some time, and he hardly called what he’d done for Kilik needless
fraternizing.  Though, in Lee’s mind, that was probably precisely what it was. 
“Did you collect any useful information?” Calis asked, ignoring the insult
outright.

“No,” Lee answered truthfully.  He was not one to beat
around the bush—well, he wasn’t when he spoke to Calis.  If Lavus or another
nobleman had asked him that same question, Lee would have talked a circle
around them until they’d forgotten what they’d even asked.  Calis smiled at the
thought.  “Apparently our Phantom Blade friend made an appearance recently, but
it wasn’t much of an appearance.  He just did… whatever it is that he does, and
no one knew anything more.”

A thought twisted its way into Calis’s head.  Odd, now that
Kilik was better, that said vigilante was around again.  The noble incursions
in Dark District had been slower before Kilik’s recovery, but there had been a
few, and the Phantom Blade—as Lee informed Calis—had not been there.  And yet
now he had returned.  “Lee, as the observant individual that you are, I am
certain that you are having the same thought that I am having,” Calis said in a
roundabout way in which only Lee would find amusement.

There was a flash of a grin, and Lee shrugged his
shoulders.  “The only reason I am not certain, Calis, is the obviousness of
it.  No one seems to know, and yet when you look at the facts—it is perfectly
clear.  Though, I can’t help feeling that I wouldn’t be giving the matter
enough attention to catch this, if it weren’t for your unprecedented…
interest.”  Calis flushed at the words.

Though, his interest had obviously solved a mystery that
could have taken them years if it had not been there.  “And there is always the
chance that we are wrong, and my unprecedented interest is exactly why it seems
so obvious,” he answered swiftly. 

Calis didn’t know how much he believed his own words,
though.  Despite having seen Kilik only moments before the Phantom Blade had
appeared—and despite Kilik’s sickness—Calis had seen the boy working with
extreme diligence on a sun after recovering.  And the healer said that he was
not fully recovered, so if his newfound acquaintance felt he was needed, then
he would certainly have shrugged off his sickness to stop the noble problem. 
“That is why I am trying to collect information, the only problem is… no one
seems to have it.  Still, the signs are there—he is small, with all the right
traits.  You said you saw this phantom—did you happen to notice his eye color?”

That was it. 
The eyes,
he thought woefully,
those
would be unmistakable.  The coincidence would be too extreme should their eyes
both be that… fascinating color. 
Calis tried to think back to the sun
where he had seen and spoken with the phantom.  He could not remember the eyes,
though.  He had only looked at the mask, and the outfit, and the eyes had been
entirely lost in what he wore.  Perhaps that meant they weren’t like Kilik’s,
then, since Calis didn’t know if he would have been able to miss Kilik’s eyes
if he tried.  “I’m not sure—I’ve seen the eyes, but they aren’t standing out in
my memory.”

“Then, I suppose we’ll have to gather a little more
information.  Though, I have a sinking suspicion that your friend would get
little help from the vigilante if trouble were to befall him.”  The thought
struck Calis as though someone had thrown a large object at the back of his
head.  That was right—Kilik would not be protected from any noble upstart. 
Thinking back on their conversation, Calis was sure that Kilik had implied this
by what he’d said.

He was almost certain, now, that the person who had caught
his interest on the first sun of his return was the same one that had caught it
at the festival.  An interesting notion, and one that made Calis’s heart speed
up far more than it should have.  “That would be rather ironic,” Calis said
after a moment of silence.

“Yes,” Lee said, “though not unexpected—since you seem to
have a bad habit of staring at both of them.”  Calis flushed with irritation. 
“What?”  Lee asked with the slightest of grins on his face, and a playful look
in his green eyes.  “It should be considered good that you know what you like!”

There was not much else to say.  The point was that Calis
was interested, far more than he should be, and for reasons that extended
beyond curiosity.  As much as he wanted to contribute this to his desire for
friends, the strange rhythm of his heart warned against it.  “What I like?” he
echoed Lee.

Lee smiled pleasantly.  “You are normally so aloof and
disinterested.  You say that I am, and yet you are far worse—at least I care
enough to watch others, and determine what they are doing.  Unless you are
trying to manipulate another person—or if you are in a battle—you pay no
attention to anyone.  And yet now…”  His voice trailed off as he seemed to come
to a realization.

Calis knew Lee was right.  The blond had never been very
interested in others—in fact, he had been scolded during his childhood for
having next to no interest.  Calis had certainly made sure to get as close to
Lee as he could when he realized that he liked the green-eyed noble, but even
then he hadn’t watched Lee and had been rather glad when his advisor had gone
off on his own. 

There had never been any interest from Calis until now.  And
now all he could think about was Kilik—and all he could do when in the boy’s
presence was watch him in a mildly awestruck state.  Yes, there was clearly a
problem here, and one out of which Calis couldn’t talk himself.  “We will see
what comes of it,” he told Lee.

“We certainly will,” Lee agreed severely.  “Did you wash for
dinner?” Lee asked.  Sometimes, he even attempted to do what an ordinary
advisor would do.  He did a good job at making sure that Calis never missed
relevant meetings, but that was as far as it went.  They spent much more time
together than most nobles and their advisors, though, and everyone in the
castle knew that Lee was more friend to Calis than advisor.  Lavus had fought
the idea at first, but when Calis had insisted on it—he’d let it go, stating
that it could be good for loyalty purposes.

Upon realizing that he hadn’t washed, he bid Lee farewell
and headed off to remedy that.  The bathroom was as overdone as the rest of the
castle.  The room was filled with mirrors and golden tubs.  Coals beneath each
of the tubs kept the water warm in them whenever they were filled—and they
usually were.  The insides of the tubs were that familiar crimson that Lavus
liked so much, as were the floors.  They were a deep, red marble, and the walls
were made of stone that did an excellent job of keeping out the cool air during
the winter.

Calis alerted one of the servants, requesting a pair of
clothes for dinner before he walked to one of the baths and removed his current
clothing.  He eased into the water and was surprised at how nice it felt.  He could
almost feel the stress from the thoughts he’d had this sun evaporate into the
water.  For a moment, he just sat there, staring blankly at the stone walls of
the room.

His fingers moved carelessly over the sides of the tub
before they dropped into the water and splashed it up into his face.  The heat
was more inviting than he’d remembered it being in a long time, despite the hot
weather outside.  This heat was entirely different, and it felt spectacular. 
Calis had always wondered why his father bothered to heat the bath waters
during the summer months, but his father insisted that was what royals did, and
so they had hot water year round.

Calis felt a pang of guilt for the families that probably
never had hot water.  That would go for nearly everyone in Dark District.  That
brought the unavoidable thought of Kilik back into his mind and he wondered if
the boy had ever even had a hot bath before.  Certainly not in Dark District,
but perhaps he had wherever he’d come from. 

Try as he might to force his mind away from that topic, it
remained there, contented to wonder about Kilik’s life before coming to
Telandus.  He claimed not to remember it, but Calis didn’t know if he believed
that.  Wherever he had come from must have been a good place to grow up, lest
Kilik had turned out the way he had.  Calis wasn’t sure he’d ever seen someone
so
kind
before.  Certainly not in Telandus.

A grin made its way across his face at the thought of
sneaking those coins back into Kilik’s coin purse when he hadn’t been paying
attention.  Calis could only imagine how indignant the boy must have been upon
seeing those there.  Still, that family needed the coin far more than Calis
did—after all, what would any coin mean to Calis, anyway?  He never had to pay
for things in the Shining District, as his presence was enough, and he never
bought things from Dark District.

Kilik’s insistence that Calis keep the coin had been
adorable, though.  The fact that the young man had been so frustrated at
Calis’s attempts to help, and then so determined that Calis get repaid for the
service was fascinating and positively charming.  Though Kilik was obviously
not concerned with being charming or fascinating.  He just was.

The thought struck Calis that he had been staring at nothing
for quite some time, and that he hadn’t done any washing.  So he picked up the
soap, which smelled of flowers and things that he’d rather not smell like, and
ran it over his body.  He hadn’t gotten very dirty this sun, and so there
wasn’t much to come off in the water.  He was always glad to see a little bit
come off, regardless, and it did.

Next was his hair, which he washed relatively quickly with a
bottle of less flowery-smelling liquid.  The process was quick and easy, and
after going over his body one more time, he stepped out and grabbed the clothes
that the servant had brought for him.

She had brought a soft green tunic inlaid with gold.  Calis
thought it was a little too fanciful, but Lavus would be grateful that he’d
dressed up for the occasion.  He slipped the white and gold bottom of the
outfit on and then the black boots.  Determining that he was nearly late for
dinner as it was, he headed towards the dining hall.

The room was massive, keeping to the gray and crimson
theme.  The table was a stark black, and long enough to seat twenty or thirty
people, though only four would be filling the seats.  Lavus didn’t have dinner
for the other nobles, unless he was hosting a ball.  He didn’t deem them worthy
to dine in his presence.  Calis found Claudia and Tareth already seated, and
they both glanced up at him noncommittally.  “Oh, Calis,” Claudia said, almost
cheerfully, “there you are.”

“Yes,” Calis said flatly.  Then, he took a seat far enough
away from the two of them so that they wouldn’t feel obliged to converse with
him.  He probably shouldn’t feel like this around his family, but he did, and
that was that. 

Tareth was watching Calis with a sort of glare.  They
weren’t going to be able to speak civilly, privately anyway, for quite some
time.  Calis supposed he was to blame for that with his outburst, but he didn’t
care to fix it now.  Tareth was the fool who thought it funny to ruin the lives
of innocent people.  “How was court, son?” Claudia asked weakly.

Apparently, his effort to sit far enough away had been in
vain.  She wanted to be friendly with him.  Maybe Tareth hadn’t spoken to her
about him, after all, or maybe she just didn’t care and wanted to be on
friendly terms with both of her sons—what a novel concept.  “Well enough,” he
answered as courteously as he could.

“Did you speak with Lady Avyon at all after court?” she
asked.

This was precisely why he did not have regular conversations
with his mother.  They most always involved him talking to women.  She wanted
him to get married more than she wanted Lavus to drop dead—and that was quite a
lot.  “I did not,” he answered honestly. 

“That is unfortunate,” she said woefully.  She sounded as
though she truly believed this, and she believed that Calis thought so too.  If
he had trusted her, or Tareth, or anyone in the castle other than Lee—he may
have told them that he had no desire to continue relations with her—so he said
nothing.

For a moment, he stared at the black table before him
without speaking.  “Yes,” he said, “it is unfortunate.”  Echoing her words was
the only course of action that he had deemed plausible, without drawing
suspicion, or disclosing information that he didn’t want disclosed.

“You must not have enjoyed it very much,” Tareth snapped,
“you were in a rather foul mood directly after!”

Calis was impressed that Tareth had actually brought up
their confrontation in front of their mother, and in less than a roundabout way. 
In fact, Calis even offered a wolfish grin to his brother—which surprised the
other boy, clearly.  “Perhaps I was just unhappy that the whole thing was over,
brother,” he answered cheerfully.

“I doubt it,” Tareth answered, with a sort of sulk
punctuating his voice.

Claudia seemed unsure how to handle the two of them.  She
pursed her lips and looked from one boy to the other, before she finally opened
her mouth to speak.  “Calis does not enjoy being constantly greeted by women,”
she said, “so he was certainly in a foul mood after.”