The Seer - eARC by Sonia Lyris Read Free Book Online Page B

sisters knew well. “What would yours be?”
    From her changing expression, he could see that she was weighing various answers. She shook her head.
    “Again: no.”
    “He was a traitor, Sachare.”
    “So we’ve heard.” A small, bitter smile. “In any case, it’s not me you have to convince.”
    “Then let me in.”
    “She hasn’t given a new answer since I told you a moment ago.”
    “I can change her mind. You know that.”
    “You may not enter, Innel.”
    That was clear enough. Cern would need more time.
    Still he hesitated, wondering if he should give Sachare the gift he’d brought for Cern, a small book he’d been holding in reserve for such a need. Full-color drawings of birds of prey, their silhouettes, descriptions of their calls and hunting habits. The sort of thing that would appeal to the princess. Expensive.
    “He was a good man,” Sachare said softly.
    This caught Innel off guard. He looked away, the words echoing in his head. When he had his feelings again in hand, he looked back, meeting her stare. “So am I.”
    “As you say.” A hard tone.
    He held out the book to Sachare. “Give her this for me.”
    Wordlessly she took it from him and returned to the princess’s rooms, the sound of the door shutting behind her echoing in the corridor. Her guards watched him silently.
    A gentle touch , his brother would have said of Cern now, so furious. Close but not too close.
    Like the rope game they’d all played in the Cohort, each holding an end to try to pull each other off-stance with sudden yanks and misdirection.
    Hold solid to the rope. Keep the line alive, not too slack, not too tight.
    And never look away.

    Weeks went by. Cern kept a stony silence. When he approached she looked away, rebuffing him openly, and he knew better than to come close enough that she might signal her guards to intercept.
    Appearances mattered. When rejected, he made sure to seem pained and conflicted, like a hurt lover pretending not to care. He set his gaze to linger on her when she was carefully not looking in his direction. He passed by her suites daily, slowing as he did.
    When he and his brother used to fish together, they would find the underwater creature’s location from the eddies and ripples it caused across the surface. The palace was like a lake; even if Cern did not see his longing looks directly, the ripples would get back to her. He had to be patient.
    But he did not feel patient. He lay awake past the midnight bells, mind circling around what he had done that day to draw her back to him, wondering if it was too much or too little.
    Somehow he had to convince her that what he had done in Botaros made sense. The king would only wait so long before looking again at his second-best choices in the Cohort. He had given Innel an opening. He wanted Innel to win.
    Innel needed to get Cern to choose him. Nothing could be more important.
    Almost nothing. One afternoon, a casual comment from Restarn made it clear that Innel was expected to attend the next day’s trade council. Innel studied the trade ledgers deep into the night to arrive well-prepared, because the king did not make casual comments.
    A few days later, he was woken at dawn by the unsmiling seneschal, who explained that Innel would oversee the rebuild of the burnt stable auxiliary. Yes, starting now. In his spare time, the seneschal added, Innel would provide the king an analysis of the ministerial council’s resolution on a stack of tangled and conflicting House petitions.
    Without delay.
    Still being tested, then. He thought he’d proved himself worthy already to the king, again and again, but apparently not.
    So be it; he applied himself to every task, working as hard as ever. Before he quite realized it, he was spending hours a day with the king. At meals, answering challenges like Cohort drills, then pulled in for fast minutes between appointments to suggest courses of action. Even attending the king at his bath, where he couldn’t help