"Your Majesty," Talamir executed an awkward bow. "Thank you for seeing us without notice."
It seemed a strange statement. Tae had never denied either of them audience, any time or anywhere, in the past. "Well, I could hardly have declined, could I? I simply entered the room, and there you were."
Talamir bowed several more times. "I'm sorry, Sire. Were we disturbing you, Sire? We can come back later, S-"
Subikahn seized his teacher's arm. "He's kidding, Tally." He turned Tae a pleading look. "Papa, tell him you're kidding."
"I'm kidding," Tae admitted, petting the cat hand over hand, until tiny hairs danced through the sunlight. She had a circular pattern of black stripes against a grizzly silver-gray and only one spot of white, at the very tip of her tail. "What can I do for the two of you?"
Subikahn looked like he might burst. "Talamir says I'll definitely pass my testing. When I return from the Fields of Wrath next time, I'll be a man!"
A wave of excitement passed through Tae, and he could not help grinning. The testing of the Renshai meant little to him, but it would make his son, and Kevral, happy. Nothing else mattered. "That's great news! On your return, we'll have to celebrate." A strange idea came to him suddenly. His advisers had bothered him for years about hosting a dance or massive party, a way to interact with lesser royalty and get to know them better. He was already popular with the peasantry, who saw the king as one of them. He often came across as shockingly down to earth. He kept their taxes low and allowed those with more experience and intelligence to make judgments and preside over his court.
The nobility, however, remained suspicious of the family who appeared to have no history before wresting power from the previous king of Stalmize, even nearly twenty years later. Tae suspected his advisers also hoped he would finally find a queen when he became lost in the romanticism of the event. "Perhaps a ball? We've never had one of those before."
Subikahn's smile seemed to encompass his entire face. "Thanks, Papa. That would be wonderful." He turned an adoring look upon his swordmaster.
Talamir remained stonily silent.
Imorelda butted Tae's hand with her head, and he scratched around her cheeks and ears. He could not imagine a more perfect moment: his only son deliriously happy and his cat purring mightily in his lap.
"Papa, there's more."
Still grinning, Tae inclined his head toward Subikahn to encourage him to continue.
Talamir closed his eyes and lowered his head.
"Papa," Subikahn blurted, his words nearly tumbling over one another. "I'm in love."
Though he did not stop grinning, Tae sucked in the sides of his mouth. Amused by the admission, he continued to stroke the cat. He had waited a long time for his son's first crush, glad the boy trusted him enough to share it. "Really? Who is she?"
"I've fallen for a Renshai, Papa. Just like you."
Just like me. Tae's grin wilted, and he shrugged. "I wouldn't wish my love life on anyone, Subikahn. Especially you." So it happened on Kevral's watch. He wondered why she had not mentioned it, or if she had been too busy training to even notice. Her intense and one-sided devotion to sword work might make her oblivious, even to her son's distraction. He wondered if she truly loved her children as much as her swords, her husband as much as her devotion to the Renshai techniques that made them the best swordsmen in the world.
Tae found himself shivering, filled with a sense of foreboding, and wondered why. It would fall to his long-suffering and able advisers to get the populace to accept a Renshai princess. If Subikahn had waited this long to mention her, he could not miss her too much, which meant their relationship could not have gotten serious yet.
Subikahn's excitement, however, told a different story. It was fresh and strong, beyond the level of a budding crush. In his excitement, he seized his torke's hand.
"So," Tae continued carefully. "When do I get to meet her?"
Subikahn laughed with the wild abandon of someone so madly in love it springs forth from every pore. Though playful at times, the young prince rarely became so giddy he could not contain himself. This time, the words practically spilled from his mouth. "You know my lover, Papa. Very well. It's…" He squeezed his teacher's hand. "It's Talamir."
Few things could have surprised Tae more. He sat in stunned silence, his hand stilling on the cat, his expression exposed. Unbidden thoughts jolted into his mind, among them the dire realization that his son had just blithely confessed to a capital crime.
For several moments, no one moved or spoke. Then, cautiously, Talamir freed his hand from Subikahn's, apparently anticipating a fight. Any difficult situation sent a Renshai to his sword.
Subikahn finally broke the hush. "I've found true love, Papa. True love! Aren't you… happy for me?" *What's wrong?* Imorelda stopped purring.
For once, Tae ignored her. "But… he's a…"
"… Renshai?" Subikahn finished.
"… man," Tae corrected. "Talamir's a man." He turned his son a confused look. "Right?" He wondered if he had missed something. Renshai women worked so hard, they often developed musculature in ways other females never did. Hard arms and thighs, tight abdominal musculature, were the norm for Renshai. Even Ra-khir had mistaken Kevral for a boy the first several times he met her. Yet, she had eventually developed enough breast and curve to look like a hardened woman rather than a man. And Talamir was clearly no youngster. He appeared to be in his twenties, and Renshai routinely looked younger than their ages.
"Yes, Papa. Tally passed his testing ten years ago. He's definitely a man."
Tae did not know what else to say. He and his son were talking at cross-purposes. They might just as well be using different languages, except the conversation would still make more sense.Tae spoke every known tongue fluently. He did not care when or if Talamir had ever passed beyond Renshai adolescence. He wanted to know why his son was calling a grown man "lover" as if gender meant nothing. He could not understand how two males could confess to a hanging crime with enthusiasm and excitement. Execution. Dread enveloped him. Not Subikahn. Not my only son. Tears pressed Tae's eyes, and he did not trust himself to speak. *What's wrong?* Imorelda asked again; and, again, he ignored her.
Subikahn and Talamir exchanged serious glances. "I told you we needed to keep it secret," the older Renshai whispered. The acoustics of the room carried it to Tae's ears anyway. "I warned you not to say anything."
"He's my father," Subikahn hissed back. "The best man in the world, and he loves me."
The best man in the world. It was exactly what Tae had always wanted to hear his son say, yet it did not warm his heart this day. Something inside him had died, and he worried that he might never know another moment of joy in his existence. He forced himself to speak, saying the only words he dared. "Go to your quarters. I need some time alone to think."
Talamir bowed and left the room faster than decorum dictated. Subikahn opened his mouth to speak, then closed it. He started again, stopped, and sighed deeply before shuffling from the room as well.
Assailed by all the emotions shock had kept at bay, Tae buried his face in the cat and let them overtake him.
Grimly, King Tae Kahn walked the night hallways of Stalmize Castle, blind to the minute details he usually registered from habit. As a young man, survival had meant remaining attentive, even in sleep; and the need had stayed with him every moment of every day since. His torch threw wild shapes on the stonework, bringing shadows into vivid relief as he moved. That made him wildly uncomfortable. He would have preferred creeping through the darkness, unseen and unheard; but to do so, he had long ago learned the hard way, risked attack by his own guards. He noticed their every movement as they shifted to allow him free access, recognizing him in the hated, but necessary, torchlight.