Demon's Throne 3 by K.D. Robertson

Author:K.D. Robertson [Robertson, K.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-04-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

The next few days passed swiftly. Planned events went out without a hitch. While the relative lack of development in his kingdom meant Rys wasn’t inviting any famous troupes to perform, there was plenty to work with between his infernals and the Kinadain.

Ceremonial dances and drinking sessions—the latter of which required Maria to delay the events of the next day—accompanied displays of magic and artifacts that the delegates had never seen or imagined.

Fat Fred ended up being a surprise show, as his appearance one day rapidly turned fear into terrified fascination. Maybe it was the mountain of food he gobbled up. Or maybe the fact he was so well spoken. Several of the more daring delegates even attempted to debate him.

With the conference only a couple of days away, Rys elected to ignore today’s events. Alsia was taking most of the delegates on a guided tour of the Labyrinth. Surprisingly, most of them hadn’t ever entered. While Faeris and Kirik seemed utterly uninterested, and instead lingered in the breakfast hall, there was an almost palpable sense of excitement from the others.

How many nobles in the Federation had gotten themselves killed in the Labyrinth that their warriors barred them from entrance?

“Not as many as you’d think,” Faeris said when he voiced his thoughts. “As difficult as it may be for you to imagine, the Labyrinth is an exceptionally dangerous place. Without your reputation, I don’t know if the Federation nobles would dare to enter.”

“They would. Many of them chafe at being coddled by their guards,” Kirik said, on his fourth cup of coffee.

The bastard seemed intent on plowing through Rys’s supply of beans. Did he normally drink that much, or was the coffee in the Federation merely terrible?

“You don’t agree with that policy.” Rys made a statement, rather than asked a question.

“No. One can argue over the benefits of the Federation’s… cultural shift toward foreign society and governance, but not this,” Kirik said. “The newly minted nobility swim in their extensive wealth, party in their extravagant estates, and titter about pointless gossip. All the while, they send everyone else off to conquer new territory, wrangle the Kinadain that don’t give up their land, and exploit the Labyrinth for exports.”

“For a man who supports the Federation, you sound extraordinarily bitter about it.”

“Love it or hate it, Dalyros is my home. My old dain has been absorbed into the Federation. I even supported the changes at first, and still have mixed feelings on them. But the results…” The Saint’s mouth twisted in a sneer. “Well, I expected better from my kin. A Pharosian philosopher told me that power reveals, rather than corrupts, and we took that to mean that the Kinadain would be better rulers than the foreigners we despised.”

Rys felt that he’d heard this story before, and seen it play out many times in the Empire. Idealistic leaders who were torn apart by the viciousness of the infernals that ruled them, and took delight in destroying naïve souls. Manipulative demagogues who

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