The Parallax by Morgan G Farris

Author:Morgan G Farris [Farris, Morgan G]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781733166805
Publisher: Minor 5 Publishing
Published: 2019-06-24T16:00:00+00:00

~

Smiles, that’s what the fool guards gave him as he walked the path to the castle entrance. Smiles and nods of greeting.

“Your Excellency!” one of them said—one of the boys he had trained to become a man. “Well met!”

Titus didn’t answer; he only nodded his head at the fool and marched on.

Benalle Palace was exactly as he had left it last year. Bright, open, breezy. The only difference was the unnerving chill in the air. It was mid-spring, but there was still no heat from the sun.

That was the first odd thing Titus noticed.

Lengths of the bluest silk were being hung from every pillar and chandelier and flowers were stuffed into every alcove, crowding every surface possible. A celebration, then. But for what?

“Such a lovely shade of blue,” he heard one of the courtiers prattle.

Another responded, her cheeks flushed with a demure smile, “It matches perfectly with His Majesty’s eyes, doesn’t it?”

No doubt one of Ferryl’s many whores.

So the celebration was for the king, then. Which meant that the queen was likely somewhere helping plan the festivities. This was already too easy.

He listened carefully to the bustling court of nobility and servants alike as they decorated and chatted, careful to keep his features schooled in disinterest lest someone notice his eavesdropping as he strolled aimlessly down the corridors.

“No, not there,” said one servant to the next. “Put the flowers in the center, like this.”

“There is no need to set the tables yet, James. Dinner is not until tonight and I’ll not have a speck of dust on the flatware.”

“Has someone started mulling the wine?”

Information and plenty of it. But all of it useless.

He strolled on, his hands clasped casually behind his back.

Past the grand ballroom, set with a long table that met another at a perpendicular angle—a great “T” in the center of the room, covered completely with the whitest linens and lined with perfectly spaced seats. A banquet set for a king.

Oh, tonight, there would be celebration indeed. His own.

Too bad Titus couldn’t commission the room just for himself to enjoy. It was a shame all that work would be put to waste.

He chuckled to himself, knowing he was being a complete and total ass. A wolf on the prowl. And he relished every damned minute of it.

There had been another woman once—long before he ever met Penelope. Before his parents had died of the sickness that had plagued the lands. A gorgeous Navarian woman with blonde hair and legs for days. Hania, that was her name. And he had loved her fiercely for the entirety of the summer before he signed his life away to the king of Midvar.

She had known him well. Better, perhaps, than anyone else had ever known him. Even Penelope. And it was she who had always said that Titus had two sides.

“You like to think yourself a bastard,” she had said one day, lying beside him in the hayloft above her father’s barn, her blonde hair cascading down her bare breasts as she traced idle patterns on his chest.

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