The Kings Personal Joker (boyxboy)

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty One

[A/N] The patreon chapter 120.5 comes before this! Linked in the hyperlink. 

We travelled back toward the palace at such speed the wheels rolled audibly beneath us and the sound of hooves on mud was became almost as loud as it would have been on cobble. There was some hurrying from the coachmen and neighing from the horses, our brief breaks in-between, necessary for the sake of horse and master, were the things that saved me from ultimately needing a permanent hand on my own to keep me from turning to the side of the carriage to hurl.

Demosthenes didn't actually stop working either, a business that followed him about more than I realised. I had it in my mind that he sat in a throne room at times and made his decisions there, but his eyes glided over leaves of paper one after the other and made a marking or two before setting them aside. Written in a handwriting I had neither the ability to reproduce nor read.

We stopped one last time before our return. I heard some muttering and shouting off in the distance so I edged towards the entrance to better hear it.

"Don't you want to be a well educated boy?" I heard her voice stretch out.

"No." Amun sounded stubbornly, his little steps pattering down the road, getting closer but not quite close enough to suggest he was about to enter the carriage.

The King sat up and watched the black veil coolly.

"You'll have to impress your father with something, he won't make you king if you do not." Thera muttered quietly to him, her voice was high and soft, enough that it made it a little hard to hear.

I frowned as I heard it, fingers itching for the veil.

It was a sensible thing to offer, but I head a similar voice in Amun as the one I'd met him with. Something uppity in his voice, but also timid and pretending to be older than he was. He seemed happier to act like my little brother, play and not be followed about by so many people.

Around him there were other voices, his minder and several other staff, a soldiers voice who I recognised, agreeing with Thera.

"I won't, I've got too many things to do." He replied stubbornly, in that mimicry of those older than himself.

"What things?" Their voices grew a little more distant as they began to pas by. "Come sit beside me and I'll be a marvellous companion, you'll learn much from me and your father will be pleased."

Her voice grew fainter as they moved ahead and into the distance but I still listened as best I could, the continuing cajoling making me itch to pull it back.

I turned back to see the King staring at the veil as though he particularly disliked it before turning back to his pages with narrowed eyes.

"He would probably settle down better in here..." I spoke in a deliberately quiet voice. Wanting the pull in the boy with the bright smile who so much reminded me of myself.

He glanced at me, I was almost certain I saw it in his eyes, a brief warmth in them that was quickly cloaked before he turned back to the work at hand.

"He is better looked after by them, and their type."

"Why?" I pressed, and when he looked up with shape eyes my heart was sent into a nervous skip. "What I mean to say, is why should he be happier than them, when he seems to gaze at you like an owl from a distance..."

He turned back and said nothing for a moment. "Amun is well cared for." He said simply, his voice low.

I frowned, my fingers trailing over the veil.