Duty-Bound [ Lore of Penrua: Book II ]

33

Mhera hesitated outside Prince Kaori's door. He had not come out of his room for weeks, and his manner toward everyone had been brusque, impatient, and unkind ever since he had returned to the palace. She was afraid to disturb him, especially being in need of his advice.

But she could not afford to wait for his bitter moods to resolve; for all she knew, Kaori would never be the same patient, mild-mannered man he had been, and the people of Karelin were hungry. When she listened at the door to Kaori's parlor, she heard soft voices within. At least she knew he was not sleeping. She knocked.

The door opened, and to Mhera's astonishment, Kaori's face appeared. She looked him up and down; he looked hale and sound in a crisp white tunic, his hair combed and falling in soft blond waves around his smiling face.

"Mhera. Come in," said Kaori, stepping back from the door.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, walking into his parlor. The sweet scent of some of Aun's healing herbs still lingered on the air. Looking around, Mhera saw the healer sitting in a chair near the cold hearth, a steaming cup of tea in her hand. "Good afternoon, Aun."

"Good afternoon, Mhera," said Aun with a smile.

"I'm well," Kaori said. "Very well. Will you have some tea?"

Mhera watched Kaori's progress as he walked toward the sitting area. He seemed to move without pain, and a faint smile hovered around his lips that brought a light to her spirit. "Please."

Kaori sat down and reached for the tea pot. Aun looked up at his face and then down at his hand; there was an alertness in her manner that betrayed that she was ready to help if she was needed, but she made no move as Kaori carefully poured a cup with his left hand. A few drops of tea trickled over the lip of the cup to pool on the saucer. Kaori pulled the cup to the edge of the table so he could get a good grip on the edge of the saucer and lifted it, offering it to Mhera.

She accepted it with a smile and sat down beside him. "Thank you, Kaori."

"How did things go with the supplies?"

"Poorly," Mhera said. She breathed in the steaming scent of the tea. "I'm afraid there will be none left over for the palace; we must all of us get used to tight bellies."

"We've had practice," said Aun wryly.

"There isn't enough, Kaori. I wanted to ask you about something, if you are not otherwise occupied."

"Go ahead," he said.

"I simply wondered, on my way back to the palace, whether we might have allies in other nations that would be poised to supply us with aid. Do you not think that we could call upon them now, in our time of need? They might send a ship with food and supplies, sufficient to get us through the next several weeks as we organize what remains to us here in Penrua."

"Have you asked Matei about this?" asked Kaori.

"No; I thought I would ask you first, to see if you might know how our relations with other nations stood."

"Things were tense with Myori before everything crumbled," Kaori said. "With Tyrria, our rule of thumb has always been cool courtesy; if we were able to pay them, I think they could be relied upon to send aid."

Aun spoke up. "Could the reasons for chill relations with Myori have anything to do with their support of the rebellion?" she asked.

"What?" Mhera looked at Aun in surprise, but she only smiled and sipped her tea.

"I should think you would need to ask Matei about that," said Kaori. "Or perhaps Councilor Yorek. I knew some of my father's mind, but not all of it, and I was not privy to the details of our alliances."

The look in Aun's eye was mischievous. "Not privy to the details," she echoed. "Trust me—Myori would have given him reason to be cool. They supplied us not only with food, but with weapons. They were a driving force behind the success of the Eastern Rebellion."

"But that would be good, would it not?" asked Mhera. "If our connection to them was strained because they were aiding the rebels...well...the rebels won the day; that might be a reason for them to send aid."

"It is certainly worth a request," said Aun. She looked from Mhera to Kaori, a softness in her eyes that Mhera did not think had been there before. "Can you offer any other advice, Kaori?" she asked.

"Only to act quickly. I have not lived through a rebellion before, but I have a suspicion that the people will not suffer hunger for long before they rise up against us, and then a change in regime will be the last thing we need to worry about. The hungry citizens will outnumber us ten thousand to one."

"I came straight from the caravan to you," Mhera said, "although I am afraid it was simple pity and a little self-interest that drove me. Do you really think they would take up arms, Kaori? Surely they must know we seek to restore order as soon as we can."

"Desperate people do desperate things," Kaori replied. "Pain and hunger make a man desperate. I would not trust them to sit idle while their golden-crowned sovereigns play at alliances and trade as they might play at cross-the-sea."

Struck by his bitter tone, Mhera said, "Surely they do not think it is a game to us."

"Mhera, sweet," said Aun, reaching for the tea pot to refresh her cup. "To the low-born, everything the high-born do seems like a pretty little game." 

Thank you for reading, friends! Just a comfortable little scene between Mhera and her cousin Kaori here. As always, I'm eager for your feedback. Let me know which chapters are your favorites, and which ones are a little slow. I'm eager for your thoughts to help me during revisions!