The Kings Personal Joker (boyxboy)

Chapter Thirty

Unfortunately, the following days were quiet. I couldn't properly talk to Natham as he was busy and Ophelos was always near and listening. Belem visited me a few more times, once to apply ointment and the others just to talk.

It made me wonder that he didn't seem to notice that I wasn't quite as friendly with him as I was with the others. It made me feel as though maybe he did but he didn't care, perhaps he was starved for attention? He certainly seemed to have a lot of free time on his hands. However, it also made me wonder whether he was a spy, not a spy exactly, but someone who was promised reward in return of reporting whatever I said back to the King. The thought, as silly and as paranoid as it might sound, kept me at a distance from him.

Ultimately, one misstep could cost me my life.

Still, I had not found a way of posting the letter. I was not expressly forbidden from going outside the palace grounds but I knew I would have to be accompanied and I didn't trust Ophelos coming with me. He had the kind of observant eye and dislike towards me that was a recipe for disaster.

I wasn't a spy, I wasn't a criminal, I wasn't sneaky in the slightest. My skills lay within dancing and music and painting or writing... certainly I was not built for any stealth missions. The mere idea of what a pit of quicksand I had landed in made me feel awkward, clumsy, and out of my depth... if you'll pardon the pun.

I was beginning to grow anxious.

I suddenly remembered something I shouldn't have forgotten in the first place. I almost laughed out loud it was so ridiculous.

My belongings.

I had forgotten about my belongings and Helga. Goodness, for all I knew they were rotting somewhere and I was sitting here worrying about myself when there was no knife to my throat. What a terrible owner I had been, my mother would have beaten me senseless for this.

Was Helga even okay after all this time? Surely within the palace she must be well cared for, better than anything I had to give her anyway. I almost missed her angry grunts and sighs. The way she would randomly stop to poke her head in some grass and refuse to be called to move onward.

As I was leaving the empty, silent bathhouse, face freshly repainted, I approached some guards who looked to be heading towards the main artillery building.

Though friendly enough they could not help me, apparently. It was hard to know if they could or couldn't because some guards knew exactly who I was and where I should be and others stared at me like I was a monk shaving my head in the middle of the courtyard.

I continued looked, taking a quick gander through the herb garden and pretending to myself that I was looking for someone here that might be able to help me although the chance was less than slim.

Every time I head those gentle footsteps pitter patter somewhere in my vicinity I got a little annoyed.

As I was was staring at some particularly pretty hyacinths I heard his steps close by and turned around abruptly to come face to face with him. Needless to say he was a little surprised, but his regular frown never even left his face when he was shocked by something... I doubted he had any other expression even on his wedding night.

"Hello Ophelos," I greeted him as I would any other, were they stalking me or not.

The man only stared at me and didn't reply, as always.

I decided to get to the point, surely he had been following me around long enough to know what I was looking for. "Do you know where my belongings are? Where is my donkey?"

Ophelos didn't even bother nodding, just started walking off in the opposite direction. Quickly, I might add.

Assuming he was leading me to my things I knew to follow him and took long, quick strides in order to keep in toe with him. He walked quickly and quietly and it struck me because I had begun to realise that even when I thought he wasn't following me because I could not hear him anywhere around me it was very possible that I simply wasn't observant enough to notice him.