Empire of Shadows

27.

Ketil's head spun slightly from the remnants of the previous night's vodka.

Perhaps he had had a few too many drinks and had spoken a bit too much about the Order and his previous relationship with Anubis. Not that they knew Anubis or the others, but it still made him embarrassed. Anubis wouldn't even acknowledge the fact that they had had a terrible relationship at one point. And that was the reason Ketil discovered that he wasn't so much interested in the whole relationship thing. But if Anubis knew he was talking about it, she'd probably kill them both.

He dropped his head back onto the floor, rolling onto his stomach with a small whine. He picked up his head as Kaspar cooed, grabbing a thick handful of Ketil's hair.

He smiled a little, raising up slowly to pick the baby up from where he lay on his stomach. "What are you doing, sir?" Ketil shook his head, the baby smiling as he held him up above his head.

"He'll spit-up on you, be forewarned." Kaia muttered from somewhere he couldn't see.

"He would never!" Ketil lowered him down until he was at face level, kissing his cheek.

"Are you sure you don't want one of your own?" Kaia crossed her arms, looking to him with an upturn at the edge of her lips.

He stared into Kaspar's wide blue eyes, making a face. He didn't answer Kaia.

"You're really good with him." She sat back on the table, darning a pair of Olve's trousers with a soured expression toward them. "If it means anything, I think you'd make a fine Emperor."

Ketil blushed, laying Kaspar on his cot. "I don't know."

"You'd have to be better than Aslaug, anybody is better than her." She looked at her stitching, shoulders slumping.

"You really do hate her." Ketil rested a hand against the baby's back as he watched Kaia's expression change to anger. "Can I ask?"

She looked up from her work, brows furrowed. "She has caused much death and destruction. You haven't been back in years so you won't understand. But after the death of the late Emperor Valdr, she became a terror. Nobles and elders were executed without warning or meaning, batræ were round up and those who did not pledge their allegiance and prove that allegiance were slaughtered. If you spoke of her in a poor light and a new official overheard, you would go to the chopping block."

"How could she do that?" He stood, his healing ankle steadier than it had been in the previous days. He stared at his hands, moving his left shoulder slowly, stopping when the motion became too much. He'd regained a bigger range of motion, but it still hurt like hell. "Why would she do that?"

"I don't know if you're aware of this, but it appears that the royal family is mostly dead. But it seems like everyone lost somebody in the initial struggle."

He bit onto his lip hard. So Aslaug had killed the rest of the family. She was never one to leave any prisoners.

"Who did you lose?" He finally asked.

She shrugged her shoulders, face red. "My little brother. You remind me of him actually. You have that same look in your eye," she laughed a little, eyes far away. "He was even batræ too, nothing powerful or special, but he certainly did help fishermen. I think you would have liked him, he was funny and charming and he could be a bit of an ass at times." She laughed at some distant memory.

She abandoned her darning, picking Kaspar from Ketil's cot, lifting him to her chest. "I named Kaspar after him." She buried her face into the baby's cheeks, earning a small giggle. "He killed himself rather than face what her officials had in store for him."