Chapter 39: Revelations
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“It wasn’t the Hafnons. Aleric Stormcrow has been playing with sicknesses,” said Edwin, disappointed. He had hoped to learn something from the dwarf. Now he would need to destroy him.

“I see,” said king Valyr. “And what are you going to do?”

“A concentrated mirror curse, to start with,” said Edwin. He took his tea cup with shaky hands. He had never done a mirror curse before. And the coughing sickness already had a cure that was made public.

“That can be traced to you. The Tsardom of Mopia would take it as a declaration of war. As the last Boliarin of the last dwarven territory, Aleric is thought of as a hero,” said the king.

“He will just think up another sickness to release here or somewhere else if he is not stopped. I can call him out on it. Denounce him and challenge him to a duel, but…” Edwin gulped. Aleric Stormcrow had a thousand years’ worth of experience on him.

“He will wipe the floor with you?” Asked the king with a huff. “This is a job for Boliarin Lambert.”

“Surely, you don’t mean to get him involved? When has he ever cared for civilian casualties?” Asked Edwin, pale as a ghost. He knew how the Boliarin, the only apart from him in Duria, had single-handedly freed the kingdom from the Alanqian Empire.

The Alanqian accord had been signed with numerous bribes by the empire. That had happened the same year as the formation of the Torklia regiment. The year 900. It has been three thousand years since then, and yet people still called Karl Lambert the Eye Eater.

“And the Stormcrow cares? You have a boy who had suffered from the disease. No, Karl will deal with this. A duel will be held. Should he fail? Pray that he does not. You will need to step up and try your best to destroy both the dwarves and that Boliarin,” the king took his tea cup and took a generous sip from it.

“Good stuff, did you make it yourself?” They were in Edwin’s apartment now and not in the mayor’s office. The hedge healer had sent Hadrian, Daniel, and the children out to the library to get him some books so that he could speak with the king without anyone overhearing. Edwin decided to keep the fact that the mint used in the tea had come from a person with worms.

“I did. I got the mint from a travelling merchant,” Edwin placed his cup down. He picked up the first draft of the first chapter of the vaccination textbook and pushed it towards the king.

“You work fast. Hopefully, no one caught wind of your spying?” The king began to leaf through the papers with disinterest. He stopped at a drawing that had the steps of how to extract a sample for making the vaccine and pointed at it.

“Make more of those. I swear, healers these days don’t have imagination. They don’t like to read, either. If the exams of your batch of healers was any indication,” the king huffed, as if that insulted him, and pushed the papers back to Edwin.

“I can’t make heads or tails out of this. But from what I can see it was not written as one wall of text. I suppose that is good enough,” the king looked around the apartment and sighed. Edwin made to speak. To ask the man for recommendations that would get the ban that the academy had put on his writings lifted, but the king spoke before he could.

“Must you live in such a place? You are a Boliarin, Roberts. Have you seen Lambert’s castle? Work of art, impregnable, and befitting his station,” they had this argument every so often. The king wanted Edwin in Mitestone as an official Boliarin in the court. As the tamer of the two, his tasks would be to look the carrot to Lambert’s stick and heal the occasional dignitary. A golden cage, but a cage, nevertheless.

“I am a free citizen of Duria, and I am entitled to…”

“You wish to leave the country one day? To travel? With your…family?” Asked the king. There was something dangerous in his eyes that Edwin couldn’t place. He still didn’t back down.

“There is much I could learn by travelling. And all I learn can benefit Duria. Your Majesty, I am ever your loyal servant,” said Edwin, bowing his head but not his gaze. King Valyr snorted.

“Karl wants to travel too. But he, dear boy, sees himself as a conqueror waiting to happen. Tell me, which one of you do I let fly out of the nest?” The king rested his head on his hands and seemed to give Edwin his undivided attention.

“Me,” a snort and a roll of the eyes told Edwin that he needed to speak quickly. “Karl Lambert is not only a respected and feared Boliarin, he is the second in line for the throne until our gracious Queen gifts you with a child. Should someone happen to him, Duria will be plunged in a war of succession,” said Edwin with a shudder. Duria couldn’t afford such a war. If the coughing sickness put such a fear in its subjects, then how could it survive a war?

“Karl Lambert is no longer in the line of succession,” said the king, calmly. Edwin blinked. He had not heard about any spats between the King and the Boliarin.

“Then, who?” Edwin tried to remember the Gothenburg family tree. Most of the nobles were either disowned or exiles.

“My dear godson, you,” said the king with a devil-may-care grin.

“But, you are not my godfather, your Majesty?” Edwin was confused now. What was this about?

“That can be arranged. I’d adopt you in the family, but my wife will have you killed within the year. You are a bit too trusting, I’m afraid. Godson, do you want to learn a secret that will make you an enemy of the Queen?” The grin widened, and the king leaned in.

Edwin leaned in as well, not because he wanted to become an enemy of the Queen and so of Karl Lambert, her great-great something grandfather, but because the king was going to tell him anyway.

“I have a bastard son. A nice boy of two years. How would you like to raise the future king? You agree? Good!” And with that, the king stood up and went and opened the door, and a nursemaid came in with a boy who looked like a miniature copy of the king.

Ember eyes and pointy features. Black hair, slightly curled. And a serious expression on his small face.

“You have my permission to travel. But if I hear you lost my son…” And the king made a slicing motion across his neck. The boy giggled. Edwin wondered if the small child understood what his father had just done. And if he did, boy, did Edwin have his work increased tenfold.

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