Page 31 of A Queen’s Game (Aithyr Uprising #1)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Marietta

A fter a few days alone in the suite with just Amryth, restlessness wore on Marietta. “Is he always like this?” Marietta mumbled, hastily stabbing at her lunch.

“Is who like what, my lady?” Amryth asked.

“Keyain. He didn’t come back for dinner. I’m not sure he even came back at all last night,” she answered, chomping down on her bite, the food losing its flavor. Irritation continued to spread through her body, all directed at Keyain. How would she ever leave the suite if he wasn’t around?

“He’s the Minister of Protection, actively overseeing a war.” Amryth sat back in her chair, crossing her arms with her face unamused. Did she actually defend Keyain?

“What reason does he have to start a war?” Marietta replied, stabbing at a grape, sending it flying off her plate. A collection of colorful swear words left her mouth as she grabbed it off the table with her hand to eat it.

Amryth lifted one eyebrow at the action. “Unfortunately, I can think of one concrete reason he would do such a thing.” Marietta felt her burning gaze.

“It’s not—he wouldn’t….” Marietta trailed off. Amryth was unaware of the truth. Of Marietta’s freedom in Olkia. “Is one pilinos girl worth starting a war?”

“Do you want an honest answer or the one I’m supposed to give?”

Marietta smirked, her irritation taking over. “How about both? How does it feel that he would’ve gone to war over someone like me?”

Amryth exhaled slowly through her nose with unanticipated fury glaring in her dark eyes. Marietta took another bite, making a point to avoid eye contact.

Keyain might be Minister of Protection, but his actions must have angered people. Others also had to assume Marietta was his prime reason, like Minister Royir from the other day. How did Keyain get to his high position if he wasn’t respected?

The awkward silence was too much for Marietta to handle.

“I hit a pain point, and for that, I’m sorry.

Will you at least tell me the public opinion on Keyain’s rise to power?

” It was an innocent enough question, but she wanted to learn how her former bodyguard became the Minister of Protection for Satiros.

Amryth looked away, frowning. “People respect him, mostly. Just no one knows the reason for the invasion of Olkia besides the King’s Council, which includes the King and his Ministers,” she answered.

“The one piece of information we do know is that a terrorist group backed by the Enomenos stole Keyain’s wife. ”

A terrorist group backed by Enomenos? Marietta bit back her questions, understanding that Keyain’s lies ran deep.

“If I’m being honest with you, most thought you were a rumor—a bad one at that. One of the most influential elves in Satiros married to a half-elf?” Amryth said, shaking her head.

Marietta tapped her fingers against the table. None of it made sense. Before the night she was taken, she hadn’t seen Keyain in a couple of years. Why would he use her as an excuse?

Unless they had no other reason to attack.

Anger flooded her body as she imagined her friends slaughtered in the streets of Olkia. Keyain was despicable. “Do people believe Keyain deserves his position?” she asked, pretending to be half interested in the question.

Amryth narrowed her eyes at her. “Yes and no. You’ve heard the stories, right?”

Marietta avoided eye contact and took another bite. “Oh yes, the stories. I’ve heard them.”

Amryth sighed. “Get better at lying if you’re going to survive as a lady.”

When Marietta said nothing in reply, she continued talking. “Being close friends with King Wyltam since childhood helped get him a position, but the biggest qualifier is his legacy. Keyain Vallynte is one of Satiros’ greatest warriors of all time.”

Marietta inhaled as she sipped water, causing herself to choke and spill water down her front. Amryth handed her a napkin. “You’re lying. What war even occurred that gave him that notoriety?”

“The Orc Skirmishes,” Amryth implied as if Marietta understood.

“That wasn’t in the history books in Enomenos.”

Amryth laughed. “Of course not. Syllogi only protects the entire Akroi Region from southern invaders, but they leave that out of your histories.”

Marietta furrowed her brows. “Orcs were exterminated centuries ago.”

Amryth laughed again. “That’s a lie. For hundreds of years, the southern orc clans would barge through The Queen’s Pass and lay ruin to the Syllogian countryside,” she explained. “A century and a half ago, the Syllogi Council united to put an end to their raids. Thus, The Orc Skirmishes.”

Marietta imagined the map that hung from Keyain’s wall, thinking out loud, “The Syllogi Council is just the different elven courts?”

“The ruling families. King Wyltam and Queen Valeriya represent Satiros. The rulers of Amigys, Kyaeri, and Chorys Dasi are also on the Council. Did you never learn this?” Amryth asked.

“History was never my strong subject,” Marietta said with a shrug. Not that she ever paid much attention to the lesson on Syllogi. Never had she thought they’d be useful to her.

“Of course, it wasn’t,” Amryth said, unimpressed.

“During The Orc Skirmishes, the former Queen Olytia roused the army to bring greatness to Satiros over the other elven cities,” Amryth paused.

“Keyain was a captain in the army. It’s said he took her request to heart, killing more orcs than any other soldier in all of Syllogi. ”

The night she met Keyain, he had left her attacker unconscious in the street. “I knew he could fight, but was he that great of a soldier?”

“Keyain was the best,” Amryth answered wistfully. “And very young, for an elf at least. His parents’ position helped him rise in the army, but it was his skill that made him stand out.”

“How did he get to Minister of Protection then?”

“If you stop asking questions, then I’ll get to it,” she scolded.

“When the orc clans set a trap for the elven armies, General Mykilo of Satiros fell, leaving Satiroan soldiers without guidance. That’s when Keyain took the mantle, devising a plan to trick the orcs and lead the assault himself.

It was the last battle of The Orc Skirmishes, the one that made the orc clans flee Syllogi. ”

That sounded like Keyain, taking control of the situation and making a plan. Back when they traveled together, his judgment had gotten them out of troubling situations on the road.

“What helped Keyain get to his position,” Amryth continued, “was after the battle, when he placed his sword at Queen Olytia’s feet in front of the Syllogian Council. He dedicated everything to her, claiming it was through her greatness that he found strength.”

“Sure,” Marietta mumbled. “Keyain isn’t that flowery of a person. I would love to hear him admit his greatness was because of someone else.”

Amryth laughed. “He can be quite arrogant. Yet Queen Olytia rewarded him for his actions. The Queen promoted him to General of the Satiroan Army, the youngest elf ever. He had been close to his fifth decade.”

“Of course he was,” she mumbled again, shaking her head. A security job of sorts. That’s what he would tell her all those years ago—never great war hero of Satiros. The bastard’s lies ran deep. “How did he go from General to Minister of Protection?”

Amryth watched Marietta’s reaction through narrowed eyes. “You would think his wife would know more about his past.”

Marietta avoided her gaze. No, she learned very little of his life before she met him. “He kept his past close to his chest. It’s not like a half-elf like me would know the history of Satiros.”

“A half-elf from the Syllogi would know their history, even if they didn’t pay attention during lessons.” Amryth raised a brow, well aware that Marietta was not from Syllogi but Enomenos.

“Perhaps I should go study now then,” Marietta said, her tone dripping with sarcasm as she stood from the table. For a servant, Amryth knew a lot of information and knew Keyain almost too well.

The remainder of the afternoon proved once again uneventful. After spending a quiet day pretending to read, Marietta felt disappointed when Amryth left for the day. Alone with her thoughts, she paced in the suite.

Not only was she ripped from her life and her husband murdered, but Satiros’s most notable warrior was the one to abduct her. Or maybe the most notable killer, depending on how you viewed it. If Keyain ever bothered to return, she’d have to question him about his past.

Marietta jumped as a hand clasped her shoulder. “Mar? You alright?” Keyain stood behind her with his jacket over his arm, his face ragged with dark circles under his eyes.

“Perhaps I should be the one asking that. Did you sleep at all?”

With a dry laugh, he bent down to kiss Marietta, to which she leaned away. Keyain tried to shrug it off, but she could read the hurt on his face. Gods, the audacity.

“I slept for a few hours in the meeting room with my team, but it wasn’t very restful. Is it that bad?” Keyain asked.

“Gods, yes. And you smell. Perhaps you should wash before they bring dinner,” she teased.

He rolled his eyes and sighed as he walked into the other room, the joke lost on him.

Water filling the tub sounded from the other room, sparking an idea.

After a few moments of waiting, knowing for sure he was in the tub, she knocked on the door, cracking it open.

“Mind if I come in?” she asked, her voice soft and high-pitched.

“Not at all,” he said.

Marietta walked in and realized her mistake.

The brawny elven man had his lower half in the water but little else.

His broad shoulders and muscled torso remained visible as he scrubbed, water dripping down his body.

Gods. Even though she knew he was a monster, her stare lingered on him, dumbfounded.

A smirk came to his face, growing deeper the longer she stared. “There are easier ways for you to see me naked, you know.”

She shook herself out of it and rolled her eyes, ignoring the heat that crept up her cheeks. “Don’t mistake me for yourself, Lord ‘ I won’t look at you, but if I did, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before ,’” she snapped. She was hoping to catch him off guard, yet she was the one flustered.

“Well, I have seen it before, just like you’ve seen this.” He gestured to his body. “I still think you’re the most stunning person I have ever met.”

The door frame supported her as she leaned against it, staring at the ceiling. “And what? You thought I’d forgive you because we used to… mess around?”

“It was more than that,” he whispered, pain in his voice. “Don’t you dare make it less.”

“Well, I don’t know what to think anymore. Because that part of you was a lie.” She glanced at him. “When were you going to tell me you’re Satiros’s greatest warrior of all time?”

He swore under his breath. “Amryth told you?”

Marietta nodded her head.

“It was a long time ago. But yes, I have that title.”

“And you never thought to share that with me? You were happy pretending to be a basic bodyguard?” She crossed her arms, her lips pulling into a grimace.

“I never saw it as a basic job, not when it meant protecting you.”

“Don’t give me that as an answer.”

Keyain dunked his head underwater and came back up, rising from the tub.

Against the doorframe, she turned to stare into the bedroom.

Keyain’s heavy footfalls approach her from behind, very aware of his nakedness.

“I would do anything to protect you, and I have always loved you,” he whispered, standing so close that she could feel the heat rolling off his body.

“Don’t act like what happened between us was just casual.

You loved me back, and I felt it every day I spent with you. ”

Tears pooled in her eyes as she left Keyain in the doorway.

“Mar, where are you going?”

“Dinner’s here,” she murmured.

She hated Keyain’s words. And she hated that part of her knew they were true.