Heart of the Wolf Prince

Chapter Nine

I gape at Kohl. I'm sure I misheard him. "Pardon?"

He gives me a side-long look. "I said, you're going to be my spy. Unless, of course, you'd rather play maid..."

I shake my head. "No, no, of course I would but it's just... why me?"

Kohl shrugs, keeping an even pace. "You're perfect spy material. You're small, cunning, and, most importantly, unremarkable. No one would suspect you; you're perfectly under the radar."

"But... I can't possibly be under the radar after what just happened. Surely there will be suspicion around me now."

Kohl grunts and a hard look settles over his face. "Yes, that is a slight setback, but my father will drop his suspicions soon enough. He never sees women as threats, let alone an invalid such as yourself."

I don't know whether to be offended or no, but that's when something in his statement sticks out to me. "Your... father?"

"Listen, Agnarys—"

"Naomi."

"Agnarys," Kohl says, pinning me with a side-long gaze. "We have a crisis on our hands. We haven't seen anything like this in decades. There are enemies within our walls, enemies that may well walk among us."

I frown, slightly unsettled. "I thought... I though the attack was coordinated by rogues?"

"Wrong. That attack was an inside job. We identified the culprits as part of our own guard, and who knows how many more of them are traitors waiting to strike. We need to figure out who is behind it and fast."

"And who is the key suspect?"

Kohl is quiet for a moment as we walk down the halls. I am too preoccupied with the conversation to notice we are in a foreign part of the palace, or the number of stairs we have ascended.

"My father."

My jaw drops. I drop my voice to a hiss, "The king? Why?"

"I'll explain why later," Kohl says. "For now, I just have to introduce you to my council. They don't know about my suspicions, so keep your mouth shut about it."

I force myself to ignore his rudeness, and instead say, "I thought only the king can have a council?"

"It's... unofficial My father doesn't know about it. Let's keep it that way."

"And why are you trusting me with all this information?"

He pauses and turns to me. That's when I notice we are in a foyer of sorts -- an empty space with two double oak doors on one side and two black ones on the other. He points to the brown doors.

"Because nobody else wants you, Agnarys. You have no one else to serve; your family virtually disowned you, you no longer have a position as a maid, and you are on the verge of exile for all the king is concerned. You and I both know that, without this, you would be nothing. That is why I trust you will keep my secrets."

His words sting, to the point where my chest physically hurts, but we both know he is right. Nobody wants me. Nobody wants the invalid who has stepped out of line too many times to count. Still, I wish he could have phrased it a bit better.

As though he didn't just beat down my ego, Kohl calmly motions to the oak double doors. "This is the council room. That one," he points to the elaborate, black-painted double doors on the opposite side, "is my room. Strictly off limits, understand?"

I nod. With that, he places both hands on the door handles and throws the doors open.

The first thing I notice about the space is the large, oak table in the centre. It is perfectly square, with straight-backed chairs spread around it and a dark throne-like one at the head. On the table's surface is a map of Raelia, and though I am not close enough to pick out the details, I am close enough to identify the general shape of our continent. Around the room, dark oak shelves lined with old and worn tomes occupy much of the wall space, leaving spaces only for the unlit torch brackets. The only source of open space is the large, tinted window at the back of the room, and with a wave of dizziness I realise just how high up we are. And, judging by the dark roofs of the buildings below, I deduce that we must be in one of the palace's spires.