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“I will state why I am here,” Zavian began. “I heard you had an important guest over last week.”

“I have had many guests over, your Majesty.”

“No, you know very well who I am talking about,” Zavian leaned back and assessed him. “What was Lydia doing here?”

The only sign Zavian could point to that Frederick had been caught off guard by the question was the slight widening of his eyes, but his lips still held that same practiced pose.

“Ah, Lydia,” Frederick said, as if recalling a distant memory. “I believe she came to tell me to join hands with Aloysius, the same wandering around she’s been doing for centuries.”

“And did you? Join hands with her?”

“Your Majesty,” Frederick’s face fell, including his smile. “I would do no such thing. My allegiance lies with you and you alone.”

“Is that so?” Zavian raised a brow.

.....

“Yes, your Majesty. I had her leave at once.”

“Interesting,” Zavian said. He met Azriel’s gaze, and with one single nod, Azriel drew out a small knife. Before Frederick was aware of what was happening, Azriel had him in a chokehold, and a knife inside his mouth, pressing down on his tongue.

“You see, Frederick, that wasn’t the only time Lydia was seen coming out of your home,” Zavian said as Frederick tried not to choke. “Three times in the last two weeks, and she had been escorted through the backdoor. It looks like something someone hiding something would do.”

Zavian rose and walked up to Frederick. “When that knife is removed, I want only the truth. One single lie would have your tongue cut out.”

Another nod and Azriel released Frederick, who wheezed and coughed, holding a hand to his throat.

“What was Lydia doing here?” Zavian asked.

“She... she tried to convince me to join Aloysius, and I told her there is no way he could return now with the portal sealed, and that even if the portal was opened, I would fight alongside you and not him,” Frederick panted like an exhausted dog. “Your Majesty, I would never betray you.”

Zavian stared at him, and it was either Frederick didn’t like speaking or he was calling Zavian’s bluff by cutting his tongue. He had always known Frederick to be power-hungry, and if he and Lydia were plotting something, Zavian was going to find out what it was by all means possible.

“Thank you,” Zavian said. “Now give me your palm.”

Frederick frowned. “Your Majesty?”

“Your palm.”

“But I am telling the truth!” Frederick raised his voice, looking between Azriel and Zavian. “I am! That’s what happened. I...”

Azriel grabbed Frederick’s hand and held it to Zavian. Zavian pressed his palm against Frederick’s, and the past came whooshing, painting everything as it happened. Zavian heard the speeches between his mother and Frederick; the way Frederick had defended the King so fiercely, and how Lydia had stood her ground to change his mind.

Zavian released the hand, and Frederick scuttled away, but Azriel kept his hold on him.

“Do I cut his tongue now?” Azriel asked.

“No,” Zavian said. “No, he’s telling the truth.”

“He is?” Azriel whipped his head to look at Frederick.

Frederick, now recovered, yanked his hand away from Azriel’s grasp and fixed the neckline of his garment. He tilted his nose up in that aloof and offended manner.

“I find it rather humiliating and offending that you would think so low of me even after all these years of serving you,” Frederick said. “But I was hoping that had changed, but clearly not.”

Azriel walked up to Zavian and leaned close to his ear. “Are you sure?”

Zavian nodded. “Then why would you have her meet with you in secret and leave in secret?”

“I just told you! She is desperate!” Frederick said. “I do that because I don’t want people getting the wrong idea about me, but clearly, that hasn’t worked.”

Zavian kept quiet. Even though he had proven to himself that Frederick was innocent, there was something off about it all.

“Make sure she doesn’t step foot in your home again,” Zavian said. Azriel picked the cue to leave, and he led Zavian out of the room.

“Frederick being on your side?” Azriel was reeling from the incredulity of it once outside Frederick’s walls. “Zavian, are you sure of what you saw?”

“Palms don’t lie,” Zavian said. “And he defended me with so much fierceness I almost didn’t recognize him.”

“Defended you?” Azriel coughed out a humourless laugh. “It’s like saying Aloysius is a good-hearted saint!”

But that feeling, that nagging that something was wrong, lingered with Zavian. Palms don’t lie, but Frederick has never been one on his side of his own free will. He was a coward who was on Zavian’s side because of the winning, and if Lydia could come to him thrice trying to convince him even after his violent refusal, there was more to the story than Frederick was letting on.

“Zavian,” Azriel called, holding out his stallion’s reins to him. “I have been calling you. Are you still thinking about it?”

“Something is off,” Zavian said again. And he felt it.

“Well, he is innocent. And has all the proof that he is. It’s best we believe it or we’d go crazy,” Azriel said. He mounted his horse, and the beast, restless for a ride, trotted here and there impatiently. “We should get going.”

So Zavian also mounted his horse, and as he looked up to the window of the room they had just vacated, he saw someone watching him through the parting of the curtain. It quickly closed.

Zavian rode off, the lingering doubt following closely behind him.

....

When Zavian and Azriel returned to the castle, Zavian had long forgotten the encounter and had been thinking about something special he and Neera could do.