Chapter 264: The Heir Arrives at Night II
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The sense that direct attack would cost more than he had expected. He told it all with the careful balance of a man trying to make himself look neither incompetent nor cowardly and achieving both.
Mihos listened without interrupting.
That was worse than interruption.
Because it forced Dickoff to keep walking deeper into his own humiliation without the relief of being stopped.
When he finished, Mihos tapped one finger once against the arm of his chair.
"You wrote that he has many people around him."
"Yes, Young Master."
"How many is many?"
Dickoff hesitated.
Mihos saw it and smiled without warmth.
"That kind of hesitation is why your lineages remain merchants."
Dickoff bowed his head again. "At minimum, Elena the head maid. The bird. The twin sisters. Several maids who are not as harmless as they appear. Possibly more hidden strength within the house. And..." His throat shifted. "There are rumors now. About other support."
Mihos’s gaze sharpened. "What support?"
"Unconfirmed support," Dickoff said quickly. "Only whispers. That, old powers may be watching. That the fake lower branch is not as abandoned as it once seemed."
Mihos leaned back.
"Whispers," he said.
Dickoff smiled weakly. "Slik is full of them."
"Yes," Mihos said. "Because frightened men start manufacturing mysteries whenever they fail."
Dickoff lowered his eyes.
Mihos let the silence drag across him for a few more seconds, then said, "And Sekhmet himself?"
Dickoff hesitated again.
This time Mihos’s expression did not change at all, which somehow made the room colder.
Dickoff chose his words carefully. "He is... not what I first assumed."
"That is not useful."
"He is stronger than expected. Calmer under pressure. Protected. And not entirely soft."
Mihos gave a short, contemptuous exhale through his nose. "Your people saw one boy stand upright in a fight and now he is a legend."
Dickoff dared a reply only because not replying would look worse. "I do not call him a legend, Young Master. I call him troublesome."
"That is because you are standing too close to him and too far from perspective."
The butler remained silent, but inwardly he gave Mihos credit for the line. It was sharp enough to sound intelligent and dismissive at the same time.
Dickoff folded his hands together. "Then I ask for guidance."
"You already did," Mihos said. "That is why I am here."
The room went quiet again.
Then Mihos turned his head slightly toward his butler.
"Tomorrow," he said, "send someone from the guard to learn the situation around Sekhmet."
Dickoff’s eyes flicked up at once.
The butler inclined his head. "What pretense should they use, Young Master?"
Mihos’s gaze moved back to Dickoff. "A Dawn name."
Dickoff’s expression tightened before he could stop it.
He hid it badly.
Mihos noticed. He wanted the merchant to be afraid.
"Someone respectable enough that the lower house will receive them," Mihos continued. "Not one of the decorative idiots. I want eyes. Ears. A measured report."
The butler nodded once. "Understood."
Dickoff cleared his throat carefully. "Young Master... Do you mean to approach them as family?"
Mihos looked at him.
The answer came like a knife laid on velvet.
"I mean to approach them in whatever way gives me the clearest view."
Dickoff lowered his gaze again.
Mihos continued, "If the lower branch sees a Dawn face, they will reveal more than they would to merchants or city vultures. We test the house before we strike the house."
That made the butler speak.
"Should the envoy claim open affiliation?"
"No," Mihos said. "Not openly. Let them suggest enough to be received. Not enough to bind my hand before I choose where to place it."
The butler’s mind moved quickly through names and ranks.
"Kess," he said after a beat. "He has discipline and a face that people mistake for sincerity."
Mihos’s mouth shifted faintly. "A useful face then."
"Yes, Young Master."
"Send him."
Dickoff finally risked another question, though his voice remained careful and dog-soft.
"And if Sekhmet resists?"
Mihos turned his head very slowly toward him.
"If he resists a visit," he said, "then I will know his confidence is hiding something. If he welcomes it, I will know he thinks himself safer than he is. Either answer is useful." His eyes sharpened. "Unlike your letter."
Dickoff bowed his head so fast it was nearly painful to watch.
"My failings are clear."
"Yes," Mihos said. "They are."
One of the servants entered then with wine and heavier food, perhaps under the impression that feeding the room might help. Mihos waved the tray aside without looking. Dickoff accepted a cup with both hands and drank too quickly, another small humiliation no one was polite enough to pretend not to notice.
Mihos watched him over the rim of his own untouched glass.
"You acted like a dog when I arrived," he said suddenly.
Dickoff almost choked.
The butler’s face did not change.
Mihos continued, "I do not mind fear. Fear at least knows where to kneel. But if you are going to grovel, do it with enough dignity that I am not embarrassed to use you."
Dickoff set the cup down carefully.
"I understand, Young Master Dawn."
"No," Mihos said. "You understand that you are currently useful. If that changes, I will stop understanding you entirely."
That was the real meaning. Everyone in the room heard it.
Dickoff bowed lower in his chair than should have been physically possible.
"I will not fail again."
Mihos’s expression remained cold.
"Then perhaps you may continue breathing in comfort."
The line would have sounded absurd coming from many men. From Mihos, in that room, it sounded almost administrative.
He stood then, signaling the audience was over before Dickoff had fully realized how little of it had belonged to him in the first place.
The butler stepped in at once, already moving mentally toward the next day’s arrangements.
Mihos looked once around the Iron House receiving chamber as though measuring how much of it should be burned and how much merely ignored.
Then he said to the butler, "Tomorrow. Kess goes first. Rul remains close to me. If the lower branch has teeth, I want to know whether they bite from fear or blood."
The butler bowed. "Yes, Young Master."