Chapter 330: The Guest III
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"Where were we supposed to meet?" The question rang in Kess’ ears. For half a second he simply stared at Sekhmet’s face, because after an entire day of managed silence, invisible confinement, and house courtesy sharpened into a trap, he had expected explanation first.
Accusation, perhaps. A statement of power. Some carefully arranged lines about lower branches, patience, and respect.
Instead Sekhmet asked for the location.
That somehow made the room feel even less safe.
Kess answered at once, because this at least was useful ground to stand on.
"Outside the city in a luxury camp, Young Master. It is beyond the city’s walls." He swallowed once before going on. "Young Master Mihos chose not to enter the city officially. He intended the meeting to happen there."
Sekhmet’s expression did not change much, but something in his eyes sharpened by a degree.
"How far from the city walls?"
"Not far by carriage. Less by a direct mounted route. It sits on guarded ground near the eastern side, beyond the noisier lower trade roads." Kess hesitated, then added, "The camp is a space-type tool. Small outside. Vast within. Master Mihos doesn’t like lower city buildings."
Sekhmet glanced once toward Elena. She already knew the kind of structure being described. Her face remained calm.
"What time was set?"
Kess’s throat felt dry. "Tonight."
"That is not the time. I asked you about the time."
Kess forced himself not to flinch. "Young Master Mihos said after full dark. In the middle of the night." His mouth tightened faintly. "I was supposed to return with an answer yesterday."
Sekhmet looked at him for one silent moment.
Then he said, "And instead you stayed here. Will he punish you?"
There was no accusation in the sentence. It was worrying for him. That somehow made Kess emotional.
"Yes."
Elena spoke then, her voice cool and perfectly level. "You were not mistreated."
Kess turned toward her and managed, "No, Lady Elena."
"You were fed."
"Yes."
"You were housed."
"Yes."
"You were prevented from leaving."
A pause.
Then, because lying here would only make him smaller, Kess said, "Yes."
Elena nodded once, as if that settled a practical matter rather than a moral one.
"We will explain it to him. Don’t be afraid."
Sekhmet stepped farther into the room then, not in aggression, simply in decision. He looked around the guest chamber once, taking in the untouched food, the controlled disorder of anxious pacing, the clean prison made from civility and structure. If needed he will help him. Sekhmet kept him waiting because he had other things to do.
There was no point pretending otherwise.
Kess gathered himself enough to ask what he needed to know, though it took effort to force the words through dignity and fear both.
"Will you go, Master Sekhmet?"
Sekhmet looked back at him.
"Yes."
Relief hit Kess so hard it almost made his knees weak.
Not because going guaranteed safety. It did not. A meeting between Sekhmet Dawn and Mihos Dawn tonight could still become a disaster large enough to swallow everyone near it. But at least it would be a disaster with purpose. A disaster that might explain his delay. Better that than returning late with no answer at all or not returning and letting Mihos imagine the worst from silence.
Sekhmet continued, "You will show us the way."
Kess bowed his head immediately. "Yes."
Then, because fear always found one more practical question, he asked, "Will we leave at once?"
"No. But soon."
That answer forced him to live with waiting a little longer. He thought, "I hope he doesn’t change his mind."
Sekhmet turned slightly toward Elena. "I will go."
She had likely known the answer before he spoke it, but she still received it with the same calm gravity she gave everything that might soon become violent.
"I expected that," she said.
Kess, still standing near the side of the room, watched the two of them with the trained attention of a servant who knew his life might depend on reading what his betters did not say aloud.
There was no argument between them. There was no persuasion. No warning spoken for effect.
That alone told him something important. Whatever Elena thought of Mihos Dawn, whatever she thought of the lower branch meeting the main heir on his chosen ground, she had already moved past ’whether’ and into ’how.’
Good households survived that way. Dangerous households thrived on it.
Sekhmet said, "I will not go alone."
"No," Elena replied. "You will not."
Then her eyes shifted to Kess. "He is watched until departure." (She said to a maid.)
Kess almost laughed. He had never stopped being watched. Even now, with Sekhmet standing three paces away, he could feel the structure of the house around him like a net kept loose only because a tighter one was unnecessary.
Sekhmet asked, "Any word from Seraphiel."
That made Kess’s attention sharpen at once. "So Lady Seraphiel isn’t present. That is good."
Elena answered, "No direct return. Which usually means she is doing what she intended to do."
Sekhmet accepted that with no visible concern. Perhaps because Seraphiel was the sort of woman whose silence often meant success rather than trouble. Kess could only guess.
Then Sekhmet looked at him once more.
"You will wait here until called."
Kess bowed again. "Yes, Young Master."
There was nothing else to say.
Sekhmet left the room first. Elena followed him. The door closed behind them with a softness that somehow felt final.
Kess stood alone in the guest chamber again, but the air had changed now.
He was still contained. He was still being watched. He was still in danger if the night went badly.
But now at least the shape of the danger was moving. The answer would not remain sealed behind house manners much longer.
He sat down very slowly on the edge of the bed and tried not to imagine too vividly what Mihos’s face would look like if the heir decided that being kept waiting by the lower branch was not an insult but a challenge to his authority.