Read 04c Dreams of Fire and Gods: Gods for Free Online Page B

at that, and Sael realized the valet was expecting to be dismissed. If Sael chose to make an issue of this incident, Jekh might never find a comparable position in a noble house. His career as a valet would effectively be over.
    Sael couldn’t do that to him. Damn it, he liked the man! Jekh knew that, and it was most likely why he felt his advance would be welcomed. That he was wrong didn’t make Sael dislike him. He could choose to dismiss the valet with good references and fabricate a reason for wanting a different valet. That would allow Jekh to find another position. But the more Sael thought about it, the less he liked the idea of breaking in a new valet along with everything else that was going on in his life right now.
    He sighed and said, “Jekh… I need you to understand. Koreh wasn’t just my lover. He meant everything to me.”
    “Yes, Your Lordship.”
    Sael saw a faint flicker of hope in Jekh’s eyes, perhaps wondering if he might be allowed to at least retain his position. But before Sael could say anything further, the bell hanging by his sitting room door rang. It sounded as if someone were pulling on it impatiently.
    Jekh looked torn between going to answer it and waiting for Sael to finish with him, but Sael welcomed the distraction. “Please answer that, Jekh.”
    The valet rushed off and came back a moment later, closing the sitting room door behind him and speaking in a low voice. “The vek is requesting that you join him, sir.”
    Oh bother! Sael was still naked, clutching a towel in front of his crotch, and there was no way he could dress himself properly without Jekh’s assistance. Walking out there in his dressing gown was inconceivable. “Help me dress, please.”
    It took some time before Sael was presentable, but he at last entered the sitting room, where his father was waiting impatiently by the fire.
    “Are you just crawling out of bed now ?” the vek demanded. “It’s past midday!”
    Sael saw no way to deny it. “Yes, sir.”
    “There will be no more of that. Master Geilin and your Taaweh healer assure me that you are fully recovered, physically.”
    Physically, yes , Sael thought. He doubted he would ever truly recover. But his father was a practical man, not particularly interested in hearing about heartbreak. “I will instruct Jekh to wake me earlier from now on.”
    “Please do.” The vek seemed to consider the matter settled, because he took a seat in one of the winged-back chairs near the fireplace and poured himself some water from the decanter on the small table beside it. Jekh might normally do that, but Sael had asked him to leave them alone.
    Sael sat in the seat opposite him. He was uncomfortably aware of the fact that this was the first time he and his father had been completely alone with one another since they’d fought about Koreh being Sael’s lover weeks ago.
    “I’ve had an official proclamation posted this morning,” his father said after a long silence. He took another sip of his water before continuing. “It acknowledges your marriage to Koreh—before the day of the siege. It claims that the marriage was done privately, with the intention of holding a public ceremony after the conflict, but Koreh was recently killed on a covert mission, and you are now in mourning.”
    Sael tried not to gape at him in shock, but it was difficult. He was uncertain whether to be happy that his father was finally acknowledging the most important relationship he’d ever had, notwithstanding how brief it had been, or angry that it had come too late. He also knew there had to be a political reason for it, and in that his father did not disappoint him.
    “Gossip about Koreh has become the local pastime,” the vek complained. “As I feared, it’s become common knowledge that the two of you were caught in bed together. Though that pales by comparison to the exaggerated tales of his appearance in the council chamber—”
    “Exaggerated!” Sael interrupted. “He