Javaun Helios's Arc

Chapter 2 of 11

Javaun returned to the castle the next morning, still empty-handed. He had asked three clerks about the rare gift Velrithian gave the crown. All three had shrugged. Frustrated, he walked the quiet hall toward his office, silk robe brushing the stone. Two servants stood in an alcove, heads close together. Javaun slowed and pressed to the wall. One of them whispered a name. "Velrithian's prize. They keep it down in the cellars." The other nodded. "Elf guards on it, day and night. Nobody goes near." Javaun's pulse jumped. The cellars. Guards on a single item meant it mattered. If he saw the thing, he could learn its worth and break the elf's secret. He turned from his office and headed down instead. The stairs grew narrow and cold. Torches thinned. At the bottom, a low passage ran toward a locked door. Two figures in dark armor stood before it, pale and still, their ears sharp. Elf guards, just as the servant said. Javaun edged closer, counting steps to the door. "Curiosity is a costly habit." The voice came from behind him. Javaun spun. Velrithian stepped out of the shadow, unhurried, his black coat swallowing the torchlight. His red eyes did not blink. He smiled the same soft smile he had used on the steps, when he blocked the Prince from view. "My lord," Javaun said. "I lost my way." "You did not." Velrithian folded his hands. He spoke gently, almost kindly, and that made it worse. "You asked the clerks. You asked the village. Now you come to my door." He tilted his head. "I sent word for you to stop. You heard it. Yet here you stand." Javaun's jaw tightened. "A man may walk his own castle." "This is the Prince's castle," Velrithian said. "And the Prince listens to me." He stepped closer. His voice stayed calm. "Take one more step toward that door, and I will have you barred from court. No steps, no smiles, no Prince. You will lose him for good. Do you understand me, Javaun Helios?" Javaun looked past him to the locked door, then to the two guards who had not moved. He could not force it. Not today, not against three. He unclenched his fists slowly. "I understand," he said. "Good." Velrithian gestured toward the stairs, polite as a host. Javaun climbed them with the elf's eyes on his back. At the top, he stopped in the empty hall and breathed hard. He had lost the cellar. But he had gained something better. Velrithian had panicked. A man who feared nothing did not guard a door with soldiers and threats. The secret in that cellar could destroy him. Javaun straightened his robe. He would not touch the cellar again. He would find someone the elf could not threaten, someone who already stood above him. He would take the secret to the Prince himself.