Vela Heartwhisper's Arc

Chapter 5 of 25

Vela had eaten at the king's table for three nights. She sat close to Benbenek, laughed at his jokes, and passed him bread. But servants and warriors always crowded the room. She had never spoken to him alone. To win his heart, she needed one quiet hour with no ears between them. So she watched, and she waited for her chance. Her chance came at dusk. A servant told her the king had gone to the far tower, alone, to tend his moths. Vela climbed the winding stairs. She found him in a small round room, hunched over a low shelf. On the shelf sat a soft, cushioned cat bed. Inside it rested a luminous moth, its wings dusted with glowing spores. The king dripped water onto a leaf beside the sleeping creature. "May I sit?" Vela asked. Benbenek startled. Then he saw it was her, and his shoulders eased. "You. Yes. Sit." He nodded at the glowing moth. "This one hurt a wing. I keep it warm until it flies." Vela knelt by the bed. The moth's spores lit the king's tired face. "You save small things," she said. "Even when no one watches." "A king must guard the whole kingdom," he said quietly. "But no one lets me guard just one moth." He looked at her. "You fought a swordsman for me. Why?" Here was the moment. Vela chose truth, or close to it. "Because I saw the man behind the crown," she said. "A man who hides in a tower to feed a moth." The king's eyes filled. He set down the leaf. For a long moment he said nothing. Then words spilled out. He told her of the strangers who had burned his fields long ago. He told her he trusted no outsider, and yet he trusted her. His hand found hers on the edge of the cat bed. "I have not spoken this to anyone," Benbenek said. "Not in years." Vela held his hand and listened. This was the door she had needed. It had opened. She felt his heart lean toward her, warm and real. Her mission moved closer than ever. And something in her chest twisted, because his grief was true, and she had come to use it. A knock broke the room. A warrior stepped in, breathless. "My king. The stranger with the glowing sword. He was seen at the wall tonight. He carries strange tools. A scientist's tools." Benbenek's hand tightened on Vela's. The tender moment cracked. "He knows your face," the king said to her. "And now he returns." Vela stood. She had won the private hour. She had reached the king's heart at last. But the man she'd driven off, Dr. Malakai Severin, had come back for both of them. The quiet was over. Now she had to protect the heart she'd only just begun to win.