Chereads / Prince of Secrets / Chapter 17 - Kuryzan

Chapter 17 - Kuryzan

Elswyth fussed over him. It was quite obvious this friend of his was quite worried about him. It was kinda nice knowing she cared about him that much.

After a few hours, Queen Serendiah came in, followed by a young elven man. He was slightly built and dressed in a robe rather than the pants more common to Jarenkul. He had dark purple hair and a more light purple coloring for his almond shaped eyes.

A cat with two tails perched on his shoulders as it regarded the room with severe disinterest. The cat was black with a white underbelly, tips on both tails, and socks on its right front paw and both back feet, and like its master had purple eyes.

"How are you feeling now, Prince Heron?" The queen asked kindly as she came to stand next to the bed.

"Fine." He looked at the young man and smiled, "May I ask who is this?"

The man didn't smile back at him and instead looked away. His eyes darted towards the door as if he didn't really want to be there.

For a moment, Serendiah didn't answer, though her hand reached out and grabbed the man's sleeve. Then after a moment, she said, "This is Kuryzan. He's my…. ward." Then she hissed something that Heron did not catch.

The man finally looked back at him, briefly met his eyes and whispered quietly, "Hello." Then he looked away again.

Serendiah sighed and then looked at him, "I was wanting him to take a look. Even if he can't recognize whatever is wrong with you, he can at least verify if you are under a spell or not. And then research into it."

"May I?" As Heron nodded, Kuryzan took his wrist and examined it. He murmured a spell that Heron recognized as a spell he actually knew himself. It was used to find magic, and was one of the spells that he could cast even without a familiar with little difficulty.

After examining a few more minutes he looked up, and at the queen, "I don't recognize it but there is a spell on him. I can go and try to research into it."

"Alright. Go ahead."

He left them and Heron looked back at the queen, "I didn't know you had a wizard in the castle."

"Well, there are no laws really against magic. Just not many Jarenkulians are all that interested. We have a few sorcerers of course but we just aren't too given to the arcane. Still we do have a few wizards here and there and Kur is one of the best."

There was just a hint of pride in her voice and it was rather obvious she was rather fond of her ward.

As the queen took her leave and told him to rest well he wondered how that even worked. How did a human take an elf as a ward. The life span did not really work because by the time an elf matured it was the lifespan of a human. What more that this elven man was pretty much grown and she was still rather young.

He was interrupted out of his contemplation by Elswyth, "Hey."

"Hmm? What?" He looked up at the ranger woman.

She looked straight into his eyes and with a sigh said, "Officially, I am staying to take on the role as your entourage. Okay?"

"That's fine, I guess? Why though? You could just stay as my friend and that wo-"

"It will keep Serendiah from trying to hire me if I can just say I am under your employ. Of course there will also be fees."

"…Fine." He smiled. He did not really mind having to pay her money as she was going to be performing acts of service to him. Just because she was his friend didn't mean he wanted to take advantage of her. That would hardly be right he was sure.

"Now get some rest." She stood up, retucked him into bed and then left the room, taking the candle that had been providing light with her.

Left in the darkness Heron had no choice really but to listen and try to get some rest. As exhausted as he was it was not hard to fall into the deep oblivion of sleep.