They Drugged Me Into Darkness, Now I Am Its King novel · Chapter 11 of 32

Chapter 11: The Space Lucien Gives

Lucien reached the war-room door a half step behind Aquas.

Aquas pulled the handle.

The door swung outward, and the corridor air hit his face, cold and clean after the sealed room.

Lucien stopped at the threshold.

He did not put his hand on the door. He did not step in front of it.

He stepped aside.

'I will not use my rank to stop you,' Lucien said.

The words landed in the corridor and stayed there.

Aquas did not move for a moment. He had prepared for a hand on his arm, for an order, for the quiet weight of the prince's authority pressing him back into the room.

He had not prepared for this.

Behind them, the clerks looked up from their pages.

The youngest one stopped writing mid-word, pen still pressed to the paper.

Aquas did not repeat what he had said about the temple. He did not need to.

He turned and looked at Lucien in the open doorway.

'Walk beside me,' Aquas said. 'Not behind.'

Lucien held his eyes for a beat.

'Yes,' he said.

He turned his head toward the clerks without raising his voice.

'Record it,' he said. 'The consort walks with the prince's step, not behind it.'

The young clerk's pen started moving again, fast.

Aquas stepped into the corridor, and Lucien fell in at his side.

At the corridor mouth, Mossbeard was waiting with his arms folded over his chest.

The goblin elder looked at the two of them, side by side, and his face split into a grin that took up most of it.

'HA!' he bellowed. 'The door is open and the prince is walking IN STEP! I will tell every hall from the forge to the deep market, and I will tell them TWICE, because once is not enough for news this good!'

Aquas felt the corner of his mouth twitch.

'You will start a riot,' he said.

'I will start a FESTIVAL,' Mossbeard said. 'There is a difference and I have written letters about it.'

Durn came up the corridor with three of the forge crew behind her, their boots loud on the obsidian.

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