The Dismissed Saint Became the Beast King's Healer novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: The Way Home That Wasn't
The old king's private room smelled of medicine and lamp oil.
He sat propped on pillows in a big bed under a window, with a quilt over his knees and a thin gold chain at his throat.
There was no one else in the room.
"Sit," he said. "I will not do this in front of a court."
Shiori took the chair nearest the bed.
Kaedan stayed standing, at her shoulder.
"My father kept journals," the old king said. "He gave them to me when I was crowned, and told me never to show them to a priest."
He pointed at a leather book on the coverlet.
"The circle was made to call. It was made four hundred years ago by a king who wanted a healer for a plague, and it worked. Somebody came."
His voice was dry.
"The first priest wrote the promise afterward. He told the saint that when her work was done, the circle would send her home."
Shiori's hands went still in her lap.
"Did it?"
"No."
The word fell into the room.
"It cannot. The stone has no road in that direction. The first saint tried, and so did the fourth and the ninth. The Temple learned to say nothing, and to keep the hope, because a saint who hopes does not run."
Shiori heard a small sound beside her and did not look up.
It was Kaedan, breathing out.
"You knew," she said to the king.
"I knew. When I was a young man with no power, I read it. When I was an old man with a crown, I did nothing, because the Temple was strong and I was tired."
He looked at her squarely, and she saw that the shame in his face was real and old.
"Every wrong in that line began with me, because I read the book and kept quiet."
"What will you do?" Kaedan said. His voice was very low.
"I have already begun."
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