Jackal Among Snakes

“I’m sure that she’ll turn up sooner or later, my prince. That child, Mina, she’s…” Count Elgar of Veden shook his head.

Induen tapped his fingers against the dining table, staring Elgar down with his cold blue eyes. The Count had golden hair and eyes just as Mina did yet shared little with her beyond that. Induen did not like him. “Your daughter is missing, yet you don’t seem to care.”

Elgar placed his elbows on the table and clenched his hands together. “She’s been doing that since she was very young, my prince. She’ll disappear for days, sometimes weeks on end. Typically I need only send a message to Duke Enrico—she always heads there, the foolish girl. I apologize for her discourtesy.”

Induen narrowed his eyes. Though anger was there, something else marred his features more—confusion, perhaps, or curiosity. “You’ve not sent her away?”

Elgar raised a brow. “Why would I do that, my prince?”

“Stupidity, maybe,” Induen mused, leaning back in the chair and scratching his temple. Count Elgar clenched his jaw tightly at the insinuation yet did not rise to combat it. “Do you hate your daughter, I wonder?”

Elgar furrowed his brows. “Who would hate their child?”

“Well, my father, for one. He never liked me much. I killed his wife, you know. The whole childbirth incident,” Induen pointed out. Both looked serious, but then Induen started to laugh. “Joking, joking. Of course. Of course,” Induen smiled widely.

“Mina is missing, Prince Induen. I don’t know what else to tell you,” Elgar stated once again, leaving no room for argument.

Induen leaned back in and slammed his hand against the table. “Yet you send not a single knight to look for her?”

Elgar stared back. “I have explained my reasonings. That girl had wasted enough resources in frivolous searches throughout her whole life. The waxpox still abounds, and I’ll not have my guards contract it in a fruitless quest to collect her.”

Induen’s gaze was cold and dead. Elgar swallowed as they stared at each other, alone in the dining hall. Just then, the great double doors burst open. Induen turned his head, surprised. The confidence in his posture veritably withered away as his eyes widened.

“Brother!” Orion shouted out cheerily, moving towards Induen with long strides. The prince wore thin casual clothes, rich and black, yet even still he made the formidable Induen look small.

Induen rose to his feet and stepped back, placing the chair between himself and his brother. “Orion. Why are you… here?”

Orion pushed the chair aside with his foot and embraced Induen. The elder prince’s face visibly contorted in displeasure and anxiety, and his hands hovered a fair distance away as though he feared to touch his brother.

Prince Orion pushed away, holding Induen by the shoulders. “I’ve heard of what you’ve been doing here. Working with the sick, stopping the plague from spreading… I cannot describe the joy that welled within once I heard of it. It brought tears to my eyes. And seeing outside… you have done so well.”

his best to avoid his younger brother. He never felt older when they spoke. He always felt deeply uncomfortable, almost belittled, after any interaction with him. Induen tried

get in?” Count Elgar inquired. “I did not hear

Induen and turned, expression and tone cold. “I climbed the walls. I trust this is no problem, Count Elgar. The royal family is not barred from anywhere in the lands of Vasquer, and I wished to visit with my

and made to leave. Orion’s stern gaze followed his every step, making the Count hurry. He shut the doors

speak with you direly! Of course, I always enjoy speaking with my family, yet now it was especially so—there is so much to speak of, so much to do. It has been too long since we

here?” Induen

“You wished me to come, did you not? Ah, but—even if you did not, I wished to talk to you. Let us begin…” Orion pulled a chair back and sat, facing away from the table. “…with the more dire news. Our brother, Magnus, was

and stepped forth cautiously. “So close to you, I hear,” he

tears. He placed his elbow on his knee as his hand supported his face, tears of molten silver pouring between

the Count’s carpet once they fell. His brother’s strange tendencies and constant oddities were

“Foul things persisted in the wetlands. I have finally ventured deep within them, and I have discovered the truth of the fall of the Archduchy.” Orion rose up. “Foul beings with vengeance in their hearts wreaked havoc across the wetlands… and then, the entire continent. Their magic killed Magnus, I am sure of it. But I killed them. Killed them all to the

hands as

burnt, scarred or simply withered away entirely by

Induen’s vision swirled. “What?” he

ceased,” Orion ventured. “Argrave found out the root cause. He heralded a traitor, used her to put an end to this virulent vendetta! And now, the disease

are you talking about?” Induen

harnessed the power of the wetland gods to conjure and spread this plague all across the land. Argrave tore this information from the hands of an enemy, and then led a crusade forth

as myriad emotions assaulted him from the news. Before he realized it, he

fact that the waxpox had not spread at all in a week was such a bizarre thing. It had struck him as odd the first day he’d seen it. He thought it mere luck… yet this strange happening persisted. He remembered wondering if, perhaps, Mina had been right all along. He wondered

the past few weeks. Innumerable tents, messages, edicts, all to curb the plague… and all of it overshadowed by Argrave’s grand achievement. All of his efforts entirely wasted. He would

friend. And now she’s gone. She was strangely insistent I stay

desk, over which he and Mina had drafted out plans for days on end. He stepped to the table, fists clenched, wishing to take his anger

his breathing heavy. But then he paused. He

mind noted. She worked as hard as I did. She was desperately attempting to stop the plague in Veden and beyond. Those were not the actions of someone who knew it was to end. Induen lifted his head, his breathing growing steady. And her departure… it was soon before Orion arrived. None saw her

everywhere—if she wished to inform me urgently, she could. She wanted me

the room once more.

Why did

said I wanted to see you earlier,” Induen said, his voice surprisingly calm. “What gave you that

his brows, then thought back. “You sent a