Page 8 of His Realm

“If he were here, perhaps, but as he’s not…”

I glanced at her, then Eris, who had returned and looked pained, then to Zev, who shrugged. “I’m going on vacation,” I stated firmly.

Brenna grimaced and nodded.

“He has others to send,” I told her. “Even visiting council members.”

“No,” she said softly, and a bit of her Irish lilt came out; it was gone most of the time, except on the rare occasions when she tried to comfort me. “I believe he’ll be sending you.”

“I’m leaving in the morning for my vacation,” I insisted.

“Jason, you’re bleeding,” Dae-Jung chimed in. “Might we return to your quarters and check your arm?”

Did I want to sit down? Yes. But I wasn’t ready to adjourn to my quarters yet. “It’ll heal,” I told him, because it would. “You would have healed this already, but I need a bit longer.”

“Yes, true,” he conceded. “But soap and water and a bandage are not altogether uncalled for here.”

“I just want everyone to understand that I’m going on vacation,” I said for what felt like the billionth time.

“I’m sure you will as soon as you get back,” Eris said cheerfully.

“No, I⁠—”

“It’s your place to question Decimus,” Zev explained. “In your capacity of cadeyrn, you’re the one who has to go if that’s what the king wants.”

“No, listen⁠—”

“At least there are planes now,” Zev commented. “Back in the day it was steamship or train or, worse, camel,” he finished with a shiver. “I hate camels.”

I had to smile because in the middle of all this talk about what I would need to do, he was talking about camels.

“Only the rajan or cadeyrn may question the elder boar in his home,” Zev continued.

“Why?”

Zev took a breath. “Even though Decimus Maedoc is one of the king’s subjects, he is also the king’s uncle, and as such is allowed to run his castle, and the people residing within it, as he sees fit.”

I squinted at him. “But all vampyrs and their homes, royal or not, nobility or not, belong in the king’s realm and are therefore bound to his laws.”

Brenna shook her head. “Magnus, the king’s father, gave Decimus leave that his home is his sanctuary ages ago, and when Messina became king after his death, that pact was acknowledged and continued.”

“Why?”

“I have no insight into the mind of our king.”

I turned to Zev. “Do you know?”

“It’s not my place to know,” Zev said. “What is important is that when you travel there, it’s different from here. There’s a whole other system in place, separate from ours.”

“What do you mean, separate?”

“I mean different from the king’s law.”

“That can’t be right.” I thought a moment. “Isn’t the king’s law the law of Ascalon that everyone has to follow?”

“Everyone but Decimus, yes.”

Ascalon was the original ruler of the Noreia, of all vampyr kind. Before him, there had been different rulers. Warlords, everywhere in the world. He united and annexed and fought until everyone was under his banner, his house, the house of Maedoc.