Chapter 477 - 478: Understand.

Chapter 477: Chapter 478: Understand.

Oh no, honest and an idiot , apparently. There seem to be an awful lot of those types of men wandering around his castle these days.

All that stands between them ? Does really he think so little of the castle walls and the army of Crade, and Briyagi?

Incredible.

But he didn’t come here to be threatened. Nor did he come here to make them sweat, for a change.

"I just want to talk," he says simply, hands open and outstretched in a show of good faith. And while they don’t so much as spare each other a glance, Gurdet gets the strangest feeling they’ve somehow exchanged a thought. How terribly, dreadfully romantic.

"About what?" Khojin states, politely interested without being overtly suspicious.

"Why, about the fate of your nephew," Gurdet replies with a shrug. He would have thought that would be obvious. "What else?" It just goes to show how long it’s been since they were last amongst kings that Khojin’s gaze immediately hardens and Mozry’s hand curls into the back of his chair. The abrupt change is both stark and startling; enough that Bongo instinctively tenses next to him.

Perhaps he should play a little less. Xena would scold him for it –playing games at his age. It’s a hard habit to break though; he’s been playing all his life, playing to win a princess and a crown, and then playing to keep it. The days where he needs to do that though are numbered, now.

His daughter will always be his little girl, but she’s not a child now.

You’re a kind person after all.

He never thought she’d say that sort of thing to him. Why would she, when he didn’t think it of himself.

It’s an awful feeling, but he’s starting to think that maybe, deep down, he would rather like to be the kind of man a daughter could be proud of.

"...I must say, given Khobi’s propensity for violence, I’m surprised you haven’t done anything...hasty," Gurdet admits casually, waving a hand for them all to stand down before someone gets hurt. Neither Khojin nor Mozry make any move to do any such thing until Bongo does so first; slowly clasping his hands together behind his back.

"...You can thank Khobi for that," Khojin admits after a beat as his wife drops from her defensive stance. Most prisoners wouldn’t be so flippant with admitting that they’re already planning to escape. It’s both baffling and refreshing. "He was insistent that we stay a while longer."

"I can’t imagine why."

"Can you not?"

Gurdet can’t help but think that under his affable exterior, Khojin Frost is surprisingly shrewd.

"Make no mistake, Gurdet," Khojin chuckles. It’s quite disarming, being laughed at so casually. Gurdet doesn’t much care for it but tries to set the discomfort aside. "We’re grateful for your hospitality, but I have no intention of waiting around for you to hand us over to Silas." Gurdet would have expected nothing less.

"...Then you should be long gone from here by the time he gets here," he advises airily; an answer that has Khojin raising an eyebrow.

"...It almost sounds like you’re not intending on stopping us," he chuckles wryly. For once, Gurdet doesn’t laugh along.

"And why would I stop you?"

The easy smile lighting up Khojin’s expression fades; slowly dropping into a confused frown. "Khobi’s your prisoner," Khojin reminds him. As if Gurdet could possibly forget.

"...Only because he was Silas’s first," he reminds him with a wry smile, "...And last I checked, he was your nephew long before he was a ward of Briyagi."

Just as Gurdet had hoped, Khojin is clever enough to catch the implication, and it leaves him speechless.

"Are you saying what I think you’re saying?"

Gurdet was going to be better, honest he was, but he just can’t quite resist. "What do you suppose I’m saying?"

"It sounds like you’re going to let us take him." Clearly Khojin’s wife doesn’t share his patience. Nor does she believe a word of it. Which he had anticipated.

"Oh, nothing as obvious as that," he assures her with a dry chuckle, "As you can probably imagine I would prefer to keep my involvement to an absolute minimum." It’s why he’s kept their presence here a secret, after all. " –But your nephew has been attempting to escape from here since the day he arrived. I doubt it would surprise anyone if he finally succeeded."

Mozry remains unconvinced.

"...You really expect us to believe that it’s that easy?" she scoffs dismissively, arms folded across her chest as she stares him down unflinchingly; eyes gauging him, calculating, and ultimately determining that he is not to be trusted. A fair assessment, to be sure. And generally speaking, a correct one. Except for now. "...That you’d betray Silas, just like that?"

Just like that .

How insulting, that she would think he’s put so little thought into a decision such as this.

No, this is something that Gurdet has mused long and hard on. For longer than he would ever admit to. It’s actually posed quite the conundrum –if not from the outset, then most certainly from the moment he’d told Khobi he’d find him.

What was the vanished Khojin Frost to him? His agreement with Silas marked him as his enemy, but what if he should come out of the wilderness to claim back his nephew? What then?

Would Gurdet stop him as Silas’s ally, or welcome him as Khobi’s flesh and blood, at the risk of inciting the wrath of Briyagi?

At the end of the day, he knows which will give his heart the most peace.

That’s the problem with an alliance by marriage. Until the vows are spoken, it’s little more than words. Silas won’t see it like that, of course, but he should have never tried to play him to begin with.

"I’m sure he was always planning to betray me first," Gurdet sighs, like it can’t be helped. And maybe it can’t be. Spiders will be spiders, after all. "In fact, he’ll probably be furious I beat him to it." So furious he might do something foolish, even. Silas likes to think he’s so clever but rage tends to blind him when it comes to Khojin Frost. If he decides to take things too far, then Gurdet’s sure that the other, less spidery allies of Crade will be more than happy to take the opportunity to squash him.

Neither Khojin nor Mozry seem swayed by his words. They don’t trust him; obviously they don’t trust him. He wouldn’t expect them to, either, but he tells them his intentions regardless because the fact remains that one way or another, they need to be gone from his castle long before Silas Luminus arrives here. That at least, they can agree upon.

Hopefully Trent will understand.