Chapter 199: I would not dream of keeping you away

Yeon stopped.

"I was told that you laughed," the Head said. "I confess I found it quite charming. It is always a pleasure to hear that someone has a sense of humor."

"That was a year ago."

"It was."

"I did not know that..."

"Of course you did not." Thokas waved a hand. "None of us did. That is the delightful part."

Yeon’s fists were shaking now. He looked down at them, and then he put them behind his back, where they could not be seen. His voice, when it came, was low and thick.

"He killed my father."

"Yes."

"He destroyed everything that we built. He murdered half the guild. The Roaring Lions were the strongest guild in the country, and he walked in and burned it down like a pile of straw."

"Yes."

"And you are telling me that the Association is going to reward him."

"It is going to honor him," said Thokas. "There will be a ceremony. The announcement will be public. The whole country will watch."

"Why?"

"Because he is stronger than we are, and Milda is clever enough to see it."

"I do not believe it."

"You do not have to."

"It is a trick."

"If it is," said Thokas, "it is a very large one, and I would like to know who is playing it."

The words fell into the room, and nobody picked them up.

Pale Smoke had not said anything since they entered. He stood to the left of Yeon with his hands folded in front of him, and his face was as smooth and calm as a pond.

But behind his eyes, a slow and careful thought was turning over. He was looking at the young man beside him.

He had followed Yeon for three weeks. He had done it on the orders of the Head standing in front of him, and he had done it without enthusiasm, because Yeon was a boy of rank and talent and very little else.

He was proud, and he was quick, and he was brittle. Pale Smoke had watched him lose his temper at a servant over a cup of tea. He had watched him sulk for two days over a remark in the council.

He had never once seen him laugh in the way he had laughed just now, like a man whose house had fallen in.

’I have been serving a child,’ Pale Smoke thought. A child who has never learned what it is to lose.

He had known that for some time. But it had never mattered, because the child had been protected by walls and rank and an old name.

Now the old name was ash, the walls were rubble, and the child’s own brother had come out of the dark and shown himself to be the strongest person alive.

It would have been funny, if it had not been so dangerous.

"Pale Smoke," said Thokas.

"Master."

"You are very quiet."

"I am listening."

"And what do you hear?"

Pale Smoke let a moment pass. He chose his words with great care, because he knew that he was being watched, and that the Head’s question was not an idle one.

"I hear that the Association has decided," he said. "It is not for me to disagree."

"That is a very careful answer."

"I am a careful man."

"Yes," said Thokas. "I have noticed."

His eyes rested on Pale Smoke a moment longer than was comfortable. Then he turned back to the young man.

"Well?" he said. "You have heard the news. What do you want to do about it?"

Yeon was breathing hard.

"I want to see him," he said.

"Do you?"

"I want to see him with my own eyes. I want to stand in front of him, and I want to hear him say it. I want him to say that he is an SSS-rank. I want him to say it to my face."

"That seems reasonable."

"I want to be there." Yeon raised his chin. "At the ceremony. When they announce it. I want to be in the crowd."

"Master Yeon," Pale Smoke said quietly.

"What?"

"I would not advise it."

"Why not?"

"Because you are angry."

"Of course I am angry!"

"Then you are not fit to stand in a crowd," said Pale Smoke. "There will be cameras and reporters and every guild in the country. If you lose your temper in front of them, it will be on every screen by nightfall. You will be the boy who attacked the new SSS-rank. You will be finished."

"I am not going to attack him."

"You say that now."

"I said that I am not going to attack him!" Yeon rounded on him, his eyes bright and hard.

"I am not stupid. I know that I cannot win. But I will not hide in this tower like a rat while my brother is crowned in front of the whole world."

"If he is going to stand on a stage and be called the strongest man alive, then I will be in front of that stage. I will see it. And he will see me."

Pale Smoke opened his mouth, and then he closed it again. There was nothing he could say that would reach the young man. He had tried it already, in a dozen small ways, and each time the answer had been the same.

"Thokas," said Yeon, turning back. "I am asking you. Let me go."

The Head did not answer at once.

He sat in his chair with his chin on his hand, and the lamp behind him made a dark outline of his head.

He looked from Yeon’s flushed face to Pale Smoke’s calm one. His lips moved, and it seemed that he was thinking of something very far away. Perhaps he was.

Then he smiled.

It was only a small smile, and it did not reach his eyes. But there was something in it that made the haze at Pale Smoke twitch, and a thin cold finger run down his spine.

It was not the smile of a man who had been persuaded. It was the smile of a man who had been waiting for someone to ask.

"Of course," said Thokas softly. "I would not dream of keeping you away."