Chapter 187

　　It was odd being back at the Court of the Light without Fiena, Tillie, or Ithyles to serve us. We had been assigned new servants, and they did not know our ways or habits, something which irritated Akyran, causing him to be short and curt with them.

　　“We should have stopped by Nerith and brought your servants with us,” I commented to him as we settled into the bath and the servants retreated to lick their wounds. “You are too harsh. It is not their fault that we have been absent from court for a decade.”

　　“Over a decade,” he reminded me passing me a wine goblet.

　　“My point precisely.”

　　“I am in a foul mood,” he admitted leaning his head back against the lip of the bath, his dark hair spreading out in the water around him like ink.

　　“Your mother?” I guessed.

　　“A bit, but the realisation is dawning that the solution to these monsters may be no where near us, which means, my dear wife…”