Free Dark Lord's Wedding by A.E. Marling

invading her banyan fortress. She dimmed the dreamlight in her jewels and Attracted a chisel to her hand. Keeping up appearances was such a nuisance. The intruders weren’t Jerani and Celaise. Hiresha knew this man too well by the sound of his mouth breathing.
    Macco the King’s Spear peered into the grove. When he spotted Hiresha, his brows quirked with disappointment at the same time his cheeks puffed out with relief. “You’re alive.”
    “And why would I not be?” Hiresha pretended to shear off a section of gemstone with the chisel.
    “A Feaster got into a nobleman’s house not a day’s walk from here. None got out.” Macco waddled into the grove, hips first, stomach puffed out as if he ate well enough to boast a king’s belly. “Macco knows you work at night. There are lights.”
    “True, my death might reflect negatively on your report to the king,” she said.
    Another warrior had come in with Macco, the man with the axe. Today Axe-For-Brains was blanched and shaky. His typical abscess of confidence had been drained. Either he had seen a Feaster or else he held them in mortal fear. Maybe he wasn’t a complete idiot.
    “Two strangers passed through yesterday. Told Macco you knew them.”
    “I can vouch for them both,” Hiresha said.
    “Who vouched for you, eh? That’s what Macco wants to know.”
    Hiresha wouldn’t belabor this conversation with him again. Her insight had earned a favor from his king. He should respect that, even if he was right to suspect her, as well as the newcomers.
    The young woman, Celaise, likely hadn’t been the one to Feast on the noble’s family, since Tethiel planned for her to rule. She had restraint enough to spare the young man who traveled with her.
    She wasn’t entirely without good sense. The flawed woman had at last consented to give Hiresha her onyx teeth. Repairing Celaise’s body would take a crystal-library worth of enchantments. Hiresha couldn’t begin any of them until the King’s Spear left. One topic had always sent him running. She would use it again.
    “Your miners are failing you. Some have weakened to the point of collapse.”
    The King’s Spear shrugged. “The underworld is not for the living.”
    “Ventilation shafts may bring more life down from the surface.”
    “How would you know, gem carver?”
    “I am first a sage, and I’m at your command.” You pride-bloated bullfrog. “If you wish me to advise—”
    “The king put Macco in charge, for his courage. Not you.”
    “I would not question the wisdom of your courage.”
    He waved his spear with its green band in front of her face. “Do you know what this means?”
    “Yes.”
    “It means Macco does the work of the king.”
    “Is that perhaps why they call you the King’s Spear?”
    “Yes,” he said, “and all his spears are coated with a Green Blood’s venom.”
    “I hadn’t forgotten since last you told me.”
    “This spear scratches your cheek and you’re going to die. But not as soon as you’d wish.” He leered at her. “That means it’ll hurt so much you’ll want to be dead.”
    With diamond poise, Hiresha restrained herself from rolling her eyes and laughing. To think that mere years ago she had scoffed at actors, and now she was obliged to act for an audience of one.
    Hiresha gripped her neck and forced herself to grimace. She dropped to her knees. “No one could not fail to fear you.”
    The King’s Spear slapped his belly and then lofted a hand. “Macco has only taken thirteen hostages in battle. Someday he may do greater honor to the gods.”
    “Last time you said eight.”
    “What?”
    Eight hostages in battle. That had been the previous month, and the King’s Spear hadn’t fought as much as a large jungle rodent since. “Never mind,” Hiresha said.
    The buffoon and his goons left. Hiresha flitted out of the grove to where Celaise and Jerani slept. Hiresha held them both in deep sleep while implanting the onyx teeth into the bones of the girl’s