Sharing an excerpt from my other original novel The New Emperor’s Concerto today! It’s like Kingsman meets Good Omens and is an enemies to friends action adventure novel.
If you want to read the synopsis or find out where you can get a copy, check out this post HERE
Lysander came to slowly, groggily. His training kept him from making a move, from tipping off his captor that he was conscious. Simply continuing to put on the façade of unconsciousness as he tried his best to make sense of his surroundings in his current state.
The first thing he noticed was the rustle of paper as if someone were turning the pages of a book and identified the familiar scent of English breakfast tea. The clink of china confirmed that fact. Was the knave really sitting there reading and drinking tea while he was lying there captive?
He tried to ease his eyes open, staring out through his lashes when he realized something else. Something moving against his side. He froze, his breathing hitching in surprise before the thing seemed to simply leap onto his chest, digging something sharp into him. Lysander tensed, almost not wanting to look.
“Unless you want to keep pretending, I know you’re awake, so you may as well get up and have a cup of tea. I’m sure it will help your head,” a familiar voice said.
Lysander opened his eyes and found himself staring face to face with his attacker: A black cat with green eyes, staring at him reproachfully, flipping its tail, claws digging through Lysander’s clothing and into his chest. He turned his head, confused, to see Eidolon. The other man was sitting comfortably in a chair to the right of the sofa Lysander was lying on, a pair of reading glasses perched on his nose, a cup of tea in one hand and a book in the other, balanced across his knee to hold his place.
“What is this?” was all Lysander could ask, still muzzy from the drug.
“My flat, which you broke into, in case you don’t remember,” came the rather defensive reply.
Lysander huffed indignantly, reaching up to feel the side of his neck, which smarted from the dart. “You drugged me.”
“You should have knocked like a civilized person,” Eidolon replied. “It’s quite rude to just go breaking into people’s residences willy-nilly, King’s Righteous Man or not.”
Lysander was still trying to get a hold of his faculties, so the only thing he could think to say next was. “You have…a cat?”
“Of course, why shouldn’t I?” Eidolon said, motioning to the feline still resting on Lysander’s chest who looked proud of himself as if he had been the one to single-handedly apprehend his master’s intruder. Eidolon waved a hand. “This is Oscar Wilde—as aloof and utterly indifferent as his namesake.”
The cat finally jumped off of Lysander’s chest once the introduction was over and the King’s Agent finally sat up, closing his eyes briefly as the movement made his head swim. He realized for the first time, however, that he was not tied or cuffed. Eidolon must not expect him to make it far if he did try to escape.
“What did you use on me?” he gritted out.
“Oh, something my coworker of mine came up with. How about a cup of tea, old chap? It’ll help the head.” Eidolon reached up to take his glasses off. Lysander snorted slightly at that.
“What? Apophis won’t pay for corrective surgery?”
“Oh, they’re just reading glasses,” Eidolon replied. “And, you know, girls do love that hot scholar look. Plus, it’s rather disarming when you get tired of being recognized as only an expert in the ungentlemanly arts.”
“Hm,” Lysander grunted.
“Now, then—tea?” Eidolon insisted.
Lysander didn’t protest and the Apophis agent stood up, setting his book aside for the moment as he went to the kitchen. Lysander craned his head to read the title, admittedly curious, and registered that it was a copy of Good Omens which he found…interesting. Not exactly what he would have expected from someone like Eidolon.
Come to think of it…he looked around the room and realized that one whole wall was devoted to bookshelves, with actual books. Books weren’t quite so common anymore, and were only really printed for collectors, most people preferring to read things on tablets,¨ but Eidolon’s books looked well-loved and well-read unlike most untouched collector’s libraries. And they were all classics, ranging from Jane Austin and Arthur Conan Doyle, children’s classics like Brian Jacques, and fantasy like J.R.R. Tolkien and Terry Pratchett. And Lysander had just been wondering earlier what an Apophis agent’s flat would look like…he had certainly never suspected this.
He was so confused, or possibly enamored, of his surroundings, especially adding the cat into the picture, that he started when Eidolon reappeared with a second cup of tea, not having realized he’d simply left him there, not seeming to care that he could have escaped easily.
“You take cream or sugar?” Eidolon asked.
Lysander shook his head and accepted the cup and saucer a little clumsily, still lethargic. Alright, perhaps not quite so easily. He didn’t even know if he could stand up by himself at the moment, let alone make it to the door. He stared down at the tea, smelling it, trying to detect if there was anything unsavory in it.
Eidolon sighed as he took his seat again. “It’s not poisoned. I already drugged you, and I think it’s very bad form to poison a man’s tea—even that of your nemesis. I do have standards.”
Lysander snorted, but after another second, took a sip. When he detected nothing but tea, he took another. After half of the cup was gone, his head finally began to clear up.
“How did you find me?” Eidolon asked, causing Lysander to glance up at him again.
“I went through all your identities while you were unconscious in my flat,” Lysander told him.
“Oh, devil take it! Now I’ll have to burn all of them,” Eidolon said but didn’t seem too bothered by it. After all, he had to have known Lysander would take such precautions. Actually, Lysander began to realize that he had probably been expecting this outcome as well, which made him rather furious that he had thought to avoid one trap and neatly fallen into another.
He set his cup aside and fixed a glower onto his face. “Alright, Eidolon, what’s with the cryptic note?”
Eidolon sighed and put his own teacup aside. “I have my reasons that I won’t divulge yet. I just had a sudden epiphany: what if we…I don’t know…perhaps come to an agreement?”
Lysander narrowed his eyes. “What sort of agreement?”
Eidolon smirked. “I think you know the kind.”
Lysander glanced again at the book sitting beside Eidolon, a suspicion forming about this whole setup. “No,” he said firmly.
Eidolon frowned. “You didn’t even hear my terms.”
“I don’t need to hear your terms. I don’t work with anarchists.” He stood up, forcing his legs to support him, and started toward the door, when the sound of a gun cocking made him freeze. He turned slightly to see Eidolon on his feet, pointing Lysander’s own gun at him. He reluctantly realized that his thigh holster was empty, though that was only to be expected.
“I’m afraid I can’t let you leave just yet,” Eidolon said, his voice low and icy. “You see, I’ve put myself in a rather compromising position, meeting with you. If word got out that I did this, I would be killed instantly. To avoid that, I could easily take you in right now and hand you over to Apophis. I’m sure Lars would jump at the chance to dig through the Righteous Man’s head. And his men are a lot more willing to get their hands dirty than you.”
“What do you want?” Lysander said quietly, dangerous. He stayed still, but he was tense, ready for any chance to make a move. He still had a dagger that Eidolon hadn’t found and he would use it if he had to.
“You were right,” Eidolon said. “There is someone high up in the government that is working with Lars.”
Lysander’s breath stopped for a second as he stared at the other man. “What?”
“You heard me.”
Lysander shook his head. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because we’re not so different,” Eidolon said with a humorless smile. “My comrades abandoned me the other night, allowed me to be captured. Your precious king is not so different. You think he would shed a tear if you were to die in action? If I were to kill you now?” He took a step closer.
Lysander raised his head. “It is my duty to protect the king with my life. Dying in the line of duty would be an honor.”
Eidolon laughed bitterly. “An honor. Just the kind of tripe I would expect from the Righteous Man! Is that what your father did? Die honorably in the line of duty?”
Lysander gave a small, dark chuckle. “If you think you can get to me by mentioning my father, you’ll have to try harder. The cold bastard was hardly what could be called a father at all.”
Eidolon cocked his head to one side, perhaps somewhat surprised by his reaction. He shrugged. “Fair enough. But still…” He tossed his head flippantly. “Maybe I was wrong. Maybe you’d be better worth my time shooting you in the leg and dragging you back to Lars. I could use a commendation after all my recent failures.”
Lysander snarled and flicked his blade from the secret pocket in his sleeve, about to rush the other man when there was a knock on the door.
Both of them froze and Eidolon clenched his jaw, looking like he was making a calculated decision. Lysander was about to use that as an opportunity to strike, when a feminine voice sounded from the other side.
“Oliver? Are you home?”
Eidolon’s shoulders slumped slightly and he turned a furious look at Lysander, jabbing a finger at the couch. “Sit. Now.”
“I’m not…”
“Sit!” Eidolon snapped, shoving the gun into the back of his belt, covering it with the jumper he was wearing as he crossed to the door.
Lysander sat, wondering why he was bothering to be obedient, until he saw the figure on the other side of the door—a young woman with dark hair, dressed in neat office attire.
“Clara,” Eidolon said with a smile as if he hadn’t just been pointing a gun at his ‘guest’.
The girl smiled. “I brought you your mail, Oliver…oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had company.”
She had looked past him to see Lysander sitting stiffly on the couch and Eidolon seemed to make sure to put himself between them, all the time keeping up his smile.
“Ah, he’s just an old friend from school. Thank you for bringing my mail over. I’ll see you again soon.” He took her hand and kissed it, making her blush bright red, then closed the door and turned back to Lysander. “She’s sweet on me. I would love to take her out if I had the chance, so don’t you dare tell her who I really am.”
They both stayed the way they were for a long moment, both waiting for the other to make a move. When neither did, Lysander sighed and decided to take the first step.
“Why did you really call me here?” he said.
Eidolon ran a hand through his stark white hair, revealing a bit of weariness that Lysander hadn’t detected before. “Lars wants war, and war means destruction, not just between armies, but to people who never asked to get caught up in it. You may see me as nothing but a heartless agent to anarchists, but believe me when I say, I don’t want that.”
Lysander studied him intently for a moment. There was a sincerity there that surprised him, and a weariness that betrayed his honesty. Lysander himself hadn’t really thought about it before either, but Eidolon was right. He’d been so caught up with the king’s orders to stop Apophis, he hadn’t realized the consequences of what would happen when things escalated. Especially if Apophis managed to reverse engineer the amount of Element X they had stolen and decided to make bigger bombs than the grenades Ares had used the other night. If it was really as powerful as the boffins claimed, all of London—all of Britain, or even Europe—could be laid waste to in a shocking amount of time.
Still, working with the enemy…of course there was a long history of double agents in wartime, and Lysander’s own family had certainly not shied away from working with unsavory characters in the past, but still…Lysander just didn’t feel right about going behind the king’s back like that.
And yet, if it did help him to take down Apophis…then wasn’t it his duty not to refuse an opportunity?
He finally stood up, facing Eidolon warily. “This Apophis mole…do you know who it is?” he asked finally.
Eidolon shook his head. “No. But I could help you find out.”
Lysander made a calculation before he said, “The king suspects a member of parliament, but any investigation I’ve made so far hasn’t turned up anything useful.”
Eidolon seemed to relax as if he had been waiting for Lysander to open up. Lysander wasn’t sure he was doing that exactly, but he had also said he was going to get to the bottom of this issue. And if Eidolon could help him gain information about who was feeding Apophis information, then he would take it.
“What are your terms?” Lysander asked the other man. “I need to know before I agree to this.”
Eidolon gave a small smile, shoving his hands into his pockets as he shrugged. “Really, nothing much. I just thought that we could come to an…arrangement of sorts. You understand? I do the good thing and you do the bad? We cancel each other out and hopefully divert the coming apocalypse?”
Lysander rolled his eyes slightly. “I suppose something like that wouldn’t be…unheard of. But this isn’t a partnership, you understand? We would simply be sharing information, nothing more.”
“Of course, I would expect nothing less professional from the Righteous Man,” Eidolon said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
Lysander ignored it and nodded. “How do we pass information?”
“Oh, you’ll know when you see it,” Eidolon assured him. “As for your end, I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”
Lysander pressed his lips into a thin line, wondering what exactly he had gotten himself into, and if perhaps his sanity had grown wings and taken flight.
“If we do this, I need you to understand: if you breathe a word of this investigation to anyone I will kill you.”
“If you go shouting around that you have an informant in Apophis I’ll kill you,” Eidolon replied matter-of-factly.
“Then we have an understanding?”
“An arrangement,” Eidolon corrected and smiled genuinely this time.
Lysander grunted. “You have to call it that?”
“Not with a capital A or anything, but it is a bit poetic, isn’t it?”
“Is that all?” Lysander asked him.
“Unless you want to stay for supper, but I’m afraid all I have in the flat is cat food and maybe some salad cream.”
“I’ll pass.” He reached out a hand. “My gun?”
Eidolon hesitated only a second before he reached behind him and pulled the gun out, handing it back to Lysander. The Righteous Man slid it back into his holster and gave a small nod.
“I’ll be seeing you then, I suppose?” Eidolon called as Lysander turned toward the door.
“I suppose,” Lysander told him, then stopped, one hand on the door handle. “Oh, and thank you for the tea.”
He left the flat and hurried back to the car, wondering what on earth he had just done.
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