Elantris - Brandon Sanderson [27]
Sarene turned hesitantly. An enormous man—taller, broader, pudgier, and more muscled than seemed possible—shoved his way through the crowd in her direction. He was dressed in a broad blue silken doublet—she shuddered to think of how many worms had toiled to make it—and wore the ruffle-cuffed trousers of an Arelish courtier.
“It is you!” the man exclaimed. “We thought you weren’t coming for another week!”
“Ashe,” Sarene mumbled, “who is this lunatic and what does he want with me?”
“He looks familiar, my lady. I’m sorry, my memory isn’t what it used to be.”
“Ha!” the enormous man said, scooping her up into a bear hug. It was an odd feeling—her bottom half squished into his oversized gut while her face was crushed by his hard, well-muscled chest. She resisted the urge to whimper, waiting and hoping the man would drop her before she passed out. Ashe would probably go for help if her face started to change colors.
Fortunately, the man let go long before she asphyxiated, instead holding her by her shoulders at arms length. “You’ve changed. When I last saw you, you were only knee high.” Then he looked over her tall figure. “Well … I doubt you were ever knee high, but you were certainly no taller than a waist. Your mother always said you’d be a lanky one!”
Sarene shook her head. The voice was slightly familiar, but she couldn’t place his features. She usually had such a good memory for faces…. Unless….
“Hunkey Kay?” she asked hesitantly. “Gracious Domi! What happened to your beard?”
“Arelish nobles don’t wear beards, little one. I haven’t had one in years.”
It was him. The voice was different, the beardless face unfamiliar, but the eyes were the same. She remembered looking up at those wide brown eyes, always full of laughter. “Hunkey Kay,” she mumbled distractedly. “Where’s my present?”
Her uncle Kiin laughed, his odd scratchy voice making it sound more like a wheeze than a chortle. Those had always been the first words out of her mouth when he came to visit; her uncle brought the most exotic of gifts, delights that were extravagant enough to be unique even to the daughter of a king.
“I’m afraid I forgot the present this time, little one.”
Sarene blushed. However, before she could squeak out an apology, Hunkey Kay wrapped a large arm around her shoulder and began towing her out of the throne room.
“Come, you have to meet my wife.”
“Wife?” Sarene asked with a shocked voice. It had been over a decade since she had seen Kiin, but she remembered one fact quite clearly. Her uncle had been a sworn bachelor and a confirmed rascal. “Hunkey Kay is married?”
“You aren’t the only one who has grown over the last ten years,” Kiin rasped. “Oh, and as cute as it is to hear you call me ‘Hunkey Kay,’ you’ll probably want to call me Uncle Kiin now.”
Sarene blushed again. “Hunkey Kay” had been the creation of a child unable to pronounce her uncle’s name.
“So, how’s your father doing?” the large man asked. “Acting properly regal, I assume.”
“He’s doing fine, Uncle,” she replied. “Though I’m sure he would be surprised to find you living in the court of Arelon.”
“He knows.”
“No, he thinks you left on one of your voyages and settled on one of the far islands.”
“Sarene, if you’re as quick-witted a woman as you were a girl, then you should have learned by now to separate the truth from the stories.”
The statement came like a bucketful of icy water. She vaguely remembered watching her uncle’s ship sail away one day and asking her father when Hunkey Kay was going to return. Eventeo’s face had been morose when he replied that this time Hunkey Kay would be taking a long, long voyage.
“But why?” she asked. “All this time you were living just a few days’ trip from home, and you never came to visit?”
“Stories for another day, little one,” Kiin said with a shake of his head. “Right now, you need to meet the monster of a woman who finally managed to capture your uncle.”
Kiin