Two Eyes Cenote heliocereus

Was he ready for this?

A bird beat it's wings inside the cage of Kheti's ribcage. Their march would take them beyond the walls of the summer palace and into the borderlands where the beast had come from. "Where do we start? What do we know about him?" It sparked a new fear in the boy; for there had never been so much at stake before. And yet to be looked on with such approval made it all seem worth it. 

And then came a question. He knew not what his father expected him to say, and so came to reply with words from the heart. "He is like Machiavelli - a poison to this land." A poison without a cure.