Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 104842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 524(@200wpm)___ 419(@250wpm)___ 349(@300wpm)
“The assassin?” Eris asked.
“No, the king. Well, both.”
“Ah. That is excellent,” she praised me. “Good luck even going to the bathroom alone without your hendr after this.”
I was going to say something when she turned away from me and returned to the others. Brenna remained and pushed my sweat-dampened hair back from my face.
“We tease you, but we always believe you,” she assured me, some of her thick platinum hair falling forward into her face. It was long on top with a fade on the sides. “I suspect we don’t see what you do, as we look only to protect you, not others. As this threat was for the king, that is why we missed it.”
“That makes sense,” I said, because honestly, it did. Their mandate was to keep me safe, no one else. If someone attacked the king in front of them, of course they would protect him, but if it was between him or me, there was no question. Sovereign ruler or not, King of the Noreia or not, they put my life before his. They had sworn an oath to Varic to keep me safe, and they would die to see that vow kept.
“May I ask, though…” Brenna began, “when you and Zev were tasked with making sure there were no more threats to the king’s rule, how did you miss that his uncle wanted him dead?”
I gestured toward the unconscious assassin. “Just because he’s from Decimus’s court doesn’t mean that Decimus, or someone in Decimus’s court or family, wants the king dead. We need to investigate and figure out what’s up.”
“Certainly,” she granted.
“If Nerilla were still here, we could’ve figured it out together.”
She nodded solemnly because still, even after more than a year, Princess Nerilla’s death remained a fresh wound in all our hearts. I myself missed her every day.
“The king will wonder why assassins were sent from his uncle’s court,” Brenna pointed out, grimacing, “and normally, his rajan would travel there to put the question to Decimus himself.”
I was surprised and sat up slowly, shivering. Lying on the cold marble after my heated run had started leaching the warmth from my bones.
Both Dae-Jung and Brenna helped me to my feet, and when I swayed a bit, Brenna steadied me.
Zev, whom I hadn’t seen leave, came back and draped a heavy blanket around my shoulders that he’d retrieved from my bed. It felt so good to be wrapped up since I was suddenly freezing.
“Thank you,” I murmured.
As was his habit, he tsked. My appreciation was, as usual, unnecessary.
“Would the king send Tiago to speak to Decimus?” I asked Brenna. I was the king’s cadeyrn, but since I was about to leave for New Orleans, Tiago, as Varic’s rajan, would be the obvious choice of envoy.
“If he were here, perhaps, but as he’s not…”
I glanced at her, then Eris, who had returned and looked pained, then to Zev, who shrugged. “I’m going on vacation,” I stated firmly.
Brenna grimaced and nodded.
“He has others to send,” I told her. “Even visiting council members.”
“No,” she said softly, and a bit of her Irish lilt came out; it was gone most of the time, except on the rare occasions when she tried to comfort me. “I believe he’ll be sending you.”
“I’m leaving in the morning for my vacation,” I insisted.
“Jason, you’re bleeding,” Dae-Jung chimed in. “Might we return to your quarters and check your arm?”
Did I want to sit down? Yes. But I wasn’t ready to adjourn to my quarters yet. “It’ll heal,” I told him, because it would. “You would have healed this already, but I need a bit longer.”
“Yes, true,” he conceded. “But soap and water and a bandage are not altogether uncalled for here.”
“I just want everyone to understand that I’m going on vacation,” I said for what felt like the billionth time.
“I’m sure you will as soon as you get back,” Eris said cheerfully.
“No, I—”
“It’s your place to question Decimus,” Zev explained. “In your capacity of cadeyrn, you’re the one who has to go if that’s what the king wants.”
“No, listen—”
“At least there are planes now,” Zev commented. “Back in the day it was steamship or train or, worse, camel,” he finished with a shiver. “I hate camels.”
I had to smile because in the middle of all this talk about what I would need to do, he was talking about camels.
“Only the rajan or cadeyrn may question the elder boar in his home,” Zev continued.
“Why?”
Zev took a breath. “Even though Decimus Maedoc is one of the king’s subjects, he is also the king’s uncle, and as such is allowed to run his castle, and the people residing within it, as he sees fit.”
I squinted at him. “But all vampyrs and their homes, royal or not, nobility or not, belong in the king’s realm and are therefore bound to his laws.”