“Okay. And where did this event take place?”
“I think it was the garden. It was definitely outside and among rosebushes. I believe there was a wall of stone behind them. They were on a sanded path.”
Lessa’s mouth twisted as she worked to recall such a place. She leaned away from Kambry slightly.
Was she already realizing what Kambry was asking about?
“There are several areas along the border of the garden, near the surrounding walls. A few have climbing roses that cover trellises. Or are you talking of rosebushes?”
“No, rose vines would be right.” Kambry shook her head, recalling the tangle of stems about Tomo’s legs. “Thorny ones.”
“Few roses are without thorns.”
“So I’m learning,” she said wryly.
Lessa raised a brow. “That doesn’t sound like you are talking about real roses.”
Kambry walked around the low table in front of them. She forced herself to sit in the chair facing Lessa. “Did you ever see Russal manipulate plants, roses?”
Lessa’s expression flattened. “I haven’t thought of that day in a long time. Roses, you said.”
Kambry nodded.
Lessa’s lips tightened, but she straightened her shoulders. “I saw Russal and Amily manipulate plants. They practiced it. But one of the first times was an array of tiny pink roses that climbed all over not just the trellis placed there for them, but the castle wall behind them, even a set of stone benches. I was four and thought it a monster of a plant, almost alive.”
“Did it come alive, with magic?”
Lessa chewed a moment on a thumbnail. “Russal was arguing with Tomo about being able to control plants, even the air. Tomo didn’t believe him. Amily was there, and she thought Tomo was calling Russal a liar.”
“Were you with them?”
Lessa shook her head, her eyes still lost in the memory. “I was hiding. There were several boulders in the area, cropping up out of the ground. I crouched behind one. What happened terrified me so much that I avoided Russal and the garden for weeks afterward.”
“What happened?” Kambry whispered the question, leaning forward, her fingertips on the low table between them.
“Russal wasn’t angry, but Tomo had wounded his vanity. He looked around at the plants nearby, the roses, the sand of the pathway, the few decorative bushes that lined it. Then he looked back at that monster rose vine.”
There was silence, and the moonlight that lit the room grew eerie and chill. Kambry prompted her, “What did he do?”
“The vines crept along the ground toward Tomo. The roses were these tiny pink things, ruffled, soft looking. I remember Tomo laughed. The thin vines, despite their sharp needle thorns, looked innocent and not dangerous at all. They curled and climbed up Tomo’s legs, and he just stood there grinning.”
Kambry stared at Lessa, but in her mind she imagined the fragile vines climbing around Tomo’s knees.
Lessa winced. “Maybe it was Russal’s pride; he was such a huffy boy. After that day, he had little huff for a while.”
“What did the vines do?” Her word choice made it sound like Russal hadn’t anything to do with the action. Perhaps that would make it easier for Lessa to describe what Russal did.
“They tightened. At first, Tomo didn’t react. Then, I guess, the thorns cut through his stockings and into his skin. He jumped, and they tightened, and it was almost furious how they converged on him. He was tearing at them to get them off, but they kept climbing and tightening.”
“What did Russal do?” She had to know. It was important for her to know if Russal had intended to hurt Tomo.
“He froze. I was hiding, but I was screaming, too. Me and Amily both. They might not have even heard me. She was much closer and terribly frightened.”
Chapter Eight
Kambry covered her face with her hands. “Did Russal stop? Did he seem to enjoy hurting Tomo?”
Lessa snapped to attention, rising from the couch, her hands clenching. “How did you know that was what I thought? I was never more frightened of Russal than that day. I had nightmares he would send vines into my room to choke me to death. The garden had become my private nightmare.”
“You think he did it intentionally,” Kambry said, her voice broken and tight.
Lessa shook her head. Her hands still clenched. “I don’t know.” Lessa sat down, her head hanging, her eyes in shadows.
Kambry was leaning over the table, her knuckles pressing into the cold marble surface. “Amily stopped him.”
“When Amily tried to help Tomo, and the thorns cut her hands, Russal seemed to snap. He bellowed at the pale-blue sky. I remember the words. ‘Kavin release him! Please release him!’ I think he had tried to make it stop, but it hadn’t worked. He was crying. His words were all broken up. Apologizing, pleading with Tomo to forgive him.
“It was agonizing. I stayed hidden behind the boulder, afraid that if I came out the roses would tear after me. Russal didn’t like me. He might not make them let me go.”
Freed from the memory, Lessa’s voice calmed. “That wouldn’t have happened. It was just what I believed. Russal demanded action from Kavin, and it delivered. He didn’t know how to make it stop once it began. Kambry, he didn’t enjoy it. I don’t think he intended to hurt Tomo, teach him not to taunt him, sure, but hurt him? No, I don’t believe that. And he stopped. Those crazy roses pulled away and wrapped themselves back through the trellis, wall and benches. I never sat in those benches again. Even Amily avoided Russal for days afterward.”
Lessa sat back on the couch, leaning into its deep cushions. “Tomo and Russal were best friends after that. Inseparable. Tomo was devoted to Russal. I think it was important for him to know that Russal had the power to destroy, even with something as delicate as a rose vine, any enemy that came after them. Does that make sense? It didn’t for me at first. I thought Tomo was crazy to continue to keep Russal’s company. Amily explained it to me. Ask her about it.”
“No. I need to talk to Russal.” Kambry rose from the chair, wiping her eyes and sniffling. “I need to talk to Russal right now.” She stumbled toward the wall dividing the two sitting rooms. When she came to the corner, she turned back to Lessa. “Thank you for coming. I’m glad you were awake.”
Lessa blushed. “I was with Cole. We’ve been talking.”
She stopped and stared at Lessa. “I want to hear more, but later. In the morning, rather. Right now, I need to go up to my room, to Russal.”
“Covey told you about that day, didn’t he?”
Kambry didn’t answer. Her thoughts felt jumbled. He hadn’t lied, but he’d left out details, directed her to view the event a certain way. But she had been willing to believe. Something in her relationship with Russal left room for doubt. And something in how she perceived Covey encouraged her to believe him. She had to figure out why she kept losing faith in one and trusting the other when she had plenty of reason to believe Covey’s veracity was lacking. Was it possible both had valid reasons to be the king of Kavin? Did the second son of a king have as much right to the throne as the grandson? Looking at it that way, it seemed so.
She raised her fingers at Lessa in an uncertain wave. “We’ll talk later.”
Lessa left, her glance before closing the door encouraging Kambry.
Raising her nightgown above her ankles, Kambry climbed the stairs. Would Russal be willing to talk now?
At the landing, she stopped and worked to calm herself. She’d knock on his door and see if he was still awake. Her steps to his door dragged. She drew several breaths and released her nightgown from her clenched fingers. Resting her forehead on the door, she knocked softly. “Russal,” she whispered.
Something moved on her bed, the sheets rustling. Kambry twisted to face the sound and pressed her back to the wall. Covey? She pounded on the door beside her. “Russal!”
From the bed, Russal’s voice responded, “I’m here. I came in to talk to you, apologize for ignoring yo
ur request to talk things out. You weren’t here, so I waited. Like I made you wait. I’m so sorry, Kambry.”
She rushed to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Russal, what’s happened to us?”
“Shh.” He held her close. For long minutes, they stood pressed together.
“What are we going to do, my love?” he said, his chin resting on her head. “How are we going to become strong together?”
“We need to trust each other,” she mumbled into his shoulder.
“I have to stop thinking of you as that girl who hesitated to even sit with her friends.” He corrected himself. “Her brother’s friends. You have many friends of your own now. Maybe that’s where I’ve gone wrong. I haven’t been your friend, too determined to be your lover to work on such a very important part of our relationship.”
It felt so good to have his arms around her. She felt safe, cradled against him. He smelled like vanilla and proilis blossoms. She turned her face toward his neck and pressed her check to his chest, his warm skin inviting her close. Fingers clenching the open neckline of his nightshirt, she desired nothing more than to stay breathing in his scent.
As much as she wanted to stand in this quiet moment, she knew they needed to talk. “Covey told me about something that happened shortly after the murder of your parents. He said he watched you do a terrible act, and he described it to me.”
“Felip didn’t come here until I was sixteen. How could he have seen anything?”
She leaned back and looked up at his face. “He said his mother brought him here often when he was little.”
“Of course.” He laced his fingers behind her back and gazed down at her, a flat expression masking his thoughts. “What did he see?”
“You made a rose vine attack Tomo.”
His first reaction was to gaze at her with concern, then he nodded, his eyes glazing over in recall. “I had told Tomo I could make the plants move. He didn’t believe me.” He shook his head, his mouth twisting. “I guess I wanted to prove to him I was king of Kavin.”
“You were eight.”
“I was a fool. I yanked at the power of Kavin and demanded it wrap him up in roses. I didn’t even think about the thorns or what Kavin would do. I was shocked and frightened by how thoroughly it reacted. He screamed when the thorns bit into him, the vines tightening up. I couldn’t move. I didn’t know how to make it stop. The more frightened I became, the more the vines twisted up his legs and torso. Amily started screaming. I just stood there.”
The tendons of Russal’s neck stood out. Kambry curled her fingers behind his neck, massaging the tight muscles. “That was long ago, Russal. You were just a boy.” Recently, she had blamed him, and now she was encouraging him to forgive himself. She really didn’t know how she felt about him or Covey.
“One doesn’t use power without first knowing how to use it properly. I nearly destroyed a friendship I was only just appreciating.”
She slid her hands down to his chest and looked up at him. “Did that experience play a part in your decision not to take the king’s crown?”
“It was clear I wasn’t ready.” He lay his head on her forehead. “When Felip was here, he told you what happened that day.”
“And Kavin showed it to me.”
He straightened, his eyes widening. “You saw it through Kavin?”
“An image, so detailed, so real, it could have happened today in the gardens.”
“You must have thought me a monster.” Russal gripped her hands as if he thought she might draw away from him.
She gazed down, ashamed to let him see the accuracy of his statement. “I saw only what he told me.”
He squeezed her hands. “And you let me tell my side. That couldn’t have been easy. If you had seen it through Kavin, then how could I have given a better accounting of myself?”
Laying her head on his chest, she said, “I went to someone I thought might have been there.”
“You spoke to Amily?”
“No, Lessa.”
His voice carried his surprise. “She wasn’t there.”
“She was hiding nearby. She used to follow you three about.”
His arms tightened around her as if he needed the comfort. “We shut many people out. None of us trusted anybody. I think Lessa was the first person we finally let into our group.” He huffed. “Of course, that might have been because Tomo and I didn’t want Amily tagging along with us everywhere we went.”
“She was my first friend here.”
His hands raised her chin and cupped her face. “And did she provide enough of an honest perspective for you to forgive me?”
That was the question she now had to wrestle with. “There is more than just what Covey shared. You said there were many.”
He strode to the curtained windows, pulling the heavy fabric aside. “Let’s save my other horrific acts for another night.”
Horrific. She swallowed. “Russal.”
“Let’s talk about us. I’ve been thinking in that little room.” He grimaced and left the window, the curtains swinging into place. “My actions came first. Even if Covey hadn’t shown up, I set you aside as if you could provide no value. I left you out of the decision regarding what to do about the injured guards and the attacks in the maze.” He sat down on the bed.
She sat beside him, a breadth of space separating them. “Russal, I need to figure out a few things.” She stared at her hands in the dim light of the one lamp. One part of her wanted to reach out to him and wipe the entire night out of her memory. A gulf hung between them, her own uncertainty just one side of it. There was much between them yet to deal with. She had questions about what she was to Russal, and it appeared he had them, too. “I learned something important,” she said. “We don’t know each other enough, yet we’re king and queen, married, and then there’s the Kavin magic.”
“Can we start again?” Russal asked, his voice soft. “Step back and build on a friendship and our love for each other. I love you, Kambry, but I need to be a friend for you as well. We have to rule together.” He stared straight ahead, not looking at her. “I have an idea. That day long ago when I lost control of Kavin magic? I learned from it.” He turned to face her. “Let’s practice together. I think it will help us build a stronger relationship.”
So they could cross this gulf. She chewed her lip. If only she knew why she kept believing Covey and letting him break through her defenses. Was he the one that had caused Kavin to replay that day for her, or had she pulled the image with her own control of Kavin magic? Many. Horrific. Would Kavin show her those if she asked? She trembled at the thought and shoved it away.
Russal shifted on the bed as if he couldn’t find a comfortable position. “I have a confession to make. I realized a few more mistakes I made tonight while I sulked in the other room.”
She looked at him, settling her hands in her lap, though they immediately fidgeted with the sash at her waist. “A confession?” He didn’t wrap anyone up in the shrubbery or dangle them from an oak tree in the garden, did he?
“I also checked on the Laurents. I should have brought you with me for that as well. Lady Laurents made it clear I am an idiot to leave your side. She threw me out and told me not to return without you.”
Her chest loosened. That wasn’t so horrible. Kambry could just imagine Lady Laurents giving Russal a set down. The woman had a harsh tongue, and she would not hesitate to tell even a king where he went wrong. She needed to go see Lady Laurents, if for nothing else than to get her own dressing down for not following him against any protest he might give.
“There’s one more thing, and I hesitate to tell you. I should have said something as soon as we were alone.”
Going to the Laurents wasn’t awful. He was probably being overly critical. He should have taken her with him, but checking on them had been an appropriate action. She would listen to this next “confession” with a calm, forgiving attitude. She closed her eyes. “Russal, what is it?”
“G
ordy. He was the guard who was most injured. I didn’t want to worry you, but I had no right to keep that news from you.”
She stood up and took two paces before charging to look down at him. “You should have told me right away.” She twisted her hands. “Gordy?” She paced again, wringing her hands. Her Gordy was the one who was unconscious. “You said Baraby believes he will be fine in time.”
“His daughters are taking care of him, and with rest, he will recover.”
She paced back and forth the width of the bed. “You should have told me. I need to see him first thing tomorrow. Oh, Russal, why would someone hurt him?”
“They wanted those guards out of the way. Gordy was watching your parents. The second guard observed from a spot near where the Laurents faced their attacker.”
Covey had said he was protecting Kambry from plans his mother had. Who had instigated the attacks? Covey, Maizalyn? Both of them? “Don’t you ever keep important information from me again, Russal!”
His hands hovered near her own and withdrew. “Never again, Kambry. I promise you, we’re in this together.”
She sat down on the bed again. “Gordy.” Her voice broke, and she rubbed her forehead. He was her protector and taught her how to protect herself. “I’m so tired. There isn’t more, is there?”
“No.” The word sounded unfinished.
They sat, both staring forward.
Frustration dogged her thoughts, and she focused on fears on Gordy. She knew Baraby was a skillful healer. If he said Gordy would recover, then he would.
After a moment, Russal drew her hands to his lips and kissed them. “I won’t ask for forgiveness yet. I’m learning how to have a queen at my side. I’m going to make mistakes, but I will listen better when you disagree with me. I won’t discount your contribution again.” Standing up and pulling her hands toward him, he brought her to her feet. “Good night, Kambry. I’ll see you in the morning. Don’t worry about Gordy or the Laurents. All will be well. I’ll... we’ll take care of them together.”
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