“Elena needs a respite from all our company, and it must be said, I need some time without so many bloody distractions to get to know the woman who will be my wife,” Cassius replied.
“Would that the forest soon rings with much heftier groans than a Sky Citadel maid can give you as that happens,” Mac entered the conversation.
“You might wish to watch what you say,” Cass warned.
Mac sent him a grin. “I never wish to watch what I say.”
This was regrettably true.
Cassius sighed.
“This is the most drawn-out coup in Triton history,” Tone complained. “And with the comprehensiveness of our allies, it has but one conclusion. The only thing that remains to be seen is how many lives will be lost in reaching that conclusion. That is, if the man who would assume the throne doesn’t get set upon by Zees, kidnapped by angry gnomes or assassinated by Airenzian traditionalists who scent change and are loathe to lose power.”
“Angry gnomes,” Mac chuckled.
“They are not all friendly,” Antonius returned.
“They are two feet tall,” Mac retorted.
“And have magic,” Tone shot back.
“Were you asleep when our future queen set the night sky ablaze with but five arrows?” Mac asked. “I’ll wager now, a bag of gold, Elena can best a hundred gnomes by just sneezing on them.”
Bloody hell.
“Has it occurred to you that there is one realm who has not fully allied with us?” Cass asked before Tone could carry on that ludicrous conversation. “Not only will I better get to know Elena on this journey, and there is a good chance Aelia will have reached The Enchantments by the time we arrive, therefore I’ll see my daughter, but also, I could make inroads with Ophelia. We have all the arms of Triton at our backs. Except the staffs of the Nadirii. I would have all arms laid down without any loss of life, Tone. And there is no guarantee of that. But the more I can weigh the side of a peaceful resolution to this mess, the better.”
They were exiting the forest to see the rolling moors through which cut the road to Notting Thicket. The road they’d been traveling.
The camp was gone.
The royal procession was mingling about their horses.
The band that would go to the Arbor were mingling about theirs.
True and some of his men were standing with Mars and Kyril.
And the women were returned and huddled together, talking at the edge of the forest that lined the other side of the moors.
Severus noted Cassius and his men’s arrival and broke from the women to move his way.
Cassius led his men toward True and Mars, as Antonius remarked, “So this is a diplomatic mission?”
“This is everything it needs to be, and in this time, every moment is everything it needs to be, or all will be lost.”
Cassius saw that Severus had started jogging, which meant he had something to say before they reached Mars and True, therefore Cassius stopped walking.
He also saw that Elena was no longer paying attention to her huddle but had her eyes on Rus.
He could not see her face well enough from his distance to know her thoughts, just that her thoughts were on the direction his man was heading.
“Need a moment, Cass,” Rus said when he arrived. “Alone.”
Cassius looked to Mac and Tone, who caught his expression and moved away.
Severus moved closer.
“Keen to be away, Rus, and need to speak to Mars and True. What’s this about?” Cassius prompted.
“She’s bound them together so they can talk to each other, even if they are at some distance,” Severus informed him. “A great cyclone overwhelmed them when she did. I’ve never seen anything like it. I thought they’d be swept to the skies. But when it was over, they just dropped to the earth like nothing happened.”
He would have liked to have seen that.
“She’s a witch, Rus. They can do shite like that.”
“She is also no longer enamored of Prince True.”
Cassius felt his body lock.
“She has realized, upon meeting you, that she never really was,” Rus went on.
Cassius now felt a strangeness in his throat, around which he forced, “Pardon?”
“Princess Elena is smitten with you.”
Something closed around his chest, doing this tightly, so it felt difficult to even breathe.
“Women chatter, I do not think she thought I could hear. I also do not think she cared if I did,” Rus continued.
Cass’s eyes drifted across the moor.
Elena was still looking their way, but when she saw she had Cassius’s attention, she turned hers back to the women around her.
A womanly flirt. Wanting your attention, timid when they received it.
If the woman was comely, it was stirring.
He did not think Elena had any type of flirtation in her. But she apparently did.
And Elena was beyond comely.
Therefore, he was stirred.
“Thus, she intended me to do what I’m doing right now,” Rus finished. “Telling you, so perhaps you’ll do something about it.”
“Thank you for this report,” Cassius replied stiltedly.
“Cass—”
“I need to meet with Mars and True.”
He started to move but Severus caught his arm, so he stopped.
“What just happened?” Rus asked, watching him closely.
“Naught,” Cassius said through stiff lips.
“My friend, this is good, do you not see that?”
“The royal party leaves, Rus, and you need to be with them.”
“If you let her in, you could be happy again, Cass. She has great beauty. She has great skill. Her confident manner is appealing. Her relationship with her lieutenants mirrors the one you’ve created with yours. And she watches you when you don’t realize it like she wants to pounce on you, not to use her staff, but to fall on yours.”
“Severus, we all wish to be on our way,” he reminded him.
“You two suit.”
“This is good, as we will be bound together for the rest of our days. Now, we need to be about our journeys.”
“You’re allowed to be happy, Cassius,” Rus declared.
He wasn’t.
He’d lived his motherless life in that dark pit of hell by the sea.
And then he’d found happiness.
He’d worshipped it.
And it didn’t last.
“Go, Rus.”
“You should be happy, Cassius,” Rus pushed.
“Do I have to make that a command?” Cassius asked.
Rus’s head twitched, and his hand dropped as he stepped away.
“No, Your Grace.”
Cass flinched at the formality but other than that did naught but incline his head.
Severus turned to walk away, giving a dark look to Mac and Tone as he did. He cast the same expression in Ian’s direction as Ian approached.
Cass ignored all of this and his men’s attention coming to him as he moved toward Mars and True, feeling Mac and Ian fall in at his back. Tone would go with Rus to join the royal party.
Both True and Mars watched him as he approached but it was only Mars who spoke when he arrived.
“All right?” he asked.
No.
He wasn’t.
He knew not why.
But he was not.
He had terror in his heart.
And he didn’t understand it.
“Yes,” he lied.
Mars studied him long moments before he glanced at True and wisely decided not to pursue it.
“Your conversation with the Airenzian witch?” Mars prompted when he looked back to Cass.
“The aristocracy of Airen sense change. They do not like it. Fern’s underground of women and witches who have spent years spiriting the most afflicted females out of Airen is now at the ready to do all we need them to do, from spying to fighting. We’re beginning
with spying.”
“And the alliance strengthens,” Mars murmured.
“Indeed,” Cass confirmed.
“I’ve had a message from Lorenz,” Mars shared.
“Yes?” Cassius asked.
“He reports the Go’Doan temple in Fire City is nearly deserted.”
Cassius felt his spine snap straight.
“As you suspected, they were behind the attack,” he deduced.
Mars shook his head. “We cannot know. An interview with one of the few Go’Doan priests that remain made mention that this Rising that was shouted about at the pits, the priests in the Dome City believe has to do with the quakes and the return of the Beast. Why they would recruit Firenz citizens to assail my palace, he did not know. We suspect he does not know about the prophecy, which could be an explanation. Or, perhaps, not.”
“And as this priest remained, it can be assumed he’s not one of what appears more and more to be conspirators,” Cassius remarked.
Mars nodded, but said, “Though, only assumed. Lorenz reports this man is in the dark as to why so many priests have fled. And Lorenz feels this ignorance is genuine. Before we leave, I will have a word Seph, Jell and Liam, who travel with the royal procession. It will be an antagonistic word, though I do not suspect Jell or Liam. But I never liked Seph. And if he knows something, I will sense it.”
“And this priest Lorenz has in his home?” Cassius queried.
“He is healing. He is settling. But he is not talking,” Mars told him. “However, the Go’Doan in Fire City pursued his whereabouts with some fervor. It was only when Guard himself visited the temple to share that he slipped away from the infirmary in the middle of the night and it could only be assumed with his other injuries that he was beset upon by someone, for possible gambling debts, or a jealous husband, thus, he has likely escaped for his own safety, did they cease demanding to know where he was.”
“But Lorenz still thinks he knows something?” True entered the conversation, sharing that Mars had not fully briefed True before Cassius arrived.
Mars nodded again. “But he has patience as he believes this priest will eventually do the right thing and I have patience for I believe Lorenz knows what he’s doing.” Mars turned to Cassius. “I’m sending for Chu. As you know, in an effort to control her, he is dallying with Serena in Fire City. He will bring her and they both will journey to Notting Thicket to aid in keeping an eye on your father, but more, to look into the Go’Doan priests who travel with the procession.”
“Control Serena?” True asked.
Both Mars and Cass looked to him. Mars then looked to Cassius to share it was up to him if he would do the same.
“Chu, one of Mars’s Trusted, has made Serena his sex slave.”
True stared blankly at Cass.
Then he threw his head back and roared with laughter.
Cass had never seen the man laugh at all, much less so uninhibitedly, and he couldn’t stop his lips from twitching for it was not only infectious, what they were discussing was, indeed, hilarious.
“And I assume you made this happen so she would cease being such a relentless bitch to Elena,” True deduced, his voice still quaking with humor.
“Yes,” Cassius affirmed.
“Bloody spectacular,” True muttered, still chuckling.
“Every time I am around you, I like you more and more,” Mars decreed.
“Brilliant. I can sleep like a babe tonight, knowing that,” True joked good-naturedly.
Mars smiled broadly at True.
True grinned back.
And it was then Cassius realized he agreed with Mars.
Every time he was around the Dellish prince, he liked him all the more.
However, they did not have time to carry on with this mutual admiration.
“Any word from Guard?” Cass inquired.
Mars shook his head. “Zosime has not delivered him their child. She is close. But I will not call on him even after their family has begun. She will need him, and his son or daughter will need time to know their father.”
That had Cassius nodding, but he said, “This leaves you with few Trusted, Mars.”
“Lorenz guards the throne in my absence, and Chu is an adept spy. He’ll be useful in the Thicket.”
“And you have but two guard, Mars,” Cassius pushed.
“Two Trusted and two hundred warriors, Cass. I’ll have much more guard than you.”
“It is not the same.”
“I have only one enemy where I’m going,” Mars informed him.
He did.
Silence’s father was slippery and spiteful and made no attempt to hide he disliked his son-in-law and desired to drive a wedge between husband and wife, for what aim, it was unknown.
This was also obvious to everyone, save, from appearances, Silence.
“Mind him,” True put in, and both men looked his way.
“You have advice?” Mars asked.
“I have a bad feeling,” True told him.
“I fear my queen is being taken in by his machinations, but the only result of that will be, when he exposes his true intentions, it will hurt her heart.”
“I have a father I do not understand, and I do not respect,” True returned. “Even so, it does not negate the hole that has been empty all of my life in not having that important person to fill it. Silence has never shared with me, but she has long been starved of love and affection, and now she’s getting it. She is astute but matters such as these defy the logical mind when you’re thinking with your heart. I do not know if she desired Johan’s attention before. She never had it, so she seemed immune to its absence. I can only say if my father seemed to awaken from the trance he appears to have been in all my life and became a father to me, I might so welcome it, I’d be blind to the reasons behind it.”
Mars studied True with such intensity, you could almost feel the heat coming from his gaze.
He then jerked up his chin.
True left it at that and changed the subject. “I’ve had words with your mother.”
Mars did not like that and the line of his body shared it.
“I’ve asked her to work with my own to inject some modicum of Firenze into the wedding ceremony,” True explained, making Mars relax. “She was eager to be of help. She rides with you now, but I’m asking you to allow her to go to Notting Thicket to do that for Farah. I’ve also informed my mother this will happen, and she should accord Queen Elpis every courtesy when she is at Birchlire. She has agreed.”
“This is kind of you, True, and it will mean much to Farah,” Mars said quietly.
“That’s the goal,” True murmured.
“It will also mean much to Mama for she wishes to make amends to her daughter not of the blood.”
True had no response to that except to stiffly lift his chin.
Mars carried on to note, “You also travel with little guard after Farah was a target in Fire City.”
“I travel with my version of Trusted, Mars,” True replied.
This was all that needed to be said for Mars had no reply.
Thus, True reminded them all, “Birds. Frequently. If we do not hear from one or the other for two full days, the others ride to their last known location.”
Cassius and Mars agreed to what they’d already agreed with dips of their chin.
But after Mars righted his, his expression softened when his eyes caught on something beyond them and his tone was distracted when he said, “Safe journeys to you both. We shall meet again in the Thicket.”
He then cut between the two men as if they were branches to brush through.
Cassius and True turned to watch him stride to Silence, who was hurrying toward him, her cloak billowing behind her in the wind, her hands juggling her active pet monkey.
The King of Firenze arrived at his queen, took the monkey, set it on his shoulder, then swept his bride in one arm, bending her over it with great flair, even if he did it only to touch his lips to hers, lift away and
smile in her face.
A blush stole into her cheeks, but she smiled back.
Well, it appeared whatever was keeping king and queen apart, Mars had made great inroads in sweeping away.
“And a stunning blow has been dealt to Johan,” True murmured.
At his words, Cassius found the party that would ride to the Arbor and saw Silence’s father scowling at his daughter with her husband.
“I do not think that is why he makes that show,” Cassius murmured in return. “That is but Mars, the Firenz are flamboyant. And he’s falling in love with her.”
“I do not think that either,” True replied. “I still like to see Johan back on a foot when he’s been peacocking around with glee even when it’s clear his daughter carries heavy burdens.”
“On that, we agree.”
As Mars strode off with his wife in the curve of his arm and a monkey on his shoulder, True went alert at Cassius’s side.
“And there is my future bride…and yours,” True said, and Cass’s attention turned to Farah and Elena walking their way, arm in arm. “Thus, I shall be away. Safe journey, Cassius.”
“And the same for you, True.”
Cassius watched as True walked to Farah, who disengaged from Elena to meet him.
An Elena who did naught but glance at True with a small smile while continuing on her way to Cass.
He ignored that and noted True had utterly no flamboyance whatsoever, but no one witnessing the look on his face as he gazed upon Farah would miss there was no other person on Triton he would rather have close than her.
So Elena had realized it had never been True.
And for True, it might have been Elena, but he now realized he’d found the woman who was his destiny.
Thus, that band around Cassius’s chest tightened.
He turned his gaze with effort to his future bride.
Tunic. Moccasins. Casings bound with crisscross straps up her thighs. Her heavy purple cloak billowing behind her in the stiff wind. Her glorious honey hair wisping across her face and catching on her full, rosy lips.
He could fuck her where he stood.
Hell, he wanted to fuck her where he stood.
“Are you ready?” she asked, stopping in front of him.
“Yes,” he answered.
Her head tipped to the side and her gaze grew acute.
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