My smile died, and I blinked.
“I’m…sorry?”
“Eavesdropping on the conversation of a king?” he asked.
Begorrah.
“Mars—”
“I was wrong. This was not foolish. It was reckless. And perilous. And you’ll not do it again, Silence,” he somewhat repeated.
It was not perilous (precisely).
He didn’t know about my shadow.
No one did.
And it was true, very true, I was coming to care about him (a great deal).
But I was not near ready to share that (and all it could mean).
“No one saw me,” I assured.
“It matters not,” he returned.
“But Carrington called True a traitor,” I shared. “I know my cousin, Mars. He’s no traitor. And he was suggesting riding against what will be my country. Or, erm…my other one. What was I to do?”
“Not listen,” he retorted, got close, cupped my jaw in both hands and bent low to put his face in mine. “You must heed this, piccolina. It would take philosophers much wiser than me to determine whether it is the greedy man, or the desperate, who is more dangerous. This advisor, from what True has told me, what I’ve witnessed, there is something off about him. He has king nor country in his heart when he offers his counsel. He wishes something for himself or has promised something to someone who would be more dangerous than his own king if he were not to deliver.”
Mars’s face came even closer before he went on.
“And listen to this, my wee monkey,” he said softly. “If my lands and my peoples were attacked, I would defend them with my last breath. But if anyone did anything to my queen, I would blaze a fire of vengeance that would never be forgotten in all of history. The mighty forests and the fertile fields of all of Wodell would be ash. So I beg of you, please, do not give man nor woman reason to make me do this.”
He’d do that for his queen?
For me?
If he’d do that for me, already, I should tell him about my shadow.
He needed to know.
And he would be my husband, so he should know.
I looked into his eyes and decided I’d do that.
Later.
But for now…
“I promise, Mars.”
He nodded, moved even closer, touched his mouth to mine and then pulled away, his hands sliding to my neck as he lifted his head but kept gazing down at me.
“It would seem I’ll be having dinner with my bride and my guests tonight,” he announced.
That made me smile up at him fully.
“You’re off to bathe?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Mm,” he said, his gaze moving down my body.
“I wear Jasmine’s body stocking,” I told him, feeling my cheeks pink.
“Mm,” he hummed again, his eyes moving back up to mine, and when they arrived, there was a darkness to them that was marvelous and frightening.
“I should go. I believe Farah is waiting for me,” I told him. “And likely Queen Ha-Lah too.”
“Then yes, you should. But before, I’ll have your mouth.”
That was marvelous and frightening as well, and I stood frozen, staring up at him wondering which one would prevail as he bent and took my mouth in a hard kiss, touching his tongue to my lips.
I opened them.
His tongue slipped inside.
All right.
It was just marvelous.
I melted into him, wrapping my arms around him as our tongues danced and Mars held my head at the back, and with an arm about me, pulled me deeper into his frame.
He broke our kiss all too soon, lifted away and kissed my nose.
“Until dinner, my Silence, and after,” he murmured.
After.
More kissing.
Again, marvelous.
“Yes,” I whispered.
His gaze went soft, he tucked my hand in his elbow and led me out of the room.
He handed me to Kyril with the order, “Escort her to the garden bath.”
Kyril took my hand as Mars offered it and then I was tucked at his elbow.
I looked back to see Lorenz approach Mars before he went into the meeting room.
“You meet Farah?” Kyril asked, and I turned to face where we were heading.
“Yes. And Ha-Lah. And perhaps later, Elena, Hera and Jasmine.”
“Ah, to be at the baths with the loveliest females in the palace instead of loitering in the halls, doing nothing,” Kyril murmured teasingly.
I took a chance, what with my newfound friends, being in a place where it seemed everyone liked me.
And the chance I took was to tease him in return.
“Just to say, if you were to wish to offer Jasmine a private session, I do not know her well, but what I know, she would not be averse to this.”
“And which is she?”
“Elena’s lieutenant with the brown hair.”
“An introduction is in order at dinner,” he proclaimed instantly, and I giggled.
“I’ll see to that.”
“Much obliged, my future queen,” he replied, grinning down at me.
He then led me to the pool with the same kind of teasing, sweet banter the whole way.
It was lovely.
He was lovely.
And if anyone harmed me, my future husband would burn down an entire country.
I should find this frightening.
I did not.
I found it utterly marvelous.
King Mars Laches
First Floor, West Corridor, State Wing, Catrame Palace, Fire City
FIRENZE
“Have you heard of this happening before, Mars?” Lorenz asked him.
“Never,” Mars murmured, staring at a space over his general’s shoulder.
“I’ve not either.”
Mars looked to his man. “This is not a ruse? Something to earn your pity? Lower your defenses?”
“The state of his wounds, I cannot believe it to be,” Lorenz replied. “I’ve seen the results of a lash. I’ve wielded a lash. I’ve never seen anything the like. He had to be in agony.”
This made no sense.
“The Go’Doan do not punish their priests as such. It is usually counseling, and if the transgressions carry on and are insurmountable or untenable, expulsion. Corporal punishment is abhorred by that religion.”
“This is also my understanding,” Lorenz agreed. “Though he said it was as such for the worst of transgressions. But in all he said, that was the only time I knew he was lying.”
“Then you cannot trust him,” Mars remarked. “You play him, even if this is extreme, he may have understood your intent and be playing you.”
“I won’t trust him, for the now, but you must know, Nyx does. She wants to keep him.”
Mars lifted a brow.
Nyx was less trusting than Lorenz. She suffered no fools. And the burning walls around Fire City would blink out before she was taken in by a deception.
“She felt his arrogance at the Tebes was immaturity and bravado,” Lorenz explained. “She’s had a soft spot for him since. She is the one who sensed he would enjoy the play we introduced. And he does. But today…” He shook his head. “Mars, I cannot stand here and tell you the man with those injuries, the manner in which he responded to a kindness that anyone would pay him in his state, is playing at anything.”
“Do not let your guard down,” Mars warned.
“Agreed,” Lorenz stated. “But my king, one thing seemed clear. Someone in the Go’Doan did this to him. Therefore, something is afoot. Or someone is going rogue.”
“And he might be a part of it,” Mars noted.
“My beloved will not wish to deceive him. She’s taken him under her wing.”
Mars sighed.
And if Nyx gave you her loyalty, she’d die to it.
“And you?” Mars asked and watched his warrior’s face get hard.
“You did not s
ee what I saw. You did not feel his fear when Nyx demanded an investigation. He is in my home, sleeping off a draught after a session with Saturn and Faunus. And this is where Nyx intends him to stay, and I as well for I cannot imagine anyone with a good heart sending him back to face a repeat. Or worse. And this has naught to do with my wife and I enjoying his arse. At what I saw today, something calls to me about the man. I think there’s something to him and I think, if he’s given what he appears never to have had, it would be he who returns our kindness. I just don’t know how that would come to be.”
This meant more to Mars than even Nyx’s instincts.
“And Saturn and Faunus?” Mars asked. “Have you spoken to them?”
“I have not, but Nyx reports Faunus, especially, took to him.”
Faunus, like Saturn, was a whore. He’d fuck anything. If he was not so good with a broadsword, he’d be a popular attraction in the Heden District of Fire City.
But he tended to veer toward hole and it wasn’t unknown for him to take a lover for a time if something struck his fancy.
He also desired to be a Trusted.
As did Saturn.
And perhaps this was a way for them to begin to earn their place amongst that elite.
“I want him continued to be played,” Mars decided. “Draw in Faunus and Saturn.”
“Nyx will not like it,” Lorenz warned him.
“It is a command of her king. But if he is what you sense he is, or if he is not, in the end, either way, it’ll be as it should be.”
Lorenz lifted his chin and moved away.
Mars drew breath into his nose.
He did not wish to deal with unknown machinations of the Go’Doan when he had the weakness of the Dellish king and the pomposity of the Airenzian one to handle.
But mostly what he truly wished was to think of nothing but the woman who would soon be his wife and where he would take her teachings in his bedchamber that night.
But his father would juggle all of that, with seventeen more dire problems, and still smile and kiss his wife like nothing was amiss when he sat beside her at dinner.
This would be the king Mars would be.
And it would be the husband he would be.
So this was what he set about doing.
31
The Choice
Queen Mercy Axelsson
Catrame Palace Lofts, Northeastern-Most Corner, Catrame Palace Grounds, Fire City
FIRENZE
The raven flew, and Mercy instantly turned her head and nodded.
The tall man beside her lifted the small green flag and waved it before he quickly withdrew it.
And thus the man on a horse two hundred yards away went galloping.
This meaning the raven would be shot from the sky before it left the Fire City, the rider then would lay in wait for the messenger on his mount which was sure to follow.
Lamentable.
Ravens were noble, wise and full of magic. If she were queen in more than name only, she would make harming a raven a punishable offense.
However, she must do what had to be done.
And Mercy did that.
She waited.
The man at her side waited.
And the men on horses in the distance waited.
But so sure was he that he had immunity to do anything, Carrington dashed down from the raven lofts, and without a glance around, made his way back to the palace.
“Wait here. If a man loyal to Carrington arrives to dispatch another bird, send the signal. And have Carrington closely watched. I want reports on all his closest associations with my husband’s men. And I’ll have all his communications, Bram. However he should send them. The instant you can get them. I don’t care if it’s delivered to me during a royal wedding.”
“Yes, my queen,” Bram murmured.
She moved from her secluded position back toward the palace.
It really didn’t matter what the message was that Carrington sent. Even if it was treason, her husband might not care. Carrington seemed to have the disturbing skill of being able to talk his way out of anything.
And Wilmer would wish to know why Mercy was using his men (or True’s men, she could not trust Wilmer’s men were actually Wilmer’s) to shoot his closest advisor’s birds from the sky.
However, matters were progressing at an alarming rate, and for Wodell, her beloved husband, and her beloved son, they weren’t heading in the right direction.
It may be she’d have to make a choice.
Her king.
Or her son.
It was no choice really.
She loved her husband. She very much did.
But he was weak.
She tired of standing behind a man who was weak.
Being his wife, it meant a lifetime of holding him up.
And she intended to see her son seated on the throne of Wodell.
Even if she died doing it.
No, there was no choice.
Mercy picked True.
32
The Offer
Princess Elena
Grand Stairwell, Catrame Palace, Fire City
FIRENZE
“I’ll have your ear, if I may, Your Grace.”
I turned to see the Go’Doan calling to me.
What was his name?
G’Liam.
I stopped where I was on the landing and dipped my chin.
“Of course, Liam, how may I assist you?”
“Do you have a moment to speak privately?”
I studied his face.
It was bland.
Giving away nothing.
But one did not waste the opportunity of getting at least something from a Go’Doan.
Or I didn’t as I found fascinating each tidbit of the puzzle that was them.
“Perhaps one of King Mars’s informal rooms,” I murmured.
He stepped to the side and lifted an arm, the long alabaster sleeve of his robe falling nearly to his knee.
And he was tall.
He was also handsome. Fair. Prominent features that were manly, but not aggressive. Hazel eyes with spiky lashes.
The Go’Ella acolytes probably lined up by the score to be selected by him.
This thought made my stomach curl with a certain kind of sick.
I nevertheless preceded him, making my way back down the stairs, and looked right at the bottom when I didn’t wish to look right.
I just couldn’t stop myself.
And of course, although the last days I rarely saw him, Cassius was standing outside the meeting rooms, appearing most perturbed, one of his men at his side, King Aramus at his other, all of them listening to True, who had Alfie next to him.
And of course, Cassius’s gaze came to me as if he could sense my very presence near his.
His eyes took me in then instantly narrowed on the Go’Doan.
“This way, princess?” Liam suggested.
I turned away from the prince and nodded to the priest.
We pivoted to the eastern corridor, walked down the hall and went into a room with an open door that was empty.
Liam closed the door behind us.
“Is all well, G’Liam?” I asked, walking deeper into the room.
“I do not think so,” he answered, coming toward me, and with that as his only preamble, he announced, “For your mother is gravely ill.”
My stomach pitched as my blood ran cold, but despite this, I hoped my expression was as bland as his had been on the stairwell.
And I was pleased to hear my voice was neutral and steady when I replied.
“She is well, Liam. Whyever would you suggest differently?”
“She is ill, Princess Elena, and I’m sorry to say, but from what I’ve learned of her condition, she will not recover.”
Oh my goddess.
A pain pierced my chest.
But I could not think on that injury.
I didn’t know how he knew she was ill or what he knew about her “condition” as I
didn’t even know of her condition.
I just knew that unless she talked about it with one of her lieutenants, she didn’t talk about it at all.
And it would be safe to assume, especially in a time like this, she didn’t want anyone to know about it.
You were only as strong as your leader.
Melisse didn’t teach me that.
My mother did.
For these reasons, I added heat to my tone when I demanded, “Why would you say such things?”
“Because I have studied this, as did my mentor before I entered the Go’Doan. We have potions. To help with the pain. To aid in keeping the appetite healthy. Both we believe will not only help lift fatigue but also prolong life with a quality that is…tolerable.”
Tolerable.
“Again, I will stress my mother is not ill. But regardless, generally, and I hope you take no offense, Liam, but Nadirii treat Nadirii,” I reminded him.
He spoke like I did not.
“I cannot say I’m making great advancements. It would take many more who had an interest in this study, more subjects to study, and it would be important to oversee the effects of treatments for a longer period of time. What I will tell you is what I’ve noticed so far is promising.”
I was saved from replying when the door opened, and Prince Cassius strode in.
I studied him as he did.
Really, did he have to be that tall?
And did he have to fill out his leathers like that?
Also, did he have to button his leather shirt up to his throat so the ink slithered out on the left side of his neck only to disappear into his beard and then slink up his cheek and around his eye?
And could he at least have a patchy beard? Not a full, thick, manly one you wanted to catch in your fingers and tug.
Last, couldn’t he be just a bit awkward? Witnessing his confident, long-legged soldier’s stride as he made his way to us was most annoying.
I would soon not be annoyed.
I would be stunned immobile when he did not simply arrive at our small huddle and stop.
He arrived at my side, slid an arm around my waist, his fingers curling at my hip, and he pulled me into his side so roughly, my head bounced on my neck.
“Is all well, my princess?” he growled in a manner in which he already knew the answer to that question, it was not well, he very much didn’t like that, and he intended to rip someone’s head from their shoulders because of it.
The Beginning of Everything (The Rising Book 1) Page 34
