by Anne, Melody
“Are you enjoying the weather?”
Adara turned and smiled up at Chris’s brother Bryan. “Yes, very much. What are you doing out here, away from palace business?”
“I’ve been working with Xander and Christopher on commercial business for our company, Dyholm, and I decided I needed a walk. It appears that you and I both had the same idea,” he said, easily falling into step with her.
“Yes. I was trying to clear my head. Or what I have left of it.”
“Anything to do with my brother?”
“Maybe,” she said, but she was hardly about to elaborate on that.
“You know, I’m sure that all three of us — my father’s sons, I mean — haven’t had an easy life in many respects, though that statement might seem surprising to many people. But if I may speak for myself and Xander . . . we’ve never been happier since we each found the woman we were meant to find all along.”
“Yes, I can see how much both of you adore your respective wives. It’s touching. And inspiring. And Chris is very kind to me.”
“And why do you think that is?” he said before answering his own question. “It’s because he feels the same way about you as Xander and I feel about the women we chose to marry.”
“Thank you,” she told him. She felt awkward about discussing her feelings for Chris, especially to one of his brothers.
“Adara, I’m not normally a man to talk about emotions, but finding my wife and the child I didn’t know I had changed me in many ways. Fighting against the Arcano has also changed me. Give our brother a chance and he’ll prove to you how loyal he is.”
Adara stopped, and Bryan was now a few steps ahead of her before he realized what had happened. He turned and waited.
“What is the Arcano?” she asked grimly. “Or who? And why do you have to fight against them?”
His face instantly became a blank mask, and it surprised her. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I thought that Christopher had spoken to you already about that secret society.”
“I don’t know what he’s told me in the past. But that doesn’t mean you can’t tell me who these people are.”
No dice. It was more than obvious now that the discussion was at an end.
“I really should get back in. We have more Dyholm business to deal with,” Bryan said.
“Please don’t do this. If there’s something I should know, something that affects my life with Christopher, I deserve to know. As you are well aware, I’m more than a little lost here. My memory . . .”
“You’ll have to ask my brother.” Bryan began walking away, but he turned back toward her. “Please don’t head anywhere near the cliffs, Adara. They can be . . . dangerous.”
He glanced toward those jagged rocks with a lost look in his eyes, but then the same blank expression as before took over his features again. And this time he actually left.
What had put that look into his eyes? Adara decided she was in no way ready to return to the palace. Yes, Chris was currently tied up in business meetings, but he could be done at any time, and she wasn’t prepared to see him. With the new information that Bryan had given her — though not much of it — she had even more to think about.
Maybe marrying Chris was a bad decision. If she had all of these doubts, shouldn’t she take her time? She smiled briefly and thought that she, with a background in studying the stars, should consult her horoscope. But that little joke didn’t comfort her.
Why wasn’t her life easier? She headed toward those cliffs, and when she reached them, she leaned against the black iron railing to look over at the water far down below. Closing her eyes, she imagined being there in prehistoric times. So much simpler.
Of course, she wouldn’t have had much of a choice whether to marry back then. The men were the ones in charge. Hell, maybe they still were, though women had proved in the modern world that they were just as capable as men. If not more so.
But what a lonely life it would be to go it all alone. That wasn’t what she wanted. All she wanted was to make sure she was marrying the right man. Divorce? No. Definitely not.
Opening her eyes again, she turned a corner, following the path where it led. Peace filled her as she got away from view of the palace. There, eyes were always on her, everywhere she went, and it was an eerie feeling. At least no one was watching her this far from the palace.
Or so she thought.
She heard a noise behind her, and she whirled around to see three people approaching. Her eyes widened when she recognized the one in the lead.
“We meet again, Adara.”
The woman who’d threatened her in the restroom at the restaurant stood before her, and two very large men were directly behind.
“What are you doing here?” Adara asked. “What do you want?”
“Interesting question,” the woman said. “But you’ll have to wait to find out.”
“Vanessa, we really must go,” one of the men said.
“Shut up, Edwin. I will go when I please,” she snapped. “And I told you not to use my name.”
“What does it matter? She won’t be able to tell anyone,” he shot back.
“Look, I really don’t want any trouble,” Adara told them all as she cast about for any exit strategy.
“It’s far too late for that,” Vanessa said as she pulled out some sort of gun and pointed it at Adara.
“Don’t do this,” Adara said as she took several staggering steps back.
“Have a nice nap, dear,” Vanessa said before firing the weapon.
A dart entered her shoulder, and Adara didn’t know whether to feel even more panic as blackness began overtaking her, or to feel relief that she wasn’t dead yet — it wasn’t a bullet.
She never got a chance to decide.
Chapter Thirteen
You have a telephone call, Your Highness.”
Chris moved over to the desk and picked up the line, a smile still on his face.
“Hurry up, brother,” Xander told him. “I want to end this meeting so I can get back to my wife.”
“This is Christopher,” the prince said into the mouthpiece.
“We require that you meet us at the southern end of the Rinalde Mountains.”
Chris bristled and sent the full force of his royal voice hurtling through the phone lines. “Who is this that you think you can command me in this way?”
“All you need to know is that I’m a member of the Arcano. We are displeased in the extreme with the royal family, as you can easily imagine. You’ve broken away from centuries of traditions that we instituted, decided that your family can rule without our help. We cannot let that happen. We have your intended bride. It is her life or yours that we take. The choice is up to you.”
The phone line went dead, and Chris dropped the receiver, turning toward his brothers without knowing what to say.
“What is it?” Xander asked. He and Bryan rushed up to their little brother.
“They have Adara.” Chris’s knees were suddenly unsteady, shaking.
“We’ll get her back,” Xander said. The king’s eyes were flashing dangerously.
“Where are they holding her?” Bryan demanded.
Neither bothered to ask who had Adara. They all knew there was only one enemy. The Arcano.
“They are never going to go away,” Chris said, coming out of his shock, and rage beginning to take over.
“I don’t know that we’ll ever get all of the Arcano, but someday it will end,” Xander said. “Because each time we take out one of them, it weakens the collective. And we’ve done rather well. One day they will no longer pose a threat to us or our families.”
“They want me to meet them at the southern end of the Rinalde Mountains,” Chris told them. He moved away from the desk and past the conference table, and he headed toward the door.
Bryan g
rabbed Chris’s arm to stop him. “What are you doing?” the middle brother asked.
Chris turned around and growled. “I need to go there, to save Adara,” he said. “Take your hands off me, dammit!”
“Be reasonable,” Xander said. “You aren’t going to just rush in there like a fool. We need to figure this out. They won’t kill her if you’re not there. They want you to suffer. What exactly did they tell you?”
“How can you be so calm? It’s really pissing me off, and I was already beyond angry, Xander,” Chris told him.
“Trust me, brother, if it were Reanna they were holding, you would be the one having to calm me down.”
“I know that, but I need to move, need to get there and do what I can save her life.”
“Tell us what terms they laid down,” Bryan said, still gripping Christopher’s arm.
“They told me it’s either her head or mine — they didn’t care which,” Chris said through clenched teeth. “They can have my life if that’s what it comes down to, but they won’t take hers. I can’t allow that.”
“Do you honestly think they’ll let either of you live?” Bryan asked. “They will execute her in front of you as a form of torture. To rip you apart. And then they’ll kill you. And if they get the opportunity, they will come after me and my family, and of course Xander’s, since he’s now our king.”
“He’s right, Chris,” Xander said. “We must think this through. They picked the southern end of the mountains because there’s only one way in and one way out that they are aware of. I’m sure they have men staked out at strategic points. We can’t take a chopper in there — they’d see us first, and they’d take us out easily. Shoot us down in the air. We’ll have to walk in. But we aren’t going in there blind.”
“I just want to go,” Chris said.
“Not yet. What we have to do could have grave consequences. We’ll be risking almost our entire royal line, Chris, and yet I’m willing to risk it all. Family will always come first to me. But we need to think for a moment, to make the most effective plan.”
“Then what do you suggest?” Chris asked tensely, bitterly. He was tired of all this talking. They should be moving.
“Do you really think they have her there?” Bryan said.
“Yes. I do.”
“I think he’s right, Bryan. They will have her there. Whatever it is they are about, they think they’re the ones in the right. They will have her there and they will kill her almost immediately once Chris appears.”
“Then how in the hell are we going to rescue her and still keep our brother, and ourselves, alive?” Bryan asked.
“Do you know about the southern tunnels?” Xander asked.
“No,” Chris replied. “What tunnels?”
“They were started shortly after the palace was built. It was in an age of uprisings, and then — as now — our entire family line was threatened,” Xander told Chris and Bryan. “It took nearly a hundred years to finish the system, and the knowledge of them has been kept secret. But the special thing about the Rinalde Mountains is their interlocking caverns. You can hide there for as long as you need to.”
Bryan stared at him in disbelief. “I know our family history. None of our ancestors would have gone into hiding rather than battle a sworn enemy.”
“You’re absolutely right, brother, but they would have done anything at all to protect their families, to ensure that the royal line carried on. That’s why the tunnels were built that lead to the caverns, and to this day the caverns within the mountain are kept full of provisions. We can go through the tunnels and come up behind the enemy. They will have no one on the lookout from that direction.” Xander moved toward the phone.
“Who are you calling?” Chris asked. “I want no one to know about any of this.”
“It’s only logical to bring guards with us,” Xander said, but he didn’t pick up the phone.
“I trust no one, Xander. Someone tipped off the Arcano that Adara was here and that she was alone when they got to her. I’m not taking any chances. We can do this without the guards.”
“You might well be right, Christopher. We do this together — just the three of us,” Bryan said. “We’ll make it past this crisis.” He finally let go of Chris’s arm, but he remained by his brother’s side.
“Then I’ll tell Reanna that we have urgent business,” Xander said, picking up the phone and dialing his private suite.
“I’ll do the same with my wife, though I hate such deceit,” Bryan said, and he picked up the phone next.
“Thank you both for helping me,” Chris told them.
The three brothers formed a circle, their hands on each other’s shoulders, united now — as they always were when it came down to it. The Arcano would not win.
Chapter Fourteen
The brothers strode through the maze of tunnels in silence for about an hour before they reached the connecting caves. Xander stopped and looked at the map with his flashlight.
“How much farther?” Chris asked impatiently.
“It’s not as if we can get there quickly,” Xander told him, looking at the different routes in front of them. “We go to the left now.”
They soldiered on, making their way through narrow channels, some obstructed by rocks and others with pools of water from the underground river. Thank heavens Xander’s map was drawn out well.
“Don’t shine the light upward. I hear the squeaking of the bats,” Bryan said quietly after they’d trudged for another hour through the maze of caverns and trails inside the enormous mountain.
But when two hours turned into four, Chris became more and more impatient. What was happening with Adara? Was she still alive? Yes, his brothers had saved him from a suicide mission, but knowing that didn’t kill the fear that lay low in his gut.
They finally came to a downward slope and made their way carefully closer to their destination. They’d emerge from one of the caves about a mile from where their enemy lay in wait.
Despite the flashlight, the journey had been dark and forbidding, and when they saw the natural light drifting in, Chris had to let out a sigh of relief. They could have become lost so easily in that damnable mountain.
He picked up his pace. “We need to get to her quickly,” Chris said insistently.
“Hold back, brother,” Xander told him. “We need to be very careful now. It’s possible that they were aware of the tunnels. If we rush out and find ourselves ambushed, we’ll do your Adara no good.”
With the sound of the underground river behind them, the three brothers moved slowly to the exit from the series of caves. Chris took the lead now. He peered out, searching for any sign that sentries of the Arcano were around.
“It’s seems to be clear,” he told Xander and Bryan.
“We still need to stay hidden,” Bryan said. “We need to discover where they’re keeping Adara.”
They crept forward. About a quarter of a mile away from the place where Chris was to meet the Arcano, they spotted the first member of the group hiding behind a huge tree, peering toward the north.
“I’ve got this,” Bryan mouthed to them, and then moved silently forward, coming up on the man before he had the slightest chance of knowing someone was there.
Bryan silenced this guard without delay by wrapping his arm around the man’s neck and ensuring that he couldn’t cry out for help. The king and princes wanted to keep any remaining members of the Arcano alive so they could be interrogated. Xander and his brothers needed to find out how many of the enemy were left. It was the only reason this man was still breathing at all.
When Xander and Chris approached, Xander’s face fell for just the briefest of moments before he composed himself again.
“Why?” was all that the king could say.
The man’s lips moved, but he could barely get any oxygen in, let alone speak. Xander looked
at his brother, and Bryan loosened his hold, but not before threatening the man with dire consequences if he tried anything.
“How could you serve me in my household and still be a part of this ungodly conspiracy?” Xander demanded. “You were one of my best guards, Emanuel.”
“That was always my mission,” Emanuel said. “To serve the Arcano.”
“I can’t express the depth of my disappointment,” Xander said. Loyalty was everything to him.
Before he could say anything more, Chris had his own question. “How many men are out here?”
“The Arcano have always ruled. They will kill me if I talk,” Emanuel said.
“Tell me what I need to know. Now,” Chris said, fully focused on saving his fiancée.
“Never,” Emanuel said.
“You will be tried for treason,” Xander told him. “Don’t make your fate worse by letting a future princess of this land be murdered. Trust me, Emanuel, there are things far worse than death.”
The look in Xander’s eyes would have turned the bravest of soldiers to stone. It finally broke Emanuel’s resolve.
“There are only six of us here. Our numbers have dwindled.”
“What is the plan?” Bryan asked.
Emanuel looked too terrified to say any more, so Chris pulled out a knife and cut the man’s shirt open, then poked the blade into his chest just far enough for a small trickle of blood to drip down. “Speak now or you won’t speak again.”
“As soon as you were in captivity, we were going to . . .” He stopped speaking and Chris put a little more pressure on the blade.
“Where is she?”
“There’s a hunting cabin next to the mountain. You’ve been there before. Once you arrived, she was to be dragged out and . . .” he trailed off.
“And murdered? Isn’t that what you wanted to tell me?” Chris snapped, the knife poking in just a little bit more, making the man begin to shake.
“And exterminated, yes,” Emanuel said.
