Well, she reflected, as she watched the rogue Kyonan guard being led roughly from the room, not everyone on the delegation, apparently.
Once the guard had been hauled away, the king followed him through the internal door, flanked by the rest of his guards. Within moments the visitors were alone in the room, save for the physician who was still binding up Eamon’s arm. The prince’s remaining guard hovered anxiously nearby, his face still unnaturally pale.
The group stood in stunned silence until the physician finished his work. “Well, Your Highness,” the man said at last. “You have been lucky. As I said, I don’t anticipate lasting damage, but you must rest, and not just for a day or two. It will take some time to recover your full strength.” He began to pack up his bag. “I suggest you return to your chambers now. I will visit you in a few hours to check the bandage.”
“I will attend the coronation first,” said Eamon quickly. The physician pursed his lips, but either he didn’t care enough or he didn’t consider himself to have the appropriate rank to challenge the visiting prince, because he didn’t actually argue. His work finished, he wasted no time in leaving the room.
“Are you sure that’s wise, Eamon?” Jocelyn’s anxious question mirrored Lucy’s own concerns.
Eamon shrugged, wincing slightly as he rolled his shoulder. “I think it’s more important than ever to show our support.”
“But you convinced him,” Jocelyn said quickly. “I’m sure you did. He knows we weren’t behind it.”
Jocelyn certainly seemed to have pieced together what happened quickly. Kincaid hovered protectively near her, still scanning the room for threats, and Matheus looked utterly confused. But the princess was very much in command of herself.
“I hope so,” said Eamon heavily. “But it’s still a terrible thing to have happened. You know how many eyes are on all of us. Who knows what people will say if I don’t appear at the coronation?” He shook his head. “It’s all very well for King Giles to say he’ll keep it quiet, but there were a lot of people in this room. And an assassination attempt moments before the coronation, carried out by one of my personal guards…well, who knows what the ramifications will be?”
“So that really is what happened?” Kincaid asked, looking aghast. “What could the motivation have been? And how could a traitor have made it into your personal guard? Surely the guards who came on this trip were selected with the greatest care!”
“They were,” said Eamon grimly. He spoke to Kincaid, but his eyes were on his twin, her furrowed brow a reflection of his own. “And nothing would ever make me believe it of him if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”
“And felt it with your arm,” said Jocelyn dryly. The worry line between her eyebrows deepened as she looked at her brother’s bandaged arm. “I don’t like this, Eamon. Something isn’t right.”
“That’s a bit of an understatement,” snorted Kincaid.
“No, I mean…” Jocelyn glanced at Eamon again, seeming to struggle for words.
“You came running in here pretty quickly, Joss,” said Lucy slowly, her eyes narrowing slightly as she studied her friend. “Were you waiting right outside the door or something?”
“No,” said Jocelyn hesitantly. She again looked at Eamon. “I thought…I thought I felt something. Then I heard you shout, and I ran…”
“You felt it, too?” Eamon asked eagerly, seeming to forget the rest of the group for a moment as he stepped toward his sister. “I didn’t imagine it, then.” He glanced at Lucy for the briefest second. “Lucy was the one who realized something was amiss first, and in the chaos I didn’t immediately identify it. But I felt it, I know I did. Right before he drew his weapon.”
“Wait.” Lucy’s flat voice seemed to bring both twins back to a sense of their surroundings. “What are you saying?”
Eamon met her eye reluctantly. “You wouldn’t have felt it, Lucy, but there was a surge of power. I know there was. Something was at work here, some kind of—”
“And by power you mean magic?” Lucy interrupted, her temper rising rapidly. “You think he was under some kind of magical influence?”
“I do,” said Eamon eagerly, apparently not alive to her tone. Kincaid’s brow was furrowed in thought, and Matheus was looking between the Kyonan twins, his mouth wide with astonishment.
“And that’s why you asked for mercy,” said Jocelyn softly. She looked anxious again. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to save him, Eamon. Not after something as serious as this. We can’t risk war by pushing too hard, and no one’s going to believe us when we say he wasn’t acting of his own free will.”
“I wonder why,” said Lucy bitingly, and everyone in the room turned to stare at her. She avoided Jocelyn’s eye, instead directing her anger toward Eamon. “It’s just your favorite solution, isn’t it? An excuse that can cover any offense.”
“Lucy!” Jocelyn’s voice was sharper than Lucy had ever heard it.
She turned toward her friend, but not before she saw the flush rising up Eamon’s neck. Good. Let him be ashamed. She could hardly believe he was trying to apply his explanation for his behavior in Raldon to this completely unrelated incident, like he was determined to supernaturally explain away any uncomfortable reality.
“Well, it’s ridiculous,” she said to Jocelyn, her voice impatient.
“That doesn’t mean it isn’t true,” Jocelyn snapped. “I’ve seen much stranger things, believe me. And it’s not just Eamon. I felt it too. Are you calling me a liar?”
Lucy raised her hands in frustration. “No, of course not. I’ve heard your stories, and it’s not that I don’t believe them. But we’re in Balenol, Joss. We’re an ocean away from the Kyonan mountains and the dragons and all that magic power business. How would someone be influencing that guard to attack King Giles?”
“That’s what we need to figure out,” said Jocelyn shortly. “And we’re not so far separated from it all as you might think, Lucy. Or have you forgotten your parents’ story? The one about the curse that originated in our far-off mountains but was powerful enough to keep generations of Kyonans trapped right here in Balenol?” Lucy had never seen her sweet-natured friend look so fierce. “Not to mention that Scanlon came from here. Who knows what he left behind when he sailed for the North Lands, ready to make mischief? Maybe he had allies who stayed behind.”
Lucy shrugged, her discomfort doubling at the mention of her deceased uncle. “I thought you said he got his power from a dying dragon. Are you saying the dragon gave its magic to more than one person? I thought it didn’t work that way.”
Jocelyn sighed, running a hand up her face. “I don’t know how it works. There’s a lot we don’t know.” Her eyes narrowed again. “Which is why we shouldn’t discount what Eamon and I felt.” The princess turned back to her brother, who had remained silent since Lucy had chastised him. “Eamon, at least tell me you’ll go change. You can’t attend the coronation covered in blood.”
Eamon jerked out of his stupor. “Yes,” he said quickly. “Of course I’ll change. I’ll go now.”
“Eamon.” Jocelyn put her hand on his uninjured arm. “You did a very good thing just now. A couple of very good things.” A meaningful look passed between them, which Lucy didn’t fully understand. “I’m so glad you’re all right. It’s very lucky you were here, and that you realized something was wrong and reacted so quickly.”
“Yes,” said Eamon hesitantly, glancing at Lucy.
He didn’t say anything, but she didn’t miss the way his eyes flicked to her leg, where her weapon was concealed. The one she had visibly reached for before stopping herself. Lucy dropped her gaze, her heart racing a little faster. It seemed not everyone had forgotten her behavior, after all.
The king and his guards might have had no idea why she started bunching up her skirts in that unladylike way, but Eamon would have instantly realized that she was reaching for a weapon. Eamon knew she had sensed the attack coming before he had. And he had very good reason to know how capa
ble Lucy was of incapacitating the guard, even from across the room. But he had clearly also seen her hesitate in the moment of crisis, and she could read his confusion on his face.
But he didn’t challenge her on it, just hurried from the room with his guard close behind him.
Guilt warred with relief within Lucy’s overwrought mind. If she had acted as her instincts prompted her to, Eamon wouldn’t have been injured. And he’d been lucky. He could all too easily have been killed by that blade. And whatever her current feelings were toward him, she felt absolutely sick at the idea of something serious happening to him. But if she had taken down that guard…if she had done what her hands had been itching to do…she would have been exposed, and in front of Balenol’s king of all people.
She started to mechanically move toward the door with the others, ready to head into the coronation at last, but her best friend’s voice drew her up short.
“Actually, Lucy, can I have a word?”
She eyed Jocelyn suspiciously. The request was uncannily like Eamon’s earlier plea for a private conversation, and that hadn’t turned out so well. “What is it, Joss?”
But Jocelyn waited until Kincaid and Matheus had left the room, and the two girls were alone, before speaking.
“Lucy, how could you? You were way out of line.”
Lucy blinked in surprise at the direct attack. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“Yes you do,” said Jocelyn, unimpressed. “I’ve been keeping my opinions to myself, not wanting our friendship to get mixed up in your fight with Eamon, but enough is enough. I’m done sitting by while you treat my brother so badly.”
“While I—?” Lucy sputtered for a moment, struggling to find words for her rising anger. “I hardly think I’m the one who’s treated him badly, Jocelyn!”
“Well, I do think it,” said Jocelyn bluntly. “I know he made a mistake, a very big one. But you can’t punish him forever.”
“A mistake? He used his position to send the royal guard after my friends and neighbors, Jocelyn! He ordered them to round up the children and brand them! You think I should just fall back into his arms the moment he says he’s sorry?”
“No one said anything about falling into his arms,” said Jocelyn quickly. “If you’re no longer interested in him in that way, that’s your own affair. But it doesn’t justify you belittling him and humiliating him in front of other people.”
For a moment Lucy was silent, stung by the open rebuke. She didn’t want to admit it, but the bare fact of Jocelyn’s accusation was as rattling as the princess’s words. It was unlike her gentle friend to chastise like this. “It was just Matheus and Kincaid,” she muttered at last.
“Matheus is led by you, Lucy,” said Jocelyn, her tone still unnaturally stern. “And Kincaid is foreign royalty, not to mention Eamon’s new brother-in-law. You don’t think it matters to Eamon what both of them think of him? You think it’s easy for him to be made a fool of in front of them?”
“If he came across as a fool, it’s only because he was making a foolish suggestion,” argued Lucy impatiently. “Surely you don’t really think some kind of magic was involved in what just happened, Joss. It’s natural for Eamon to be horrified that it was his own guard who turned traitor, and to want to explain it away, but not everything can be—”
“Eamon’s feelings on the matter have nothing to do with what I sensed,” interrupted Jocelyn shortly. “I felt the power, Lucy, not just Eamon. Maybe if you could open your mind to the reality that there are forces at work that you don’t fully understand, you’d find it a little easier to forgive Eamon for what happened. I know you were placed in a terrible position when Eamon unleashed Scanlon on your community. And I know you’re still suffering from it. But maybe you could think about what he’s suffering, too. He’s racked with guilt over something he can’t change, and wasn’t fully in control of in the first place. You have no idea what it’s like to be under the power of a magical force you can’t understand.”
“Don’t I?” snapped Lucy, before she could stop herself.
Jocelyn’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Lucy just shrugged a shoulder, regretting having let the words out.
“No,” said Jocelyn, her expression growing hard. “Tell me what that meant. When have you ever been influenced by dragon magic?”
“You tell me,” said Lucy, struggling to keep her varied emotions in check. “All I know is that since I was a child, I thought Eamon was the strongest, surest, most trustworthy person alive. Every word out of his mouth was wise and true and confidence inspiring. I never questioned how I felt any more than I questioned him. But that’s his power, right? The power he never thought he should mention to me, even though it apparently drips from every word he says. Maybe I have more experience of being enchanted than all the rest of you.”
For a moment there was a stunned silence, as Jocelyn stared at Lucy with her mouth open. “Lucy,” she said at last, her voice barely more than a whisper. “Is that what you think?” She swallowed. “Lucy…what you felt for Eamon was real. You weren’t…bewitched into caring about him. How could you think that?”
Lucy shrugged again, furious with herself for the tears that stung her eyes, trying to escape. “How would you even know? I thought you said that you couldn’t always tell when you’d used your own power. How would you know if he’d been using his?”
“It’s not the same, Lucy,” said Jocelyn quickly. “Eamon was always more in control of his power than I was. And he would never use it on you to try to get you to like him. Everything between you was genuine—surely you can’t really doubt that?”
“I don’t know what to think anymore,” said Lucy dully, a single tear slipping down her cheek in spite of herself. “You’re supposed to be my best friend, and yet all our lives you struggled with this unbelievable secret, and you never said a word to me. Can you really blame me for not being in a hurry to trust Eamon again, when clearly neither one of you ever really trusted me?”
Tears were leaking out of Jocelyn’s eyes now, too. “Lucy, I’m so sorry. I should have told you. It wasn’t because I didn’t trust you, I swear. It was because I was so afraid of myself, of what I might accidentally do. I never even told my parents.”
Lucy didn’t respond. Her eyes were lowered, but she could feel Jocelyn watching her steadily.
“I can’t deny that you have every reason to feel betrayed,” said Jocelyn at last. “But you haven’t seemed angry with me. Just with Eamon. Is all of this the real reason you’re still angry with him?”
Lucy made a sound that was intended to be a snort, but came out more like a sob. “I don’t need extra reasons. The attack at Raldon was enough.” Jocelyn looked unconvinced, and Lucy pushed on hastily before her friend could probe further. “And I’m not angry with you, Joss, not really. I wish you’d told me, but what’s done is done, and I don’t want to fight about it. It’s not worth losing my best friend over.”
“But it’s worth losing Eamon?” Jocelyn challenged. Lucy just shrugged, and her friend sighed. “Lucy, if I’ve done something that hurt you, put the blame on me. I don’t want to escape your anger at the cost of it all heaping onto Eamon. I think he has more than enough to carry without adding my crimes.”
She met Lucy’s eye, her expression unflinching. “Lucy, you’re my best friend, and I always want to be right with you. But the truth is that I have my own life now, one that’s happy and full of purpose. Even if you never forgave me, as heartbroken as I would be, I would recover. It wouldn’t ruin my life. So if you have to be angry with someone, be angry with me. Because from where I sit, your inability to forgive Eamon is threatening to ruin not only his life, but yours as well. And that breaks my heart even more.”
And without another word, Jocelyn turned away, her quick strides taking her to the door in moments. And Lucy, her tears flowing freely at last, found herself alone.
Chapter Nine
Lucy ha
d been to a few official royal functions, but King Giles’s coronation was by far the most tortuous. The ceremony seemed to drag unbearably, and it may as well have been in a different language for all the sense she actually made of it.
The whole visiting delegation was subdued, each one of them sitting unnaturally stiffly in their chairs, eyes darting around the large throne room uneasily. Lord and Lady Rodanthe were sitting between Eamon and the Valorian royals, their tight lips and stiff posture communicating their stress. But Cody was the worst of them, his dismay at having once again been absent for a life-threatening incident so strong that he had to be talked down from bustling Lucy and Matheus straight back to the harbor. He sat between them, making no effort to hide his troubled expression as he scanned the crowd continuously for threats.
Lucy was little better herself. It wasn’t that she felt in any danger, but she was shaken to the core by the confrontation with Jocelyn, not to mention the belated impact of the incident she had witnessed. Her relief at escaping notice was rapidly being eclipsed by her horror at how easily her hesitation could have cost either King Giles or Eamon his life.
Her distress was only amplified by the sight of the Kyonan prince sitting near her. His face was still a shade too pale, and his arm rested awkwardly in his lap. In spite of the heat, he wore a stiff formal jacket that covered his bandage, and made him look at a glance like all was normal. But the rigid set of his shoulders convinced her he was in considerable pain. She wished he had taken the physician’s advice and rested in his chamber, but she didn’t try to convince him.
His remaining guards were sticking so close to him, she doubted even she could get near enough to speak to him. Lucy felt for the guards. Instead of the usual shift of two at a time, each and every one of them was hovering protectively near their injured charge, their anxiety and shock at the actions of their fellow guard clear on their faces.
She was vaguely aware of Rasad sitting in state with a number of others whose slightly different garb suggested their Thoranian heritage. He caught her eye and smiled casually in greeting, but he made no attempt to talk to her. She was glad. Somehow, thanks to Eamon’s unfinished warning about the man, he had become mixed up in the whole incident in her mind, and she had no desire to put on an indifferent front for him right now.
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