"You…lying…bastard!" I swung at him, but my arms were jerked behind me by two of his guards.
The music stumbled and died, and members of the crowd gasped.
"I think you've had too much Cappor," Lord Pontefract said easily. "Someone please escort the princess back to her chambers—"
"My brother and King Darius are dead!" I screamed.
My words echoed throughout the great hall and were followed by a deafening silence. Lord Pontefract's gaze froze over.
"Tell them!" I screamed again, struggling against his guards, but they held fast. "Tell them how you knew Eris was going to—" All of a sudden I couldn't speak. Some outside force locked my jaw and tongue in place so I physically couldn't form a word.
Lord Pontefract's smile was like a dog baring its teeth. "Clearly, you aren't feeling well. Perhaps we should dilute your wine next time…?"
There were a few uncertain chuckles in the room.
"Please, excuse us a moment," he said to the crowd, then nodded fractionally at his guards.
The guests parted for us, leaving behind a river of glossy tile leading straight to the main doors. Lord Pontefract's robes billowed behind him as he stalked forward, and his guards jerked me after him. Our shuffling sounded unnaturally loud in the silent hall. More guards opened the ballroom doors, and my captors all but shoved me through and into the hall after Lord Pontefract. Lord Pontefract turned, said something to the guards—three of whom dashed off down the hall—and the doors closed.
The pressure on my jaw and tongue went slack.
Suddenly able to speak again, I said, "You are nothing but a—"
His hand moved too fast. My head reeled and my vision blurred, and I would've fallen if it weren't for the guards holding me up. A second later pain exploded in my jaw. My sinuses burned and my eyes watered, and I distinctly tasted iron on my tongue.
"Father…" Danton moved to stand between Lord Pontefract and me, but at a sharp glance from his father, he withdrew. I hadn't even realized Danton had followed us.
Lord Pontefract pinched my chin between his thumb and index fingers so hard it hurt, and he jerked my head up. His breath stunk of pepper and tobacco, and his face was so close I noticed a small freckle on the white of his eye. "If you ever address me like that again, I will make you suffer, and I will start by destroying the person you love most. Do we understand one another?"
I glared straight back at him, jaw throbbing, grunting against the strain in my neck.
"I do not give second chances, princess. Remember the only reason you're alive is because I've willed it so." His gaze bore down upon me, trying to dominate my will, but I didn't cower. I didn't relent.
He thrust my jaw aside and his wintry gaze knifed through Danton. "She's your responsibility. If I have to endure another outburst like that, the consequences will fall upon your head."
Danton clenched his jaw.
"I trust you three can manage her back to her rooms?" Lord Pontefract sneered.
Danton gave him a curt nod. Lord Pontefract's eyes moved back to mine. "I warned you not to overestimate your value, princess. I won't warn you again." He spun on his heels and stepped back into the ballroom, closing the doors after him.
Danton escorted us back to my rooms at an angry pace. I didn't fight the guards. There was no point, but I would figure out what to do once I got back to my room. As it turned out, I wouldn't be doing anything. There were ten armed men—three of whom were the ones from the ballroom who'd dashed down the hall—standing guard at my door.
"Ten?" I said at Danton's back. "I'm flattered."
Danton leaned forward and said something to one of the guards, and then that guard motioned to his men, and all of them backed away. Danton waved his hand over the knob, there was a click, and then he pushed the door open and faced my captors and me. "You can let her go."
There was a bubble of uncertainty from one of my captors. "But your father said we were to see her inside—"
"I'll see her inside." Danton looked exactly like his father just then. He even sounded like him, too.
The guards hesitated but released my arms. Without wasting another moment, I stalked past Danton and into my room. Danton followed me inside and closed the door behind him. And I lunged.
I screamed at him as I threw a punch, but he was too fast. He leaned away, easily evading it, so I punched again with my other fist. That punch landed square in his shoulder, but then he grabbed hold of me and whirled me around, pinning me to the wall.
He panted in my ear. "Daria, stop. Please—"
I rammed my head back against his nose. I felt a burst of his pain, and his grip relented enough for me to wriggle free. He was pinching his nose when I kneed him hard in the gut, but then he grabbed my knee and brought me down with him to the ground.
We scrambled over and around each other, trying to gain the advantage, trying to secure the other. I was faster than he was, but he was stronger. Much stronger. We rolled on the floor until I slammed against one of the tables, rattling the dishware.
There was a light knock on the door. "My lord…?" called one of the guards.
"I'm fine!" he yelled as I shoved myself back, driving Danton on the floor beneath me as I clawed at his face. "Stay where you are!" he said, managing to lift me off him while gripping my arms and throwing me down beneath him.
I kicked up, arching my back, and launched him forward, and this time he was the one who slammed into a wall. I scrambled to my feet and ran at him again, but he caught me, even though I was swinging and kicking and screaming in hysterics.
"Daria, stop!" he hissed. "I just want to talk to you. Please."
"I don't care! You're nothing but a liar!" I pushed and shoved against him, but his hold was too tight and I was too tired, and the news I'd just heard was starting to suffocate me. I felt completely betrayed. A part of me had actually believed Danton had taken my side, as a friend, and knowing he'd lied about everything was a knife to the gut. I sagged against his hold, suddenly unable to hold myself up any longer.
I shut my eyes, fighting back tears. "Please…just…leave me alone," I said.
His pain pulsed through me, but he very carefully helped me sit down on one of the chairs as he said, still panting, "I won't leave you alone. Not like this. I want to talk with you first."
"There's nothing else you can say. My entire family is dead, Danton." A rock stuck in my throat.
"I know. I…" Danton crouched before me, his own emotions pained and tumultuous, and I was glad to see his perfect hair was messed all over the place. "I had no idea it would come to this."
"No idea." I laughed in mockery as I leaned forward and pressed my hands to my temples. "What did you think would happen? You knew all along that sending troops to Valdon wouldn't matter! You knew the moment I set foot in your garden you wouldn't have enough men to make a difference against my uncle. Maybe you didn't know Eris would kill the king so soon or in such an underhanded way, but you knew the war was already over. Your father knew it, too, but you both went along with the engagement just to keep me out of the way—to use me as a bartering piece in case I proved useful."
Danton shook his head. "That's not—"
"Would you stop lying to me already?"
He exhaled slowly, as if he could put out the fire of my words with his breath. "Those may have been my father's intentions, but they were not mine." His eyes were so blue. Desperate. "If I'd sent you back, Lord Eris would've killed you."
"And I'm supposed to be grateful? That you saved my life while my brother and grandfather were murdered?"
"I wasn't concerned for them. I was thinking only of you—"
"No, you were thinking only of you! That’s all you ever think of. Your desires. Your position. You think because you didn't drive the knife that killed them that you're somehow innocent, but you're not. You knew, Danton. You knew and you pretended to be my friend, but you didn't do anything to stop it. And you know what's even more pathetic? You're actually in a po
sition to make a difference, and you allowed it to happen!"
His anger simmered. "And what could I have done with my position, Daria? I can't override my father's orders…not until I'm Lord of Orindor!"
"Oh, you're so infuriating!" I ground my teeth together. "It's that attitude that separates weak men like you from great men like Alex." Danton flinched at my mention of Alex, but I kept going. I didn't care what he thought anymore. No, that feeling had bled out of me the moment I'd felt Stefan die. "All you are is a bucket of excuses. Alex doesn't have a title, and he certainly didn't wait for one to drop from the sky in order to do any good in this world. He didn't need one to do what's right for the people, and he certainly didn't need one in order to earn their respect. He did that simply by being respectable.
"You told me you never wanted to hear me talk about Alex, and you didn't tell me why, but I think I know. It's because great men like Alex make you see everything you're not—everything you could be. Great men like Alex, who do whatever it takes to champion what's right—not because of what it gets them, but just because it's right—they make you realize how weak and self-centered you are. That is why you hate him. Because he is everything you wish you had the courage to be, and that is why you're a fool to think I could ever feel for you the way I feel for him."
At some point, Danton had released my arms and was just crouching there, staring at me, so angry he visibly shook. Once I finished talking, he stood over me and raised his hand. I didn't flinch. I stared straight up into his eyes, waiting for him to do it. Daring him to do it. His gaze slid down my face and settled on my jaw, right where his father had hit me. His eyes steeled and his hand trembled, and I waited for the blow to come. In fact, I wanted it to come, because I wanted pain on the outside to help distract me from the unbearable pain I felt on the inside.
Danton looked at his raised hand as if it belonged to someone else, and his fingers curled into a fist. His fist dropped to his side, and then he spun on his heels and crossed the room, but he paused at my door. His shoulders tensed, and he flexed his fist at his side. And then in one abrupt motion, he jerked the door open and left, slamming it shut behind him.
The wall sconce beside the door rattled. Then…quiet.
I suddenly couldn't get a full breath. I slumped out of my chair, my breath coming in shallow gasps. I gripped the necklace and gave it one hard pull, snapping the cord. Gemstones and diamonds clattered to the floor and I threw the rest of the necklace at the door. It landed on the floor halfway there, and I shut my eyes and lay on the floor, and the rock in my throat squeezed out with a sob. And I couldn't stop crying.
Stefan. My father. My grandfather. Each name fed my tears as if my sorrow were some famished beast. I curled into a ball and wrapped my arms around knees, holding them to my chest while my emotions attacked me from all sides. It hurt too much. All the pain, all the death. I couldn't bear any more of it.
I wasn't sure how long I lay there in fetal position, but at some point I must have drifted off, because when I opened my eyes again, the fat candle on the table had burned down to half its height. I unwrapped stiff fingers from my knees and slowly uncurled my aching body. There was a painful amount of pressure behind my eyes, and as I climbed to my feet, I staggered and held on to a chair to keep from swaying. I wiped my nose on my glove and stumbled into the bathroom, gripping the sides of the sink for support. My lids were swollen and dried, black rivers stained my splotchy red cheeks, and there was a smudge of blood at the corner of my mouth, compliments of Lord Pontefract. I splashed water on my face and wiped it clean with a fresh rag, and then I walked back out into my room and froze. One of my balcony doors was now open.
I did a quick scan of my room, but there was no one else inside. Wind howled and my draperies swelled like a full mast at sea. I shuddered from the cold, and I was hurrying over to close the door when I noticed a glimmer near my feet. It wasn't one of the gemstones. This looked like some kind of brooch. I peered outside. My balcony was empty except for a few potted trees, and there weren't any prints in the fine dusting of snow. But one strong gust of wind could've taken care of that. I quickly snatched the brooch from the snow, made one last glance about the balcony, and shut the door, pushing the wintry air back outside where it belonged. And then I uncurled my fingers.
It was a brooch in the shape of a dragon, body arched and wings curled as if the dragon were poised to attack. It felt cool in my palm, and I couldn't tell what material the brooch was made of. It resembled obsidian, but when the light touched it, deep green tinged the glossy sheen.
I looked back at my now closed balcony doors. Did someone bring the brooch here for me to find? If so, why did they leave it there? Why didn't they just come inside?
Find me.
Startled, I jumped back and dropped the brooch. The voice…it had come from inside of me, echoing in my skull. It was the voice I'd heard that night in Karth: the voice of the dragon.
My heart thundered in my chest and I gazed through the doors again, this time searching the skies, but even if there was a dragon up there, I wouldn't be able to see it. Not in this weather.
I will wait for you.
I almost dropped the brooch again. "Find you?" I asked aloud. "Find you where?"
Use the brooch.
I studied the brooch, turning it over in my hand. There was a clasp in back, but nothing to show me direction. I'd had better luck using Cicero's compass. "How am I supposed to use this?" I said, not sure if I was asking myself or the voice.
The doors rattled against another gust of wind, but I didn't hear the voice again.
Frustrated, I tossed the brooch on the floor and fell flat on my bed, burying my face into the soft fabric.
Staying here was out of the question. The reasons that had brought me here were null and void now, and considering my last conversation with Danton, I had no more allies in Orindor. I couldn't go back to Valdon, either. Everything that would've drawn me there was gone. I swallowed down another sob. I'd already spent too much time crying on the floor. I needed to gather my wits and come up with a plan of action, or I would die here.
Alex.
I had to find Alex. Somehow I knew my subconscious had already decided that the moment I'd found out about my family. Alex would know what to do, and even if he didn't, at least we'd be together and then maybe, between the two of us, we could come up with something. And maybe Vera and Thaddeus and Sonya were still with him, wherever he was. This made me think of Cicero. Cicero would've been at that council meeting, and he wouldn't have betrayed my family. My chest tightened. Yes, I needed to find Alex, but first I needed to figure a way out of here.
I rolled off my bed, ripped open the doors to my armoire, and started digging, shoving through dresses and laces and silks until I found what I was looking for: riding clothes. Thankfully, Anna hadn't taken them away to be washed yet. I peeled out of my gown, tossed it across the bed, and dressed, then pulled open the nightstand drawer and dug out the necklace Alex had given me. I fastened it around my neck. It was slightly warm, as if I'd been wearing it all this time. I strapped my sheath and dagger to my leg and pulled a heavy cloak from the armoire, using the brooch to fasten the cloak at my neck. A shock of energy pulsed through me from where the brooch touched my skin, but it faded as quickly as it had come.
I didn't have time to consider what it meant. It was time to find Alex.
15
ALEXANDER
Ehren stopped before a pair of tall mahogany doors. He pushed one of the doors in and I followed him into a large atrium smelling of spice and pipe tobacco. The room was covered in vines and white flowers, and water dripped through a hole in the high ceiling and into a shallow pool in the center of the room.
A young fraeling woman with long, blonde hair appeared in the arched doorframe opposite us. She was the famed Daughter of the Forest, Lord Dommelier's daughter and beloved princess of the Arborenne. I'd only seen her once, and that was at a distance. She wasn't the sort of person one for
got.
"Cousin Laena." Ehren strode toward her. They exchanged friendly kisses on both cheeks. "Is your father here?"
"He is." Her voice was deep. Laena's gaze moved past Ehren to devour me. "Who have you brought?" she asked.
I had the impression she already knew who I was.
"Aegis Alexander Del Conte," Ehren replied.
Her smile was enchanting, even for a fraeling.
"My lady." I bowed my head in respect.
"It is wonderful to finally meet you in person after all these years," she said, still smiling.
"May we speak with your father?" Ehren asked Laena.
"I believe so." Laena peeled her gaze from me to look back at her cousin. "Let me notify him that you're here. Is Aegis Del Conte alone?"
"No, there are two other Aegises with him, but they are at my father's. One of them was poisoned."
Laena seemed unconcerned by this fact. She looked me over a little too long, then left. Her heavy perfume lingered in the atrium as if her spirit remained to spy on us. She was back within minutes. "My father will see you now."
Ehren and I followed her through the narrow, arched corridor and up a spiral of wooden stairs carved from the tree's insides. The stair ended in a small antechamber and more mahogany doors, flanked by two Arborennian guards. Laena pushed the doors in, we followed, and the doors closed behind us.
It took me a moment to find Lord Dommelier, so distracted I was by his enormous hall. The tree had been hollowed out, and all along the natural curvature of the walls were arched doorways leading deeper into the tree. Each level was lined with railed pathways, interrupted occasionally by spiraled stairs connecting higher tiers—all of which were patrolled by more Arborennian guards. The floor dropped into a short, flat stair before rising to a dais situated at the back of the room. On top of that dais was a narrow, high-backed chair built of bronze. The chair was the focal point of the room, but it currently sat empty. And then I noted Lord Dommelier off to the side, standing at the foot of the dais and behind a small podium, dipping a large black quill into a vial of ink.
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