The Stolen Princess

by Kristen Gupton

  “Do either of us have any real idea how any of this actually works?” Keiran asked, his complexion paling. “I only took blood moments before my death. This would have been the same thing. Call it instinct, call it what you will, I know it’s Danier. Now, he’s made it back into the Sador Empire. While we can’t know how far he’s gotten since then, or if he’s even survived being in that country, he didn’t struggle to get back there for any good reason. If it’s a vampire, and it went intentionally into the most inhospitable place in the world for a vampire to go, it was with purpose.”

  Jerris let his hand fall from his neck, his gaze drifting to the side. “What do we do? We have to warn Emperor Betram. If it is Danier, and if he is a vampire because of our final interaction with him, you understand it will probably destroy the entire relationship you’ve managed to build with them.”

  Keiran gave a small nod. “I will be blamed for changing Danier. It may very well end our trade with the Sadoris, but there is nothing I can do about that now. Not warning them would merely prove how deplorable a man I’ve become. I never gave it any thought but…”

  “It still might not be Danier, though,” Jerris said. He glanced at Keiran again, trying to stop his train of thought from winding down a darker path. “Both of us like to jump to the worst possible conclusions. Perhaps it was nothing more than a madman on a killing spree. We don’t honestly have any proof one way or another.”

  Keiran appreciated what Jerris was trying to do, but the creeping anxiety twisting within him wouldn’t be allayed. He took a deep breath and forced an insincere smile. “You’re right, we have no proof. I should go check on Thana.”

  Jerris nodded and watched as Keiran walked away. His hand moved up to the side of his neck again, and he sighed. Keiran wasn’t going to let it go. It was going to fester within him until it boiled over.

  Beneath it all, however, the guard suspected the king was absolutely right.

  * * *

  Keiran stood before the door to his room, working to get his emotions in check. The last thing Thana needed was to see him agitated. Things were getting increasingly complicated, and it felt as though every step he took forward was shoved back later by two.

  He’d walked away from Jerris, knowing that continuing the conversation would have only made his worry over the situation worse. Jerris meant well in trying to get him to relax and believe he could be wrong, but it bordered on making him angry. Getting upset with the guard over something that was his fault alone wouldn’t help either of them.

  He closed his eyes and forced it all down before opening the door to try and find some distraction. If anyone in the castle didn’t need his stress, it was his wife.

  Thana sat smiling on the edge of the bed, her hand resting atop her rounded stomach. “Well, there you are. I was wondering if I was going to have to drag myself downstairs to find you.”

  He went and sat beside her. “I’m sorry, it was busy. I came up here earlier, but you were asleep. Mari returned, finally, and briefed me on her trip.”

  “I was beginning to think she was never coming home,” Thana said with a laugh. “Is she well? I’m sure Garhan is relieved. He’s been moping around for weeks.”

  “Aye, she’s fine. Garhan is quite glad to have her back.” Keiran shoved off the notion of talking about it further. “Now, how are you? I see you managed to get dressed.”

  She shook her head. “Miserable to dress when nothing you like to wear fits. These awful, baggy motherhood gowns aren’t particularly flattering. I will burn them all when this is finished.”

  “I think you look wonderful,” Keiran replied, putting his arm around her shoulders.

  “You’re being kind.”

  “No, I’m being honest. You’re the best thing I’ve seen all day. Now, how do you feel?” he asked again.

  “Tired. These last few days have been especially rough. I can’t get comfortable, no matter what I do. Laron and Corina check on me regularly and assure me I’m doing fine, but I’m miserable.” Her eyes flicked toward the door. “Speaking of, Corina hasn’t been in for a while. I don’t mind the reprieve, but where is she?”

  Keiran’s eyes went wide. He realized no one had told Thana what had happened. “Ah, actually, she and Kanan came to see Jerris and I a few hours ago to announce a bit of news.”

  “What?”

  “It would seem the two of them spontaneously decided to get married today.” Keiran met her gaze, watching her lips part slowly.

  “Corina and Kanan?” she asked.

  “The very same.”

  Thana got up from the bed and took a few steps forward before squealing in delight and shaking her backside in an off-balance dance. “I knew it! Ha! Corina told me the day you and I were wed that she fancied Kanan! Oh, I’m so happy for them! But you should have told me sooner!”

  Anything that would cause her to perk up was welcomed, and he smiled. “I should have, and I apologize. They seemed quite happy about it, though.”

  She turned around to look at him again. “It’s beautiful, it’s just beautiful. They’ve worked so hard all of their lives, they deserve happiness.”

  “Aye, they do.” He got up and went toward her, placing his hands against her cheeks and looking down into her eyes. Despite everything weighing on his mind, looking at her like that pushed it all away.

  She gazed back up at him, sighing deeply. Though they’d been together for most of the year, she still felt a pleasant, nervous tension when he looked at her like that.

  Keiran smiled again before closing his eyes and leaning in for a kiss, letting his worries drift off for the time being.

  Thana closed her eyes as well, giving a quiet purr. Her hand came up and twisted into the fabric of his shirt.

  He started to feel a rush within him, and he debated pulling away to go lock the door. Spending some time alone with Thana would keep his demons at bay for a while.

  The door was thrown open before he ever had the chance, however.

  “Knock that off and get your cloak,” Kanan demanded.

  The vampire growled in his frustration, turning away from Thana. “I realize you are my elder, Kanan, but I am the king. Would it kill you to do me the courtesy of knocking before barging in?”

  “We don’t have time for pleasantries.” Kanan entered the room a few paces. “It will be dark soon, and I need you to come with me immediately.”

  Thana rose up on her toes behind Keiran, whispering in his ear. “You better go, he doesn’t seem to be playing around. I’ll be here when you get back.”

  With the news of possible Alerian assassins rearing back up in his mind, Keiran’s anxiety returned. “All right, I’ll come down. Thana, I’ll be back as soon as I can manage.”

  “Good, come on, then,” Kanan said, turning to head out of the room.

  Keiran spun around and stole a quick kiss from Thana before jogging to the door. He grabbed his riding cloak from a hook on the wall and departed.

  He caught up with Kanan about halfway down the stairs. “What is it?”

  Kanan’s pace didn’t slow. As they passed a few other guards in the corridor, he withheld his answer until they’d passed out of earshot. “Honestly, Keiran, I need you to keep a level head and agree to go with me right now. I dare not even say anything here. Just come with me.”

  The vampire groaned as he threw his cloak around his shoulders. He knew it would do no good to press Kanan if the old man’s mind was made up.

  A stable boy stood in the center of the courtyard with Porter and one of Kanan’s horses saddled up. They mounted and headed for the gate, Kanan taking the lead and signaling his horse into a gallop. Keiran followed suit, Porter easily able to match the other horse’s pace.

  Having been to the Steiner house several times when he and Jerris used to slip out of the castle, Keiran soon realized where they were headed. He tried to question Kanan again along the way, but the guard wouldn’t respond.

  Kanan only slowed when they were on the dir
t road leading down to the small house, allowing the horses to walk the rest of the way.

  Keiran desperately wished his senses were up to par, so he could have seen into Kanan’s thoughts to some degree. All he could pick up on, however, were the base emotions of excitement and fear.

  Looking ahead, he saw there were lamps glowing within the house, and someone moved before one of the windows.

  “Is Corina here?” Keiran asked, once they were close enough to slip from the saddle.

  “Aye. Go on inside. I’ll take care of the horses,” Kanan ordered, physically pulling the reins out of Keiran’s hand.

  The vampire frowned but gave in, knowing it was the only way to have his curiosity sated. He went to the door and reached for the latch, but it was yanked open before he ever touched it.

  “Thank God you’re here,” Corina said, ushering him inside before closing the door.

  “All right, what in the hell is going on?” Keiran turned toward the old woman. He tried to reach out into her thoughts, but there was nothing. He felt entirely blinded, and it agitated him further. “Kanan dragged me here and wouldn’t say a word to me the entire way.”

  “Keir, when Kanan and I came into town earlier, we ran into someone,” Corina said. “We need you to keep a level head about this.”

  He nodded, cocking his head to the side. “Who? This is killing me.”

  “They found me.”

  Keiran’s blood ran cold, his hands instantly feeling numb. There was someone else in the room with them who he absolutely couldn’t sense. His spine stiffened, and he slowly turned around, his fangs aching to appear.

  Kayla braced her nerves and moved away from the corner she’d lingered in, stepping into the dim lamplight. This was the first vampire she’d been near since fleeing Athan all those years ago, and her own fear was hard to conceal. She studied him, seeing he strongly resembled his mother.

  “I’m Kayla Sipesh, your sister,” she whispered, forcing herself to take another step closer.

  Keiran stared at her, his heart racing in his chest. Though he saw her, there was still absolutely nothing he could sense from her otherwise. She may as well have been one of Garhan’s paintings, and it terrified him.

  “Kayla?” he asked, studying her in return.

  She was tall, her body lean from the simple diet of fish and sea plants the Nahli subsisted on. Her dress was made out of soft leather, contrasting slightly against her graying blonde locks. The lamplight reflected in her slate-gray eyes, the same color their father’s had been.

  Corina moved over to Kayla’s side, wanting to break the tension in the room. “Keiran, we found her earlier today. Kanan and I have verified her identity. It really is her.”

  Keiran knit his brow. “I can’t feel you. I see you, I can hear you, but I can’t feel you…”

  Kayla met his gaze, one corner of her mouth rising. “Intentional, I’m afraid. Your abilities are useless around me. You must understand, I had to take steps to protect myself once I ventured out of the Northern Wastes.”

  Keiran nodded slowly and motioned toward the table for them to sit. His mind reeled as he walked backward and pulled out a chair, unable or unwilling to take his eyes off of her. Kayla landed directly across from her brother, Corina to Keiran’s right.

  He was fascinated by her. Repeatedly, he tried to pick up anything from the woman, but there was nothing to be had.

  Though the Northern Star she wore kept his abilities at bay, she could still feel him trying to reach out. “I know it frustrates you, but even if I didn’t have something to keep your powers muted, you still wouldn’t be able to find anything in my mind I didn’t explicitly want you to see. You must understand my precautions, after what I went through while in Athan’s hands. Please, relax.”

  “I can understand, and though I have Corina and Kanan’s verification over who you are, I’ve become accustomed to feeling things out on my own,” Keiran said. “You must, in turn, understand my need for caution.”

  She offered him a nod, and moved to expose her royal brand. Keiran realized what she was doing, and he did the same, pushing up his sleeve to show her his mark, with the added touch of their father’s seal burned into the center of it.

  They each leaned in and had a look. While it allayed the last of Kayla’s concerns about his identity, Keiran couldn’t say the same. Brands were difficult to forge, but it wasn’t historically unheard of.

  He put his sleeve back down and shrugged. “I suppose that looks legitimate enough, though there was the issue of Valis Marion Lee Sipesh being challenged for the throne by an imposter with the falsified brand.”

  Kayla let out a sharp breath. While she hated to lower her defenses, it was something she realized Keiran needed if his trust was to be gained. After the assorted trials their family had been through, he had every right to be suspicious of things. “All right. Just a moment.”

  Keiran watched as she got up from the table and went over to the bed where her cloak was lain out. She pulled a small silver box from an interior pocket of the garment before returning to the table. Her hands moved to her neck, grabbing the chain her pendant hung from and pulled it over her head.

  Keiran’s eyes followed the strangely glowing stone as it was lowered into the metal box and sealed away. The moment the lid snapped shut, what remained of his blood-starved abilities flooded back into him.

  He gasped, suddenly able to feel the presences of the others in the room, yet, Kayla’s mind was still off limits.

  She gave a faint smile before closing her eyes. “All right, look quickly, because I won’t tolerate it for long.”

  Weakened from thirst or not, the moment Kayla said that, Keiran felt her mind give way to him. He sank into her memories with ease, visions of Turis Lee and Athan coming forward. She’d suffered horrors at the hands of both men, but below all of it was a face that had become familiar to him only in recent times.

  “Ilana…” he whispered, his vision filled with the image of his long-dead mother. Garhan’s paintings had been absolutely perfect in their accuracy.

  Kayla opened her eyes and gently pushed Keiran back out of her thoughts. “Does that convince you?”

  He gave a dumb nod, amazed at the ease which she evicted him from her thoughts. So much had passed before his eyes in those few seconds, he didn’t know what to say.

  She quickly took the pendant out of the box and hung it back around her neck. All at once, Keiran felt his extra senses blotted out.

  “How do you have so much control over your thoughts?” he asked, running his hands down his face.

  Kayla hid the pendant back beneath her dress. “Ilana taught me the basics of controlling my thoughts. In her never-ending mission to find Athan’s weaknesses, she used me to help practice manipulating her thoughts to hide things from him. I simply excelled at what she taught me. If I hadn’t, I never would have survived all those years in Athan’s grasp, nor would I have ever found a means of escape.”

  “And the necklace? What is that?” he asked.

  “Something to keep certain magic away from me. It stops not only the abilities you and Athan possess, but it keeps his seer from finding me while I’m out of the Northern Wastes.” Kayla smiled to herself. “Coming out into the open without it would have been suicidal.”

  Keiran’s head cocked to the side. Something she’d said hit him hard. “Athan’s seer? You mean to tell me it isn’t a gift he has himself?”

  Kayla laughed. “He doesn’t have remote sight, he never did. I’m certain he doesn’t advertise how he knows what he does, but it is not something he can do on his own. While he can read the minds and intentions of those around him in close proximity, he cannot do so at any distance. The demented harpy he keeps as a pet sees for him, though it’s only images, she can’t read minds.”

  “I never imagined someone would have to feed him information,” Keiran said. A large part of his paranoia about Athan was eased to learn such a thing. “Interesting… And a harpy, you say?
Is that figurative or literal?”

  “Quite literal, I’m afraid. Such an unnatural looking thing. Not quite a bird, not quite… anything else.” Kayla shuddered. “Mentally damaged, too. I don’t think Sabetha has the capacity to honestly understand the man she’s helping is evil. I suppose I pity her, in a way. It’s not her fault.”

  Keiran rocked back in the chair, lifting the two front legs from the floor. It was a lot to take in, and Kayla obviously had a good deal of intelligence about the elder vampire and his ways.

  Kanan entered the room and came toward the rest of them at the table. “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you on the way here, Keir, but surely you can understand the gravity of this.”

  “Aye, and we need to do everything we can to protect her. If Athan knew she was here, it would be horrific,” Keiran said.

  “That’s why I brought her to the house,” Kanan replied. “Corina, I think we should let the two of them talk alone for a while.”

  The old woman stood up and nodded. “We won’t go far if you need us.”

  Keiran thanked them and watched as they left before turning to his sister again. “You knew my mother, then.”

  “Quite well,” Kayla said, looking away.

  He noticed the shift in her posture, and though he couldn’t feel it, he saw something come over her. “What is it?”

  “I was very close to your mother. Our father, as you saw, did horrible things to me after the death of my own mother. Ilana brought that all to an end, taking all of his abuse onto herself.” Kayla shook her head. “She and I had particular traumas in common, she was the only one I ever opened up to about those things. I had been on the verge of taking my own life before her arrival in Tordania. I owe her my existence in many ways.”

  He gave a small nod. While he’d suffered at his father’s hands, it hadn’t been on the same level as Kayla, as revealed by the memories she’d let him see. “Ilana must have been a fascinating woman.”

  “She wasn’t like anyone else I’ve ever met.” Kayla smiled. “She had a goal, and she pursued it to the end. All over the love she…”