The Stolen Princess

by Kristen Gupton

  “You’re going to fall off of your horse,” Jerris said.

  Yawning, Keiran opened his eyes and glanced over. “All I can think about is going home and getting to sleep tonight.”

  “Sleep tonight?” Kanan asked. “You’re in for a surprise with a new child. There will be no sleep for you for a year!”

  The vampire groaned.

  “Perk up, we’re here,” Jerris said, already sliding from the saddle.

  Keiran dismounted as well, looking over the front of the small building. It was one of the several eateries in Tordan Lea, one Jerris and he frequented in the days before his coronation.

  The street was busy, people working to finish up their business in town before heading back to their farms and homes for the evening. The building itself wasn’t anything remarkable, blending in with the nearly identical store fronts lining the road. The only thing setting it apart was the smell drifting out. A forest boar was roasting over the fire, drawing patrons in.

  They stepped through the door and scanned around. The interior was dark, the only windows comprised of red and blue glass. Heavy wooden tables and benches filled the space, the fire pit in the center of the room providing heat for the customers and the cooking.

  Keiran quickly assessed the patrons inside, several of them familiar from his previous visits. No one appeared to be an immediate threat, but he looked to his two guards to get their approval as well.

  Kayla sat at a table near the back wall, lifting one of her hands when she saw them enter. They went over, Keiran sitting beside her, and the guards taking up the other side of the table.

  “How did you do overnight?” Keiran asked, looking at his sister.

  “Well enough.” She examined him, taking note of his sleepy eyes. “Better than it looks like you fared.”

  “My wife gave birth to a son last night.”

  Kayla’s eyes widened. “Did she? Your first?”

  “Aye.”

  “Congratulations.” Kayla turned her sights across the table toward Jerris. “And who are you?”

  Kanan reached over and slapped Jerris hard in the middle of his back before he had a chance to respond. “This is my son Jerris.”

  “Ah! You got your red hair from your mother!” Kayla grinned and laughed. “Handsome like your father, though.”

  Jerris felt a blush creep up and he shrugged. This woman was beautiful, but he was happily married and she was Keiran’s sister. “You’re too kind, Your Highness.”

  Kayla shook her head and waved with her hands. “Oh, God, no need for that! Simply calling me Kayla is sufficient. I’ve no need for titles, and the mantle of royalty was pulled away from me a long time ago.”

  “Kayla it is, then,” Jerris replied.

  “Are you hungry? I arrived early and already ate,” she said.

  “Corina is determined to have a dinner tonight in celebration of our wedding and the birth of Keiran’s son.” Kanan shook his head and sighed. “It does smell good, though.”

  Her eyes widened. “Wait, what? Corina and you were wed?”

  Kanan laughed and shook his head. “That’s why we were down at the cathedral yesterday.”

  She leaned back. “Wed? But what about Viv?”

  There was a momentary awkward silence over the group, before Kanan broke it. His voice was uncharacteristically gentle. “Kayla, Viv passed on about twenty years ago.”

  While it was inevitable some of those she knew from her youth would have passed, it was still a shock. She immediately felt self-conscious for her previous remark about Jerris having his mother’s hair. “I… I didn’t realize…”

  The old man reached across the table and took hold of one of her hands. “It’s all right, Kayla. You had no way to know.”

  The burn of embarrassment still pressed in on her, and she averted her gaze to the side. “She was a good woman. To hear you and Corina are together now, though, that is very happy news.”

  Kanan let go of her hand, a smile appearing. “She and I were very pleased with the decision to marry. It had been a long time coming.”

  She relaxed again. “The two of you are a good match.”

  “Aye, so I thought.” Kanan looked back over his shoulder, his stomach panging for the food being prepared nearby. “I wouldn’t mind eating whatever they’re making over there.”

  Kayla leaned forward on the table. “It was great. There aren’t many things I miss about Tordania, but the food is good.”

  Though tempted, Kanan knew he’d be in trouble if he ate before they went home.

  Kayla turned her attention to Keiran. “Now, have you thought more on what we discussed yesterday?”

  “To be very honest with you, I wasn’t given much time to think about it,” Keiran admitted.

  “I suppose with your wife having a child last night, it’s understandable,” she said. “As I said at our last meeting, I don’t have to leave immediately. I didn’t have any illusions of us finding the solution quickly.”

  Keiran had given Jerris the run down about his previous meeting with Kayla, and the guard had been trying to come up with ideas. Like Keiran, however, he wasn’t putting anything together yet.

  The redhead leaned forward, meeting Kayla’s gaze. “If the Nahli are living in the Northern Wastes, I have to assume they are well suited to the cold.”

  She looked at him and nodded. “They actually have to be very careful of traveling southward. The warmth in the other countries during the spring and summer can be fatal to them.”

  “Huh,” Jerris rested his elbows on the table. “I can only imagine the winters in Talaus and the other northern countries is far more brutal than what we suffer here.”

  “That would be correct,” Kayla said. “I know we have our blizzards and snow in Tordania, but you’ve never seen what it can do up there. You know it’s cold when you’ve seen snow goats frozen solid, still standing up.”

  Jerris nodded before pressing on. “Keiran told me he has some vampires in his regime, but the vast majority of his military men are normal, yes?”

  “Aye, he’d never infect his entire military. It would create too many potential challengers for him. Infecting only some of his generals produced a number he can control, however.” She placed her hands on the table. “You think we should act during the winter when the time comes?”

  “If the Nahli are impervious to it, and it gives us any advantage against Athan’s men…” Jerris shrugged and glanced at Keiran. “I know it would be hard on us, too, but the Nahli would be protected by the nature of the weather around their homeland.”

  “Perhaps,” Keiran said. “We have to realize, however, Talaus is a northern country, and they are more accustomed to harsher weather than we are. It wouldn’t be as big a discrepancy as what we saw between us and the Sadoris last winter, but they would still have an advantage. Besides, we’d be a long way from home. There would be no supply chain to speak of.”

  “It would stop him from going into the Northern Wastes, though,” Kayla said. “Jerris isn’t wrong on that front.”

  “If the sea is frozen at that time of year, though, how do we get there? We’ve already decided we need ships, but if the ships cannot pass…” Keiran frowned and shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  Kanan laughed. “You young ones… war is never easy to plan! We’ll never figure out all the details, all we can do is try to tip the odds in our favor. I can tell you, however, it will be years before we can make this move. I have a bit more experience in these matters, and while I agree with the idea, I’m not sure you understand the scope of this operation.”

  “This war is coming, though,” Kayla said. “Whether it be years or tomorrow, it has to happen. Nothing else will put a stop to Athan’s tyranny. He’s gearing up to spread his empire.”

  Kanan’s expression fell. He knew the horrors they would face when the time came. “Aye, it is, and it has been due for centuries. Yours has to be the generation to take down Athan, or the world will face another eigh
t centuries of him.”

  * * *

  The servant’s communal dining hall was filled with all of the castle staff. Corina had spent the day working to prepare a banquet in celebration of her marriage to Kanan. The delay in doing so because of Kayla’s arrival had been for the best, giving her more time to prepare.

  Keiran had given her a little extra gold for it, and she’d put it to good use. The same huntsman who’d provided the boar to the tavern the men had visited earlier had come by the castle. Corina had bought his remaining three pigs.

  Kanan could smell them cooking before they arrived at the castle. After having his stomach panging in town during their visit with Kayla, he was eager to finally get his fill.

  Now, everyone sat in the dining hall. Keiran, Thana, Garhan, Mari, Magretha and Jerris sat with the newlyweds at the end of the room. With the alcohol flowing freely, the stresses over the inevitable war were pushed aside for a few hours.

  Kanan sat with his arm around Corina’s shoulders after they’d finished eating, simply basking in the pride of having a woman at his side. He’d been no stranger to wine throughout the meal, and his usual loud voice filled the hall as they reminisced about the past.

  Thana, though recovering from her ordeal the night before, was in better spirits than she’d been in for a while. While her body ached, the relief of the childbirth being behind her boosted her mood. The baby slept throughout the evening in a basket placed beside her seat.

  Keiran wished they’d been able to bring Kayla to the castle for the event, but it would have been more risk than they were willing to face. With the rest of his family there, real and extended, he was content enough. His exhaustion from the previous sleepless night kept him more reserved than he would have been, but it was still an enjoyable evening.

  As the party began to wind down, Keiran and Thana excused themselves from the group and headed to their room. Once alone, Thana put him in charge of watching the baby while she went to wash up before bed. The baby was still sound asleep in his basket. Keiran sat on the end of the bed leaning forward, watching his son’s small, dream-induced motions.

  He let his mind wander, wondering if the child really was going to grow up to be like him. So far, he seemed normal enough, but he didn’t recall much out of the ordinary during his own childhood until his teen years.

  “I hope I haven’t cursed you to an insufferable existence,” he said to the sleeping child.

  The baby’s only response was a slight grunt and a small shift in his position.

  There was a crash in the bathroom and Keiran jumped to his feet. Before he got to the bathroom door, however, it was thrown open, Thana stepping into the room dripping wet.

  “What was that?” he asked, moving around the baby’s basket and going to her.

  Thana’s eyes were wide, and she shook her head. Goosebumps were evident across her body. “Keir, this is going to sound absolutely insane…”

  He quirked a brow, looking around her into the candlelit interior of the bathroom. “What?”

  “I swear I felt a hand run down my back while I was in the pool bathing.” She shook her head and checked back over her shoulder. “I don’t know if my mind is playing tricks on me out of exhaustion, or if there’s a rat in the water, or something else.”

  Since the occasional rat had turned up in the bathing pool, he couldn’t help but smile. He examined her for scratches quickly. “You look fine. Go over to the fire and dry off before you get too cold, and I’ll go have a look.”

  She laughed at herself, not knowing why she’d spooked so easily. Her thoughts had been racing a little strangely throughout the day, but Corina had warned her of such things during her pregnancy. “If it is a rat, I don’t want to see it. Just deal with it, would you?”

  He patted her shoulder and went into the bathroom. He picked up one of the lit candles from the counter and held it up over the water of the bathing pool, looking for any disturbance. The water was still, however, with no sign of a rat or anything else paddling around.

  Keiran got down onto his knees to have a closer look. If it had been a rat, there was a chance it had drown and was below the water’s surface. The candlelight reflected off the cream-colored surface of the stone bottom of the pool, nothing obvious to be seen.

  A cold draft hit him, and he turned his head. The small window within the bathroom was opened slightly. Why Thana would have opened it given the cold outside, he didn’t know. He stood up and closed it, before going back into the bedroom.

  “Were you too hot in there?” he asked, going to stand beside her near the fire and handing her a towel.

  Thana stood before the fire, the heat chasing the chill from her wet skin. She took the towel from his hand and cocked her head to the side. “What do you mean?”

  “The window in the bathroom was open,” he said, watching as she dried off.

  “I didn’t open it,” she replied, “nor did I notice it open before. The wind probably pushed it in.”

  He looked back toward the doorway, shrugging. “I closed it, anyway. Would have been very cold in here come morning, otherwise.”

  “You didn’t find anything?” she asked, wrapping the towel around her shoulders.

  Keiran shook his head. “If there was a rat, he managed to get out. There’s nothing in the pool at all.”

  Thana sighed. “Then I don’t know what it was. Corina told me I might suffer from crazy brain for a few weeks after having the baby. Maybe this was just that.”

  “Perhaps.” Keiran didn’t know what else to say about it. Nothing was triggering his instincts to make him worry. “I think it’s time we turn in. We can have the trapper bring in some of his cats again for a few days. I know there are some rats getting into the castle now that the weather is turning.”

  Thana smiled and dropped the towel to the floor. “I think we should have cats around all the time, anyway. They are good luck, despite what Sorna always claimed about them.”

  “I might be persuaded into letting you keep one around,” he said, going over and turning down the bed for her.

  Thana went over to pull on a nightgown before heading to crawl beneath the blankets. “Good, then I shall get a cat.”

  Keiran wasn’t completely sold on the idea, he’d mostly said it to be nice. The Tordanian cat wasn’t a small animal. They were the size of a medium dog, with large, tufted ears and short tails. While they were mainly kept as mousers, there were those who had them simply as pets. If Thana truly wanted one, though, come spring, a kitten would undoubtedly show up one way or another.

  Maybe she would forget about it all by morning. They were both exhausted, after all.

  Chapter 4

  Thana sat on the edge of the bed with the baby to her breast. Keiran was flopped out behind her, sound asleep. She had no idea what time it was, sitting in a daze as the baby fed.

  Her tired eyes panned toward the doors leading out onto the balcony. The moon was full and bright, casting shadows. In her peripheral vision, she thought she’d seen one of those shadows move behind the curtains over the glass doors.

  Given the earlier incident while bathing, she wondered if it was another instance of so-called crazy brain. No one could have gotten out there without going through their room first. She tried to shirk it off and keep her eyes away from the curtains, but it continued to nag in the back of her mind.

  Feeling the baby quit nursing and fall asleep, she carefully placed him down next to Keiran before standing up. She pulled her nightgown back into place and moved toward the doors. The only way to quiet her anxiety would be to have a look to assure herself there really wasn’t someone outside.

  She didn’t push aside the curtain right away, instead listening. All she could hear, however, was the faint din of the river running far below in the canyon. Thana sighed and pulled the curtain aside, the back of her neck prickling.

  Though she didn’t see anyone there, something felt wrong. She pressed her hands to the cold glass and peered out, but
there was nothing on the balcony to see. While her earlier fright had been fleeting, this time it lingered. It felt as though she was being stared at, even if there was no one outside.

  She let the curtain fall from her hand, backing away from the doors, but she bumped into something solid.

  She spun around with a yelp. Adrenaline rushed into her blood, washing away her lingering exhaustion.

  Keiran slowly blinked, reaching down to settle his hands on her shoulders. “What is it? Something has you spooked again.”

  Thana leaned to look around him, seeing their son still sleeping on the bed. “I don’t know. I fed Zach, then felt compelled to look out… like someone was out there. I’m starting to feel like I’m going mad.”

  His eyes narrowed and he moved away from her, going over and opening the doors. The cold air rushed in around him, and he took a deep breath. The scents of the pine trees, river, and frigid night air filled his senses, but there was something else that caused him to step outside. He scanned around, momentarily tuning out the cold against his naked body.

  “What is it?” Thana asked, seeing his posture stiffen.

  It was faint, but there was a vague copper smell in the air. It was similar to what he typically picked up from Athan, and to a lesser extent, Garhan. In a matter of seconds, however, it was gone. Keiran looked back over his shoulder at his wife. “I’m not sure.”

  She stared at him, the moonlight glowing blue off his exposed body. “Well, you ought to come back in before it gets too cold in here for Zach.”

  He turned to stare out into the darkness for a moment, reassuring himself there was nothing outside for him to worry about. “Aye.”

  Within a few minutes, they were again settled into bed. Thana was on her side, curled around the baby with Keiran to her back. While she and Zach were both soon sleeping, Keiran remained awake for the rest of the night. Though he hadn’t seen anything, his instincts were on high alert. Thana wasn’t crazy at all, something was wrong.

  * * *

  Jerris and Magretha arrived in the castle in the early morning. The guard checked in with his father before heading off to find Keiran. He caught up with the vampire in the throne room.