The moon had sunk low in the sky when Auburn’s eyes closed, and her body softened against him.
Eli wondered if he was sleeping beside an enemy. Or an assassin. No, he’d developed a good judge of character over his years in court, and while Auburn was not altruistic, she wanted to go to Tamryn with him. He was certain she would do almost anything to that end.
Perhaps she’d learned something and hadn’t told him until now.
That was also unlikely.
A bad dream then, but she wasn’t prone to fits. The clarity of Auburn’s nightmare reminded Eli of the strange Elven mystic from his youth. He’d never given the elf’s words any credence, but like the elf, Auburn believed what she’d dreamed would come to pass. And it frightened her.
The prince didn’t have an answer, but he held Auburn close as he watched her sleep.
Chapter 16
As Eli sat in the meeting room surrounded by many of the same faces, the temperature climbed as it always did late in the morning. But as Auburn predicted, it seemed hotter than usual, and even the Qumarefis were showing their discomfort.
The sultan pushed away from the table. “Enough. We’ll have refreshments in the gardens and come back when all the hot air we’ve spilled has cleared.”
Several men laughed, but all seemed relieved to escape from the sweltering meeting room.
As was his custom, Eli followed behind the sultan, allowing the rest to catch up to them.
Several harem girls were waiting by the entrance to the gardens, and with a broad smile, the sultan spread his arms wide for them. As Pandhuka disappeared into the lush green with the ladies, Eli paused as he remembered Auburn’s plea.
Why had those girls been waiting for the sultan? How had they known the meeting would adjourn early, or that the sultan would want to go to the gardens?
Eli wasn’t sure, but he was starting to think Auburn knew more than she’d admitted.
Was she involved with someone dangerous? Had someone threatened her?
Anger mixed with fear, and the fear made him angrier.
He’d trusted her. If she’d betrayed that trust...
“Sligo,” Eli said, and his guard detached from the shadows. “We need to talk to Auburn. Now.”
Sligo’s eyebrows went up, but he nodded and fell in beside Eli.
As the prince stepped away from the gardens, an arrow embedded in the doorjamb where his head had been.
He heard shouts as Sligo threw him to the ground, and a second arrow shot out of the meeting room. The arrow missed Eli and hit one of the Qumarefi delegates.
“Your Highness?” Sligo said.
“Unhurt.” Eli picked himself up from the floor. People were panicking around them, but Eli and Sligo ignored them.
“Return to your rooms?” Sligo asked. “I have guards there, but whoever planned this could’ve killed them already.”
The thought curled Eli’s hands around his sword and dagger as his throat constricted. “Auburn is there.”
Sligo nodded and guided Eli past the confusion and through the dark corridors leading back to his suite. The prince saw no sign of another assassin, but he noticed that there were no guards patrolling the halls, either.
As they sprinted down the passageway to where the Tamarian delegation was staying, Eli caught sight of three men slinking towards his rooms, their weapons in their hands.
Ajeem and two others.
Eli knew he should’ve killed the bastard. Glancing over at his bodyguard, Eli saw Sligo with his sword and dagger already drawn.
Taking out his own dagger, Eli took aim, and with the accuracy of a dozen years of practice, buried it in the back of the man on Ajeem’s left.
The man howled as he tried to reach the dagger, and the three attackers turned to face him.
Sligo was already halfway to them as he sprinted ahead of Eli, his footsteps silent on the stone floors. Burying one of his daggers into the attacker on Ajeem’s right, Sligo pivoted, but Ajeem was already charging toward the prince.
Ajeem’s feet pounded the hard stone as he barreled toward Eli.
The prince drew his sword and pulled a dagger from his boot as Sligo yanked the dagger from the other attacker’s back then slit his throat.
“Now you die.” Hatred twisted Ajeem’s face, and the Qumarefi’s scimitar glittered in the dim light of the hall.
Eli waited.
As Ajeem bore down on him, Eli pivoted away, allowing Ajeem’s momentum to carry the Qumarefi forward as the prince buried a dagger in the man’s side.
Eli heard a scuffle behind him, but he didn’t take his eyes from Ajeem as the man spun around. Blood soaked the Qumarefi’s side, and he howled as he launched himself at the prince.
Sucking in a breath, Eli waited until the man was almost on top of him before dodging to the side and sweeping Ajeem’s feet out from underneath him. As the man crashed to the floor, Eli drove his sword through Ajeem’s chest.
The Qumarefi stared at him for a moment, eyes wide, as he grabbed at the blade then stilled.
“Your Highness,” Sligo said as he approached.
Eli whirled around, but he didn’t reach for the dagger in his other boot.
Kneeling, Sligo slit Ajeem’s throat, then wiped his blade clean. He removed Eli’s dagger from the dead man’s side, cleaned it on Ajeem’s vest, and handed it back to Eli.
“Auburn. They were after Auburn.” Eli raced towards their rooms.
Sligo caught up to the prince and opened the door, sword and dagger ready.
Chapter 17
Auburn paused in her pacing.
“Is he all right?” She wrung her hands as she walked toward Sligo. “I thought I heard fighting.”
“I’m fine.” Eli pushed past his bodyguard. He noticed she’d pulled the drapes across the windows. Potentially because of the sun, or possibly because she knew about the assassins.
Sligo closed the door behind them and took up a position beside it.
Eli sheathed his weapons and took several long slow breaths to steady himself as he fought back his anger at being betrayed. “How did you know?”
“I didn’t. Not for certain.”
His voice chilled as he stalked toward her. “And your meeting with Ajeem? What were you going to tell him?”
“Meeting?” Auburn trembled but met his gaze. “What are you talking about?”
“Everything happened as you said it would. Including the arrows coming from the meeting room. Then I find Ajeem in the hallway outside my rooms. What should I think?”
“I would never betray you.” Auburn swallowed and clasped her hands to her chest. Tears reflected in her eyes. She tried to blink them away, but they spilled over her cheeks.
“Then how did you know?” Eli turned away from her, unable to bear seeing her pain and equally unable to endure her duplicity.
“I didn’t know it would be arrows, or I’d have told you. I only saw snakes.”
“You only saw snakes?” Eli turned back towards her. “What in the seven hells do you mean by that?”
She closed her eyes as her tears dampened her silk top.
“By the Gods, Auburn, tell me why you betrayed me. I can’t bring a traitor or assassin with me to Tamryn.”
Her head shot up, and her eyes fixed on him as she fell to her knees, anger and fear flickering across her face. “Please master, I didn’t betray you. I warned you. You’d be dead in the gardens if I hadn’t told you to stay away from them.”
Eli grabbed her by the shoulders and hauled her to her feet. “How do you know I didn’t go into the gardens? Who are you working for?”
“If you’d gone with the sultan, the snakes would’ve been there.” She went limp in his arms as she hung her head. “The dreams are never wrong.”
“Dreams? The one that woke you last night?”
She nodded.
“I don’t understand.”
“In the dream, I saw waves of heat in the room. I saw you go to the gardens, but there were sn
akes waiting for you. I also saw snakes in the meeting room, and I knew what it meant. Snakes always mean the same thing.”
“You expect me to believe you saw the assassination attempt in a dream?”
“If it were a lie, I’d have come up with a better one.”
Eli started to argue and stopped himself. She was right. Lies were often easier to believe than the truth. “You said snakes always mean the same thing. This isn’t the first time you’ve had a dream warn you?”
“First time I wasn’t more than five. I dreamt a snake lurked among my favorite red flowers. Scared me so much I stayed away from the flowers. Another girl didn’t, and a snake bit her. She died that afternoon.”
“You’d said you’d always felt threatened. This snake was part of that?”
Auburn nodded. “Poisoned food, drugged wine, venomous spiders. My dreams have kept me alive many times.”
“These dreams happen often?”
“They come when they will. Sometimes more than others.”
“Only when you’re sleeping?” Eli asked, skepticism hardening his words.
“Usually, but not always.”
“You ever tell anyone about these visions?”
She shook her head.
“Why not? Could’ve saved that girl. Could’ve made a better life for yourself. Lots of people like to believe that nonsense.”
“Servants must be controlled, and those of us assigned to the harem are under the First Wife’s command.” Auburn stared down at her slipped feet. “I can’t control the visions, so even if the First Wife ordered me to, I couldn’t have one. Much less one about a certain person or thing.”
“Any more visions?”
“None about you.”
“But you’ve had others?” Eli said.
“Many. They showed me I had to dance for you.”
“Are they the reason you want to go to Tamryn?”
She nodded.
“What have you seen in Tamryn?”
Auburn swallowed as she kept her eyes on her feet.
Eli’s jaw set in a hard line. “Tell me.”
“My son.” Her voice quavered, and she blinked back a fresh batch of tears.
“You don’t have a son.”
“Not yet, but I will in Tamryn.”
Eli’s eyes narrowed.
“He’s just a boy in the visions.” Tears escaped and dampened her cheeks. “But he’s strong and brave. He wears a tabard with a gold dragon on it. The same dragon as on the dagger you gave to the sultan.”
“What color is the tabard?”
“Red.”
“A Knight of Valor initiate wears a tabard like that.”
Auburn lifted her shoulders. “Perhaps I misunderstood the vision. A child born to a slave could never be a Knight of Valor.”
“The Knights have no such prerequisite.”
A wistful smile touched her lips and disappeared. “Maybe he wears it as his father did.”
“You’ve had a vision of that, too?” The punch of jealousy made his words harder than he’d intended.
“That was a daydream. Not the same thing.”
Jealousy hit him again, and he turned away from her. “What else have you had visions of?”
“You believe me?” Hope tinged her words.
“You believe what you’re telling me. I don’t know what to think about these visions.”
“They may be manifestations of her actions,” Sligo said. “Perhaps she planted that snake among the flowers. She may be in league with the assassins.”
Auburn kept her eyes on the floor. “If I wanted to kill Prince Eli, I wouldn’t use arrows. Besides, I need him to take me to Tamryn.”
Eli glanced from Auburn to Sligo. “Find any poison or concealed weapons in my room?”
“No,” Sligo said.
“Any other visions?” Eli asked as he focused back on Auburn.
“Most I don’t understand. Or I don’t recognize the people in them.”
“Like what?” Eli asked.
“I keep having visions of a pirate ship sinking, but I know no pirates and have never been to the docks.”
“You’ve never tried to warn anyone?”
“Who would I tell? The First Wife would beat me, label me insane, and try to have me executed.”
“You and she didn’t get along well.”
Auburn lifted her shoulders. “I don’t know why. I never tried to be disobedient or difficult.”
“Then you don’t realize how beautiful you are, how intelligent, or how much you threatened her position with the sultan.” Eli glanced over at Sligo. “What do you think?”
His bodyguard shrugged. “I think we’re lucky she warned you.”
Eli couldn’t explain her visions, but then, he couldn’t explain how mages summoned fireballs. Fear and vulnerability of telling a secret, her secret, pinched her face. While he wasn’t sure how she knew about the assassins or the red tabard of a Knight of Valor initiate, she hadn’t betrayed him.
He was her ticket to Tamryn and to the son she hadn’t yet conceived.
Chapter 18
The sultan suspended negotiations as the Qumarefi authorities investigated the assassination attempt. Eli cloistered in his rooms with Auburn, wanting to make it as easy as possible for his bodyguards to keep them both alive.
But he still needed answers.
There was a knock at the door, followed by a password. Rolland’s password. Peering into the shadows, Eli made certain Sligo was there then bid his adviser to enter.
Rolland opened the door and bowed. “You called for me, Your Highness.”
Eli nodded once, and the guards closed the door behind his adviser.
The prince stilled and focused on Rolland like a predator stalking its next meal. He waited a few moments, using the silence to further unnerve his quarry. “You’ve been lying to me, feeding me disinformation, and withholding important facts.”
“Your Highness, I...”
Eli held up his hand to silence Rolland. “You’ve lied enough. Don’t add to it.”
Sweat beaded on Rolland’s brow, and he stared down at his hands.
“Figuring out what your half-truths gained you eased the boredom of negotiations. However, it’s escalated from disinformation to assassination. When it comes to my life, I’m far less understanding.”
Panic twisted Rolland’s face. “I was part of no such a plot!”
“Attempted murder on a member of the royal family is punishable by death. The statutes are less clear on how that execution should be carried out, and a merciful death is too kind for betrayal.”
“Please, you have to believe me. I had no part in trying to kill you! None!.”
Eli ignored Rolland’s pleas. “I’ve given the method a lot of thought. I’ve learned things in my travels. Learned that each man has his pain threshold. The point at which he’d rather die than face another moment of agony.”
Rolland’s eyes widened. “I knew nothing about the plot!”
“Why kill me now?”
“It wasn’t me!” Fear and helplessness warred across Rolland’s face.
“Why did you wait so long?”
“I have no idea. Your Highness, please, you must believe me. I had nothing to do with any of this! It was Premal. I warned you about making such a powerful enemy.”
“Then what were you doing? You weren’t acting as my expert on Qumarefi culture, unless you’re somehow didn’t know it’s customary to wear a beard and give a gift when given one.”
“I...”
“The truth, Rolland, is your only chance. And I’m offering it once.” Eli arched a brow and waited.
Rolland tried to swallow, but his mouth was too dry. “I was asked to make the deliberations as short as possible. To get you home quickly.”
Eli’s eyes narrowed. “Who asked you to do that?”
“The Duke of Bridgeford.”
“Fredrick.” Eli rocked back on his heels.
“Who’s Fredrick?
” Auburn asked.
“My cousin. My only cousin.” Eli’s eyes narrowed. “Interesting story, but I doubt Fredrick could find Qumaref on a map.”
“I swear, Your Highness. It was him. I’m telling you the truth.”
“And why should I believe you? You have done little to earn my trust.”
Rolland licked his lips.
Even as Eli kept his adviser pinned with a hard stare, thoughts of his cousin rolled through his mind. Fredrick. The name surprised Prince Eli.
He had only one living cousin, and Fredrick had always been far more concerned with balls, ladies, and the gaming tables than the future of Tamryn. While Fredrick shouldn’t be underestimated when he wanted something, Eli couldn’t conceive of what his cousin would want. Especially from him.
“What did my cousin offer you if you helped him?”
“A rich reward and full citizenship,” Rolland said.
“Just for getting me back early?”
“For the months I’d be away, for the risk I was taking...”
“Risk indeed.” Eli narrowed his eyes as his adviser fidgeted. “You will continue to attend meetings with me. No one else is to know you’re compromised. Go until I call for you again.”
Rolland nodded and walked to the door.
“You have not paid your debt,” Eli said. “And if I find out you’re lying again, we’ll learn exactly what your threshold is.”
The adviser swallowed and left the room.
Auburn waited for the door to close and lock behind Rolland. “That still leaves us with the question of who wants you dead.”
Eli’s gaze fixed on the hidden door. “My first, second and third thoughts are Premal.” But another name was twisting through his thoughts, and that name worried him a great deal more than an adviser to the Qumarefi sultan.
Chapter 19
Killing a foreign prince.” Auburn sucked in a breath. “Few would be so bold.”
“Premal?”
“He might, but something would drive him to it.”
Eli raised a brow.
“Something more than lust. The rewards would need to be worth the consequences.”
To Love a Prince (Knights of Valor Book 1) Page 8
