Page 7 of Fated Flames: Volume Two
Sileshian? That I hadn’t expected.
You’re sure? I sign back.
Isaak confirmed. The poison was derived from a Sileshian herb. Valsbane, they call it. It would have knocked her out for at least a day.
My chief gardener’s knowledge of herbology, including the poisonous kind, is unmatched. If he says the poison meant for the princess was Sileshian, it was.
The arrow wasn’t meant to kill her; it was meant to incapacitate her. The point was tipped in a powerful sedative because someone didn’t want her dead.
They wanted to take her from me.
Thank Isaak for me, I say.Tell Rally to meet me at the dungeons.
He nods and starts off.
“Ty.”
My guard glances back.
“Do not tell the princess.”
Whatever objection he might have, he keeps to himself. Wise, considering he and Rally dismissed her earlier warning about the archer outside her rooms. Esino was indeed there, but so was the attacker, atrespasser, in my own palace.
I’ll not soon forget that.
Ty leaves, and I return to speak briefly with Oiken and Isaak. The restoration of the eastern gardens is a distant priority, but it’s important the servants see their kingconversing like a man. They’re tense. On edge. They wonder if their king still holds control. They worry a challenger will smell weakness and try to seize control.
I’ll soon put those fears to rest.
“Your Majesty!”
My shoulders grow rigid, yet I force myself to turn and face my greeter with an air of pleasure. “Lord Lyken. I was just coming to see you.”
“How fortuitous,” Lyken says, trotting up to beam at me with an ingratiating grin. It’s likely the same smile he flashes my sister to have her pining over him.
I want to tear his face off.
“I owe you my sincerest gratitude,” I say. “All of Tirenth does.”
He falls into a bow. “You’re too kind, Your Majesty. I only did what any of your subjects would for our future queen.”
“What would you have in return for your service?”
He rises, and that smile of his sharpens.
There he is.
“Just knowing the princess is safe is enough,” he says.
“Nonsense.” I tilt my head Oiken’s way. “Please have Lord Lyken escorted to the royal treasury and allow him to choose whatever he desires.” To Lyken I say, “There is no treasure equal to my betrothed, but perhaps something in my treasury will aid in lessening this debt between us.”
Men or not, we are dragons at our core. His eyes shimmer with hunger.
“That’s unnecessary but most generous of you, Your Majesty.”
I offer a nod of assent. “I would accompany you myself, but I have other matters to attend to.”
He bows once more, and with a turn of my heel, I go to leave.
