Page 7 of His Realm
“What precisely happened?” Eris wanted to know, and I looked up and saw her furrowed brows. Everyone who guarded me always had the same scowl, I noticed.
“Yes,” Dae-Jung said. “Let’s hear your latest tale.”
“Latest tale?”
“There are many,” he clarified for me.
“You know, I really am sorry I was short with you a moment ago. You know I never wanted you to be afraid of me for even a second.”
“I do know,” he said, smiling indulgently, as if I were a child. “But really, tell us what happened from the beginning.”
“I don’t want to,” I grumbled.
“You must,” Brenna ordered me. “Relate the exploit now before it runs from your mind and must be dredged from your memory.”
Really, it was no one’s fault but my own that they all questioned me this way. I allowed a freedom no other royal did, and that was because all the bowing and scraping and asking permission gave me hives. I wanted, needed, friends, not sycophants.
I groaned, still not ready to stand. “Remember how you all thought I was nuts when I was trying to convince you that someone was watching the king and would probably make an attempt on his life?”
“So someone tried to kill the king?” Eris inquired, squinting at me, not looking like she believed me, smoothing her thick fiery-red braid over her shoulder like she did when she was worried. I saw the action a lot.
“Five of them. Six, actually, counting the one I chased that Zev knocked out.” I pointed. “He’s right there. I saved him.”
“The assassin?” Eris asked.
“No, the king. Well, both.”
“Ah. That is excellent,” she praised me. “Good luck even going to the bathroom alone without your hendr after this.”
I was going to say something when she turned away from me and returned to the others. Brenna remained and pushed my sweat-dampened hair back from my face.
“We tease you, but we always believe you,” she assured me, some of her thick platinum hair falling forward into her face. It was long on top with a fade on the sides. “I suspect we don’t see what you do, as we look only to protect you, not others. As this threat was for the king, that is why we missed it.”
“That makes sense,” I said, because honestly, it did. Their mandate was to keep me safe, no one else. If someone attacked the king in front of them, of course they would protect him, but if it was between him or me, there was no question. Sovereign ruler or not, King of the Noreia or not, they put my life before his. They had sworn an oath to Varic to keep me safe, and they would die to see that vow kept.
“May I ask, though…” Brenna began, “when you and Zev were tasked with making sure there were no more threats to the king’s rule, how did you miss that his uncle wanted him dead?”
I gestured toward the unconscious assassin. “Just because he’s from Decimus’s court doesn’t mean that Decimus, or someone in Decimus’s court or family, wants the king dead. We need to investigate and figure out what’s up.”
“Certainly,” she granted.
“If Nerilla were still here, we could’ve figured it out together.”
She nodded solemnly because still, even after more than a year, Princess Nerilla’s death remained a fresh wound in all our hearts. I myself missed her every day.
“The king will wonder why assassins were sent from his uncle’s court,” Brenna pointed out, grimacing, “and normally, his rajan would travel there to put the question to Decimus himself.”
I was surprised and sat up slowly, shivering. Lying on the cold marble after my heated run had started leaching the warmth from my bones.
Both Dae-Jung and Brenna helped me to my feet, and when I swayed a bit, Brenna steadied me.
Zev, whom I hadn’t seen leave, came back and draped a heavy blanket around my shoulders that he’d retrieved from my bed. It felt so good to be wrapped up since I was suddenly freezing.
“Thank you,” I murmured.
As was his habit, he tsked. My appreciation was, as usual, unnecessary.
“Would the king send Tiago to speak to Decimus?” I asked Brenna. I was the king’s cadeyrn, but since I was about to leave for New Orleans, Tiago, as Varic’s rajan, would be the obvious choice of envoy.
