“I’m fine,” said the guard named Nik, the man I’d been fighting alongside. “You?”
“Good,” the guard said.
A woman pushed through the crowd, ran to the assassin on the ground, and dropped by his side. The man was unconscious, blood beginning to spread on his tunic from the gash made by Nik’s sword. I didn’t like blood and felt the sweat breaking on my brow. I looked away, breathing slowly.
Soldiers stalked toward them, fury in their eyes directed at the man who’d tried to kill their prince.
“Don’t touch him!” the woman screamed.
I started toward them, but Nik took my hand to hold me back. “He just tried to kill us.”
“TheAnimatried to kill us,” I said. “He’s probably another victim.”
Nik looked at me for a moment, then nodded. He walked toward the group. “Stand down,” he called out, and the soldiers immediately stepped back. He must have been highly ranked, but who could tell when the uniforms were all the same?
“Madam,” Nik said, crouching beside the woman, “it appears this man tried to harm the prince.”
Some of the soldiers exchanged glances at “appears.”
Her eyes went round as the full moons, lips quivering. “No. He’s my husband. He would never.” She stared down at the man, as if trying to read an explanation on his face. Then she looked up pleadingly at Nik. “He’d never hurt anyone, especially not a fine noble. There must be a mistake. Or…or maybe he’s sick. He’s so hot. Why is he so hot?”
The Aetheric, I thought. There was still a green tinge in the air around him, and his cheeks were red and he was dripping sweat. The drumming in my chest grew more insistent as I moved closer.
I worked to ignore it. “Is that his sword?” I asked. It lay in the dirt beside him and looked to be worth good coin.
“Sword?” The woman looked at it, brow clenched with confusion. “We don’t have any weapons.”
Nik gave a nod to the guard with the wavy hair, who picked it up and directed a soldier to put it in a carriage. Then he took a fold of cloth from his uniform, crouched, and offered it to the woman. “For his wound,” he said. She took it with shaking hands and dabbed at the blood.
The scenery swam a little, so I breathed out through pursed lips. Around us, the marketgoers who’d watched the fight began to head toward home. Soldiers picked up fallen banners. The prince hadn’t lost any of his men, but two of the assassins were dead and had been left behind by their comrades. The soldiers picked them up and placed them onto the front bench of the first carriage.
And still no one had emerged from inside the carriages. Because the prince was a coward, or because he intended to stay alive longer than his predecessor?
“We need a healer,” Nik said, drawing my attention back to him. He looked at the wavy-haired guard. “Has Sanj arrived?”
“Not here yet. The other carriages are behind us.”
“Damn it,” Nik murmured, and shifted his gaze to me. “Is there a healer nearby?”
Before I could answer, the Western Gate garrison’s soldiers in their long, belted tunics of rich navy and gold chose that moment to stride into the road.
“Who’s in charge here?” asked the one in front. He was thick-chested, with a square jaw and small eyes. I knew him. His name was Rill. He was a bully trimmed out like an officer.
“Who are you?” Nik demanded.
“Rill. Acting commander of the garrison.”
The wavy-haired guard stepped up to him. “I’m Galen, a member of the imperial guards. Nice of you to finally show up.”
“We protect the stronghold from outsiders,” Rill said. “We aren’t personal security for the Lys’Careths.”
“No,” Galen said. “You prefer to watch from atop the wall. But had he been injured on your watch, the son of the Emperor Eternal, forever may he rule—”
“Forever may he rule,” Rill muttered in obligatory response.
“—there would be Oblivion to pay. You would have allowed an assassination to take place while you stood by. That’s treason.”
Rill made a disdainful sound, but the fight had gone out of him.
