“Well, I…”
“He’s also the man who just saved Taran’s life. Now please apologize and go stand with my consort. He’s refusing to leave Taran, and I need a word with the general.”
The man he’d called Luc mumbled something that might have been an apology, but I wasn’t really listening. I had turned fully around to look at Prince Larz.
“Are you all right, Your Highness?”
“I’ve been better, but your medics looked at it and said I’ll live. It was a bad blow, but they said there doesn’t seem to be any concussion. I’m on my way to get some scans done at my omak’s insistence, just to make sure. I’m more worried about Taran, but Lt. Worron just told me he’s going to be all right, and I know I have you to thank for your quick assessment of the situation. Thank the gods for that and for the skill of your medics.”
“Thank you, sir. And I hope your scans come back clear. I know the family is worried.”
“Are they? I suppose so.”
Before I could reply, his brother Vannos came up beside us and took Larz’s arm. “The doctors are ready for you now, Larz. If you’ll excuse us, General?”
I bowed to both of them and they turned to leave. With one more glance at the “Royal Guardsmen,” I turned to go back to the other side of the room to check on Taran myself. I still wanted to make sure that he was improving, and I didn’t like to dwell on what that impulse might be stemming from. He’d lost a shocking amount of blood in a short time, so it was only natural that I was worried, as I would be about any member of the royal family. There was nothing more to it than that. Nothing at all.
Chapter Seven
Outside the storm was still raging and seemed to be getting worse. Prince Mikos was heading straight toward me to intercept me, his face set in grim lines.
“I’ve told the guards at the doors to allow no one in or out without express permission from one of us,” he said, when he arrived beside me. “We need to interview everyone here—what they saw or heard…” He glanced around the room until finally his gaze landed back on me. “Was my brother…was Prince Larz badly injured?”
“I don’t think so, Your Royal Highness. I understand there was no concussion, but Prince Vannos arranged for scans to be done by his physicians as a precaution.”
“And his adopted son?”
“Taran was more seriously wounded. He’s lost a lot of blood, but Lt. Worron took care of him. I think there’s little doubt he saved his life.”
He nodded again. “I hope he’s improving. Tell me, Kirstos, have you come to the same conclusion I have?”
“That the perpetrator had to have been one of the Laltanan guards? Yes, Your Highness. At this point, it could only have been a member of the family or one of the guards. There was no one else in the room, except for some of Vannos’s servants, and they were all at the far end of the room near the fireplace.”
“Agreed, though they can’t be ruled out either. I’ll send someone to get them rounded up so we can speak to them. Since all of the Imperials were on this side of the room and standing behind us, except for the Imperials guarding the two sets of doors, that narrows down the field considerably. I need tospeak to my brother and convince him of that, however, and the problem with that is that he doesn’t listen to much of what I say.”
“Would you like me to speak with him, sir?”
Mikos sighed and then nodded. “It’s worth a try. I’m going to speak to my father about all this too, once he calms down a bit more. See what he has to say. Hold off on any serious discussion until I let you know.” He nodded a little distractedly and set off back to his family, while I made my way over to the set of double doors at the entrance of the large meeting hall. There still seemed to be a crowd around Taran, so I decided not to get in the way. There was, after all, no reason for me to keep checking on him. I was barely acquainted with him, and I’d certainly done my duty. This fluttering feeling in my chest must be some residual nerves left over from the attack itself. I thought back to what we had done together the night before—surely there was no way we had bonded at all. I’d been careful not to have penetrative sex with him, and it was only in rare cases that kissing, no matter how intimate or intense, could result in a bond forming.
Though I’d heard about Prince Rakkur, the youngest son, and his husband, Colonel Tariq forming a bond or saying they did in a similar way when the prince was really young. Injured by would-be assassins, Tariq had tried to resuscitate the prince and there had been an exchange of bodily fluids. Surely that had only been a cautionary tale. I’d been married to my first husband Marek for a few months before he’d died so tragically, and we still didn’t form a strong bond. It was ludicrous to think that one night with Taran could result in such a thing. I decided to put it out of my mind as an impossibility.
“I’m going to find the infirmary,” I told the guards. “I assume that’s where Prince Larz was taken.”
“Yes, sir,” one of the guards replied and then gestured behind me. “Looks like his son is being taken there now.”
I turned back to look again and saw the medics loading Taran onto a stretcher. He still seemed to be unconscious, and he was lying on his back. His normally golden skin was alarmingly white and pale, and again I was struck by how small and vulnerable he looked lying on that stretcher as it came toward us. I pushed down the urge to go to him and waited for them to come to the door.
Larz’s consort, Janos, was trailing along behind his son, accompanied by the Laltanan guard called Luc Dimitri, who had been so rude to me earlier. He struck me as being one of the loud, brash kind of humans I most disliked. Full of arrogance and misplaced confidence, they strutted around like they owned every space they occupied. They were often full of opinions and felt as if they needed to share them with everyone. I’d encountered plenty more like him in my time.
One of the Imperial guards at the door stepped in front of Dimitri and the consort as they approached. “I’m sorry, but we have orders that all the guests are to stay here in this room until we’ve had a chance to talk with them about what happened. The boy can be taken to the infirmary, but neither of you can leave.”
Janos looked up in surprise, his eyes widening. “I need to be with my son and my husband, and if anyone wants to speak with me, I’ll make myself available. But please get out of my way.”
The guard drew himself up to his full height, which was considerably taller than the consort, and I saw that his face was turning red with anger. Janos was not a popular figure on Tygeria. I put a warning hand on the guard’s arm, just as Luc Dimitri puffed out his chest and shouted up in his face.
“Get out of the fucking way and let us pass, damn you! You don’t make the rules here on Moravia.”
I couldn’t see anything good coming from this, so I quickly intervened.
