Page 51 of Queen of War and Ruin

I cross my arms over my chest and wait.

I thought about trying to find Elrick’s room last night and telling the prince of Marion what I’d seen and heard in the kitchens. But I wasn’t sure he’d believe me. Or, worse, I wasn’t sure he’d be surprised.

Because whose idea was it to have Lilias marry Prince Laurance? Laurance and Elrick left the room together last night, hours before the guards gossiped about their idiot prince marrying my godsdamned wife. Maybe Elrick made a deal last night.

Maybe he traded away his own sister.

“Could they be merchants?” Lilias asks. “Traders?”

Gerard shakes his head. “I checked their gear,” he adds, in a lower voice. “Saddles, blankets, bags. All of it is top quality, but no insignia.”

He leans back in his chair, grinning, and I know he found something.

“The bridles,” Elrick says. This is clearly the second time he’s heard the story.

“The bridles,” Gerard agrees with a nod. “Scarlet and blue.”

Vsenrog’s colors.

“Gods above,” Lilias whispers. She glances at me with her eyes wide. “But if Vsenrog is here, who are they talking to⁠—”

“The king,” I say.

Elrick nods. “It has to be,” he says. “The king must be well enough to meet a delegation from Vsenrog while his son distracts us.”

I wonder who Vsenrog sent to negotiate with the king. Lilias leans forward. She looks pale.

“What did Laurance tell you last night?” she asks her brother.

My gut shifts around the remnants of the bad wine I drank with the guards.

“Last night?” Elrick looks like he’s just licked something bitter. “He challenged me to a drinking game, then vomited all over the table.” He sighs. “If this idiot prince role is an act to keep us distracted, then it’s a damned good one.”

“I don’t think it’s an act,” I mutter as I stare at Elrick.

Laurance as an actor? No. But Elrick?

“I’ll stay behind today,” Gerard announces. “While you go on that tour of the cliffs, or whatever. I’ll search the castle, see if I can find out who in the hells is here with us.”

Elrick nods, but his wife shakes her head.

“That’s too obvious,” Anura says in a soft voice. “I’m sorry, Gerard, but they won’t let a soldier from another kingdom wander the halls of their castle. Especially not if they have something to hide.”

“I’ll stay behind,” Lilias says.

My gut twists, and that whisper of intuition screams inside my skull. Leaving my wife behind is a terrible, terrible idea. I reach for her, then stop myself and press my hand against the table instead.

We fucked like gods last night, all the tension between us exploding into incendiary pleasure, but that doesn’t mean my wife wants me to touch her in public.

I swallow hard, then clear my throat.

“That’s too risky,” I say.

Lilias looks at me with fire in her eyes.

“It makes more sense for me to stay behind than anyone else,” she retorts. “I can ask for a tour of their stables and no one will think twice about it. And I know more about the horses who are supposed to be in Ethiria than any of you.”

I open my mouth, ready to beg her not to stay. But she’s right. Hells, she knows the horses of Vsenrog too, much better than I do. She might even be able to recognize the ones in the visitors’ stalls.