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Bolstering my reserve, I smiled to the prince and princess. “Good morning! Yes, it really is pleasant out today.”
Allera motioned me toward them. “Brentley and I were feeling cooped up in the castle and are going to walk down to the village for a stroll through the marketplace. Would you care to join us?”
“Ooh! Can I come too?” Nicolette cried, dashing out from behind a tall bush and bounding eagerly forward. She must’ve been there long enough to listen in on our conversation, which made me wonder if she’d been spying on Brentley and Allera for quite some time. “I feel the need to get out and walk as well.”
I’d been about to decline Allera’s offer, to give the newlyweds their privacy, but when Nicolette joined in, asking to go as well, I decided I liked the idea of getting out for a while as well. “That does sound nice,” I admitted. “Let me just take Anniston in and see if a maid can sit with her.”
“Or bring her along,” Allera offered. “We’ll all take turns carrying her if you’d like.”
Partial to the idea of bringing my child with me, I nodded. “Okay, if you don’t mind that she might get fussy or that we may have to stop occasionally to change and feed her.”
“Not at all. The more the merrier.”
“Where is it that you’re all going?” a new voice asked, making me startle around to find Yasmin, Caulder, and Soren once again taking a stroll among the flower path toward us.
I blinked, wondering how often they did that, just the three of them. Was it a daily routine? I didn’t want to feel left out of their bonded little group—because I typically wished to avoid two-thirds of them—but being that I was Soren’s wife and Yasmin’s sister, I felt distinctly left out.
“We’re off to walk down into Mandalay and stroll the marketplace,” Brentley answered his brother. “Would you three care to tag along?”
“Walk?” Yasmin cried in dismay, wrinkling her nose. “All the way to Mandalay and back? Why, that could take hours.”
Brentley merely shrugged and smiled at his wife. “We thought the exercise and fresh air would be refreshing.”
Soren snorted and mumbled under his breath, “You could certainly use the exercise.”
I glared his way because he hadn’t exactly been quiet about his cruel evaluation. I’m sure even Brentley heard him, though the prince had the grace and maturity to ignore his cousin.
“We should ask Urban if he wants to come along, too,” he said to his wife. “I heard Caulder didn’t allow him to return to the training field this morning either, after the rampage he went on yesterday.”
When he glanced his brother’s way, Caulder sighed. “That’s correct. I gave him another day to cool down, even though I admit, he seemed in much better spirits by dinner yesterday.” His gaze sought mine. “Did anyone ever learn what did put him in such a mood?”
When all eyes turned their curious gazes my way, I cleared my throat and tried to ignore the fact that my face was heating miserably. “I…I believe he may have had a bit too much to drink the night before at the Donnelly Day celebration,” I lied, glancing Allera’s way and hoping she didn’t call me out, for surely she knew better. “He had a devil of a headache when I spoke to him, so we had the cook mix a concoction to fix it.”
“Hangovers do affect him miserably,” Allera added smoothly.
I sent her a grateful glance, to which she smiled back and nodded.
“Well, whatever the case,” Caulder said, clapping his hands together. “I’m just glad that’s over and done with. I need him back in the field tomorrow. It would be nice to have our soldiers trained and ready for war in case the dispute between Blair and Corandra spills over onto our land and we’re forced to take sides.”
“Forced to take sides?” Soren asked with a grunt and shake of his head. “Well, that’s an easy decision. We’d have to align with Corandra, of course. They’re larger and have more resources to offer us.”
I didn’t think it was so easy at all. Blair was our direct neighbor to the north. We’d never had any bad relations with them, and besides, Corandra was learning how to make clear rock on their own, meaning they were about to become our biggest competitor. There would have to be much to consider before joining a fray between the two realms.
The king refrained from responding to Soren’s comment, neither confirming nor denying such an action. He merely clasped his hands together and took a step backward. “Though I’d love to join you all for your walk, I fear I must return to the Throne Room before too long. I received some distressing news just before my lovely wife and best friend lured me into the garden that I wish to attend to sooner rather than later.”
“Oh?” Yasmin asked, her brow furrowing with worry. “What news has distressed you so, my love?”
Caulder glanced hesitantly Nicolette’s way before sighing and addressing all of us. “You may as well all hear it now, but I demanded an audience with the High Cliff priestess who gave Nicolette her tattoo.”
Nicolette groaned. “Oh, no. Did she get into too much trouble because of me?”
“Well…” Caulder said hesitantly. “Not from me. I mostly just wanted to authenticate her permit and ask her more about the dark magic she’d told you she had sensed on you. But when the guards who went to fetch her opened the door to her room at the Inn, they found it trashed and deserted. She’d been missing ever since, until this morning.”
“What?” Allera shrieked, surging forward, worry marring her features. “That sounds like foul play was involved.”
He nodded. “I’m afraid so. Her body was found not long ago. From the reports, it sounds as if she’d been murdered quite gruesomely.”
“Oh, no.” Nicolette covered her mouth with both hands. “Oh, no, this was all my fault.”
