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“Who is this man?” I asked when he folded the paper back up again, before he could flee from my sight.
“He wouldn’t give us his name, sir.”
“Was he tortured?” Thatcher asked, picking dirt from under his fingernails.
“No, sir, but—”
“Well then, that’s your answer. The jail has become more like a free inn lately. Three meals a day, a comfortable place to sleep. It’s a wonder they aren’t lining up outside the city walls, trying to persuade us they’ve committed some crime or other.”
I glared at Thatcher. It was on my orders that torture was ended five years ago.
“He doesn’t write like a bandit,” I said to the jailer. “There’s nothing else you can tell us?”
He shook his head and I sighed.
The reference to the one true king was nothing more than a conspiracy theory, a rumor that my uncle, the king, killed my father to take his place. It was completely untrue, I knew that for a fact. Did these people not think I’d spoken to every retainer who was around at the time? My father’s death by drowning was tragic, my uncle’s distress at the loss of his brother was genuine. The throne went to him legitimately, and even if it hadn’t I had no interest in it.
My position as trusted administrator and future heir held more power than the title of king.
“Delay his execution,” I said, and Thatcher’s jaw nearly hit the floor.
“That’s not a good—”
“Do it,” I told the jailer, cutting Thatcher off. I never liked the weasely man, and I had more authority than him. “The sentence isn’t being commuted. This isn’t a pardon. The execution will still go ahead, I simply want to speak with him myself, that’s all. I want to find out where these people are holed up and break up their little band of brothers once and for all. I would come and speak to him today but the king and queen have insisted that I attend some stuffy banquet or other with a delegation from Nemenia, so it will have to wait. Set that up please.”
Thatcher glared at me. “Bad idea. Any prisoner who wants to make trouble will know they can just send a message to you. You’ll be inundated. We already have a problem with highwaymen attacking travelers on the roads every other day. Do you really want to encourage them?”
“You can go now,” I told the jailer, treating Thatcher with the contempt I always felt towards him. “What’s next on the agenda?”
As the jailer went out through the door, a guard rushed inside past him. The man was young, maybe in his mid-twenties, and I only half recognized him. Andrew? Alfred? Something with an A. I made a point to know all the guards by name as quickly as possible, my style of leadership being more hands-on than most of the others in the court, but this one hadn’t been here long enough.
“Sir.” He stood to attention, addressing me and ignoring Thatcher. I liked the man already.
“At ease, soldier. Tell me your name.”
“Aidan, sir. It’s about your sister.”
For a moment, I forgot myself. My cock, which I was usually able to forget entirely, started to engorge at the mere mention of Anika. She wasn’t my sister by any relationship of blood. I was adopted by my uncle after my father’s death and Anika was the child of her mother’s first marriage before she became my uncle’s wife. Still, from the moment I saw her, Anika obliterated all other concerns. I knew that I’d burn down the kingdom to grab a fistful of that fiery hair and force her to her knees in front of me.
That very fact made her dangerous. And put her in danger. Both of which had my fingers twisting into fists.
“What’s that fucking nuisance done now?” I asked, feigning disgust. Nobody could know how I truly felt about her. Any fucker who had designs on my position would see her as a legitimate target, and I couldn’t allow that. “Can’t her mother deal with her?”
Aidan shook his head, and my heart thundered.
Get on with it, man, I thought. Tell me what she needs and I’ll get it for her.
“She’s escaped the castle, sir.”
Thatcher sniffed a laugh, and part of me wanted to grab him and throw him out the window. A little morning defenestration to calm my nerves.
I growled, channeling my anger into looking frustrated. “Meeting over. I’ll find her myself, and when I do there’ll be hell to pay.”
I just hope I can keep myself under control this time.
CHAPTER 3
Maksim
I dismounted deep in the forest, about a hundred yards from the abandoned stables where I knew Anika always tacked up when she wanted to hunt on her own. They had once been the stables to a royal palace that stood here in the forest, but that was many centuries ago. Nothing now remained of that old palace except this ruined building, a place with a reputation for being haunted that kept away those who might otherwise try to steal the stones to make piggeries and cow-sheds.
