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Like unleashed hounds, the mob descended with fists and feet. So many of them that Keris swiftly lost sight of the spy, though he heard his screams. Heard his pleas.
Heard his silence.
Keris waited long enough to ensure the spy was well and truly dead; then, with the shouts of his people ringing in his ears, he stepped out into the night.
56
KERIS
“Keris, wake up!”
He jerked upright with a start, nearly falling off the side of his bed.
“Keris!”
It was Coralyn. Even muffled by stone and heavy wood, he recognized his aunt’s imperious tone. Rubbing at his eyes, Keris pulled on the pair of trousers he’d left discarded on the floor and then padded barefoot across the room, fastening his belt as he went. Unbolting the door, he swung it open. “Good morning—”
“It’s early afternoon, you lazy creature. You keep the hours of a prostitute.”
Since Otis’s death, his nights had been spent in the city, stirring up dissent against his father, his days trying to find a way to get Aren alone, though he’d had no luck with the latter. And when he did sleep, it was only to be jerked awake by the sickening thud of his brother’s body hitting the ground. He was exhausted beyond reason, but Keris didn’t want her knowing why. “There’s a reason I keep their hours; it makes it easier to—”
She leveled a finger at him, silencing the rest of his quip. “Don’t even go there, young man. Knowing of your habits is enough. I don’t need the details.”
Given the only woman to grace his thoughts was Valcotta, Coralyn knowing details was most definitely to be avoided. “What is it that I can help you with?”
“I need an escort.”
He glanced at the window, rain pelting against the glass and the howling wind clearly audible. “Why? You’re allowed to go where you will. And you know how I dislike getting wet.” A lie, the truth being that he didn’t want to be subjected to her interrogation about what had happened with Otis. While he might have convinced Serin of his ruthlessness, Coralyn wouldn’t be so easily fooled.
She snorted. “As though I care about your preferences. Get dressed. Clearly you need time away from these rooms so that the servants might have a chance to clean up.” She wrinkled her nose. “Be quick about it.”
Knowinghis aunt despised waiting on anyone, Keris forwent a shave and settled on a swift wash, realizing she might have had a point about the servants when he examined the limited contents of his wardrobe. Donning something more subdued than he was known for wearing, he stepped out of his chambers and made his way down the steps, finding his aunt waiting on the second level.
“Sara is leaving today,” she said. “Your father can’t be bothered to take her, and her mother hasn’t the fortitude for it, so it will have to be you and me.”
Sighing, he nodded and offered her his arm, a pair of servants holding canopies over their head against the rain as they stepped out of the tower doors. His eyes immediately went to the spot where Otis had landed, a wave of dizziness passing over him as he walked over it.
Thud.
He took a steadying breath, but each blink of his eyes revealed his brother’s body, blood pooling around it, Otis’s eyes full of betrayal.
Don’t think about it,he told himself.It’s done. You can’t fix it. Focus on what you can fix.
Thatthought had his gaze moving to the harem’s building, to Valcotta’s windows. Coralyn was keeping her confined, the reason given that she believed her at risk from Serin. It made him ill that she was effectively being kept in a cell, but there was nothing he could do but push forward with his plans. Since he had failed in learning how to reach the Ithicanians to secure their support, he’d turned to making plans to overthrow his father by way of force. His lieutenants, led by his bearded gambling companion, whose name was Dax, were gathering loyal men and women. As soon as there were enough of them to overwhelm the palace guard, Keris would have them move against his father.
And put the crown onhishead.
His stomach flipped with a strange mix of anticipation and terror at the freedom he’d have with all that power. Power not just to free Valcotta, but to change Maridrina for the better. To make peace with enemies and form alliances that would make his country strong.
But those were thoughts for another time. Right now, his family needed to be first in mind, most especially his little sister.
Sara stood in front of the gates, her mother on her knees before her, sobbing and clutching at his sister’s hands. Her tears intensified as he and Coralyn drew close.
“Please. Please don’t take her away!”
“You are making this harder than it needs to be,” Coralyn said. “This is a wondrous opportunity for Sara, and yet you behave as though it were a punishment.”
Sara’s mother only cried harder, clinging to her daughter, who looked on the verge of tears herself. “I can’t lose her. Please, Keris, speak to the king. Convince him that this is a mistake!”
