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Only a few more yards to go. Jalissa stumbled to her feet. They just had to walk through the parkland and somehow find Averett or Julien without alerting anyone else to their presence, especially not Princess Bella or her guards.
Perhaps they should go straight to the elven healer’s cottage. Then she could get help for Edmund before sending Sarya to find Edmund’s brothers.
Jalissa tottered through the forested parkland, trying to draw as much strength as she could from the trees around her. It took her a moment to place where they were on Winstead Palace’s grounds.
They were approaching from the northeast, meaning they would have to more or less pass Winstead Palace to reach either Buckmore Cottage or the healer’s cottage. As they neared the palace, music and light poured into the surrounding gardens. Dancing couples whirled past the tall windows of the ballroom.
This was a formal ball. The perfect event for Princess Bella to put her plan into action, whatever that plan happened to be.
Jalissa turned toward the back gardens of the palace, headed for the private royal gardens where they were not likely to run into guests wandering the paths, as they would in the public gardens extending out from the ballroom. “We need to find Edmund’s brothers right away.”
Sarya nodded, and Jalissa led them deeper into the gardens. Perhaps she would wait there in the gardens and send Sarya into the palace to find Averett or Julien. It would be difficult to pull them away from the ball without being seen, but surely Sarya…
They turned a corner of the hedge, and Jalissa halted in her tracks.
Julien stood there with his betrothed, the troll warrior Vriska, in his arms. He was leaning toward her, as if about to kiss her.
Jalissa’s knees wobbled as she nearly sagged at the sight. They had found one of Edmund’s brothers. Even better, he was alone, except for Vriska, and thanks to Mongavaria’s poisoning of Kostaria’s grain, Vriska had little love for Mongavaria. She could be trusted.
Perhaps Jalissa should feel bad interrupting, but another lance of pain stabbed through her stomach. There was no time to waste. Not for her and Edmund, and not for whatever scheme Princess Bella might be enacting even now.
Jalissa dragged in a breath, trying to speak loud enough that Julien and Vriska would hear her over the noise coming from the ballroom. “Julien, shashon.”
Julien started, then pulled away from Vriska. He whirled, his eyes widening, before he raced toward them.
Jalissa could not hold herself upright anymore. She sank to her knees, still gripping Edmund. They were safe now.
ChapterTwelve
Jalissa kept her grip on Edmund’s hand as Julien carried him toward Buckmore Cottage. Vriska carried Jalissa as easily as a sack of flour, and Jalissa might have been more uncomfortable if she had not been so exhausted. Sarya hurried off to fetch the healer, despite her own exhaustion.
Finally, they entered Buckmore Cottage, reached their room, and Julien laid Edmund down on the bed.
As soon as Vriska set her down, Jalissa scooched closer to Edmund’s side, never letting go of his hand. She needed him to wake. They had made it. Edmund should wake to witness it, and he should be the one to report to his brother.
Jalissa rested a hand on Edmund’s chest, shoving the last scraps of her strength into him until her head spun with dizziness. “Wake up, darling. We made it, as you said we would.”
Edmund groaned and curled tighter on the bed. His eyes fluttered open, more sweat beading on his forehead. His head tilted toward her, his eyes mere slits as he slurred, “Jalissa…love…”
Tears heated her eyes, and she dabbed at the sweat on his forehead with her sleeve. She had come so close to never hearing his voice again. She leaned closer, whispering so Julien and Vriska would not hear, “And I love you, my ispamir.”
That earned her a twitch of a smile, and she pressed a kiss to his clammy forehead.
His fingers squeezed hers, then he tilted his head, taking in the rest of the room. It was a sign of his illness that he had not glanced around in the first moments of waking.
When his gaze turned to Julien and Vriska, Julien rested a hand on Edmund’s shoulder. “What happened?”
Edmund’s shaky breath filled his chest beneath her hand, his voice weak as he said, “The Mongavarian king is dead. Poisoned by his son. Poisoned me too.”
Actually, they did not know for sure if King Solan was dead yet. But given that Jalissa had been keeping Edmund alive through the heart bond for the last day, it was a good guess that he was dead.
“Warn Averett…” Edmund’s eyes fluttered closed again, and she could feel him drifting away even as he whispered, “She might be in on it…”
Jalissa tightened her grip on Edmund’s hand, her head spinning as she held tight to him in the heart bond. He was fading yet again.
It was as he had predicted. He was in no shape to report to his brother. It was up to her to pass at least some of the information on. She would tell the rest to General Bloam once Julien alerted him, as he surely would as soon as he left here. “We discovered that your Lord Farnley was the smuggler. But it seems he was ignorant of the poison. He has been illegally importing luxury goods from Mongavaria into Escarland ever since Averett introduced the higher tariffs. When merchants in Mongavaria approached him about smuggling grain into Kostaria, he jumped on the chance to double his profits by selling the Escarlish grain from his holdings to Kostaria legally and smuggling Mongavarian grain on the side.”
Vriska’s knuckles cracked, and Jalissa blinked up at them. She could not manage to focus.
