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“Rumors run rampant. Everything from Adley and Spires being in a dungeon cell to burning on a pyre, Presenting Day moving up to this Hudem, His Highness stealing children from their keepers—”
“I’m not stealing them.” I’m safeguarding them.
“Some believe they are to be sold to Kettling’s underground child market as part of the bargain struck with Adley.”
“They honestly believe I would …” My voice drifts with a grunt of disgust. “Well, there’s no use for that bargain, anyway. The wedding is no more. Saoirse is in the tower.”
“Some believe she will be released and back in your arms, just as the Ybarisan princess was.”
I scowl. “Saoirse has never been in my arms.”
“People are afraid.” Rhodes’s deep voice grates in the quiet library.
I sigh. “That was the plan.” Though a dangerous one. Fear breeds desperation, followed quickly by recklessness and rebellion. I need it to hold off until Hudem. If Romeria’s claim about the end of the blood curse is true, I will release every child. “Anything else?”
“Now that the wedding is no more and the nymphaeum is closed, most of the nobility are desperate to return home. Several have been caught trying to bribe their way out. Boaz has punished them accordingly.”
“With strong words?” I jest, but I know better. He’ll have divested them of their gold and publicly flogged them to make a point. They’ll never be loyal to me now. I’ll have to strip them of their lordships and remind them that I could have stripped them of their heads. “And the port?”
“The captain of the Silver Mage made a fuss at the docks because we wouldn’t let him board to sleep in his cabin. Claims you’ll be hearing from Empress Roshmira if his ship isn’t released soon.”
“Likely, but not for another week or two.” Hudem will be long past by then. Pissing off Seacadore’s ruler is not in my game plan. We need her for vital trade.
And we have more pressing matters ahead of us than spying and collecting gossip. “The king’s guard will hold the city while the Cirilean army rides for the east. Rhodes, you will lead them. Kaz and I will follow in a day’s time and find you before you reach the plains.” A handful of soldiers move much faster than an entire company of them.
“Your Highness.” Rhodes bows and strolls away to relay the order.
I flip through the last book on the shelf, disheartened. “All these volumes, and not one gives me what I need.”
“Seriously, what are you looking for?”
“Answers to questions that likely do not matter.” I slide it back where it belongs.
Kazimir frowns. “The eastern lords are in the dungeon, you are riding to war, and it appears you took a vein. I was expecting you to be in a better mood.”
“One would think.” He’s right. My adrenaline should be surging in anticipation. I’ve always preferred the battlefield to these castle walls. “Tell me, what was your read on Gracen last night?” Did I somehow misunderstand everything?
Kazimir studies me a moment. “She gave you her vein willingly?”
“Of course.” I glare at him. “And she was supposed to come to my chamber after tending to her baby’s needs, but she did not.”
“You ordered her?”
“I requested, and she seemed eager.” And then I lay in an empty bed, waiting for her. I toyed with the idea of sending someone to bring her to me, and then I almost found my own way there, worried something might have happened to her. In the end, I decided against it, telling myself that her baby must not have settled and she was needed.
That is what my ego needed to hear.
I came to the library, as much to distract myself over my silly and inexplicable pining over a mortal as to find vital answers about the possible fate of my realm.
A knowing look fills Kazimir’s face. “So go to the Goat’s Knoll to satisfy your other needs.”
I snort. “After our last exchange, I’m not entirely certain Bexley wouldn’t bite my cock off.” I hesitate. “And I have no interest in her.” Or anyone else.
His eyebrows arch. “I have known you for how long? Fought beside you how many times? Seen you fuck your way through how many tributaries?”
“Too many to count,” I admit.
“You change them more often than I sharpen my blades. So, what is it about this one that has you so enamored?”
“I don’t know. Honestly.” I smirk. “Maybe she has me under a spell, like Romeria has trapped Zander.” That was the only reasonable explanation anyone could find for my brother’s relentless weakness.
Kazimir goes quiet, and I know what he’s thinking. You were under that same spell, Atticus. He watched me slip out of her tent just before daybreak. He knew what we’d done. “Or maybe you are subconsciously looking for a suitable queen to sit next to you, someone to share the burden of the throne. It is applaudable. Shocking, given it’s you … but applaudable.”
