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“Keep an eye on your window at night,” he said as he made his way back to the window. “I will get better at climbing those vines.”
I smiled as well. “I was wondering how you made it up here. Do I have to worry about other intruders?”
“I doubt it. You have guards patrolling underneath your window. I had to time it perfectly. Just don’t open the window for anybody else. I will knock four times.”
He kissed me, this time deep and passionately, then climbed back out the window. He turned and stopped, half of his body already out on the vines, his chest still visible.
“If you see Rune again, don’t show any fear.”
I nodded, trying to ignore the thought about what kind of a man that giant truly was.
“I fought in the war because I had to. But Rune...” Alrick briefly drifted off into old memories. “That man doesn’t just fight in wars. He is a creature of them. War is all he knows. He judges others by how they would behave on the battlefield.”
I pinched my lips, then nodded again. Alrick lingered a moment longer, drinking in my face as if it might be the last time he would ever see me, then he lowered himself into the darkness of the night and was gone.
A fresh night breeze made me shiver—or was it the way Alrick had looked at me when he’d left? Motionless, I remained a moment longer, deep in thought, before I closed the window and walked back to my bed. I sat at its edge, staring out the window as if it would make Alrick reappear.
As promised, he had held up his end of the bargain. The rebel noble families were here; so was the bastard son who might be the key to defeating King Algar once and for all. But all of it didn’t matter if I couldn’t deliver proof that the rebels hadn’t killed my father, that it was in fact King Algar who was behind it all. I also had to dethrone Gunther, which, thanks to Alrick’s marvelous idea of bringing in an honest priest, I had a real shot at again.
Maybe it would work out just like Alrick had promised. All I could hope for now was that Malick the physician, or the questioning of my cousin’s servants, would provide some answers. Or everything else wouldn’t matter—the crown, revenge, and the kingdom all meant nothing to me without Alrick.
