“I train with Lessa, Dorvea, Cole and Drew. I don’t need you to be another trainer.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
She set the sword back in its mount and pushed past Russal, back through the door and to her side table. She held out her queen’s scabbard. “Is this an ornament?”
“Do you want me to say you look formidable when you brandish a sword?”
“Words. All you give me are words. And I’ve been accepting them.” She stomped up to him and pulled the blade from the leather hand strap. “It is pretty, but don’t take it or me for granted. It is sharp and can do considerable damage to vital parts of one’s body.” She tossed the blade and scabbard on the bed when worry rose on Russal’s face.
Covey had supplied words. Explanations. Russal gave explanations, too. She had imagined Russal more trustworthy, but they were just words. Both men wanted her. She needed actions that meant something. “I don’t know whose words to believe.”
Russal’s gaze darted toward the stairwell. “What did Covey tell you?” His complexion blanched.
Did he have something to hide? “He showed me something. No, that’s not right. He told me something, but Kavin showed me it was truth.”
He shook his head. “Nothing he could tell you would be truth.”
But what did she have that proved Russal’s were? She needed time to think things through. Being with Russal left her confused and angry. She didn’t want to feel that way about the man she just married, but he’d neglected and disregarded her. Wanting time to think, she said, “Can that little room next to the stairs have a bed put in it?”
“What? What are you saying?”
“I need time by myself. I can’t be in here with you.”
Stunned, he stood with his hands open at his sides. “This is our wedding night.”
“And you left me!”
“To arrange for protection.”
“Protection. Aren’t these rooms protected? Tomo tried to explain his concern, and you argued with him.” She stared at the bed. “You had one thing on your mind then, but now you say you left to protect me, and moments ago you said it was to check on the injured guards. What are you not telling me?”
“Kambry, you are being hysterical.”
Beneath her anger, a new frustration rose. He wasn’t giving anything she said any thought. “I need to be alone to think.”
“Give me a moment.” He turned in place, his face uncertain, blotchy. “Is this just for tonight?”
“I don’t know how long it will be. I think that’s up to you.”
He cocked his head. “So if I refuse to let you sleep in there away from me?”
“That would be a mistake. It would not be words, but is it really the action you want to heap on top of shoving me aside?”
He stared at the floor, his eyes closed. Then his chin lifted, and he looked toward the wall where he had let Tomo in after removing the wall panels. Nodding to himself, he strode to the corner and pulled the panel. In just a few seconds, he had the passageway open.
This hadn’t been what she expected. “Are you leaving?” Her voice broke. She had no idea what she wanted, but Russal leaving wasn’t it.
He jerked round to face her, a flash of hope filling his expression. “Only for a moment.” He took a candle and lit it.
“You said that before.”
The candle shook in his hand, the flame dancing. “I’ll just be a moment. I promise.” He stepped into the dark passage, and she hurried to the opening. Nothing other than the sound of his footsteps and the faint glow of the candle supported that he wasn’t far so quickly did he turn a corner into the near impenetrable darkness. She heard his descending steps.
Something scraped and screeched, metal on stone. Thuds and a grunt accompanied his returning his footsteps, slow and stuttered. The candle out, he came around a corner into the dim light from their room carrying something long and bulky. A white mass flapped and caught at the wall, and he staggered a moment before it flipped back down.
Kambry stepped back as he came closer to the passage entrance.
The bulky object protruded into the room, and he stepped one leg over the low section of wall, ducking and just barely avoiding knocking his head into the wall overhead.
The cot. It was the cot he had slept on when he had watched her from the passageway. The wardrobe had concealed a passageway that led to the mistress’s room she had quartered in a few days. That seemed forever ago.
He lurched past her, the frame beating against him and creaking as he carted it into their room.
“Would you open the door for me?”
Kambry hurried to catch the latch and swing the door open to the small room by the stairs. He lugged the cot in and set it down. The mattress lay half folded over on the wires stretched to support it. The sheets streamed down over the back edge of the cot.
He tugged at his tunic. “I’ll sleep in here. You take. . .our bed.”
“I said I would stay in here,” she said.
“Kambry, please,” he whispered, his face turned away from her.
His voice tore at her. “Okay,” she said.
He flipped the mattress flat and sat down, his hands pressing his temples.
Kambry backed out, shutting the door. Had she made the right choice? The image of Tomo trapped in the vines and begging for release came to her mind. It replayed in vivid detail, almost as real as the first time she’d seen it. Several moments passed before she realized she was sitting in the uncomfortable chair. How well did she really know Russal? So much of her time in Kavin they’d been separated.
Their time in the rose garden rose in her thoughts. They’d had time to get to know each other. Perhaps those golden moments had failed to reveal enough of each other the way stress and challenge did.
A knock sounded from the closed door by the stairs. The latch lifted, and the door opened a crack. “Kambry, may I come in and change for bed?”
Her hands tightened in her lap. “Of course, Russal. This is your home.”
His face was damp, but he looked calm. He regarded the room, his gaze catching on the passageway still open. “I’ll close that up.”
Kambry leaped from her seat. Why hadn’t she thought of it before? “Russal, I could sleep there, in the room at the end of the passageway. No one need know.”
“You’re not sleeping down there! Neither of us are.” He sealed the entrance in swift, angry movements. “I’ll change and be out of your way.” He strode past her and into his dressing room, closing the door with an irate click.
Kambry backed up and sat on the bed corner. She needed time to think, to sort things out, but figuring things out came at such a cost. Russal was hurt, and she couldn’t decide if he had a right to be.
Why had Kavin given her that image? Did the magic of the kingdom support Covey’s bid for kingship? She hadn’t thought that magic held a bias. It had seemed a part of Russal in every way. But if it preferred Covey, she needed to understand why.
She paced the room. She’d listened to Covey. Granted, she’d had no choice with him speaking directly into her ear and holding her immobile. Was she giving Russal the chance to explain? She should listen to his version of the event. Kavin might provide a second view.
She couldn’t imagine an alternate angle would make the actions she’d seen okay. Russal had tortured Tomo, but to what end? There had been no sound, but Tomo’s desperation to get free, his wild eyes and frantic grabbing at the thorny stems gave her only one way of reading the situation. Russal had just stood there until Amily had run up and tore at the cutting stalks.
She owed him the opportunity to explain. Didn’t she, even if his version was no different? Would he admit to such atrocious behavior?
The door to his changing room opened.
“Russal, I’d like to talk about something.”
“Not now, Kambry. I’m weary. It’s been a day I want to put behind me.”
“It’s important.”
“I can’t,” he said. At the doorway to the small room, he paused. “This was once a nursery for me and later for Amily. But you probably guessed that.” His angry gaze cut her.
He shut the door, and she was alone in their palatial room. Her heart thumped wildly. A tight, painful giggle rose in her throat. It was a nursery. She drew her shoulders straight. Russal must be desperate to stab at her emotions that way.
An awful question sprang to her mind. Had Covey ever lashed out at her? She’d stomped on his foot, swung a knife at him, aimed an arrow at his face, but he had never said something meant to break her heart. He’d undermined her faith in Russal, said she wasn’t enough for him, and made her believe he had been faithless. That had hurt her, but he claimed that was all to protect her from Russal.
Russal could not make that claim. Protection had not motivated him.
So it was a nursery once. And one day, they could expect it to be a nursery again. She married Russal.
She went to the window and peered out at the night. The stone of the thick castle walls made her fingers chill. She shivered and looked back at the door separating her from Russal. Was she mistaken about Russal? Was Covey a better man for Kavin to have for its king?
From the beginning, Russal held back so much and expected her to make the kingdom whole again. Sybil had argued that everything depended on her earning Russal’s trust. Then it was up to her again to bring Amily back to Kavin and keep Russal from leaving Kavin Wood.
She glared at the door. Why was she in this position? Why were there all these mysteries she had to untangle?
Now, according to Sybil, she was pivotal to healing the kingdom. First, it had been the kingdom under attack, then Russal. Was she the target now?
Sybil seemed to think so.
Wait. Why hadn’t Sybil warned her about the maze attack? She had said her loyalty was to the queen. Decisions. Going to the maze was a decision no one anticipated.
Kambry paced. It created an unplanned opportunity. Who took advantage of it?
Sybil had said dangers still awaited Kambry in the maze. Not a very clear warning. But they hadn’t attacked Kambry. They targeted Laurents and her parents.
But Covey had come here, into their private chambers. Sybil had said only to keep them apart. Couldn’t she have warned Kambry he would be here? Decisions, they changed how events unfolded. The attack may have been meant for one of the visiting lords. But Russal's decision to take everyone into the maze changed the plan. Did she only get visions when Kambry was in danger? Covey had not harmed her. No, he’d only destroyed her faith in Russal! She had faith in Russal. She’d wanted to marry him, and she didn’t want to change that.
Why should she even trust Covey? All his actions were intended to separate her from Russal. Sharing that vision was one more attempt.
She shuffled back and forth. If only he hadn’t been so sincere. Felip Covey may have shared his version of an event, but Kavin had supplied the glaring support of that version. She was overreacting. Russal had a reason for not stopping. She didn’t know what it was, but he must have had one.
She wrung her hands. Who could tell her a reliable version of the attack on Tomo when he was a child? Amily was there, but would she admit to her brother being so cruel? Tomo went through the ordeal. He was loyal to Russal. Could she rely on him to tell the tale if it put Russal in the wrong?
He was a child, but wasn’t the child the father of the man? Her thoughts whirled. If only Felip Covey would stay away and keep his stories to himself. She was overwrought and tired. Striding to the bed, she stopped, staring down at the neatly turned-down covers.
She couldn’t sleep. Tomo’s pleading screams echoed in her mind. The Laurents, would they know? Dorvea Veed? Dorvea seemed to know everything, and she had always been honest with Kambry.
Lessa. She’d been around Amily and Russal all her life and had even played with them. Might she have been there?
Kambry rushed to the doorway at the head of the stairs. The sound of the cot creaking in the room just feet away pulled her to a stop. She should ask to Russal. Would he talk to her now?
Timidly, she approached the door and rapped softly.
The door flew open, Russal standing with his eyes and hair as wild as she had ever seen them.
She froze, staring at him.
“What do you want?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
“You knocked for a reason,” he said, his voiced jarring. “What do you want?”
Stepping back, she asked, “I wondered, have you ever hurt anyone with Kavin magic?”
He was silent for several breaths. “I have.” Other than his fingers gripping the edge of the door tighter, he didn’t move or change his expression.
She had expected him to say no, and she realized she had hoped he would. “Who did you hurt?”
“There have been many.” He shut the door before she could gather her scattered expectations.
She reached out to knock again, her hand stalling midair.
Did she really want to know more?
Reaching to the right as if in need of solid support and distance from his room, her hand came in contact with the door at the head of the stairs. It was open in a moment, her feet taking her to the bottom two steps at a time. She arrived surprised she hadn’t tumbled into the dim light, and she stared up the dark stairway before facing the room she had rushed into.
Moonlight came in through the uncovered windows of the private drawing room, and she turned the corner in the faint light, striding to the door to the corridor and the waiting guards.
Her hand on the nob, she turned, looking back into the moonlit room. Was Covey hiding close, watching her?
She yanked open the door and stared at the two guards, startled to see her.
“Your Majesty, is something wrong?”
“I want to see Guard Lessa Veed.”
Both guards were unfamiliar to her. They stood at attention, their faces twitching with consideration. Did they think her mad to be demanding to see a guard at this late hour? They hadn’t had a queen in years. Perhaps they wondered if this would be a common occurrence.
“You know who she is?” Kambry folded her arms and tapped a foot. She gazed from one guard to the next.
“I’ll send a page for her. You wish to speak to her now or after you have rested?”
“Now.” She put all the demand she could into her voice.
He gave her a nod and stepped around the corner. Voices carried to her, but she couldn’t tell what they said. The second guard remained stoic, his hand on the pommel of his sword.
The first guard returned. “She’ll be here shortly.”
Kambry shut the door and sat down to wait. The couch had always been comfortable, but she kept fidgeting. How would she get Lessa to describe an event that might make her king appear less than fair or kingly?
This was a mistake. Russal wouldn’t do anything to hurt Tomo. He had been eight, and they’d only become friends a short time before.
He said he’d hurt many.
He was just a child, but that didn’t make it right to attack him with thorns.
She paced back and forth and forced herself to sit on the chair facing the couch. Covey had said the attack had happened after the murders. Russal said that was when he and Tomo became friends. Was this an outburst of anger instigated by loss? Would that make it excusable?
He’d said many.
She rose again. When would Lessa get here, and how was she going to broach the subject?
A knock on the door broke into her thoughts.
Kambry jumped to open it, finding Lessa standing there, her eyes looking bright and alert. She looked Kambry up and down and entered, her bobbed blonde hair bouncing with the gesture.
As Kambry shut the door, Lessa said, “You wished to speak to me, Your Majesty?” At the click of the latch, she relaxed her stance. “What is it, Kambry? You look terrible, and you frightened the king’s guards. They want to know if
the king is well.”
“Russal? He’s fine.” Her shoulders shrugged. “He’s okay.”
“But something is wrong.”
Kambry took Lessa’s hands and tugged her to the couch. They sat, Lessa regarding Kambry with curiosity.
“I need you to be very honest with me.”
“I’ve always been,” Lessa said.
A memory rose to Kambry’s mind. The first time they had met, Lessa had made it plain she didn’t approve of Kambry or her bare feet. She’d also made it clear her prince’s actions were difficult to interpret. Honesty had been one quality that had drawn Kambry to her. If their physical features had not been so easy to match, Kambry would have known Dorvea Veed was Lessa’s mother just from their shared blunt nature.
“That’s why I asked for you. I need you to tell me something without garnishing it or protecting the people involved. Tell me just as you remember it.”
“You’re my queen. You have all my loyalty.”
Kambry squeezed her hands. “I really needed to hear that.” But she couldn’t look Lessa in the eye when she explained what she needed to speak to her about. She looked out at the room, her gaze settling on the lounging couch. “Lessa, when you were a child, you played with Tomo, Amily and Russal, right?”
“Not so much in the beginning. I sort of followed them around. Later, when Amily was maybe six, that was when I became part of the group. The boys didn’t want another wee girl to lug around. But I was always nearby. Where else was my mom going to put me?”
“So even if you weren’t a member of their little group, you were near enough to see what they were doing?”
“Spying on them. Yes, I was terribly nosey. I wanted to know what princes and princesses did with their time. Nothing different from what I did. They got into more trouble, but they had each other to egg them on.”
Kambry drew her hands away and sat up straight. “I want you to think back to a particular event.”
“I can’t promise to remember everything they did.”
“If you were watching, you would remember this afternoon.”
“Okay. When and where?”
She took a deep breath and set her shoulders straight. “It was after the murder of the king and queen. Tomo visited. They were both around eight years old.”
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