“Relam, they were plotting to kill someone,” Aven remembered. “They’ve been trying for a year.”
“Yes,” Relam agreed, remembering. “But who . . . ?”
He looked down at Aven horrified. “A year,” he murmured. “Do you remember what happened a year ago?”
“The assassins,” Aven said immediately. “They attacked you and your family this month last year.”
“And very nearly succeeded,” Relam agreed. “But these conspirators were talking about an individual.”
“Oh,” Aven said, shoulders slumping. “You’re right. For a moment, I thought we had found him.”
“Who?” Relam asked, not quite following.
“The master of the assassins,” Aven replied, shrugging. “The one those prisoners were so afraid of.”
“Prisoners,” Relam muttered. “I should question them again, see if they know anything more. Did you hear anything else that might help us?”
“They’re after a woman,” Aven muttered. “Something about her death will cripple him.”
“Whoever her and him are,” Relam muttered.
“Your mother,” Aven said suddenly.
“What about her?”
“She’s been ill, right?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
Relam frowned, thinking. “A long while.”
“A year?”
The prince stared at Aven, openmouthed.
“No,” he muttered. “No, no, I have to get back, to warn them.”
“Warn who?”
“My father, the healers, anyone that can help. They need to know that someone has been trying to kill my mother and that they just tried again recently.”
Relam took off at a run, Aven close behind him. They hurtled up the stairwell and into the narrow corridor that led to the royal apartments. Relam hardly paused at the concealed door, bursting through it and tripping as he emerged, tumbling to the ground with Aven on top of him. As he fell, he heard a multiple rasp of steel on leather as swords were drawn. Then, his head struck a leg of one of the dining chairs, setting his ears ringing.
“Your highness!” a voice shouted.
Relam shook his head, wincing. “Yes?” he asked, slightly dazed.
“Are you all right? What’s going on? Aven, get off him lad, and help me.”
Relam felt Aven struggle to his feet, then the prince was hauled to a standing position, leaning on the guard commander, Narin. “I just dispatched guards to look for you,” he said gently. “Your father is waiting.”
“My father?”
“Yes, in your mother’s sick room.”
“Oh, right,” Relam said, remembering. “He wanted to stand vigil with me.”
Narin frowned. “I’m afraid there’s no need for that anymore, your highness,” he said gently.
“What do you mean?” Relam asked uncertainly, shaking his head again. Finally, his vision refocused and his ears stopped ringing. He looked at Narin and saw tears beading in the craggy warrior’s hard eyes.
“Narin, what’s happened?”
“I’m sorry, your highness,” the guard commander said, struggling with every word. “The queen is no more.”
The words struck Relam like a physical blow. He staggered, and had he not been supported by Narin and Aven he would have fallen backwards. He shook his head wordlessly, denying the awful news.
“No,” he muttered, over and over. “No, it can’t be.”
“Your highness?” Narin asked, leaning over and peering at him. “Are you alright?”
Relam raised his gaze to look at Narin and blinked slowly. The guard commander seemed to be drifting back and forth. Relam took a step forward, and collapsed, his legs failing him.
“Guards!” Narin shouted. “Lend a hand here!”
A terrible rage was building inside the young prince. He had failed. He was too late. But he could make up for it. He would see the queen himself, then set off to avenge her. The conspirators would not win. He had heard their voices, knew them to be of the nobility. He could find them.
“Murderers,” he whispered furiously, a red haze clouding his vision.
There was a rush of feet, then strong hands gripped Relam, supporting him. They began to drag him towards his room, away from the door that led to his mother. Relam set his feet and growled and snapped, trying to wriggle free.
“I need to see her,” he gasped. “Take me to her first.”
“Your highness, please-”
Relam roared aloud and with a sudden burst of strength shook off the guards, staggering towards the sickroom. He crashed through the door, nearly falling again, and stopped in the doorway.
His father was sitting beside the bed, looking down at the queen’s serene face. His face was set in hard lines, and his eyes burned within that grief-stricken mask. He hardly looked up as Relam entered, despite the commotion in the outer room. The healer sitting on the other side of the bed leapt to his feet though and hurried towards Relam.
“Your highness, the queen has passed,” he said, his voice trembling. “I’m sorry.”
Relam sagged against the doorframe, gasping for breath. “Murderers,” he growled.
“I beg your pardon?”
“They killed her, do you hear me? They killed her. This was a year in the making. We must find them, hunt them, punish them.”
Relam stumbled across the room and grabbed his father by the shoulder, shaking him. His father brushed him aside though, shaking off the rough hand. “Listen to me!” Relam roared. “This was no illness! She was murdered!”
His father made no reply, merely continued staring at the body of Relam’s mother. Relam shook him again, harder, and was preparing to strike him when he was seized from behind. The guards had returned, and they were dragging him backwards from the room.
“No!” Relam shouted. “Listen to me, all of you! She was murdered. Murdered!”
“Relam!” Aven shouted, running up and trying to help. “Calm down, we’re trying to help you.”
Relam sagged against his captors, panting for breath. “I’ll kill them,” he vowed. “I will find them, and I will destroy them.”
He made a lunge for the outer door, but was brought up short. Then, something round and hard slammed into the back of his head and he blacked out instantly.
Chapter 22
Relam blinked slowly and opened his eyes. There was little light around him, and he could not make out any details. His head ached terribly, and as he slowly came to, other lesser hurts made themselves known. Bruises on his legs and arms, and a shallow cut across three of the fingers on his right hand.
The young prince tried to sit up, but the moment he stirred pain flashed behind his eyes and he cried out in surprise and shock. He clapped his left hand to his eyes, brushing a light crust off his cheeks. He licked his lips and tasted salt. Had he been crying? What had happened?
Then, he remembered. His mother had been murdered. Murdered by two nobles who had been trying to kill her for over a year. The very thought made Relam’s blood boil angrily again. He went to rise, and was brought low by his throbbing head again. Relam swore loudly as the pain intensified, then a door opened and several people rushed into the room.
“Your highness, how do you feel?” the first asked urgently. Relam recognized his voice. This was the healer who had tended his mother for so long.
“My head,” Relam groaned.
“Yes, it hurts, doesn’t it?” the healer asked, clucking his tongue. “I told the commander he could have hit you a little less forcefully.”
“I got the job done, didn’t I?”
Relam looked past the healer, to where Narin and two guardsmen were leaning against the wall. Narin had a bandage wrapped around his left hand, a bright spot of white in the dim light of a single lantern. The guards beside him sported multiple bandages each.
“What happened to you lot?” Relam asked.
“You did,” Narin grunted.
Relam blink
ed. “I did that?”
“Yes, and you did for a few of the others as well before I hit you,” Narin confirmed, glancing at the other two guards. “I had no idea you were so strong, your highness.”
“I lost control,” Relam muttered. “Sorry.”
“Lost control? It was more like you went berserk,” one of the other guards observed drily. “Nobody could hold you. You kept lashing out and shouting about a murder and trying to get away. It’s a good thing the commander whacked you.”
“Someone was murdered,” Relam muttered.
“Who?”
“My mother,” Relam said immediately, looking at Narin.
The guard commander sighed. “Relam, your mother was a very ill woman. She was sick and she grew weaker and weaker until the illness claimed her.”
Relam shook his head doggedly. “No, she was murdered. I heard them talking about it. So did Aven.”
“Aven?” Narin asked, frowning. “You mean the servant boy who was with you two nights ago?”
“Yes, he - two nights ago?”
“You’ve been out a full day and a half,” the healer informed him.
Relam groaned and lay back. “No wonder everything hurts,” he muttered to no one in particular. It also explained why his thoughts seemed fuzzy and his brain thick and slow.
“Commander, I think you may have concussed the boy,” the healer said sternly. “From now on, please restrain yourself a little when knocking people unconscious.”
Narin ignored the healer and stepped forward, leaning over Relam. “You said you overheard someone. Care to elaborate?”
“Yes,” Relam said quickly. “Aven can tell you as well, he was there with me.”
“Aven cannot tell us right now,” Narin said impatiently.
A cold hand reached into Relam’s chest, gripping his heart. “You don’t mean he’s dead too?”
“No, I mean he’s not here right now,” Narin said, straightening. “Also, you knocked him out in the struggle. Beautiful left hook, got him right on the point of the chin.”
Relam winced at this unwelcome piece of news. “I suppose I’ll have to apologize to him again,” he muttered. “Any chance of some more light in here? I can’t see much of anything.”
“It is the middle of a moonless night at the moment,” one of the guards informed him. “I can fetch another lantern if you want.”
Relam nodded. “That would be appreciated. I can’t even see you lot properly.”
The guard hurried out of the room. Relam tried to sit up again, but his head swam. “Can you do anything about this?” he asked the healer, gesturing to his head.
The healer nodded quickly. “Yes, I have a few things that might help. Just a headache, right?”
“Yeah, throbs every time I try to move,” Relam muttered, wincing.
The healer produced his satchel and rummaged in it for a moment. Finally, he came up with a small bottle of an amber liquid. He set it to one side, then scooped up a glass of water from the bedside table. He added three drops of the amber liquid, then handed it to Relam.
“That should help,” he said by way of explanation.
Relam took the glass and drained it. He tasted nothing but water, and his headache did not lessen. “That doesn’t seem to have helped,” he observed, tilting the empty glass.
The healer shook his head impatiently. “It takes a few moments, your highness. Has to work its way into your system before it can take full effect.”
“Oh,” Relam replied, setting the glass on the bedside table again.
They waited in the dim room for another moment, then the guard was back with a shielded lantern. Feeble golden light filtered through the room, throwing strange shadows across the walls. Relam shifted position slightly, trying to get more comfortable, then looked up at Narin.
“You want to hear my story now?”
Narin nodded. “The sooner you give me the facts, the sooner I can began hunting these . . . murderers, your highness.” His tone left no doubt that he was still frankly skeptical of the young prince’s claim.
Relam snorted, and started to speak, then glanced at the open door. “Shut that,” he said quickly. “We need to keep this quiet for now, or we’ll spook the conspirators into hiding or running. I’d prefer they didn’t know we were hunting them.”
Narin nodded and closed the door himself, throwing the bolt to prevent anyone from entering. “All right, your highness. We can talk freely now.”
The young prince moved into a sitting position, sliding his hips back carefully and leaning against the wall. This time, there was no resultant flash of pain from his head. “Excellent,” he murmured, rolling his stiff neck.
“I was downstairs in the banquet hall-”
“You were where?”
Relam glared at Narin. “Do you want me to tell this story or not, commander?”
“I’m sorry, your highness,” Narin said quickly. “It’s just that I was surprised to hear you were at the Assembly’s feast.”
“I wasn’t at the feast,” Relam clarified. “I went down there looking for Aven. He was working a shift with the kitchens last night because they were short of help. The feast was over by the time I got down there and the servers were clearing up. I found Aven cleaning one of the tables.”
“Nobody recognized you?” Narin asked, brow furrowed.
“I wasn’t advertising my presence,” Relam replied. “And they had already been told the royal family would not make an appearance. Nobody expected to see me and so they didn’t.”
“Interesting,” Narin murmured. “That observation could prove useful in the future. Carry on, your highness.”
“Thank you,” Relam said with exaggerated politeness. “Anyway, I found Aven and we talked for a bit about training, how my mother was doing, other things. We were on our way back through the kitchens when we heard two voices coming from an adjoining corridor that is largely unused. They sounded suspicious so we went to check it out. Carefully,” he added, seeing Narin’s disapproving glare.
“That was rather foolish,” the guard commander said scathingly.
Relam shrugged. “What we learned was worth it. The two men were arguing over something. One addressed the other as ‘my lord’, so we think they were nobles.”
“Attendees at the banquet?” Narin asked curiously.
“That seems likely,” Relam agreed.
The guard commander produced a sheet of parchment and began taking notes, kneeling and resting the sheet on his thigh as he scribbled.
“One of them murmured all the time,” Relam recalled. “Real quiet-like. His words were hard to make out as a result. He had failed the other man and was trying to placate him.”
“Was one of them master over the other?” Narin asked, writing hurriedly.
Relam thought about this for a moment, then shook his head. “I would say they were equal,” he said finally. “Neither threatened the other. They were mostly bickering really.”
“Hmm. You said one of them murmured all the time. What about the other?”
“He hissed. Every word sounded like . . . like a snake.”
“Fitting, I suppose,” Narin muttered.
“He was angry, and frustrated,” Relam continued. “Said that the murmuring man should have had the job finished a long time ago. That he had wasted a full year and delayed his plans.”
“Did he say what the plans were?”
“No,” Relam said.
Narin sighed heavily, disappointed. “I suppose that was too much to hope for.”
“There’s more,” Relam said urgently, turning and propping himself up with his right arm. “They’ve been trying to kill a woman for a full year. The murmuring one asked the other if it was necessary to kill the woman. The hissing man replied that it was, that ‘it would destroy him, make him an easier target’.”
Narin looked up, sitting back a little at that. “That is interesting,” he agreed, looking around the room. “Very interesting.” He consulted
the parchment, then looked up at Relam. “You think they are the ones that killed your mother, then? You think they did it to weaken your father? To weaken you? To make you easy targets?”
“Yes,” Relam said firmly.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Narin said flatly.
Relam frowned, confused. “Why not?”
“Why would they act in stealth for so long? Who could be so patient as to wait a full year? Why not just kill you and your parents outright?”
“If the royal family were slaughtered, the kingdom would fall into chaos,” Relam replied. “Anyone who stepped in to assume power would immediately become a suspect. If we were to all die seemingly natural deaths, a quiet takeover would be more acceptable.”
“Especially if the succession were in doubt,” Narin agreed. “That may help us narrow down our suspects.”
“How so?”
“We can focus on people who stand to gain from a power vacuum,” Narin explained. “The great lord families, first of all. Some of the more influential lords in the Assembly are worth keeping an eye on. Maybe some of the city officials. I’ll put together a list and go from there.”
“Don’t ignore anyone just because we think they could not gain from a power vacuum,” Relam cautioned. “We may have the motive completely wrong. And people overestimate their chances of success sometimes.”
“A fair point,” Narin agreed. He looked up at the healer and the two guards. “This stays with us for now,” he said firmly. “Not a word of what was discussed is repeated outside of this room by any of you, understood?”
The others all nodded gravely.
“If word leaks out about this, I swear to you that I will find out who talked and kill them myself,” Narin growled. He looked back at Relam. “Was there anything else, your highness?”
“No,” Relam said, shaking his head. “That’s all I remember. Aven may be able to fill in more of the gaps.”
“We’ll question him when he wakes,” Narin promised. “He’s being taken care of in the main room right now. His parents have been notified. Took us a while to track them down though. We hadn’t realized that they had moved onto the River Road.”
Relam nodded distractedly. As Narin let himself and the other guards out quietly, the young prince beckoned the healer closer.
The Prince (Heirs of Legacy Book 1) Page 27