A Prince's Duty (The Royal Houses of Sea and Snow, #1)

by Marquez, Jude

  "So he has decided against the two of you?" Eamon said slowly.

  "And he told Lissandra and me that he would not force someone to marry," Avelina added in a hushed voice. She looked thrilled.

  Eamon felt the pit of his stomach drop.

  If Prince Alik did not find interest in either Lissandra or him, there would be no alliance and there would be no money for the war that was descending on them. If their lines fell, then there was no stopping the Vresal army and their king from taking over their kingdom, the Grayhaven kingdom, and the Cerith kingdom. Their king would kill the royal families first, hunt them down across their lands if he had to, and enslave their people.

  Avelina studied him and the delight that was written on her face at the thought of such a charming, sweet man who might marry either of her elder siblings, fled. She followed his train of thought as effortlessly as Lissandra, it seemed.

  "Oh," she said softly.

  "What?" Edmond said, looking from Eamon to Avelina.

  "If there is no marriage, there is no alliance. Without an alliance, there is no money for us to fight the Vresals and there are no men for the Ataton empire to fight them off. We will fall, then Grayhaven and finally Cerith. It will take years, but-" Avelina gestured helplessly with her hands.

  "Oh," Edmond said in an equally small voice.

  With that on their minds, they left Eamon’s room and went back to their own. Alone once more, Eamon threw himself on his bed and groaned.

  Kane growled from the floor as though to tell him to die quietly, please.

  "Shut it," Eamon snapped at the wolf.

  Kane huffed back at him.

  There was a scuffle outside Eamon's door and he heard voices. Though Alik and Issat had rooms in the same wing, the three rarely saw each other, since the day Alexios stormed into Alik’s rooms.

  This night seemed destined to wear him thin.

  Eamon turned his head to the door and listened quietly for a moment. It seemed like whoever was out there was speaking quietly and it was no surprise to Eamon that the two of them were carrying on an affair. He was expecting it, actually.

  Gods knew that he expected more discretion from them, however.

  The voice quieted and steps headed away from the rooms.

  Curiosity got the best of him and Eamon got out of bed and belted his sword before following the steps down the hall. The reflection of the candle light on the wall helped him and after a moment, Eamon realized that Kane was at his heels.

  Down and down and down the back staircase, usually reserved for the servants, and then out a door. The caped figure blew out the candle and headed straight for the cliffs.

  "Stay," Eamon whispered to Kane at the door of the castle.

  Kane sat but Eamon could feel his blue eyes on his back as Eamon followed the figure.

  It stopped at the edge of the cliff where there was a perfect view of the full moon rising over the ocean. Eamon wanted to say something. There were more than a few tales of forlorn lovers throwing themselves from this very cliff.

  In the distance, the wolves howled.

  The figure turned to the sound.

  "I hope you brought your own cape. I don't believe mine will seat us both," Alik said and tugged the cape off his neck and turned.

  The moonlight very much favored the prince. It fell on him like a familiar lover; sweetly, lovingly, gracefully.

  "I-"

  "Was following me," Alik finished and smiled. "As well you should."

  "What do you mean?" Eamon said.

  "Foreign court, strange figures wandering your castle at night, I would have followed me too," Alik said and spread his cape out on the grass and sat. He looked up at Eamon and raised an eyebrow. "Will you join me, Your Highness?" He asked politely.

  Eamon noticed the bottle of wine in Alik's hand as he sat.

  "A full moon and wine," Eamon said and smirked. "It would seem that you were in the mood for romance, Your Grace."

  Eamon suddenly remembered what he said about seduction the day before. How he would allow it. It seemed that Eamon was walking a fine line, if in the end, Alik chose Lissandra.

  "This?" Alik said and raised it up so that they could see the red liquid inside. "Not romance, no. This is for the pain in my face that is making itself very well known." He uncorked and took a drink deeply and then handed it up to Eamon who took it and sat.

  Eamon drank as well and wiped his mouth.

  "What are you doing out here?" Eamon finally asked as they both stared at the stars and the moon.

  “You knew my brother, did you not?”

  “Only as one great warrior knows another. Stories. Soldiers. Messages sent. Not well, not as you did, I imagine.”

  "He was loud, vulgar, funny, and hid all his intelligence behind a sword. You would have liked him," Alik took another drink of wine and nodded to himself. "I had a younger sister as well. She was sweet as the first spring berries. Even as a child, she was adored. Then, between one full moon and the next-" Alik raised the bottle to the moon as though to toast it, "I became an only child."

  "What happened?" Eamon breathed.

  "Isonei was kidnapped by the Vresal army on an ambassador meeting. They sent her hand a fortnight later. Col was killed on the trip to rescue her. They were kind enough to send all of him back home. In pieces, but all accounted for," Alik closed his eyes and Eamon took the bottle from his hand as his grip loosened. "And my parents were left with me."

  "Alik-" Eamon started.

  "Please, don't say you understand, or you are sorry, or I have your condolences or whatever platitude you were thinking of. I cannot stomach them. Not after spending so much time with you and your brother and sisters. I love them, but it is a painful reminder of what I used to have," he murmured.

  "I have no idea what I was going to say," Eamon said after a moment.

  Alik let his head drop forward and then turned to him. There was a ghost of his usual mocking smile on his face and he shook his head. "Your Highness, you are nothing if not honest."

  "There are worse things," Eamon reasoned and his words from a week ago echoed in his ears.

  "That there is my stoic, tattooed friend," Alik said. He drank deeply from the wine bottle and Eamon studied his profile. He thought of the day previous when Alik had stared at him and there was that hunger in his eyes that Eamon was more than familiar with when it came to men and women looking at him.

  "Are we?" Eamon asked, desperate for a change of subject.

  "I don't see why not. Why can we not be friends? For all we know, we might be wed in a month's time."

  "My sister said that you find it distasteful to force someone to marry," Eamon said slowly.

  Alik nodded but he kept his eyes on the ocean.

  "Were we friends-" Eamon said and stopped. Words failed him and he wanted more than anything to lay a hand over Alik's where it twisted in the long grass in front of him. "If we-"

  Alik turned to him, patient as the ocean. “What I said before, to your siblings, stands true. I do not want to force something on someone who does not desire me. If the desire is there, perhaps affection and eventually love will follow. One could hope, anyway.”

  In the distance, wolves howled.

  "Your wolves sing for us," Alik murmured and his eyes drifted over to Eamon's bare legs. "Maybe it is a night for romance."

  Then another and another joined the first. It was eerie and beautiful all at once. It raised the hair on the back of Eamon’s neck and for the first time since he stepped outside, his attention was taken from Alik.

  "They do not sing," Eamon said and stood. He put a hand out to Alik and pulled him up. "We should go back to the castle."

  The earlier comfort of the moonlight was a threat now. It was too dark, the grass was too tall, the forest on the west side of the castle was too close, there were too many shadows.

  Then the wolves stopped, all at once, like a candle snuffed out.

  "Possibly a bad sign?" Alik said and his voice
was tense. Eamon glanced over at him. He held onto Eamon’s hand still. In his other hand was the wine bottle. He had no weapons on him. Why would he? Eamon’s castle should have been the safest place for him.

  But his men were on the southern shores, guarding his siblings and his parents, or patrolling the grounds. Eamon made it clear that everyone was to patrol on this evening.

  That meant that they were alone.

  "Yes," Eamon said and a shadow near the treeline shifted. Eamon pulled Alik behind him and faced the shifting shadows. There was nowhere for them to hide, whoever was in the wood was bound to have seen them.

  Behind Eamon, Alik was quiet. Eamon took Alik’s hand and pressed it to the bare skin above his hip, where the tattooed snake curled and began to dip down below his chiton. It eased something in Eamon to know where Alik was.

  "Come out," Eamon demanded.

  "His Highness and his new whore," a voice hissed, his words thick with a Vresal accent.

  "I resent that on both our behalves," Alik muttered.

  Eamon wanted to laugh but choked it back. Instead, he unsheathed his sword and remained silent.

  "What business do you have here?" Eamon demanded.

  "We're here for a princess or two. Maybe a prince. Whatever we can take, we aren't picky," another man said.

  The shadows shifted again and when Eamon counted, he saw three more.

  There were five of them.

  Three was possible for Eamon to handle. Even four.

  But five men to fight while still protecting Alik? It was not possible.

  Eamon withdrew his sword and widened his stance. He turned his head and spoke softly to Alik, "Run. As fast as you can. Sound the alarm."

  "There are five of them."

  "I've had worse odds."

  "Not with me around, my stoic, tattooed friend." Then there was a loose shudder of breath. "Go get them. I'll be here."

  Eamon growled but the others were already advancing. "Excellent. Stay here in that case."

  Four of them advanced on Eamon while the other one broke off from the small pack and circled around to pin Alik down.

  The fight was swift and two fell immediately. One struck Eamon's unguarded side and were he less experienced it would have caused him to stumble. He swung and felt his sword slide into a body and he jerked it free.

  There was an undignified gasp and Eamon turned around to see Alik dodge a sword aimed for his midsection and then swung for the other man's head with the wine bottle in his hand.

  Once again, Eamon wanted to laugh as the man dropped like a sack of potatoes and Alik turned, triumphant. Then his face changed and Eamon turned at that last second, having forgotten the last man.

  The man bowled him over and as he fell, Eamon cried out, "Kane!"

  A second later, the man was pulled off Eamon but instead of the inky black wolf, it was Alik with his arms wrapped around the man's neck. As soon as they fell back, a shadow, blacker than the night sky above them, leaped over Eamon's body and fell on the man Alik was holding. There was a strangled scream and when Eamon sat up, Kane was pulling the brigand off of Alik by his now mangled throat.

  Alik, who was soaked in blood and breathing hard and looked terrified out of his mind. Alik, who took a second to look at the bodies lying around them and then to Eamon and then to Kane who sat nearby, the grass swishing with his tail. Blood dripped from his snout and if ever there was a prouder wolf, Eamon could not name them.

  "I would marry you now were it not against the law of man and the gods above," Alik told Kane.

  Kane huffed, as though to say of course Alik would.

  "What about me? Fighting off four men is not enough?" Eamon asked, offended that his actions were not given the same recognition as Kane's. He wiped at the sweat on his brow only to discover that it was blood. He frowned and wiped his hand off in the grass.

  "Three. Kane took care of the last," Alik said and sniffed daintily as though he were wearing his finest clothes and not drenched in sweat and blood. "I suppose you'll have to do," he said with some finality.

  The words echoed between them and the two stared at each other and there was silence except for a faint groan from the man Alik had knocked to the ground with the wine bottle.

  "What I mean is-" Alik started and cleared his throat, "If you were amicable to the idea-"

  "Two Crown Princes-" Eamon started at the same time, "You with your statesmanship experience and I with the military-"

  Alik was nodding and even if he was covered in the blood of their enemies, Eamon was hard pressed to say if he had seen a more beautiful being in his life. "If you are amicable-" he began again. His voice trembled, as though shaken by nerves.

  "I am, if you are," Eamon said gently.

  "I as well," Alik said softly.

  "Then it is settled," Eamon remarked, as though it were the easiest thing in the world, to give his life over for his country, for his family, for his crown. It was, he supposed, the most natural thing for him to do. He had done nothing less in all his life.

  Alik remained silent but tipped his head to the sky. Eamon glanced around, wondered what they should do about all they had done in the past few minutes; the men, the blood, the proposal.

  As though they were called, guards streamed out of the castle just then and rushed to Eamon and Alik's side.

  "No need for rescuing," Alik pronounced. "All is well, thanks to Kane and myself."

  Nicolin glanced between the two of them and Eamon could see he wanted to laugh but there was something else besides two blood soaked Crown Princes and dead bodies on the front lawn.

  "What is it?" Eamon asked. “Did something happen? Where were you?”

  To their credit, the men appeared out of breath, sweaty, and like they had run the miles from the southern shores.

  "Children," Nicolin whispered.

  "Dozens and dozens of children," Willhelm added.

  Chapter 9

  After the news was delivered that there were children on the march for the castle, in the middle of the night, Eamon sprang into action. Alik saw the commander for the first time, giving out orders to his men, sending them on different errands to prepare rooms for the children, and then following Willhelm and Nicolin to the last of the men and wolves that were marching in, guarding the children. Alik wasn’t given an errand and he was almost certain that Eamon forgot that he was there.

  The only time that Eamon seemed to realize that Alik was accompanying them was at the stable where they were getting fresh horses and Eamon ordered that anyone coming with him must also bring another horse. Alik did as he was told, quickly saddled another horse before mounting Jericho.

  Eamon finally registered that he was going and he looked like he was going to say something but he stopped himself and nodded.

  And if Alik hadn’t seen it with his own two eyes, he would have thought it was exaggeration on the part of the narrator of the story.

  But this was no story told in the dead of winter in front of a warm fire with a full belly. This was the beginning of war, what his older brother kept from him.

  The soldiers were scattered around the group of children at strategic points, to see each other and keep the children safe.

  Alik wished he had never seen the children before. He wished, with all his heart, that he went back to his room and told Issat all that transpired and they sat up all night whispering possibilities of leaving Grayhaven. He wished, with every fiber of his being, that he was anywhere but where he was.

  There were close to three dozen children. Most were wearing ragged bits of clothes, offering little protection against the elements. They were lucky, perhaps, that it was still warm. The four of them stopped a short distance from the men and children and Eamon dismounted before his horse was even at a complete stop. He led his two horses by the reins closer to the first man who was carrying a small girl in his arms.

  Alik did not want to get any closer, did not want to hear the words exchanged between the two, because the l
ittle girl was very still in the soldier’s arms. The man took the horse from Eamon and pulled himself up and was gone in the dark before Alik could see too closely and for that, Alik was grateful.

  Then the children were upon them.

  Some walked past Alik like he did not exist, like he was a ghost from a long forgotten place. Others looked up to him and others whispered words of thanks.

  Alik wanted to tell them to say nothing, he had done nothing to help them, to prevent this.

  Then a girl, a young woman really, stumbled and fell against him. He stumbled as well and let go of the reins of the two horses and righted her.

  “Your Highness, I apologize-” she mumbled. For a heartbreaking second, she looked so much like Paige, from the Cerith kingdom, that he felt his heart stop.

  “No need,” he finally said, finally getting his throat to work. Then he saw the small child in her arms, squirming and in pain, but not making a sound despite the tears on his cheeks. “Here, stop, take my horse,” Alik said.

  The young woman blinked and there was the visage of Paige again; green eyes, dark hair, olive skin.

  “Go on,” Alik encouraged. He took the child from her arms and Jericho remained still as she climbed up. He handed the small child up to her.

  “I can take one more,” she murmured.

  Alik turned and saw a young boy limping slowly towards him, one arm around a wolf, Titan, if Alik was correct. His face was set and his eyes were forward but like the child in the girl’s arms, there were tears on his cheeks anyway.

  Alik went to him and without a word, hefted him up in his arms, wrapped the thin arms around his neck and carried him to the girl.

  “Titan,” he murmured.

  She padded alongside him and after Alik had the boy situated on Jericho, they were off, Titan at their side.

  For a brief second, Alik watched them ride away, and when he turned, he saw Eamon watching him. There was a child in his arms and more on the horses he had brought with him. Alik turned, took the reins of his remaining horse and hurried to the back of their sad caravan.

  There was another soldier there, guarding the rear. Godfrey, if Alik was correct.

  “Your Highness,” he said flatly. There was no anger, or if there was, it was hidden behind a mask of perfect control.