The Decoy Princess

by Dawn Cook

  I bit my lip in dismay. Garrett couldn’t die. It would ruin everything!

  The princess stood with her hand over her mouth as Prince Garrett laughed. He nearly pulled the guards down as they struggled to keep him upright. “He’s mad,” she said, her eyes wide in a fortunate misunderstanding. “He is utterly mad! First he kills my parents, then takes over the palace, and now he thinks my kingdom is ruled by a farmer!”

  I blinked. My gaze shifted between Kavenlow and Jeck. Prince Garrett was mad? That would work. Sent home in disgrace as mad. He would never be taken seriously again. Garrett’s life would be a living hell. The warm spot in me grew brighter.

  The princess lifted her skirts to delicately sidestep the dead guard, the most disturbing thing being that the sight of a disemboweled man upon my rug didn’t faze her at all. Her face was severe as she settled herself before me, her white dress somehow still spotless. Chu pits, how does she do it?

  “You didn’t listen to me,” she accused. “I told you to follow me. You disobeyed the very first order I gave you. It was the very first order I gave anyone.”

  I shifted uncomfortably, caught in my lie. It didn’t matter I was taller than her; I still felt like a child. “I was going to,” I said. “After I made the palace safe for you—ah—Your Highness.”

  She smiled. All her ire drifted to nothing. “As if I could ever be angry with you, Tess. Come on. There’s a fire in our parents’ room. Let me look at your hand in the light. I often helped the nuns heal the lame and bury the destitute.”

  She took my arm and led me out. Duncan had Thadd’s elbow, pulling the reluctant sculptor into a corner to tell him of his battle. I passed Kavenlow, his desire to demand an explanation from me heavy on him. I ignored Jeck’s worried frown for whether I would hold to our agreement. It could wait. They all could wait. It would do the men good.

  The air in the hallway was cool, and the Costenopolie guards had moved the battered Misdev men somewhere. “Put the captain in my old cell,” I heard the captain of my father’s guard say, and I drew to a stop.

  “Please, Princess Contessa,” I said, stumbling over the words. “Captain Jeck—this isn’t his fault. He tried to protect me from Prince Garrett—at the end.”

  She smiled to look like our mother. “Call me Contessa,” she said. “I hate the princess part, and since you’re the only one who has the right to call me by my real name, I wish you would.” She looked back into the room. “Captain Jeck is to be confined to a stateroom as well as Prince Garrett. The captain treated me with the utmost civility when he took me prisoner, and I will return his kindness. I want to hear what Tess says concerning what happened before I decide anything. Keep the palace gates manned from a distance. I don’t want the streets to know what has happened until I do.” She took my arm, her eyes worried. “Tess, I need your help in finding a way to tell my neighbor his son is insane.”

  Kavenlow caught my gaze and smiled. I couldn’t help but grin back as the princess escorted me down the halls that were once again mine.

  Thirty-five

  “Will yourattle your teacup a mite softer? You’re going to wake her,” Kavenlow said, his voice slipping from the next room and into my sleep to stir me awake.

  “But the morning is almost gone,” Duncan complained, his tone more conniving than respectful. “She’s got to see them. If she waits, they might take them down.”

  Kavenlow chuckled. “They won’t come down until she says so. She’s behind them somehow. I know it.”

  Curiosity pulled my eyes open. “Behind what?” I shouted, staring at my wall. My beautiful barren white wall with no dirt or leaves or sticks.

  “Tess!” Duncan called from my sitting room. “Get dressed. It’s almost noon. Hurry up. You have an appointment with the princess.”

  I flung the heavy covers from me. I’d never slept so late. But then I’d been up half the night: ferreting out Prince Garrett’s guards, freeing the cook and sentries from under Banner, telling Kavenlow of the agreement I’d come to with Jeck. “An appointment?” I called as I splashed tepid water on my face. “I didn’t make an appointment.”

  “The princess did,” Kavenlow said dryly. “She is slipping into her new role with a frightening sureness. Put on something nice.”

  He sounded irate, and I dressed quickly, arranging my hair with my usual darts and a new dart pipe Kavenlow had given me. I fingered the bullwhip, then left it on my bedside table. It had failed me; the darts hadn’t. The back of my dress half-undone, I went to the doorway of my sitting room to find Duncan and Kavenlow resting companionably at my small table.

  Duncan had found his tattered boots, and his heels were among the empty dishes and plates strewn before them. Kavenlow gazed wearily out my window to the mangled gardens. A cow ambled across my line of vision, a sight both disturbing and amusing. There was a new colorful rug where the Misdev guard had been, and the scented candle still burned to cover the lingering smell of death. It struck me how easily the permanence of death could be covered up.

  “Could one of you lace my dress for me?” I said, and they both started.

  “Sit,” Kavenlow said darkly to Duncan as the thief pulled his feet from the table.

  Embarrassed, I turned so Kavenlow could reach the laces. He tugged gently as he moved upward, leaving me more room to breathe than Heather ever did. Heather, I thought. I’d send a runner for her. She was probably worried sick. “Thank you,” I said as he finished.

  He made a soft noise of agreement. “Sleep well?” he asked and held a chair for me.

  “Yes, thank you.” As I sat, his ring, still on its cord about my neck, swung into my sight. Eyes crinkled, I pulled it up and over my head. “I forgot to give this to you last night,” I said, extending it toward him on my palm.

  Kavenlow eased himself into his chair. Smiling from behind his graying beard, he reached across the table. The ring disappeared into his thick hands. “Thank you.” He cut the cord with his dagger and replaced the band of gold on his finger, clearly relieved.

  Duncan looked between us, clearly knowing something had happened but not what. His shirt was hanging out from the rope holding up his trousers, and his boots had clearly not seen oil in quite some time. With that nasty attempt at a beard, he looked like a vagabond. There was nothing in him of the dangerous man I’d seen in the cells below the guard’s quarters, even if his eyes were glinting rather roguishly. I wondered if I had imagined his hidden strength in the heat of the moment.

  The light glinted on Kavenlow’s ring as he poured a cup of long-cold tea for me. “If you will excuse me, Princess Contessa wanted to know when you awoke. She has requested to see you at your earliest convenience.” His eyes tightened in warning. “That means now, Tess.”

  I nodded and sipped my tea. Saint’s bells, but she could wait until I had breakfast.

  “There’s to be a coronation this afternoon in the city square,” Kavenlow continued as he stood. “The official one will be during the summer festival when her neighbors will be here.”

  A coronation instead of a wedding. It would be the grandest event I’d ever plan. I would make Contessa shine. No gypsies, though.

  “Other than that, your day is yours. I suggest you stay clear of the streets for a while.”

  Wincing at his wry tone, I took an apple from a bowl. I did have to collect my horses.

  “I’ll see you at supper, Duncan,” Kavenlow said. He gave me a nod and left, having to use two hands to shift the door since it hung loose on its hinges.

  Duncan waved a careless hand in dismissal and continued to shove cold toast into his mouth. The silence grew, and I became uncomfortable. Though the door was cracked ajar, I’d never had anyone alone with me in my room but for Heather and Kavenlow. I wasn’t the crown princess. It was the small things that would likely take the longest to get used to.

  “How’s Tuck?” I asked, knowing Duncan had spent the night in the stables with his horse. It was his choice, not anyone’s request.


  “Fine,” he said brightly around a mouthful, then swallowed. “He needed a solid brushing. And he’s thin. That captain all but starved him on the way back.” He hesitated as if I might say something, and when I didn’t, he added, “but he’s all right.”

  The tea was too cold to enjoy. Setting it aside, I tucked the apple into a draping sleeve for my new gelding. It was my first official day as a commoner; I didn’t know what to do.

  “So how about it?” Duncan asked.

  I looked up in bewilderment. “How about what?”

  “You’re done.” He propped his heels on the table and clasped his hands behind his head. “You saved the princess, rescued the kingdom, blah, blah, blah . . . Are you coming with me?”

  Surprised, I straightened in my chair. “I—uh—thought you would stay.”

  Duncan shook his head, not looking at me. “No.” A hint of shadow was in his voice, a hue of power, a whisper of a past unshared. It was there. I hadn’t imagined it.

  I slowly let out my breath. “I can’t,” I said, stifling a shiver when I found I was tempted.

  He took his heels from the table and leaned across it. The brown of his eyes fixed on me. I knew he saw my fluster, and as I watched, his mien of capable but friendly cheat dissolved to leave a dangerous man I knew nothing about. “Why not?” he asked, his voice soft.

  “I—I told you,” I stammered. “I won’t make my way by stealing.”

  “I’m not asking you to.” The intensity in his tone pulled my gaze up. “You can do people’s books, or write their letters for them, or nothing at all. You don’t ever have to play another hand with me. I like you, Tess. I want you to come with me.”

  “Contessa needs me,” I said, then my breath caught. “Y-you like me?”

  Leaning back in his chair, he picked up the last piece of toast. His air of bound portent vanished like one of his cards. “Well, yeah,” he said lightly. “I’m still here, aren’t I?” He shoved the wedge of toast into his mouth and rose. He held out his hand, then drew it back and wiped it on the back of his trousers. “I want to show you something,” he said as he extended it.

  I stared. It was gone. He had let slip enough of his true danger to pique my interest, then hid it away. My words to Heather resonated in my mind. A man of power, not necessarily wealth. Saint’s bells, I was a fool. A very confused fool who couldn’t hide behind being a princess anymore.

  Swallowing, I took his hand, not wanting to let him know how muddled I was. His grip was warm in mine, the calluses on his fingers soft. I remembered their strength on my shoulder and neck, and a warm tingle rose through me. “What is it?” I said as I got to my feet.

  “You can see it from your window.”

  Curiosity overwhelmed caution, and I let him draw me to the window. He left his hand upon my shoulder as he stood behind me. My breath caught as I saw the city.

  Flags. The city was draped with flags. From the tops of the buildings to the lower spires of the church, they hung from walls, and roofs, and trees. And they were all alike: gold with three black bars slashing diagonally across them. “Captain Borlett’s flag!” I exclaimed, tearing my gaze away to look over my shoulder at Duncan. “Is he here? But how?” Amazed, I leaned forward to scan the harbor and the paltry few ships resting there. “And why?”

  There was a scuffing behind me. I didn’t turn, recognizing Kavenlow’s grumble as he edged around my broken door. He settled behind me, and Duncan’s hand slid away with a reluctant slowness. “We thought you might be able to tell us what they meant,” Kavenlow said.

  I shook my head, at a loss for words. Apart from the flag atop the Sandpiper there was only the one in my pack. And Heather had that. “Heather!” I cried, my gaze on the distant blur of streets. “Heather must have found Captain Borlett’s flag in my things. I told her to rally support for me. To tell the people the truth, that I didn’t run away. She must have told them to fly it so I would know they believed me. They believe me!” I said, elated. I stared at the scores of banners unfurled in the morning breeze, each one a shout that I was trusted, that my word was good enough for them.

  “Of course they believe you,” Kavenlow said gruffly. “Did you honestly think they would believe a Misdev prince?”

  I suppose not,” I said as I turned. “But look at all of them . . .”

  Kavenlow made a worried sound. “Yes. I was going to put the crown on Contessa this afternoon, but perhaps you should so everyone sees you accept her as your sovereign.”

  “Yes, all right,” I said, not really caring. I looked past Kavenlow at the scraping of boots in the hallway. It was a sentry. After over a week in a cell, his clothes hung loosely upon him, but he was clean-shaven and alert. “Kavenlow? Princess?” he said as he came to stand apologetically just inside the broken doorway. “They are ready for you.”

  “Of course.” Kavenlow reached for my arm. So did Duncan. Kavenlow frowned and physically removed Duncan’s hand from me. “It’s a private audience,” he said without a trace of apology, and Duncan shrugged good-naturedly. He remained with the guard when we left. It occurred to me that Duncan, a self-proclaimed cheat and probable thief, was in the unique position of being known by all the palace guards. Having freed them, he had their trust and could breeze freely into every part of the palace as if invisible. I wasn’t sure that was entirely a good thing.

  The hallway had been washed clean of last night’s ugliness. The news of our retaking of the palace had gone out this morning, and from the looks of it, most of the usual palace staff was back. Every window was open, and the cool spring air swept to the corners. A bowl of uneaten, untrampled flowers was at the end of the hall. Violets. My favorite.

  “Have you talked with Captain Jeck?” I asked as we went down the first stairs.

  “Yes,” he said, lips barely moving. “I don’t like going into an alliance this openly. Trust doesn’t come easily to me, Tess. Watch him closely.”

  I went silent, concerned. I had no delusions that Jeck’s motives in saving Prince Garrett’s life were anything other than to keep his own hide intact. Still, we were coming out of this better than I could have imagined. “Didn’t he help you cloud Garrett’s thoughts?” I asked.

  Kavenlow ran a hand down his tidy beard in worry. “Captain Jeck and I worked until nearly sunrise under the guise of interrogating Prince Garrett. Neither one of us is good at manipulating memories. All we managed was to shift a few key thoughts so he appears to be more insane than a man lost at sea. There will be no breach of confidence.”

  “Good,” I said, relieved. I didn’t want the question of broken rules hanging over me. We continued throughout the palace, making brief greetings and assuring the staff that we were well. My face went cold as I found myself in the hallway leading to the solarium. “Why here?” I said, pulling Kavenlow to a halt before the guards standing at the door.

  Kavenlow’s eyes were sad. “It’s all right, Tess. This is where she feels most at home. The garden is duplicated at the convent. Except the statues there are of you.”

  Surprised, I let myself be led in. My tension eased at the changes. The round table where my parents had died was gone. Even the paving stones had been torn up, replaced with new plants too small for the space. I had been to my parents’ grave last night with Banner, explaining everything to them by torch and moonlight, asking for their forgiveness. If it were up to me, I’d consecrate the ground and let them rest among the laurels and ivy.

  Kavenlow led me to a distant corner where the sun shone dappled through large potted trees. The princess sat with Thadd at a table, her long, fair hair falling freely to rest amongst their clasped hands as they discussed a topic known only to them. The sculptor had shoes now, and a new shirt. It looked tight, but I was willing to wager it was the only thing to be found on such short notice to fit him. Several aides stood nearby, following their practice of staying in the background. I waved my fingers at them and got happy smiles in return.

  My pulse quickened as I found Jeck sta
nding a small distance apart. Though his Misdev uniform was clean, he looked irate. He had on his gaudy monstrosity of a hat, making him look foolish despite his trim and powerful build. Too many guards stood by him. He wore no chains, but he had no sword, either. I touched my hip where a sword would hang, and he shrugged.

  The princess looked up when Kavenlow cleared his throat. “Tess,” she called eagerly, and my heart ached at how much she sounded like our mother. “Come and sit. I’ve been waiting.”

  “Good morning, Princess. I trust you slept well,” I said formally.

  “Oh, don’t,” she almost moaned as she indicated a chair to her other side. “I am so sick of that I could throw my chamber pot out the window. Please talk normally to me? I can take it from the guards and such, but not you.”

  I grinned and nodded in understanding as the aides shifted uncomfortably. And whereas I always had to bow to proper decorum, she had a capital-fine excuse to ignore it, being raised by wolves, so to speak. The next few months were going to be rather interesting as she met her neighbors. “Good morning, Contessa,” I amended. “Sleep well?”

  Sighing in relief, she bobbed her head to look artlessly alluring.

  Captain Jeck took a step forward to help me with my chair. The nearest guard half pulled his sword in response, and Jeck fell back in exasperation. Thadd got to his feet as Kavenlow helped me with my chair. All the men remained standing, Kavenlow pointedly putting himself between the princess and Captain Jeck.

  “Thank you for coming to see me, Tess. I just don’t know what to do,” the princess said as she resettled herself, and I cringed inside at her admitting it where others could overhear. Maybe being a bumpkin princess might not be such a good idea.

  Seeing my face, her eyes widened and she flushed. “I find myself in a somewhat tight spot, and I would like your advice,” she amended, making her words clear and precise. She managed a courtly accent, and I wondered if she had been practicing. “I can’t marry Prince Garrett. But if I remain husbandless, I remain an enticing target for the next Red Moon Prophesy assassin.”