“For now, I’m going to assume that you aren’t fine,” Ben said quietly. “I’m also going to assume you don’t want my arm for a proper escort. So if you know how to get out of here, I’ll follow your lead. Otherwise you can follow me.”
“I-I want to find my uncle still.”
He nodded, brow furrowed, and a small frown tugged his lips. “As long as you’re still comfortable being here. Let me know if you need me to make a ruckus and let you escape or something drastic.”
A hollow laugh escaped Jade. The last time something drastic had happened in this palace on her behalf, her friend had been whipped. She wasn’t going to let that happen again.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ben
Ben followed Jade out into the garden and frowned when she swiped a hand by her eyes as she walked. I hadn’t meant to make her cry. Or was that because of the prince?
Honestly, between what Briar had shared with him on their supply run the day prior, and what Zak had mentioned before Ben had left with Jade, he knew exactly who Prince Weston was. He didn’t know the full story of what happened, but what he did know was more than enough—and if the prince had tried anything with Jade, Ben was prepared to do whatever was necessary to get her out in one piece.
But physically defending her was one thing. Emotionally protecting her was another. She hadn’t turned around since they entered the gardens, but her face dipped forward, and every time she moved her hand by her eyes, he could see the telltale glisten of tears. Ben clenched the steam-pistol. He had to get her back to the Sapphire, where Krista could cheer her up.
They passed through a white marble archway and into yet another hallway. He’d known the palace would be large—but it was another thing to see just how sprawling it was. Countless corridors, rooms, hallways, and offshoots leading to who-knew-where created a maze that left Ben at the mercy of Jade’s memory of the layout. He easily kept pace behind her and glanced over his shoulder occasionally, making sure the prince wasn’t following.
“Where do you think your uncle is?” he asked.
Jade paused at a split in the hall. She bit her lip and shrugged. “I’m not sure. Right now, he could be anywhere, and I don’t want to risk running into him again.”
Ben nodded, unsurprised, and moved to block one of the entryways. He ducked to look up at her downturned face. Red-rimmed eyes shifted away from his gaze. “Hey.” He tucked a finger under her chin and gently raised her head, then dropped his hand. “Let’s ask a guard if they know where your uncle is. Then we can go directly to him and reduce the risk of running into Weston again. Right?”
Jade chewed on her bottom lip before nodding with a sigh. “I suppose we could ask.”
Ben pressed his hand against his pocket, confirming the crinkle of paper there. He couldn’t afford to forget to deliver the letter if they did find her uncle. He looked around the bland hallway—Haven’t these people ever heard of a thing called color?—and spotted a guard standing outside a doorway. Ben turned back to Jade. “Wait here.” He trotted over to the silver-and-black-clad man.
“Excuse me, sir.” He stopped an arm’s length away. “My friend and I are looking for her uncle Andre. Do you know where he might be?” Ben grimaced to himself. He didn’t even know her uncle’s last name. The captain’s never mentioned a brother, so I assume it’s not Stohner.
Metal clanked as the guard turned on his spot to see Jade. His eyebrows disappeared under his black cap. “I assume you are referring to Sir Catalina?”
“Uh, yes.” Ben bluffed.
The guard shifted his grip on his spear and pointed to a doorway on Jade’s left. “Down that way; check the library or the study room.”
“Thank you, sir.” Ben bent at the waist in an awkward bow and walked back to Jade. He offered her his arm and a reassuring smile. “Let’s go find your uncle.”
Jade hesitated for a heartbeat, looking from his arm to his face. He smiled softly, hoping she could somehow feel his desire to shield her. Her fearless friendship and now vulnerability had awoken a protectiveness that had been buried under the foggy murk of his mind. The sorrow and uncertainty in her eyes faded, replaced with the spark that he’d grown accustomed to seeing on her.
A flash of a smile. Blonde hair. A feminine whisper, “You’ll come home, right?”
His own voice, “I’ll be back. I promise.”
Ben blinked away the memory, shaken. Sara. Now he recognized her voice and could match it to her name. But he still didn’t know who she was to him. But she wanted him to come home to her. He lifted a trembling hand to the ring that dangled on the necklace buried under his shirt. Am I married, and I don’t even remember my own wife?
Jade touched his arm, uncertainty swimming in her eyes. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, fine.” Ben sucked in a quick breath. “Just”–honesty—“another hint of a memory. Nothing major, but still, something.”
“That’s wonderful!” Jade enthused, the tension in her shoulders disappearing entirely as she beamed. “Every little bit counts. What did you remember?”
“Sara.” Too late, Ben realized that perhaps that wasn’t the most tactful of things to say, as Jade’s excitement visibly dimmed before she plastered a smile on.
“Well, that’s something,” she replied before turning in the direction the guard had pointed. “Maybe you’ll be able to remember where you’re from soon, too.”
Ben let his arm drop and followed her into a cavernous library. She hesitated in the doorway, then started a clockwise search through the room. Her face lit up when she found a muscular man with bits of gray streaked in his brown hair reading and taking notes at a table.
“Uncle!” Jade called out, and his head snapped up, his pen raised above the paper. Sorrow flashed through his eyes even as he smiled, and Jade embraced him. She turned to introduce Ben.
“Meet my Uncle Andre.” Jade’s tremulous smile reached her eyes fully.
“A pleasure.” Andre bowed as he clasped Ben’s forearm in a firm shake, his eyes clear and warm.
“Likewise.” Ben looked at Jade, then Andre. “I’m guessing you’re related through Samantha?”
Jade laughed and shook her head. “Uncle Andre is actually a family friend who worked for my Doldran relatives before the fall of the Doldran royalty. He survived, obviously.” She smiled brightly at Andre, and he reciprocated with a brief nod, his lips twisted in a half grimace, half smile. “He’s been looking out for me my whole childhood, and he taught me most of what I know about weapons.” A shrug caused Jade’s curls to bounce. “He’s my uncle.”
“I suppose that makes sense.” Ben set the steam gun on the table. He pulled a sealed letter out of his pocket and held it out to Andre. “Zak asked me to deliver this to you.”
“Did he now?” Andre accepted the envelope and inspected the green-and-black wax imprint before he edged the knife blade under the hard seal and popped it open. He leaned back in his chair and scanned the letter with a thoughtful expression, his left hand casually twirling his knife. His eyebrows twitched as he read, and after several minutes of silence, Andre harrumphed, folded the paper, and slid it into the breast pocket of his open gray jacket. “I don’t always have the luxury of time to leave the palace to visit him when he’s in town, so I appreciate you bringing this.”
“Of course.” Ben stood back, legs hip-width apart, arms clasped behind his back, while Jade and Andre sat at the table and caught up with small pleasantries. Deep blue carpet sprawled through the library—the first concession to color that he’d seen in the palace that wasn’t under Queen Violet’s direct control, as her meeting room had been. Two balcony floors stretched up over their heads, and bookshelves lined the walls in an impressive display of literary knowledge.
“So, Ben.” Andre closed the book on the table and leaned back, his blue eyes analyzing. “I’ve heard you know a bit about fighting.”
Ben turned and looked over his shoulder at Andre and Jade. “That’s right. We’ve
been able to determine that hand-to-hand is my best form. But Zak has been trying to teach me how to use a staff.”
Andre rubbed his chin and nodded. “And I heard you helped save Jade and Krista from a terror several weeks ago.” His eyebrow lifted. “And you got injured in that adventure.”
Ben flexed his stiff hands and held them up with a halfhearted shrug. “They’ve healed quite a bit already, thanks to Doctor Jaxton and his abilities.” Light reflected off his shiny skin, and he rubbed a knuckle absently. “They’re sensitive around heat, of course. Jaxton tried doing some sort of time-spell to speed the healing, but it didn’t work, so we’re only using potions and poultices.”
“Ah,” Jade said from the chair that she perched in. “I wondered why he hadn’t healed them faster. That makes sense.”
A gleam in Andre’s eye put Ben on the defensive. “Why do you ask?”
Andre tapped a finger against the steam-pistol that Ben had laid on the table. “I see his highness gave you the pistol, Jade.”
Jade rubbed her forehead and grimaced when her corset prevented her from slouching in the chair. “I don’t want it, so I gave it to Ben.”
“Sounds like a fair idea.” Andre stood and smoothed out the creases in his burgundy shirt and tugged his jacket into place. “I can only assume you haven’t been shown how to use it. I’d feel more comfortable with you escorting my niece, knowing you’ve gotten some practice in on that thing.”
Ben gripped the back of the chair in front of him as he watched Jade’s face turn pink. “Fine by me. When would be a good time for some practice?”
Andre’s eyes dropped to Ben’s hands. “No time like the present, if you can handle it.”
Ben flexed his fingers into fists, evaluating their tenderness. The uncomfortable tugging in his palms might make things difficult, but no more so than carrying the heavy bag of food yesterday in the marketplace. “Now’s fine. Lead on.”
Andre led Ben and Jade through the palace and to an outdoor ring that was clearly used for combat or training. A rounded wall opposite them held a variety of weapons on racks, but it stood alone, allowing air to flow freely through the open training area. Black marble pillars held up the ceiling, and gaslight sconces flickered on each obelisk.
Ben pivoted on his boot and craned his neck as he surveyed the open-walled room. “Nice place.”
“Indeed.” Andre shed his formal jacket and draped it over a low bench by a rack of swords. He removed his tool belt and several low-slung pouches, then walked over to a locker and pulled out two heavy leather jackets and two sets of gloves. He tossed Ben a jacket and held up the gloves. “See if you can get these on your hands. You really don’t want to risk getting re-burned.”
Ben shuddered. “Burns on top of burns. No, thank you.” He held his hand up against the glossy leather to compare fit before he slipped them on, wincing as the material rubbed his sensitive skin.
“Jade,” Andre called. He pointed to a target on the far side, by a large rack of bows and arrows. “Could you please move that to the center of the room?”
Ben waited until Jade was halfway across the training arena before he decided to ask the question that had been on his mind ever since he learned that Andre and Zak had been friends for years. “Can I ask you something?”
Andre nodded as he set a handful of metal spheres on a nearby table. “What’s on your mind?”
Ben glanced over to make sure Jade wasn’t within earshot. “Do you have any idea why Zak is treating Jade the way he is? What scared him off from pursuing her?”
Andre dropped one of the bullets and he picked it up, stuffing it into the pistol with a muttered curse. His lips compressed into a thin line as he watched Jade finish dragging the target to its location. He looked at Ben, his eyes filled with a promise of deadly intent that sent shivers down Ben’s spine. “It wasn’t me, if that’s what you’re wondering. But if I had heard of his attraction first, I would’ve been the one to warn him away.” He picked up the pistol, loosened a rotating handle, and flipped a switch, then added, his tone mild yet dark, “Her place is not with either of you.”
Ben nodded silently as Jade approached, her smile easy and eyes bright.
“Ready when you are!” She passed them to stand by the table, out of the way of where they’d be shooting.
Ben tried to push the conversation to the back of his mind while Andre showed the specific order of how to load, unload, refill, clean, and shoot the steam-pistol. But something in Andre’s words niggled at Ben: her place.
Where was Ben’s place? And how would he get back?
Did he want to go back if he couldn’t remember everything? Would it be better to start a new life here, with the friends he was making, and help the captain protect the lands?
Could he really consider starting a new life here, when he didn’t know who was waiting for him to come home?
“Your turn to try.” Andre handed the steam-pistol to Ben, and he realized to his chagrin that he’d zoned out for the last half of Andre’s instructions.
Ben held the weapon in his hands, familiarizing himself with its weight. He lifted it and looked down the sight at the target, visualizing it and pushing away all distractions until it was just him and the target. He squeezed the trigger. Steam puffed and swirled around his arms, but didn’t touch him.
Andre took a few steps forward as he stared. “Did…did you hit the center on the first shot?”
Jade whooped. “Looks like it to me!”
“I’m surprised,” Andre admitted. “It took me quite a while to even hit the edge of the target. Do it again to prove it wasn’t luck.”
Ben reloaded the pistol with ease, his hands moving almost of their own accord, as if the action was remembered by his muscles, not his mind. He aimed and shot again. A second near-bull’s-eye.
Andre whistled lowly and shook his head, eyebrows raised. “You’re a natural. I’ve never seen anyone pull that off. Everyone who’s ever tried that contraption took a long time to even get close to the mark. You’ve hit it twice. And,” he lifted a bullet and handed it to Ben, “you remembered how to reload without any reminders. You must be an incredibly fast learner.”
Ben hefted the metal ball in his hand and looked between it and the gun. How did he know how to use this? Why was he so good at it?
“Shoot it again, please,” Jade begged, her eyes sparkling. “That was amazing.”
Ben obliged for several more shots before the water tank needed to be refilled. He set it down and unscrewed the glass holder.
“I can do it for you.” Jade offered with a grin. She touched the steam-pistol with a cautious finger. “Funny, how it’s not nearly so ugly a thing when it’s in your hands, versus his.”
Andre’s lips twisted as he looked aside. “He’s improving, Jade. Give Weston time.”
She huffed an incredulous laugh and shook her head with an eye roll. “When whales fly.” She grabbed the water tank and stalked over to a large cylinder of water.
Ben lifted the gun and ran his fingers over it, wondering at his mind’s insistence that there should be a bump here, a smooth spot there. Why does this seem so familiar?
Andre pulled out the note from Zak and jotted something down on the paper, then slipped it back into the original envelope. He strolled to a nearby gaslight sconce and flicked open the glass. He drew a slender wax stick from his pocket and stuck it into the flame, rotated it slowly for several moments, and moved it over the envelope, allowing the crimson sealant to drip over Zak’s seal. A quick press of Andre’s ring into the soft wax finished his business, and he blew out his burgundy stick.
He handed the letter to Ben. “Please return this to Zak.”
“Roger that.”
Andre blinked, and his brow knit in confusion.
Ben shifted. “I mean, of course.”
“Thank you.” Andre’s eyes roamed over Ben and rested on the chain around his neck. He gestured. “May I?”
Ben hesitated, remembering L
ance’s panic over the metal necklace. Jade’s uncle is trustworthy, right? He slipped it off and handed it to Andre. Jade leaned over the table to look at the plates as well. This time, Ben’s gaze was glued to the innocuous-looking ring that lay next to the plates.
Andre rubbed the metal and peered at the numbers and name imprinted on them. “I’ve never seen anything like this.” He handed them to Jade to scrutinize. “And you still don’t remember where you’re from?”
“No.” Ben accepted the chain back from her and slipped it over his neck, taking care to tuck the two bits of metal under his shirt.
Andre seemed to sense Ben’s discomfort and turned away, scooping the bullets into a small pouch. “I’ll locate the mold to make more spheres, as you won’t be finding anything like this in the market for quite a while.” He handed the bag to Ben, then looked to Jade. “Do you know when your father will meet with the advisor?”
Jade shrugged and brushed a hand down her skirt. “I think this afternoon? Not too sure, but I’m hoping that we’ll have a clue or something to follow. Life is never dull when we’re hunting after Dad’s goals.”
Andre snorted at Jade’s words and shook his head with an odd expression. “Life is never dull with Slate as your father, no.” He pulled a pocket watch from his pants pocket and glanced at it. “I’m truly sorry to say this, but I need to get going.” His blue eyes flicked up at Jade, then away as he clicked his watch together. “Prince Weston is expecting me in five minutes to review politics between Doldra and Perennia.”
Jade wrinkled her nose and hugged Andre. “I’m glad we got to see you.”
“Me too.” Andre brushed a kiss against the crown of her head and held a hand out for Ben to shake. “Good to meet you, Ben. I enjoyed watching you practice. And I’ll get the rest of the supplies sent to you as soon as possible.” Andre dropped his gaze down to his niece’s head. “Thank you for escorting her,” he added softly.
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