* * *
Muir stared at the door long after the prince—for surely that had to have been the prince—had gone. What in the stars had happened?
Testing the privacy of his rooms for once, he risked pulling out the mirror to contact his king and queen. The crack made by the snow waif hadn’t damaged the magic itself, only distorted the image. He activated the runes and waited. Within minutes, the surface shimmered and his queen’s face materialized.
“Muir, I hadn’t expected to hear from you so soon. Did you solve your snow waif mystery?”
“Greetings, Your Majesty. No, I haven’t seen her again. There’s a larger problem on my plate now. I met Prince Joren.”
“Well, that doesn’t seem so awful.”
“He barged into my rooms and demanded I meet him in the gardens with my second, whatever that means. He was quite agitated.”
Anastasia blinked. “Oh dear.”
“What did he mean?”
“Prince Joren has challenged you to a duel, Muir,” she explained. “Your second is meant to be a witness. Whatever did you do to warrant such a confrontation?”
Alistair settled into the frame beside her, the big dragon shifter popping up one brow at him. “I’d like to know that myself. I thought for sure we were sending you because you were the least prone to causing trouble of all the leaders.”
Muir’s chin dipped slightly. “It wasn’t intentional, my king. I believe he thinks I impugned on his sister’s honor. She had a… a fit in the gardens. In my attempt to restrain her and pass on quiet words, it might have appeared that I was taking advantage.”
“Oh dear,” the queen said again. She nibbled her lip and laced her fingers together.
“You’ll have to accept,” Alistair said.
“He didn’t give me much choice. We’re to meet tomorrow at dawn.”
Alistair groaned into one hand. “You very well can’t murder the prince.”
“What would you have me do? He challenged me.”
The dragon shifter dropped his hand to his lap and straightened, raising one red brow. “We’re not blaming you, Muir. I understand you’re in a foreign place quite different from our own, but considering what we are and that he’s only a mere mortal, it would be nothing less than murder.”
Anastasia nodded. “Especially since you would have the choice of weapon as the challenged party, and only a fool would allow him to choose a pistol. Perhaps you can talk some sense into him tonight. Or even tomorrow. Can you, um, walk us through exactly what happened in the gardens?”
“Yes. Explain this fit the princess had. Is she truly so sick?”
“She’s not sick at all,” Muir spat. “She’s been poisoned.”
Both monarchs stared at him.
After skating her teeth against her lower lip, the queen sighed. “That is quite a serious accusation. Have you told the king your suspicions?”
“I have not.”
“But—”
“I believe he is the one poisoning her.”
This time Anastasia rose from her seat and disappeared from the mirror frame, returning moments later with a thick tome. “Tell me everything and leave out no details, Muir. If she’s poisoned, it is of the utmost importance that you tell me every symptom you observed. Perhaps there are notes. A cure.”
Muir’s shoulders dropped with a heavy sigh, and then he described what he knew of their visit to the garden, sparing no detail from his rulers. “And then I returned her to the tower where she appears to be a prisoner. I carried her. By this point, she was in no condition to move by her own power. More than once, she appeared to try to communicate with me as well. She’s completely aware of her surroundings. I’ve seen the behavior of a woman in mourning or shock, Your Majesty. This was neither shock nor grief, but something far more sinister.”
Anastasia rubbed her thumb against her lower lip, pale gray-green eyes narrowed in thought. “I’m inclined to agree. What troubles me is that, if any proper healer had seen her, they would have mentioned the symptoms were a sign of druidane poisoning.”
The unfamiliar name meant nothing to him. He frowned and raked it through his memory, coming up with nothing. “What poisoning?”
“Druidane. It’s an herb used by the old druids of Ridaeron, from a time long before their people ceased to use magic. In small doses, it’s absolutely harmless. It can help a person sleep or calm the nerves.”
“And in a large quantity?”
“Quite the opposite. Psychosis, trembling, convulsions, vomiting, loss of speech, memory loss, possibly even death.”
His gut clenched. “Why would she not have told me this when I met her in the tower?”
“I don’t know. My guess would be she didn’t know if she could trust you. Or perhaps she doesn’t know, exactly, what’s being done to her, though I’d wager it was the former.”
“What should I do?”
“Show up for the duel and try to appeal to the prince. I recommend you bring Captain Vandry with you. If nothing else, her magic will keep the matter fair. Joren is a mage himself.”
“Choose swords as your weapon,” Alistair advised. “He’s quite capable from what I hear, but at least we know for certain you are experienced with a blade.”
Muir nodded.
“And for the love of the stars, don’t kill him if you can manage it,” the queen pleaded. “That will only start a war.”
Chapter
Being trapped in one’s own mind, an observer without the ability to interact, had to be the worst torture ever designed. By the time feeling returned to Rapunzel’s limbs, the sun had long fallen and she was alone in her tower once again. Nausea struck, twisting her stomach into a tight, convulsing knot. She managed to roll to the side and throw up on the floor.
Cool hands stroked against her forehead and pulled the hair back from her face.
“Easy there, lass. I’ve got you.”
Muir. Had he been there when she woke, or had she simply not heard him come in through the window? Whatever the answer, she didn’t care. She emptied her stomach while her body trembled and tears ran down her face, quite beyond embarrassment at someone seeing her in such a state. The man smoothed his hand up and down her spine until she was done, and then he helped her sit up and passed her a glass of water.
“Better?”
“As well as one could be, all things considered,” she croaked.
Surprising her with his tenderness and concern, Muir dabbed her face with a damp cloth and then fluffed the pillows, arranging them behind her back. Then he cleaned the mess.
“You don’t have to do that. I’ll see to it.”
“Drink your water and gather your wits.”
Resigned to his babying her—and also thankful, because the act of vomiting alone had weakened her even further—Rapunzel watched Muir mop up the mess on the floor with a towel. If he was disgusted, he didn’t show it.
“Why did you return?”
“Because I promised you I would. Do you remember?”
“A little. Memories are a little hazy, but I do recall most of what I see and hear.”
“I brought you here after that. You were beginning to come around by then, so I thought it prudent to avoid causing any trouble.”
“I see….” She turned her gaze down to the cup in her hands and struggled to regain her composure.
“Judging by the smell in here, you were drugged further. Liangese poppies, if I’m correct,” he said.
“You can smell that?”
A brief smile lit his otherwise serious features. “Aye. I can smell a great many things normal people cannot.”
“I see.” She sighed and slumped back against the pillows. “Now what will you do? No one will believe you if you try to tell them the truth. My father has spun his web of lies well over the years. I imagine the people who do know, won’t care.”
“What of your brother?”
She hesitated and dropped her gaze from his face. “I don’t know,” she admit
ted in a small voice. “Joren has been away so many years now, though I hope he is the same kind and compassionate man.”
“Well, you can at least rest assured that he cares about you. Quite a bit actually. Enough to demand a duel.”
One brow quirked, and she canted her head. Muir had a deep frown on his face and she imagined, were he in his other form, his feathers would be ruffled and puffed out. “I don’t understand. My brother has challenged someone to a duel over me?”
“Aye, lass, he has. Me. It seems he is under the impression that I… accosted you in a most inappropriate fashion.”
She blinked, certain she had misunderstood him or, more likely, that he had misspoken since Eislander was not his native tongue. “What?”
“In the gardens, when you had a fit, I secured you in my lap so you would not hurt yourself. I believe the guards mistook my actions. Since it allowed me to speak to you in privacy, I did not dissuade them of their notions. Word must have gotten to you brother. He and I are to meet tomorrow at dawn.”
“That’s preposterous, you did no more than any other gentleman caller I’ve received over the years.” During the years prior to James, of course, and perhaps even during those years of their courtship as well.
Muir raised a brow. “Really?”
Rapunzel sniffed. “This isn’t Creag Morden where they bind their women in chastity belts and torture devices to preserve their innocence. I can’t imagine Joren calling you to the dueling green over what happened in the garden. Unless....”
“Unless?”
“Unless they’ve implied you did such when I was unable to resist.”
“I would never.”
The vehemence in his words left no doubt as to the truth behind them.
“But that’s what they think and what they’ve told him, I’m certain. He’d never challenge you otherwise.”
“So it would seem.”
As she stared at him, her gaze roaming across his broad shoulders, muscled arms, and strong legs, a creeping sense of dread pervaded her senses. The man was a giant. Worse, he was a griffin. As capable a swordsman and mage as her brother was, she had doubts regarding his ability to face such a man.
“You can’t duel him.”
“Princess, if you have any idea how to get me out of this fight without impugning my honor, I’d be glad to hear it. I have no wish to harm your brother.”
“I….” He had her there. If he refused to show up or fight, his honor would be ruined and Joren would be free to kill him. “Please. I’ve lost everything else in life that matters to me. I cannot lose my brother too.”
“I’ll do what I can. That’s all I can promise.”
Was it enough? She supposed it would have to be, but a ball of tension kept her throat tight and her hands unsteady. She clasped them together in her lap.
“What will you do now?”
“Exactly what I came here to do. Prove that your father has broken the compact between nations, exactly as Hook described. Not that I’m having an easy time of it.”
“But I thought you’d—”
“Come to be a part of slavery?”
“Well, no, not exactly. Though what little my maid has heard of you and seen hasn’t painted an entirely noble picture. You’ve been overheard seeming to agree with my father on… many things.”
An amused smile crinkled the corners of Muir’s eyes. “Considering the lies your father has told, would you call it wise to take everything seen and heard with a grain of salt?”
“Can you blame me for thinking the worst?”
His lips pursed. “No, I suppose not. Please believe me when I say I am not in agreeance with anything he has done.”
“How can I know that? I know very little about your kingdom. No one knows much about it, beyond the fact that it was an inhospitable place after the war with Dalborough.”
“Quite true, though now that we’ve defeated the Scourge, my homeland is prosperous and fertile once more. We have no need of slaves. We do our own work, tend our soil, sow our fields.”
She had no idea what he meant by Scourge, but her curiosity and caution warred with one another. “How am I to trust you at only your word?”
“Slavery has been outlawed in Cairn Ocland for centuries. It’s no part of our history, Princess. They say centuries ago, the Liangese once wanted to buy some of our brethren—the wolf shifters—as part of the emperor’s royal guard, but our king denied his desires. You could say things have been tense ever since. Now they steal our little ones.”
Rapunzel gasped, palm fluttering to her chest. “They steal children?”
“No, not children, but just as bad, lass. Fae. Our sprites. They come across our borders and steal them with nets, poppy dust, and trickery. Then the smugglers carry them across the sea to Ridaeron where they’re made pets.” He spit the word out with so much contempt and condemnation she saw the anger blazing in his eyes. For a moment, Muir was truly frightening, and her worries of him joining her father were absolutely abated.
This man was no slaver. He hated everything they stood for.
“I’ve never seen such a creature before. Only read of them in books and fairy tales.”
“They’re precious and innocent little creatures who tend to our woodlands, our rivers, our lakes, and even our newborns. Cairn Ocland couldn’t thrive without them. If we shifters are the bones of Cairn Ocland, then surely the fae are the heart and soul. You have similar, I think. Your snow waifs. I met one only a few days ago.”
“Snow waifs? Whatever do you—oh! Oh, you must mean….” She lifted her hand to her mouth and laughed, ducking her gaze while warmth bloomed in her cheeks.
“What’s so funny?”
“I have a confession, Lord—”
“Muir,” he interrupted. “Only Muir.”
“All right. I have a confession, Muir. About the, ah, snow waif you chased in the gardens.”
His eyes narrowed and focused on her with disconcerting intensity. “I mentioned nothing of a chase.”
“I know. It was me. I’m the one who attacked you and broke your mirror, and I’m terribly sorry. It was unworthy and unkind of me. I was so angry, and I thought you were—well, at the time you seemed in league with my father, and I suppose I still harbored some hurt over James. Still, it’s no excuse.”
He blinked at her, his eyes wide and owlish. “You? You are the snow nymph?”
“I’d hardly call myself a nymph.”
“You never returned.”
“Yes, well, it’s not always easy.” She picked at a thread on her dress and avoided looking at him.
“I worried about you,” he said.
She tried not to grin at his accusing voice, but there was such indignance in his expression she couldn’t help it. “I’m sorry. Truly, I am. When I saw his face, I lost my temper and behaved childishly.”
The anger dimmed and pity remained, banishing what remained of her humor. Rapunzel sighed.
She didn’t want this lord’s pity. She didn’t want him to see a sad girl who couldn’t escape her father. She wanted….
Gods, she didn’t even know what she wanted anymore.
“I could rescue you now.” The earnest emotion in the intruding words snapped Rapunzel out of her thoughts.
“Truly?”
“Yes. I could fly you to the Twilight Witch, and we could set sail within the hour before anyone knew you were missing.”
“But then you wouldn’t be able to finish your mission here.”
“You could stand as witness to the slavery here.”
“I haven’t witnessed actual slavery. I only overheard my father and Admiral Teach discussing the importation of them to our land. What’s worse, is that he’s also poisoned this entire kingdom against me. I’m known as an insane, muttering fool who wore her heart on her sleeve until it was trampled into the ground. My word is no testimony, Muir. I can’t tell you where they operate or which ships smuggle them to Eisland. I can provide nothing.”
; “Why not escape on your own?”
“My magic only lets me control the snow to a degree. I don’t actually transform and leave the tower. No one knows, not even my maid. It’s my one small bit of freedom bought at the expense of years of practice.” She smiled sadly and raised both wrists for his inspection. “These are my shackles.”
“I’ve read of these in one of the texts in the castle library. They bind magic.”
“Yes. My own father had them placed on me when he discovered I had learned the deadly arts.”
“Is that what your people call magic?”
“When it’s a woman who wields it, yes. In Eisland, women are only permitted to practice healing magic. I was tutored in such things, but, well, Joren taught me other lessons in secret.”
“How did your father discover it?”
“After I heard him and the admiral, I threatened to tell Joren and mother. The next day he had me down for tea.”
“And drugged you.”
“Yes. I found out later I’d injured a few guards. Without control over myself, I must have lashed out.”
“An understandable instinct.” He shook his hair back off his shoulders and stood. “May I assume that your brother doesn’t know the truth?”
“He thinks I’m sick. He would never condone this.”
“Then I shall face him tomorrow and see if I can sway him with words.”
“If you can convince my brother you have a common enemy, he may join you in seeking the evidence you need. Joren is no slaver. My brother could never stand for such barbaric behavior. There was once a time when I would have said the same thing about my father, but he’s not the same man anymore. He’d been blinded by his ambition and need for this country to prosper.” She shivered and wrapped both arms around herself. What would become of Eisland if her father was proven guilty by the leaders of the compact? He’d already dissolved the council who once provided oversight.
“You would stay here at your father’s mercy?”
“For Eisland? Yes.”
* * *
They met on the palace dueling green at dawn, the sun a mere slice of gold against the distant, snow-dusted hills below the castle. Joren brought Fillian as his second along with two members of his personal guard and the palace healer. His father couldn’t be bothered to rouse before dawn, even for a fight to the death between his heir and honored guest.
Rapunzel and the Griffin Prince Page 9