JUST AS I was gathering the courage to sneak past the exit, the herald blew his horn to clear the room. I stood a little straighter as Prince Blayne and Princess Wrendolyn were announced to the crowd. The non-heir emerged shortly thereafter, and it was only after he shot me an expectant look that I realized I was supposed to follow. Well, how am I supposed to read your mind when you won’t talk to me? If Darren hadn’t been so busy flirting with the ladies of court, he could’ve warned me about their entrance.
I hurried to the front, ignoring the snickers as I took my seat at the head table and prayed my face wasn’t as red as it felt.
“I like your dress.”
I glanced over to the speaker and found myself face to face with Blayne’s new bride. Her eyes were bright.
“Thank you, Princess,” I mumbled.
She smiled. “You can call me ‘Wren,’ Lady Ryiah. Is it okay if I call you just ‘Ryiah?’ Because if it’s not, I—”
Lucius stood, goblet in hand, and the rest of her words fell away. The king’s voice as decisive as steel; it was the first time I’d ever heard him address a crowd. The man’s hair might be white, but his manner cut like an axe. There was no question he held the room’s attention.
“Today marks the beginning of a new reign. For the first time in our great nations’ history, Jerar and Pythus sit united as one. I toast to my firstborn son and his new bride, a lovely addition to the Crown. May the both of you live long and prosperous with many heirs to come.”
My tongue grew heavy in my mouth. What did Blayne’s marriage mean for Darren and me? The king had promised our wedding after the Pythian negotiations, but until now I’d all but forgotten in the chaos.
Darren caught me studying him, a muscle ticked in his jaw, and then he returned to scowling at the tapestry across the way.
I ground my teeth. This is going to be a long night.
Lucius continued on with a stern order for quiet. “This new treaty should dissuade the Caltothians for now, but it won’t promise us peace. I’ve given Emperor Liang and King Joren my word Jerar will not initiate a war, but make no mistake, the next time King Horrace strikes, we’ll have the strength of the alliance behind us.”
A murmur of dissent started up in the back of the hall. It wasn’t long before the crowd was in an uproar, baying for Caltothian blood. The new princess was one of the only ones who didn’t, and considering she could’ve very well married their prince instead, I understood her discomfort. I kept quiet, too. Death didn’t excite me, and the prospect of war even after a new treaty was not something I wanted to ponder.
When the crowd finally settled, the king concluded his speech. “As tentative as our future might be, there is one thing for certain, and that is the Crown.” His gaze narrowed to Darren. I swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry. “Today’s union brings the onset of another. My youngest and his betrothed shall wed upon the progress’s return from Montfort. Their marriage will bind Jerar to the Borea Isles, and our alliance will be complete.”
“Here, here.” Duke Cassius pounded the table with his fist. His cheeks were ruddy—and from his high spirits, I was sure he was on his second bottle for the night. “To the New Alliance. May great fortune favor us all.”
King Lucius’s discerning gaze swept the hall as he held his goblet high. “To the New Alliance.”
The sea of nobility raised its glass in return, echoing the king’s words.
There was a moment of silence, and then the herald emerged from the entry, clearing his throat. “Let the festivities begin.”
A procession of entertainers poured in from the hall.
Almost instantly, the room was a cacophony of noise. Music started as a group of performers wove up and down the aisles, stringed rebecs and lutes in hand. A group of jesters. A pairing of performers with masks of popular gods. Another man spun sticks of fire in a fast-spinning web.
It wasn’t long before a dance broke out near the front of the room. The musicians filed into a corner and began their procession as courtiers flooded the ballroom’s center.
Prince Blayne was one of the first to escort his new bride to a dance.
I waited until the king and Duke Cassius were deep in conversation; then I took a deep breath and turned to face the prince at my right.
Darren’s garnet eyes met my own, but he made no attempt to smile.
“Are you going to ask me to dance?”
His lip curled. “Really, Ryiah?”
“I’m trying to make amends. This is your brother’s celebration, wouldn’t it be improper if we don’t?”
“I pay no heed what anyone thinks.” He pushed back his chair, wood legs creaking against the marble floor. “Least of all you.”
I flushed. “That’s it? I return after four months apart and you’re really so desperate to be rid of me? You don’t even want to try and have a conversation.”
“I’m sure you had a good cry and farmboy was there to comfort you in my place.”
My jaw dropped. “Do you really think so little of me?”
Garnet eyes flared in response. “I don’t know. Sometimes a person’s opinion can surprise you.”
“Darren, I’m trying to apologize.”
“You wouldn’t mean a single word.” His words were bitter as he started to walk away. “The truth is told in anger, not regret, love.”
I bit down on my tongue, and then followed Darren out the hall, waiting until we were out of the public’s eye. “You hurt me too! I’m not the only one who needs to apologize!”
The prince spun around, his expression callous. “You want an apology, Ryiah? I’m sorry. I’m sorry I can’t tell you the words you want to hear. You won’t win. I believe you are good, love.” His eyes were like twin pools of fire. “But you aren’t me. And I’m sorry you never had that privilege.”
Then he left me. Darren strode out into the night without a backward glance and left me standing in that bright hall listening to the peals of laughter just behind.
My whole body felt as if it’d been kicked to the ground. Every part of me squeezed in, tighter and tighter, until my vision was black and spots were dancing before my eyes. I couldn’t understand what had just happened. My heart hammered so hard it hurt.
Five long, shaky breaths. And then I was able to focus. Able to see.
On the night I’d felt most beautiful, Darren had made me feel my worst.
“Trouble in paradise?”
I didn’t want anyone to see me like this. Especially not him. I cursed my timing and turned to face Blayne with a false smile to my lips, praying to the gods my eyes weren’t as swollen as they felt.
“Leaving your new bride and festivities so soon?”
“I see.” He ignored my barbed comment. “Well, you left my brother in quite a state yourself.”
I didn’t want to talk about Darren with Blayne. I didn’t want to talk about myself. I wanted to be alone.
“You should know,” the crown prince drawled, “he’ll never change.”
“I don’t want him to change, I just want him to talk to me!” The words came uninvited, and I regretted them instantly. I didn’t want Blayne to know anything, but I had no one else.
I was alone. Ella was gone. My brothers were gone. My friends and family were across the countryside while I was trapped in the king’s court. Paige was somewhere in the palace as a sentry, but it’d take me half the night to find her. And even then, she didn’t like to talk about feelings. I was trapped in the palace, and I didn’t know what to do.
Blayne was the last person I trusted, but if what Benny said was true, then he was possibly the one person who understood Darren. And that made me hesitate instead of sending him on his way, or sending myself on mine.
The crown prince glanced back at the dancers, looking for someone or something in the crowd—presumably his new wife, and then nodded toward a passage to our left. “Come with me.”
“Where are we going?”
Blayne regarded me with a sneer. “You
want my help or not, Ryiah?”
It was a challenge—a test of our supposed truce—and my chance to find out more about his brother. I knew if I passed up this opportunity, he would not offer it again.
Common sense bid I decline, but I was in no mood to listen to reason. I wanted to understand Darren, even if it meant spending time with the enemy.
I could only hope that Blayne didn’t choose this moment to suddenly return to his old nature.
“Lead the way.”
I DIDN’T KNOW what I’d expected, but the old queen’s chamber was certainly not part of the morbid possibilities in my mind. When Blayne took me to the royal wing, I was sure he’d made a mistake. But then he continued past the king’s chamber to the furthest door in the hall, one that had remained unoccupied since Queen Lillian’s death many years before.
I watched as the crown prince produced a large ring of keys from the pocket of his trousers and unlocked the door. Blayne paused as his hand stilled on the handle.
“You and I have our differences, but rest assured, I love my brother, Ryiah. I believe that is the one thing we hold in common. What I am about to show, you are never to speak of to anyone. Do I have your word?”
I nodded.
He swung open the door, and I followed him inside. Then I took a step back, my back hitting the frame in horror.
Unlike the other royal chambers, this room had been stripped bare of material. No bed, no furnishings, no sprawling rug or tapestries. Nothing to suggest the queen had ever lived in the chamber at all. But that wasn’t why I had gasped.
Protruding from the back of the wall was a pair of chained manacles that were approximately the height of a child and a shoulder width apart. Another set rested along the ground, built into a metal bar lining the floor.
The marble tile was discolored beneath the chains, as if someone—or two someones—had bled out repeatedly on its surface. The floor was an elaborate design of red, gold, and violet swirl—the same as the rest of the palace—but the stain made it much closer to rust.
I choked. “W-what is this place?” My heart raced as I looked on and pictured a hundred horrible scenarios in my head, reasons Blayne would need to show me this room. For the first time, I prayed it was a ploy, that the crown prince’s motives were malevolent—anything but what I was imagining now.
“This was my mother’s room.” Blayne walked over to a dark pine chest I hadn’t noticed, reaching out to take one of the contents: a foot-long pole with a chain of small, sharp blades attached to its cord. He tested its weight in his hand.
“She was much younger than my father, much more lovely and had the most beautiful singing voice you could ever imagine. Darren was too young to remember her much, barely two years at the time of her passing. But I do.” He dropped the whip, and I could hear him sigh. “My father was never a kind man. But losing my mother as he did… well, I’m sure you’ve heard the stories.”
I swallowed. My parents had told me the tale as a child. Before I was born, Queen Lillian had been poisoned during a ceremonial feast. It was widely believed that her wine had been intended for the king. The aftermath was a blood bath. King Lucius had ordered the entire hall interrogated after her death, and then he’d executed them the following night. Among the victims had been his current board of advisors, a handful of nobility, the serving staff on hand, and several of his guard. A culprit had never been identified, and sixty-two men and women had died that night.
Scholars suspected the poison was the first of the Caltothian attacks. They also called it the “Lily Queen’s Slaughter.”
“This room…” My heart slammed against my ribs as he continued. “He had the servants redecorate after she passed. None of the staff was allowed to enter, and only the head infirmary mage knew.”
The prince’s voice was hard. “There was the palace dungeon, of course.” The prince laughed, low and cruel. “But it would’ve been too much work to carry two unconscious boys up and down the palace halls when this room was unused—and so close to where we slept.”
Blayne met my gaze head-on. “So he took us here.”
My knees threatened to give out, and I clung to the door’s frame for support. I could hear every word Blayne was saying, and yet there was a thundering in my ears. I felt sick to my stomach, and the pastries from earlier fought to rise as I gulped in deep lungfuls of air.
“Any time we disobeyed orders, any time he had too much to drink, any time he decided we were too soft to carry on his line.” The prince’s lips twisted at the memory. “The man always had his mage heal us when he was done. No one ever knew, and if word ever got out… Well, he was the king and there was nothing anyone could do unless they wished to find themselves on the receiving end of his attention, like us.”
“No…” The air sputtered from my lungs.
“When I was nine, I got into trouble with one of my tutors. Darren heard my cries from down the hall.” The prince’s expression grew dark, and I realized Benny was right. Blayne didn’t hate Darren at all. “Instead of staying in his room, the little fool snuck in and tried to save me… He never was afraid of our father, even when he was beating him senseless.”
My stomach surged, and I slid to the floor, clutching my knees to my chest. My skin was clammy, and my hands were still shaking as I took Blayne’s proffered flask. I couldn’t stop picturing six-year-old Darren in a pool of his own blood, fists and feet and a bladed whip coming from the man he called “Father.” A little boy trying to save his brother.
Privilege. I accused Darren of a privilege the rest of us never had.
“Somehow he managed to pull a knife he’d stolen from the kitchens while our father was choking him—”
A whimper escaped my lips, and I clutched shaky fingers to my mouth as Blayne continued.
“Darren was overtaken in an instant, of course, and beaten within an inch of his life, but—” Blayne’s paused. “—he never stopped fighting. Later, when the healer finished up with my brother and me, our father stopped by the infirmary. Told Darren he had finally done something right.” Blayne didn’t feign his disgust. “As second son, Darren’s duty was to me. He’d finally proven his role. Father sent him off to train with our head knight the next morning so he could start preparing for the School of Knighthood and become Commander of the Crown’s Army when I took the crown. Darren had impressed him.”
My pulse slammed against my ribs, and I forced myself to swallow two sips of some bitter liquid that tore at my throat like ice. I wiped my sweaty palms against my dress.
“After that day…” I couldn’t say it. “Did your father…?”
“Not with Darren.”
I opened my mouth, but the crown prince just gave me a sardonic smile. “It takes much more to impress when you are his heir. Darren wasn’t always around. In any case, I’m better for it now.”
I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t say anything. What do you say to your enemy? To the villain with the pitiable past? Everything Blayne had done, I couldn’t help wondering if Darren would’ve turned out the same, were he the heir instead.
“Darren will never tell you any of this.” The prince shut the chest with a thud. “I brought you here so you could see the truth for yourself. My brother pushes people away with his pride, and it doesn’t take much to see he is doing the same to you now. Whatever happened between the two of you, I need you to forgive him, Ryiah.”
“Why…?” My voice caught, and I tried again. “Why are you helping me? I-I know you want to make amends, but—”
“Because he is my little brother. And as many mistakes as he has made, I want the best for him.” The prince’s gaze was bitter. “Even if that is you.”
I FOUND Darren leaving the training grounds just as I arrived. Before the training grounds, I’d checked his chamber, the indoor practice court, the kitchens, and finally the kennels. I should’ve realized he would seek solace in training... even in the middle of his brother’s festivities. He and I were one and the same.
The scent of summer was thick in the air, fresh blossom and cedar mixed in with the lingering trace of sweat and dirt from the barracks.
I stood anxiously, the warm breeze ruffling my dress.
“Darren.”
The prince looked up, dark bangs falling across his eyes. Something like regret registered for just a moment before he clenched his jaw and turned away.
“What do you want, Ryiah?”
I took a deep breath. “I’m reckless.”
His head jerked back as he regarded me in surprise. I could tell he hadn’t been expecting that.
I rambled on quickly. “I judge too fast. I don’t always think before I speak. I don’t like to hear that I might not win. I lash out when I’m angry. I’m far from perfect, and I know I never will be. I make mistakes, Darren.”
With every confession, I took a step closer, closing the distance between us. I waited until I was right in front of the prince and then placed my hands on his chest, causing him to take another step back until his shoulders were lining the barrack’s wall.
“You aren’t one of my mistakes.”
A lump rose and fell against the prince’s throat.
“I love you.” And that’s never going to change. “I’ve been in love with you since that day in the desert, and today it’s time for me to make an apology of my own.” I leaned in close and watched his sharp intake of breath. “I’m sorry, Darren.” My eyes rose to his, and I willed him to see the gravity in my own. “I’m sorry I said you were privileged. I’m sorry I ever thought… Blayne told me…” I swallowed. “If I’d known...”
Understanding and then shame flared in response, but before Darren could break away, I wrapped my fingers along the back of his neck and brought his lips to mine. I pressed hard, tasting the regret and anger that was perforating his.
Blood and salt mixed in with the sweetness of wine, and I still clung to him.
He tried to break our kiss. “Ryiah—”
The Black Mage: Complete Series Page 67