Dividing Eden (Dividing Eden #1)(15)
“I’m betting you didn’t crash into any walls getting up here.”
Max straightened his shoulders despite how hard he shivered as the wind once again began to gain in strength. “Not once, Your Highness. And I came here because that’s what you said I should do if ever there was an attack and the lights went out.”
Andreus had forgotten he’d told Max that the safest place in an attack would be the battlements. The four-story white wall on top of the plateau made it the safest and most secure castle in Eden and in any of the kingdoms beyond the mountains or the waters.
“I heard the apprentices say you were the one who fixed the lights.”
Andreus smiled at the admiration in the boy’s eyes. “The Masters worked on it, too, but yes,” he admitted. “I was the one who found the problem first and figured out how to rework the wires to get the lights on again.”
“I knew it. How did you do it in the dark? Did you—”
“We can talk about that some other time.” Andreus put a hand on Max’s shoulder and steered him toward the stairs down into the castle. “Now, I’m going to ask you some questions while I walk you to your bed.”
Andreus picked up the pace as several members of the guard and a few servants stopped and bowed when he passed. If his sister was right about the test and the sabotage on the lights occurring on the same day not being a coincidence, he didn’t want anyone to overhear him discussing it with Max.
“Did I do something wrong?” Max glanced up at Andreus with fear in his eyes as they reached the first floor. “Did Lady Yasmie . . .”
What had the boy to do with Lady Yasmie? Whatever it was they’d deal with it later.
“No. You didn’t do anything wrong,” he said, realizing that Max was struggling to keep up with him. Great. Now Andreus was scaring the boy based on his sister’s paranoia. Slowing he said, “I just have a few questions about people you’ve talked to since coming to live at the castle and whether—”
The clanging of a gong sounded in the wide hallway. When he was little the striking gongs filled him with excitement. Now they made his palms sweat and his stomach clench. “My father has returned.”
“The King?” Max yelped. “I thought he was delayed at the southern battlefields. Does this mean we won the war?”
“We can always hope,” Andreus said, knowing if the war had been won his father would have sent a runner ahead to make sure the army returned to feasts and music and triumph. If only. That alone would have been enough to distract Father from the rest of the Hall of Virtues business for weeks. “Run along to bed. With Father and Micah home, things will be busier for everyone tomorrow. We’ll talk once things have settled down.”
“All right, Your Highness,” Max said with an awkward but enthusiastic bow. Then he turned and bolted down the hallway toward the servants’ quarters and Andreus hurried toward the courtyards that led to the gates of the castle to greet his father and king.
He must have seen the lights go out on his ride. There would be no hiding the event. The best Andreus could hope for was that his father would be content in seeing the problem had been fixed—at least until Andreus figured out who was behind the sabotage and what their reasoning had been.
“Andreus.” His mother’s voice snapped behind him and he turned to watch her, wrapped in a cloak of deep red, striding down the white path. The towering, ever-present Oben was trailing silently behind her.
“Mother, I didn’t expect you to come to the gates or I would have waited for you.” Ever since Andreus could remember, Father insisted on being greeted when the gongs sounded his return, but Mother never once that he could remember followed that decree. Instead, she waited for Father to come find her and to beg forgiveness for leaving her behind at the castle while he went away. Whether she actually missed the King in his absence was debatable, but not as important as the charade that she performed each time he returned.
“Tonight’s mishap with the wind power left me little choice but to defend you and our family from your father’s wrath.”
“I can defend myself.”
“If that were the case, your sister would have a very different life,” she corrected. “But tonight, I will make sure everyone sees their royal family together—united and confident here in our kingdom.”
Andreus understood the command beneath the carefully chosen words. If Micah or Father made comments goading Andreus or Carys, he was to help his sister laugh them off. No confrontations. Not today. “Yes, Mother.”
She pursed her lips and studied Andreus before taking his arm. “Oben tells me you were key in fixing the orb and the other lights so quickly.”
“The Masters—”
“You were the hero of the night,” she snapped. “The Masters failed. Their system broke down because of a mistake they made, and it was the Prince who recognized the problem and restored the light. That is what the Council will proclaim to the city tomorrow. And to all those who hear, that will be the truth. People will speak of how your wisdom pushed back the dark. Do you understand?”
No one would speak of the sabotage. It would be as if it had never happened.
“Yes, but the Masters—”
“The Masters know their place. Oben has already made sure they have all been suitably encouraged to hold their tongues, and any who might not have been dealt with. And tomorrow you will instruct the Masters in what you found in order to ensure this kind of thing never happens again.”