Protect the Prince (Crown of Shards #2)(45)

“Well, I would prefer not to dirty up my tunic with your blood and ruin my thread master’s hard work.” I leaned forward, letting her see how cold my eyes were. “But that is entirely up to you.”

We stayed frozen in place, both of us on our knees, with my sword still against her throat. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a couple of guards creeping up on me with their spears.

Paloma let out a low, angry growl, dropped her hand to her mace, and stepped forward, putting herself in between me and the guards. The two men stopped short. They didn’t want to fight an ogre morph, not even here, in their own king’s throne room.

I turned my attention back to Rhea. “I’ll ask you one more time: Do you yield?”

For a moment, I thought that she was going to spit curses and that I was going to have to kill her anyway. But the tension slowly drained out of her body, and she loosened her grip on her sword, which was still on the floor.

“Yes, I yield,” she muttered.

I stared at her a second longer, making sure that she wasn’t trying to trick me, then dropped my sword from her throat and got to my feet. I leaned down and offered my hand to her, but she ignored it and scrambled to her feet on her own.

Her hand tightened around her sword, as if she was going to attack me again, but instead, she turned and looked up at her king.

Heinrich had a thoughtful expression on his face, and he seemed more intrigued than angry that his captain hadn’t defeated me. Dominic and Gemma both looked relieved, while Dahlia’s face was a blank, pleasant mask, as though nothing noteworthy had happened.

Rhea squared her shoulders, strode over, and dropped to a knee at the bottom of the dais. Then she laid her sword on the floor. “I’m sorry, my king,” she said in a low, strained voice. “If you wish to strip me of my rank, I will surrender my sword and leave the palace immediately.”

Heinrich stared at her, then looked at me and raised his eyebrows. I was surprised that he was asking my opinion, but I shrugged, telling him that I didn’t care what he did. After a moment, he waved his hand.

“There’s no need for that, Captain Rhea,” he said. “You fought well, and you did your father and Andvari proud. You may resume your duties as normal.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” she said in a relieved voice.

Rhea grabbed her sword, rose to her feet, and faced me. Once again, her hand tightened around the weapon, as if she wanted to swing it at my head again. No doubt she did, but I was tired—tired from the long journey, tired of everyone staring at me, and especially tired of fighting on what was supposed to be a goodwill trip.

“I am not your enemy,” I said.

She snorted, despite the fact that I had just spared her life. So I looked up at Heinrich.

“I want us to work together to fight the Mortan king. He is the one who is ultimately responsible for your son’s death, he is the one who is trying to pit us against each other, and he is the one that we must battle—not each other.”

My words echoed through the room, but the tense silence quickly swallowed them up. I kept staring at the king. After several long seconds, Heinrich tipped his head, ceding my point, but I wasn’t finished.

“We can stand united and defeat the Mortans together, or we can stand separately and watch our people be slaughtered and our kingdoms fall. The choice is yours, King Heinrich. I hope you make the right one.”

My message delivered, I sheathed my sword, turned around, and strode out of the throne room.





Chapter Eleven


The double doors at the far end of the room were still open, and I marched straight toward them.

I kept my hand on my sword, glancing around for trouble. I might have defeated Rhea, but no doubt I had angered the guards who served her, along with the nobles. I’d thought that defeating the captain would prove my strength and make things better, but now I was wondering if I’d just made the situation worse.

Then again, that seemed to be my specialty.

I was almost to the doors when the two guards posted there stepped forward and crossed their spears together, barring me from leaving. I stared at first one, then the other, giving them my best queenly glare, the one I’d seen Cordelia deliver a thousand times.

The guards swallowed, but they held their positions.

“Let her go.” Heinrich’s voice boomed out behind me.

The guards lowered their spears. I glared at them again, then strode forward. Angry shouts rose up behind me.

“Where is she going?”

“How dare she walk out of here!”

“No one disrespects our king like that!”

I grimaced. Oh, yes. I had definitely made things worse. Not to mention the fact that I hadn’t figured out exactly who in the throne room wanted to kill me.

But even if I’d wanted to, I couldn’t go back and apologize. Not without appearing weak, which was something I could ill afford in this hostile palace so far from home. So I kept walking, peering into the corridors and rooms that I passed.

I hadn’t gone more than a hundred feet when footsteps sounded, and Paloma ran up beside me, along with some of the Bellonan guards. Xenia was with them too, although she was walking at her natural pace and stabbing her cane into the floor every few steps.

“What are you doing?” Paloma asked. “Where are you going?”