Rise of Fire (Reign of Shadows #2)(35)

“You’re right. I do not. But a ruler must do things they don’t always like. Choices have to be made.”

“If you care about your daughter, don’t force this marriage between us.”

He shrugged and waved a hand with a scoff. “Don’t be sentimental. Maris is an instrument, a weapon to be used and waged. Just as you are. You both have your duties.”

He cared little for his own daughter. I couldn’t appeal to his love for her. He wasn’t that different from my father. That should have made him easy to understand. I should have been able to predict his next move if I simply thought of him in those terms. Gazing at him, I could almost confuse his cold eyes for my father’s.

“What say you, Fowler? Do you know your place in the order of things?” He lifted his laced fingers one at a time, bringing them down slowly like dominoes falling. “Do I need to make myself any more clear?” He arched an eyebrow.

Studying him, I angled my head to the side as a calmness settled over me. He meant he expected my fealty—to Lagonia, to him. I don’t think there was a distinction. A bad taste coated my mouth. “Yes, I know my place, Your Majesty.”

He smiled that oily smile again. “Smart boy. I’ll leave you now.” Smart indeed. I knew to say what he wanted to hear. “I imagine Maris is skulking around the corner, waiting for me to leave so that she can descend on you again.” He patted my knee through the bedcovers. “Get well and we’ll start planning these weddings. Maris is eager. She’s only been waiting her entire life for this.” He waved a hand. “She has a bounty of ideas. Not all realistic, mind you. Her proposed menu alone is going to require adjusting.”

She had been waiting her entire life to marry me. While I was on the Outside fighting, trying not to die, watching others die horribly, she was daydreaming about a boy she didn’t know and a lavish wedding. It was all the evidence I needed that I couldn’t spend my life with her. I couldn’t spend my life here, under Tebald’s thumb. I’d made that decision years ago without even meeting her.

I needed to escape here the same way I had escaped Relhok. Only this place was going to be harder to leave. After my father killed Bethan he thought me broken. No one had thought to watch me. No one thought that one day I might simply walk out of the gates at midlight and never return. Here they would watch my every move.

I had the same choking sensation I felt when I was in Relhok. As though a great weight was bearing down on my chest, pushing and shoving all the air out.

I would find my breath again. I’d say whatever lies I had to say. I’d fake whatever I needed to, but I would leave.

And when I did, I was taking Luna with me. The thought of Luna made something the king said penetrate. “Your Majesty, pardon me. Did you say . . . weddings?” As in more than one? Grimacing, I forced myself back up on the bed.

Halfway to the door, he stopped and turned. “Ah, yes. Luna shall marry into our house as well.” He smiled slowly, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction. “Come, Fowler, did you think to hide who she really was from me? Ah, from your expression I suppose you did. I knew her mother, wasted many a season paying court to her. With one look, I knew who she was.” Tsking his tongue, he shook his head. “You won’t insult me by denying it, will you?”

He knew. I shook my head numbly. As soon as I was on my feet, we’d put this place far behind us. “If you know who she is, why bother with me?”

“I’ve learned the wisdom of having a secondary strategy in place. You’re a nice spare to have around.”

I stared, truly without words. My arms started to shake and burn and I could no longer hold myself up.

I collapsed back on the bed, my hands opening and closing into fists at my sides as I stared up at the high beams in the ceiling, listening as the king of Lagonia’s faint laughter faded from my chamber.





FIFTEEN


Luna


SLEEP WAS IMPOSSIBLE. The bed was too big. The room too empty. The castle creaked and settled all around me, the eons-old stone sighing its old bones. The wind whipped and howled outside, pushing against the mullioned glass panes like a living thing trying to get inside. For a moment, I thought I heard a dweller’s eerie cry far in the distance—a world away from here.

I had never been truly alone. I’d always had Perla and Sivo, if not in the same room with me, then in the room beside me. The cadence of Perla’s gentle snores lulled me to sleep through childhood. When I finally left the tower, I’d had Fowler. Even on the Outside, in the great open space fraught with danger, he’d been there beside me every night.

The murmur of voices at my door brought me into a sitting position on the bed. I flattened my palms on the mattress, ready to push up and bolt if needed.

The door creaked open. Robes rustled and I smelled the faint aroma of incense. The bishop.

I crouched on my knees atop the bed. “What are you doing in here?” So much for the guard protecting me.

His ankle joints popped as he advanced with more speed than I would have thought a man of his size capable.

I scrambled to get off the bed, but he was there, the great mountain of him blocking me. I fell back, desperate to avoid contact, the heels of my hands holding me up on shaking arms. His intent was harm. I smelled it on him, bitter as charred ash on his sweating skin.

“You should never have come here,” he hissed, his voice wild in his zealotry. “You’ll bring ruin on us.”