CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“Easy Trouble. Don’t try to get up. You’re safe.” Familiar hands stroked my bare arm, the gentle scratch of callused palms calming me like a balm on a wound.
My eyes were not so much closed as on lockdown. The world was spun, my head throbbed, and my stomach felt as if it were filled with writhing eels once again.
I laid statue-still and pictured my surroundings. A fire hissed and crackled nearby. The dim glow of lantern light danced on the outside of my lids. I inhaled deep. Earthy. It smelled the same as Balor’s hidden underground home.
I shifted my leg. My clothes were off. Rough blanket fibers rubbed against my belly and thighs, but not where my underwear and bra covered me.
My stomach sloshed. Oh, gods. My lips pursed.
“Oh, I know that look.” A quick shuffle beside my head and Rowan was rolling me to my side. “You’ve got to stop—”
My ears cut off all sounds as I gripped the basin. My throat burned, my sides ached and my head was about to spew grey matter in every direction. When the retching stopped, Rowan laid me back and wiped my face with a damp cloth.
“You have a concussion,” he said, wiping my bangs back from my face. “Would you have anything for her to drink?”
“Of course. Tea? Water? Ade?”
“Whiskey,” I croaked.
“No. Not with a concussion,” Rowan said, a smile in his voice. “Water is best.”
Soft footsteps shuffled away and returned within moments.
“Here, Trouble. Drink this.”
I cracked my eyes open and played good-patient while focused on the masculine beauty in front of me. He’d been to the smith’s shop. I could smell forge smoke on him. He looked tired, but relieved. “So, by the smirk I take it I’m not going to die?”
“Not tonight. No.”
“And Eury?”
Rowan pointed to the pallet on the floor by the fire. Eury lay still, a threadbare blanket draped over his hips. His clothes had been removed and most of the blood had been cleaned up. He was bound in gauze and bandages and looked like a black and blue piñata that had had his insides beaten out of him. “He’ll survive too.”
I leaned back and closed my eyes. Bad idea. Open was better. Definitely better. “We need to get out of here. The Strati will be all over these people if we—”
“Don’t you worry about that, Princess,” the woman with the blue wings stepped closer. “You’re safe enough down here and the boys cleaned up the walk outside.”
“Tasso’s body—”
“It’s taken care of, Princess,” she said. “Please, lay back and rest.”
I guess I did, because the next time my eyes opened, daylight streamed in through wide solar tubes fixed into the soil ceiling above. By the quality of the light, I’d guess it was approaching midday. A muffled moan had me rolling over to check on Eury. His swollen face stole my breath, his brow drawn so tightly he looked like he was reliving the whole nasty ordeal in his sleep.
I swung my legs off the little bed and let them sit flat on the woven mat. So far, so good. After tightening the blanket under my sore shoulder, I tested my balance and shuffled across the floor. “Hey, my man. Ease up.”
I slid down beside him and traced the crease of his brow. As my thumb pressed over his forehead, the scowl began to lessen. I continued to smooth out Eury’s stresses, avoiding the cuts and bruises the best I could. After a time, I felt the weight of someone watching from the door and cast a glance over my shoulder.
“My brother Bruin,” I said to my hostess, “used to have terrible nightmares when he first came to live with us. His family and entire community were killed and he had a hard time during sleep. My sister and I would take turns trying to soothe him.”
“Did it work?” she asked, setting a small tray on the chest by the bed.
“Usually. Once he stopped fighting, he’d sink into a deep sleep and we’d take turns watching over him.” As if he were listening to my voice, Eury eased and settled. “Eury just relaxes, Bruin would change form. That’s how we knew he was really out cold.”
“Change form?”
“Mhmm, my brother is the Alpha Were. He’s the Bear King of the Realm of the Fair.”
“So you did grow up as royalty,” she said, surprised. “The company you keep has everyone wondering.”
I didn’t miss the judgment in her voice and took an extra few minutes straightening Eury’s blanket to simmer down. Tugging the thing up over the shallow rise and fall of his gauze-bound chest, I folded it back a bit and struggled to my feet. “Where I’m from, it doesn’t matter if you’re an orphan, a warrior or a barmaid, my father makes sure everyone knows their value.”
She raised a brow and rose from the cot to give me back my bed.
It felt good to sit, my little tour of the room had drained most of my energy. “Attalos could learn something about looking beyond appearances.”
“No offense, Princess, but idealism gets people killed.”
“Oh, it’s not idealism. We’ve got bad guys too. Scourge, that’s what our enemy is called.” The memory of Tasso’s stench hit me again.
“Are these Scourge like our Strati? Like our Queen?”
I considered that. “Evil is as evil does, I suppose. The Scourge are nasty bastards who allow a sorcerer to suck their souls in exchange for power and what they think is going to be immortality. Really, they just become rotting undead, and raid and kill indiscriminately.”
“What does the sorcerer do with their souls?”
I shrugged. “We haven’t figured that out. He’s obviously siphoning off power from them somehow—he’s very powerful—but my other brother, Julian, figures with the number of Scourge that have been inducted, there must be something much bigger happening. Something we’re not seeing.”
I thought about that for a bit, my mind still occupied by Tasso and his funky stench last night. I needed to talk to Terran and Rowan. “Has Rowan been by this morning?”
“Yes, but we assured him we could take care of you ourselves and sent him on his way. I doubt he’ll be back.”
“What? What did you say to him?”
Her eyes widened as if my reaction surprised her. “We were protecting you, Princess. Your doctor friend is in league with the Queen.” She bit her lip and brushed her forehead with the tip of one of her wings. “It won’t do to have people thinking the two of you are—”
“Are what?” I drew a deep breath and tried to hold back the anger burning in my gut. “Rowan’s a good man and, as a Noble, he should be respected by his people. Where do you get off judging what he’s had to endure?”
“Endure?” She arched a brow. “He’s the Queen’s whore, Princess, a Noble no longer. He turned his back on our people and chose a coward’s path to survive. He’s done nothing but shame himself and the members of the fifth district for years.”
I jolted up, the sheet pooling to the floor. Clamping my hands, I took a measured step away from the woman. Like last night, I experienced true ferocity. I reached for my shirt and awkwardly pulled it over my head. “Rowan’s sacrifices safeguard his sister’s life. She’s the only family he has left—”
“Despite whatever lies he has spoken, Princess, his sister is dead. Killed a full cycle past with his parents.”
I shook my head. “Elani is a prisoner at the Palace, a pawn in the Queen’s game. When Rowan steps out of line, the Queen hurts her.” I pulled my pants up my thighs and steadied myself against the wall. I needed air. Sliding my vest over my shoulders, I tightened the lacing and met her eyeball to eyeball. “What would you do to save your children from the Queen’s evil? What wouldn’t you do?”
“There is nothing.”
I nodded. “If that’s true . . . and if there really are no secrets in Attalos, I want everyone to know Lir-Rowan, Noble of the Fifth House, has done nothing but protect his sister. It’s his district and the citizens of Attalos who turned their backs on him, not the other way around.”
Before I said too much I turned to the stairs. As I lifted my foot to the first step, I looked over my shoulder. “If it’s safe, I’ll send for Eury at nightfall. I expect he’ll be well cared for until then.”
She met my gaze straight on and bowed. “Of course, Princess.”