CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Sebastianos
I wasn’t a spymaster. Hell, I wasn’t even as savvy at military intelligence as Nate was. I was a hammer, going in and knocking down doors when needed. Fighting was my end game, not the endless reports and meetings that put my teeth on edge.
Yet, here I was.
Wading through stacks of reports that centered on extremist groups in Amur looking to target the royal family, specifically Crown Princess Penelope, in an effort to destabilize the government.
The report I was reading pointed to several emails our “sources” had found that linked the Amur regime currently in control of the country as sources of funding and support for these armed extremist groups.
We had a Minister of Defense in Cassia. He was a four-star general named Lancaster Fieldsis, and he was damn good at his job, but I was curious to learn more about state security. Yes, I knew my number one job was serving as Lord Protector and Head of State, smiling and waving while helping Penelope grow and learn her role as future queen. Beyond that, I might venture into having an opinion about the king and princess’s safety, but again, there was a perfectly capable security team whose only job was to make sure they were always safe. Me too, as much as I hated it.
Despite all of that, I couldn’t help but think that the information we were receiving was too easily found.
I knew better than to question the Security Council outright, but as I sat in the third row of the briefing room, looking up at the classified documents on the presentation screen, I made notes in the margins of the notebook I always carried and underlined things I would bring up to my uncle later.
With all my years in the military, I knew that chain of command was important, and skirting around it to go directly to a decision maker with your problems could cause problems of their own. But this was different to me. This was a personal stake I had in seeing my uncle and my cousin safe, and if I worried that the information they were operating off of might be planted, I’d take my ideas and any information I might have that could support it and give it to my uncle.
What he did with it from there was up to him, I reasoned with myself.
“Lord Xenakis,” General Fieldsis was speaking to me now from the front of the room. I hadn’t been paying attention to what he was saying, and I did my best not to make it too obvious.
“Sir?”
I’d worked with General Fieldsis a number of times in the field and on missions abroad and generally found him to be a nice fellow with a level head. “Any thoughts you’d like to add from your own unique perspective?”
A dozen heads in front of me turned to look in my direction, and I schooled my features to look bored. It was my go-to expression when I knew people were trying to read me.
“Which perspective is that, sir?” I wasn’t trying to be obtuse, but after as many years as I spent in the military, I had a few perspectives to work from. Was he asking me as a search and rescue expert? Or as one of the people committed to keeping the heir apparent to the throne of Cassia alive and healthy?
“Minister Alaine seems to think the Legacy Ball might be too big of a security threat to hold this year, to which the king objects most vehemently,” Fieldsis said, motioning to the king’s internal memo sent last week, stating the same.
“You want to know if I think we should have the Legacy Ball?” I was frowning. This wasn’t my call. Not in the least.
“Not really,” Fieldsis replied. “I want to know if you think it’s safe enough for the Crown Princess to attend, considering all of the information we’ve received in the past weeks. Do you feel comfortable with her attending?”
I drew in a deep breath and considered my words. This was a tough spot for me to be in and I wondered if Fieldsis was aware that he was putting me into it. If I agreed with Anjou Alaine, the Minister of the Interior I distrusted, that the royal family shouldn’t attend, I was going against my uncle’s opinion. If I agreed wholeheartedly with my uncle, I’d look like a puppet to his wishes.
“Whether or not I think she should, or will, attend is not my decision,” I finally said. “But I can say that if she’s to attend, she will be safe, and there will be enough protection in place to ensure that nothing happens.”
I wasn’t cocky. I was just good at this sort of thing. Nothing short of an armored tank could break through the security measures I’d have in place, and even then I was pretty sure we’d have enough advanced warning to, you know, move out of the way or something.
Fieldsis gave me a look, and I shrugged.
“I’m not here to be an expert on intel, sir,” I said. “I don’t have access to everything you and your team do. It would be imprudent for me to make that sort of judgment call with my limited scope. All I know is that the princess will be safe no matter where she is the night of the ball.”
Fieldsis seemed to take my answer at face value, but Minister Alaine, the woman in charge of the inner workings of the Cassian government, didn’t want to let it go.
“What a lucky position you must be in,” she said, her eyes on her paper in front of her, but the comment directed straight at me. “To not have to have an opinion about something so critical as national security.”
There was an uncomfortable shuffling of papers and clearing of throats, and I tapped my pen on the desk in front of me.
“Oh, Minister Alaine, I have an opinion,” I said, trying to maintain an unconcerned air around me, but my blood pressure was rising at the smug look on the woman’s face. “But I’m giving you and this team the opportunity to secure the safety of this nation before airing it.”
She simply sniffed at the air and looked back down at her paperwork, knowing she had overreached. There was too much disdain in her expression for me to ignore and some internal warning went off inside me that I’d need to keep a closer eye on the woman. She was incredibly concerned with people’s opinions and roles in the inner workings of the country’s decision making. Proximity to power, I realized. That was what Minister Alaine was an expert in.
The meeting eventually concluded, and as everyone filed out, I gathered my paperwork and folio and stood.
Just outside the door, Fieldsis was waiting for me with two pages keeping a polite distance from us as we spoke.
The general kept his voice low when he addressed me. “I saw it on your face. You don’t trust her. Neither do I.”
Without another word, he gave me a curt nod and turned on his heel to walk down the hallway toward the defense offices.
Stunned, I watched his back retreating and wondered how a simple job like protecting my niece just got incredibly complicated. And dangerous.
***
It was just after lunch that I was passing by the open doors of the throne room and happened to glance inside. Normally, if the room was occupied outside of the times that the king might be in there, it was a cleaning crew or a tour.
But that day?
That day, there was a golden retriever sitting in front of the throne and one tiny, adorable photography intern doing everything she could to get the dog to stay still long enough to snap a picture.
“Ollie!” Iliana called to the pup who, from personal experience, I knew had the attention span of a goldfish. “Ollie, over here. Look at me, boy! Look over here!”
From where I stood, I could see that Iliana was holding lunch meat in her hand, but the king’s dog had zero interest in it. And if it weren’t for the handler hiding behind the throne with a leash holding Ollie in place, he’d have been halfway to Belgium by now.
Ollie, it turned out, was a goofy male dog fresh out of his puppy days and really didn’t listen to anybody but King Demetrius himself, and even that was up for debate most days.
I wandered in quietly but didn’t try to sneak up on her, as I was certain her poor body couldn’t take another scare.
Clearing my throat, Ollie turned first. Iliana snapped her head around to see what had caught the dog’s attention, and I didn’t miss the fact that her eyes widened just a fraction at the sight of me before she quickly turned back to what she was doing.
I also didn’t miss the way her breathing had gotten faster, or the way she dampened her lips with her tongue. And were her hands shaking?
“Hello,” I said, moving closer. Ollie, having known me since my arrival at the palace a few months ago, jumped free from the handler holding his leash and bounded over to where I stood.
Iliana stood slowly and turned to face me but didn’t take a step closer.
“Good afternoon,” she said and watched the dog handler run from behind the throne to scoop up Ollie’s leash.
Ollie was on a mission to jump into my arms and attack my face with his giant tongue, so I knelt down in front of him and made him sit.
“Stay,” I commanded the animal, and for a few moments at least, he listened. “What are you up to today?”
Iliana glanced around the throne room and motioned toward Ollie. “Social media stuff. I’m taking pictures of pets today. I already finished with the guinea pigs and the hamster. Just Ollie and his brothers are left.”
I laughed. “Good luck with that.”
Her smile broke free, and she relaxed. “I’m getting that,” she said and motioned toward the poor dog handler. “I think I’m working these guys to death. You can totally take him back now. We can try again next week with the other two.”
Ollie had two brothers, Ferdinand and Maximus that the king and the princess doted on. Ollie, Ferdie, and Max were palace superstars, and it seemed that, soon enough, they’d be social media stars too. It was brilliant, really, the idea to focus on the details that made the royal family human. Iliana had a keen knack for these things, it seemed.
I cleared my throat and looked at the ground as the handler led a bouncing Ollie away through a side door, leaving Iliana and me alone. Her fidgetiness returned as soon as we were alone, and I didn’t miss the fact that she even took a small step backward and cast a look over her shoulder toward the table where her bag was.
It was pretty clear she wanted to get out of the room quickly. But why?
“Are you busy tomorrow night?” The question was out before I really put any thought to it, but there it was. I wanted to see Iliana. Sooner rather than later.
Her pupils dilated. She really was scared.
“Jenn is in town,” she said quietly. “I should probably spend time with her since she’s leaving in a couple days.”
The excuse seemed valid enough, but with the way she was reacting, I knew it was just that — an excuse.
“How about I get Nate to show her around town while we’re together and get her into all the venues she’d never have access to — just one evening. And you and I can have dinner.”
Iliana looked like she’d just swallowed a bug. “Just the two of us?”
“And maybe a llama?”
For the briefest second, a look of hope so bright jumped into her eyes, making me feel guilty for teasing her. Then she crossed her arms over her chest. “Very funny. Why do you want to have dinner with me?”
I studied her face. There was a wall between us that I didn’t understand.
“Because I want to eat dinner with you,” I said, using a teasing tone. “I don’t bite.”
A smile played on her lips. “Yes, you do.”
I laughed. “Busted is how I believe you Americans say. Right?”
“Yes.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Yes, you’ll have dinner with me?”
She studied my face, and it took her entirely too long to think about my question. “Okay.” She nodded, her large, pale eyes looking up at me. “What time and where?”
“I’ll pick you up.”
The statement was met with an immediate refusal and head shake. “No, I’ll meet you,” she said. “When and where?”
She entered the details into the phone, and I wished her a good day, promising to see her the next evening at seven.
In the meantime, I promised myself that I’d focus on my job. The only problem was, all I could focus on was Iliana.
Why was she scared?
And would it cause her to shut me out entirely?