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Toren marcheddown the corridor at a rapid pace with Mehl at his side. A few times, they had to pass through public areas, and the courtiers who’d made their way out of the throne room gawked and whispered at their passage. With Mehl wearing his court crown but no overrobe and Toren still in full, formal regalia, it was an odd sight even without their haste. Gods knew the rumors it would cause.

Normally, he might have worried more about the impression they were giving, but at the moment, Toren was too tired and upset to truly care. What would be the point? It wasn’t as though the rumors weren’t already raging, and he didn’t need to hear them to guess their substance. Fear-fueled speculation was its own beast.

“I can’t believe we’re chasing Ria once again,”Mehl muttered into his mind.

Toren sighed.“According to Sir Macoe, we needn’t. He saw her properly escorted.”

Mehl cast an annoyed look his way.“Yet you’re walking as quickly as I am.”

It was true, of course. Toren had learned from the captain that Ria wasn’t in trouble, but he was charging after her just as readily. But blast it all, the princess had held Ria captive only hours ago. The woman had a talent for subterfuge and an unreasonable bitterness toward Toren after Gods knew what stories she’d heard from Ber. Fear burned a path up Toren’s throat at the thought of Ria alone with her.

By the time they reached the upper dungeon, his hands shook with it. But seeing two guards standingoutsidethe door? That made him shake with a different emotion entirely. According to Macoe, those two should have been with Ria.

“Did you leave Lady Ria alone with the captive?” Toren snapped as soon as he was close enough.

Both guards winced a moment before sketching quick bows. “She ordered us to do so, Your Majesty,” the nearest guard said. “It seemed unwise to ignore a duchess of the realm without your direct command.”

Unfortunately, there was truth in that. Beside him, Mehl cursed beneath his breath.

“Open the door,” Toren commanded.

If only the guards did so at the same pace as Toren’s racing heartbeat! Instead, it felt like forever before they pushed the door open. Mehl stepped neatly in front of Toren as they entered, but Toren didn’t say a word about the protective habit. He was beginning to understand the depths of fear that prompted the action.

He searched instantly for Ria, who frowned at them from beside the nearby wall. As he and Mehl stopped at her side, Toren skimmed her with his gaze. No sign of injury. In fact, she held a dagger in one hand and appeared ready to defend herself. Or to stab one of them with it for interfering.

Finally, he glanced at their captive. The princess shuddered on the bed, and the face she’d turned up at their arrival was wet with tears. Why was she sobbing? Ria wouldn’t have hurt her, surely. There hadn’t been blood on the dagger. But the stains on the princess’s clothes… Toren frowned as he studied the rest of the room and its distinct lack of basic necessities.

He spun back to glare at the guard standing uncertainly at the door. “I cannot believe you left her in this state. Retrieve fresh clothing, water, and food at once.”

The guard’s throat worked, but he bowed without a word and hurried away.

Then the other warrior took uncertain hold of the door as though unsure if he should close it. “Sir Macoe spoke with the healer, but he gave us no orders, Your Majesty. We did not want to act against your wishes.”

“You may consider it a given that any prisoner of any rank should receive those three things as a matter of course,” Toren said. Predictably, his magic began to pulse against his shields like a headache at his increased annoyance, but he did his best to shove it down. “Please close the door behind you, but bring in the supplies as soon as they are gathered.”

Only after the guard complied did Toren turn his attention back to the woman on the bed. “Forgive the ill treatment. You’ll remain here until you reveal the truth of your plot with my brother, but I’ll not see you so neglected, Princess Lora.”

Anger flashed across her face like lightning. “Princess Etessa or Tes. Never Lora.Lorawas my father’s favored mistress.”

Good Gods, had King Ryenil truly insisted on naming his daughter after his mistress? Toren had never heard of discord between the other king and his wife before her death, but the woman couldn’t have been happy about such a thing. The princess never showed this type of distaste when her father called her the name at court, so Toren never would have guessed. What else lurked beneath the surface in the Centoi palace?

“Princess Tes, then,” Toren said. “Perhaps Ria came to offer kindness, but I cannot. If your father learns that you’re in this dungeon, he’ll send his armies at once. I suppose that was your plan?”

Tes’s tear-drenched eyes widened. “No! I was not to get caught.”

“Convenient.” Toren took a step forward, and Mehl shifted nervously at his side. “But we had the rest of your contingent followed. Even now, they are being brought back to the palace. Will they tell us the same?”

“I don’t care,” Tes snarled. “Ber swore to save me if I failed. The secret passages—”

“Do not extend anywhere near the dungeon.” Toren’s energy flared, and once again, he had to beat it back. “Ber lies. Trust me, princess. Beralwayslies.”

He regretted the words as soon as he said them, but not for their truth. What he hated most was the shattered, betrayed look in Tes’s eyes, a pain he knew too well—along with the hope that still lingered. It had taken several centuries for that hope to be demolished in him, but it seemed the princess might learn the quick and hard way.

“Then prove it,” Tes whispered. “Prove that he deceived me, and I’ll tell you everything.”

Chapter33