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With quick, matter-of-fact motions, he smeared it along her thighs, causing her to yelp and then whimper. He caught her gaze again. “If you’re truly with child, petition to have their bloodline tested after birth. That’s an order, and one I will follow up on. Because after this, rumors will abound.”

He didn’t wait for her assent, although she whispered it to his back as he strode away, his knife resheathed and scratch hidden. As soon as he threw open the door, the two guards entered, their leering gazes sweeping across the helpless woman as they approached the table. Oh, yes, his inconvenient little subterfuge had been necessary, rumors or no.

Ber gave them a haughty scowl. “Return her belongings and release her outside the western gates,” he snapped. “And do not defile withyourworthless seed whatIhave claimed, or I will see you both strapped to the tables.”

Both guards paled, and as one hurried to retrieve the woman’s clothes, the other did his best to release her shackles without touching her. They had no clue that Ber had done nothing to “claim” the artisan, but as usual, letting their own assumptions work on his behalf proved effective. The men averted their eyes as she dressed.

Excellent. They might have glimpsed the stain of blood on her thighs, but neither had looked long enough to note that she was entirely too clean to have been fucked by anyone. Thankfully, the woman seemed to understand what Ber had done for her. She made a show of grimacing when she tugged on her underclothes as though she’d been abused.

“Remember what you have been told,” he said in a menacing tone.

The artisan curtsied on unsteady legs. “Yes, Your Highness. If…if I must, I will return for testing. And I will speak of this to no one.”

“Keep your word if you don’t wish to return to the table,” Ber warned.

She curtsied again. “Of course, Your Highness. Thank you for the honor you’ve bestowed.”

Bile rose up his throat at the amused expressions the guards quickly stifled, but there was nothing he could do about it. Not now. So as soon as the artisan was escorted from the dungeon, he marched back to his rooms as he had far too many times before. As always, he went straight to the bathing chamber and did his best to cleanse himself of the darkness, though it could never be erased.

Some horrid energy clung no matter how much one scrubbed.

The shockof cold jerked Tes to instant awareness, and she crossed her arms for a little meager protection from the chilly water. But the water bunched together like fabric. Unnatural. What…? She pried her eyelids open to better situate herself.

There was no water.

She pressed her palms against her eyes and took a deep breath. What had happened? She’d followed Ber to the dungeon and—

No. No, she hadn’t. It must have been a dream. One where she’d watched her husband pretend to torture a naked woman, then save the lady from rape with a lie. After that, Tes had gone with him to their rooms for an almost painful step into the cold, cleansing stream in the bathing chamber.

Such an odd and vivid imagining. But why?

Tes had never seen the woman before. In fact, the only two things she had recognized was Ber—and Cairi’s name.You may tell her you were sent by Prince Ber in honor of the service she gave my dearest wife.Had he meant Cairi’s help sneaking Tes back into the palace? Or was there a more ominous layer to the words?

Ah, what was she thinking? It had been in her own head, after all.

She rose, arching her back and stretching her arms high to ease her stiffness from sleeping in a chair. Two other concerns immediately assailed her—both her bladder and her breasts were painfully full. There was only nominal risk in resolving the first, but the second was an impossible situation. She couldn’tpossibly teleport back to nurse Speran. She would simply have to bear the pain of letting her milk dry up for good.

Leaving the secret room, she traversed the tunnels until she reached one of the neglected guest rooms along the family wing. Carefully, she snuck through to the relieving room to ease her most pressing concern. She would have liked to slip into a soaking tub, but that had been drained decades ago. As in Llyalia, the Centoi royal family had shrunk to sad levels in the last few centuries, enough that these rooms were barely maintained at all.

She’d just returned to the tunnels on that sad thought when she felt the familiar brush of Ber’s mind against hers.“Is something wrong?”she asked.

“I should warn you before the rumors start,”he sent back, worry echoing from his mind to hers.“If the artisan is pregnant, it’s not by me.”

Tes froze. She braced herself against the wall, the stone quickly chilling her damp palm.“What?”

“I had to pretend to torture the woman who was found in the garden when I was injured.”He hesitated.“I could tell what the guards would do to her once I left, provided I didn’t intervene. I discouraged them by pretending I’d taken her. I was afraid you would believe…”

“I wouldn’t,”she said.

It would have been impossible to accuse him of that wrongdoing—for her dream had been no dream at all.

Chapter 24

Observations

Clarity about the source of her dream was one thing—what to do about that knowledge was another. Should she tell Ber what she’d seen, or would that wound him more? It was obvious that he feared her reaction to the coming rumors. But if there was one thing she’d never doubted, it was his fidelity. They’d been each other’s firsts, and the heat between them had never waned. She’d never seen him ogle another, not even when she’d been hiding unbeknownst to him in the same room.

“Truly, Ber. I wouldn’t believe it,”she sent at his continued silence.“That isn’t something you would do.”