Page 6

STAIRS

C as shouldn’t be happy. She was weak and ill, and he shouldn’t be happy that she was close.

He should be concerned, both for her and for the way he was feeling about the entire thing.

But he didn’t feel concerned. If the goddess wasn’t smiling down on them, she never would have guided them together like this.

If the Moon’s eyes weren’t on them, he would never have felt like this.Not for a commoner or for a healer. He never would have seen her again if it wasn’t for her collapsing outside his mother’s rooms.

He shouldn’t be happy about that, but the flutter in the back of his head was pleased beyond reason that she was close.

Cas turned his attention firmly back to the council session that was happening around him and away from the flutter and the smile in his head that Emryn was in the same building. Away from what he would need to do in order to keep her there.

They were discussing his marriage today, and it set his teeth on edge. He had already flat out refused to wed anyone in the Eternal Empire’s shadow. The issue there was that there were perilously few realms that still stood outside that shadow.

Rodilla was one of three that hadn’t bowed yet.

The other two were perilously close to bending the knee to the Empire, and not because the Empress was forcing it on them.

No, at least not where it could be seen.

But there had to be some form of pressure on them to make them want to give up their sovereignty.

Which made it all the more strange that Rodilla had never felt any sort of pressure from the Eternal Empire.

It seemed as though the Empire was possessed by pretending that Rodilla didn’t exist. The proposal of the Princess was as close as the Empire had come to admitting that Rodilla was a sovereign nation.

And if the Empire’s eyes were turning to Rodilla, one of two things needed to happen. They could either bow to the Empire or they could stand away and make it clear that they would remain a sovereign nation.

That was why Cas and his mother had eliminated the Princess from the Empire as a marriage candidate. He wouldn’t open the door to imperial interference when his mother stepped down and he became king.

If he wed the imperial princess, the empire would attempt to take a hand in ruling Rodilla.

But of the two other kingdoms that had not knelt to the Empire, only one had sent a proposal and the princess offered was the next thing to unsuitable. She was a widow, and while Cas had no issue with that, the council had been arguing about it for a solid hour.

And then the door opened and Shana crept in. He’d given orders that he was to be alerted when Emryn had rested, no matter what he was doing.

Shana looked terrified at intruding, but she had a royal order and he was out of his seat and over to her before any of the councillors noticed she was there.

“Shana?” He stopped in front of her.

“Healer Emryn is awake.” Shana said with a curtsy.

“Will you please tell her that I will be there as soon as the council ends?”

“Yes, Highness.” Another curtsy and she was gone back out the doors, shutting them behind her.

Cas turned back to the council, who had stopped arguing and were looking down at him from their ranks of seats. “My healer is awake, my lords, and I have some questions for her.”

His mother nodded. “You are dismissed, Highness.”

He smiled, bowing to his mother to hide it. “Thank you, Majesty.”

He left the council chambers and took a deep breath. He would speak to Emryn, and clear his mind so that he could get back to his duties.

But when he reached the rooms he’d given her, she wasn’t there. Shana was there, looking perplexed and then worried as she opened the door for him.

“She said she could sense an illness.” Shana said slowly. “I don’t know what that means, but she said it.”

“Did she say where?”

“The garden, Highness.” Shana curtsied again.

She was still weak. She shouldn’t be healing anyone in the state she was in.

“I will go and look for her.” It wouldn’t be hard to find her. That flutter in the back of his head would take him right to her.

He left the room and took a right, walking through the corridors and paying attention to the way that the flutter was pointing. He couldn’t think about it too hard, which only led him to trying to figure out what Emryn was doing.

She was dedicated, that was certain. And the head had decreed her his finest. His mother had honored her with her own hands and had tried to elevate her after healing Cas.

Cas stepped out of the palace doors and into the garden, still following the flutter while he tried to find a place in his mind that was calm.

There was a commotion that he could hear coming from the roses and Cas knew he would find Emryn at the center of the noise.

He’d thought that he would find Emryn among the gardeners, not in the middle of a knot of nobility that were all looking her as though she was half rubbish and half a miracle.

“You are not to stand, my lady.” Emryn was saying in that tone that said she was used to being listened to. “For the sake of your child. The next two days are critical while the healing takes.”

Cas nudged his way through the knot of nobles to stop short at the sight in front of him. The lady in question had blood everywhere, lying at the foot of a series of stone stairs. But there were no wounds that could explain the blood. She was also quite heavily pregnant.

“Thank you healer,” the man hovering over the woman said with tears on his face.

“It is my duty,” Emryn staggered upright, face as pale as her hair again. “Take her and put her in bed, if the bleeding begins again, call for me immediately.”

The Lord lifted his Lady and the couple left, dispersing the rest of the nobility and leaving Cas and Emryn to stand there and stare at each other.

“Emryn?”

“Your Highness,” Emryn curtsied, but couldn’t quite get back up, falling to her knees, breathing strained and shaky. “The head healer is going to be furious with me.”

“What did you do?” He went and knelt at her side.

“She fell down the stairs and was going into labor.” Emryn looked up at Cas. “The babe would have been far too early.”

“Let’s get you back to bed.” Cas stood and pulled Emryn gently from the ground, lifting her from her shaking legs and into his arms. “I won’t tell the head healer if you don’t.”

Emryn let out a choked giggle and shook her head. “You said you had questions.”

“I can wait until you can stand up.” Cas shook his head. “You should rest.”