Page 32 of The Shattered King

“Your Highness, wait!” I called after him, but it did nothing to stall him. Cursing, I grabbed the wicker basket and the canteens and shoved them into the back of the alcove, then took off after the prince. He was decidedly too fast—I ought to dislodge a few of his baubles.

I thought he’d have turned toward Prince Adrinn’s rooms, but he hadn’t, which meant he knew, or guessed, that his brother was scheduled for something today.

I hurried to the stairs and took them quickly down, until I reached the Lords’ Hall on the ground floor.

I caught sight of Renn approaching Adrinn; his brother’s guards didn’t stop him.

He was just the sickly young prince, anyway.

So Renn had no trouble swinging his fist into Prince Adrinn’s face.

“Oh gods.” I hefted my skirt and ran to them. One of the guards grabbed Renn’s shoulder and hauled him back. Prince Adrinn, nose bleeding, wheeled on him and struck him back.

Breaking him.

“Stop it!” I screamed as Renn teetered back, but didn’t fall, thanks to the guard’s hold on him. I heard footsteps rushing behind me but didn’t turn. I reached Renn’s side. “For the gods’ sake, stop!”

Expression contorted and ugly, Prince Adrinn readied for a second blow, only to have his arm caught by Ard, who hauled him back. “Apologies, Your Highness,” he said to the elder prince, “but it is my duty.”

“Stop this at once !”

Princess Eden rushed upon the scene from deeper in the hall, her skirts, cape, and bronze hair flying behind her.

Renn struggled against the guard even as his eye swelled up. Prince Adrinn threw off Ard and launched at his brother again.

“ Adrinn !” Princess Eden stepped in front of him, barely giving him time to pull his punch and avoid striking her.

“You are both acting like children ,” I seethed, inspecting Renn’s face. His brother hadn’t held back.

“He assaulted me,” Prince Adrinn spat to his sister. “He’s a jealous fool.”

“Jealous of what ?” Renn snapped back. “That I don’t have to regurgitate my baby brother’s advice to sound smart to Father?”

Prince Adrinn pushed Eden aside, but Ard and his own guard stalled him. “You bastard, I’ll—”

“You are a cad and a liar, Your Highness,” I growled at Adrinn.

Prince Adrinn was more than a pretty body; he was strong, and he could destroy Renn if he wished to. He twisted from the guards’ grip and passed Princess Eden, seizing me by the front of my dress. “You forget your place, craft-ridden wench.”

“Unhand her!” Renn spat, fighting against those who held him.

“Adrinn,” the princess cried, “if you have ever had any love for me, you will stop this now ! Renn is your brother !”

He scowled at me, breath hot on my face while Renn struggled to free himself from Adrinn’s guard. Blessedly, Adrinn released me and stormed away. His guard holding Renn hesitated, then too released him, exchanging a sympathetic nod with Ard.

Renn cursed. His eye was swelling shut.

“Stupid man,” I muttered. “I’ll heal you in your salon.” He could walk and think about the idiotic thing he had done. It served none of us.

I was still fuming when we reached his suite. When Sten saw the prince, he made a choking sound and asked what had happened; Ard signaled him to wait. Renn, cupping his eye, dropped onto the sofa and winced.

I was not gentle when I grabbed his head and dowsed, nor when I tidied up the newly busted baubles in his lumis, not that he’d feel the latter. When I’d finished, his eye appeared untouched, the skin unblemished.

I left to retrieve the food and to give myself a respite from the stupidity of men. When I returned, I dumped it on the nearest chair.

“Enjoy yourself today.” I turned for the door.

“Where are you going?” Renn asked.

I glared at him. “I no longer wish to come.”

“Not really a choice you have, is it?” He wiped a hand down his face. “No, I didn’t mean that. But I want you to come.”

“I want many things,” I retorted. “Even a prince of the realm does not get everything he wants.”

“Why are you angry with me?”

“Why am I angry with you?” I shot back. Renn gestured to Ard and Sten, who slipped out into the hall.

“A man puts his hands on me, so your solution is to put your hands on him? A man larger, stronger, and more powerful than you? What did you think he would do? What if Ard had not stepped in as he had, or Eden? How much of a beating can you take, Renn? You don’t know! ”

He grimaced. “Adrinn gets away with whatever he wishes. I could not let him get away with that.”

“And there are no other avenues for which justice can be achieved?”

“I wasn’t thinking.”

“Yes, you were!” It took all my self-control not to scream it at him. “You are not a person who resorts to physical altercations to solve problems. You couldn’t be that person, so don’t try to tell me it was some sort of manly instinct!”

“This isn’t some show of masculinity, Nym!” he barked back. “He hurt you!”

Something twisted inside my chest. “I told you I was fine. I’m fine .”

He fumed. Practically burned me with his star-bright eyes. “What’s really bothering you about it?”

I threw my hands into the air. “What kind of a question is that?”

“Anger hides more vulnerable feelings, isn’t that what you told me?”

I opened my mouth, but my lungs had lost the ability to shout. “Don’t use that on me.”

“Use it on you? Is it not the truth?”

Balling my hands into fists, I collapsed into the chair alongside lunch, then dropped my head into my hands. I did not answer. I breathed, I boiled, and I tried to calm down.

Gods knew I needed Ursa right now.

A few minutes passed before Renn sighed. “Thank you for healing me.”

I did not respond.

Another minute passed. “We’ve already made the preparations.” His voice had lowered to its normal volume, its gentle cadence. “So we should go.”

“I do not wish to attend.”

“I’ll carry you out if I must.”

I scoffed and looked up. “You couldn’t possibly.”

The impish man, he raised an eyebrow and barely masked a smile. “Shall we test that theory?”

I glared at him for several long seconds before giving up.

I understood Renn had been trying to defend my honor.

The action had been brash and ill-planned, but well-intended.

And while the excursion into the woods was for me, he could not safely tour the city without my presence.

I strengthened his lumis at least twice a day, and if he relapsed .

.. I didn’t know what would happen. His relapses did have some effect on his death lines, but I’d never postponed healing to see what they might do without intervention.

Renn had been very alive when I’d first met him, and his lumis had been in absolute ruin—were I to tear apart my own to a similar shambles, I would die before I got halfway there.

It made little sense. Perhaps after building it up so high, he now had farther to fall.

An unmonitored relapse might kill him. I didn’t know.

And I didn’t want to find out. If I refused, no one would be leaving the keep today.

I stood and snatched the lunch basket. “I will walk.”

And I opened the door to inform Sten and Ard.

Rove was truly breathtaking.

I had seen it before, when I’d answered the call for the draft, of course.

And I could see much of it from my window.

But to be in it, to be focused on its shops and its people and its ancient architecture instead of the road leading to its fortress, was an entirely different experience.

Enough to melt away my anger and any anxiety over earlier talk of assassins and let me truly enjoy the excursion.

I could not say I loved big cities. Grot was the largest near Fount, and it paled in comparison to the capital.

Rove was noisy and dirty, and so many people meant one person didn’t know the next, and so no one truly cared.

They bumped shoulders without apologizing, haggled without mercy, and shouted over right-of-way on the road.

The presence of soldiers made everything even more claustrophobic.

But the colors, the wares, the streetlamps .

.. there was so much any negative effects faded into the background.

Renn wore street clothes—at least, the clothes a wealthy man not of royal blood might wear.

He’d changed out his white cincture—only worn by the royalty, generals, and judges—for the yellow of Salm, god of the land and sea.

He caught the eye of a few, but many did not know what he looked like; portraits of him didn’t circulate.

For many, the king himself could walk by, and if he did not wear the phoenix of the Noblewights or the crown of Cansere, they would not recognize him.

The guard brought attention to us, or so I believed.

Then I realized it was simply Renn who turned the occasional head.

I had thought from time to time that the prince exuded a sort of light, and not just from his fine clothing.

There was a radiance about him, especially when he smiled.

In these past months, the man had found himself beneath the broken bones, fevers, shakes, coughs.

Discovered his own spirit, once his mind was off the failings of his body.

Perhaps I was biased, but I swore others noticed it as well, the way they glanced over as we wound through the streets.

He would have made an excellent priest, Renn.

If he ever overcame his shyness and took to public speaking, he would easily captivate a room.