Chapter Thirteen
Taran
Kirstos was gone the next morning when I woke up. I’d been aware that he was an early riser, but it was far too early for me yet. I rolled back over instead and covered my head with a pillow to block out the weak, early morning sunlight lighting up the windows.
The sunlight, weak though it was, might be a sign that the storm was finally coming to an end, but I wasn’t sure if that was good news or bad.
It definitely meant my family’s time was running out—once the Tygerians were sure the storm had passed, then they would send for the shuttles to take us back up to the ships.
What would happen then was anyone’s guess.
I wasn’t worried for me. I believed Kirstos was serious when he said I “belonged” to him.
Part of me resisted the idea—I belonged only to myself, and he was an arrogant ass for saying otherwise.
Yet because of my history—the way my brothers had sold me as a slave when I was a child, because they couldn’t be bothered with me—I had to admit it felt good to be claimed by someone.
But I worried about how Janos would fare on Tygeria and how that would play out with Larz.
It was a potentially volatile situation, and it could have disastrous consequences.
They had retired to their room when I’d last seen them the night before.
Larz got up early, though Janos was probably not going downstairs this morning, because, like me, he was not an early riser in any kind of way.
Still, the thought that he might be coming by my room soon to get me to go down to breakfast with him made me get moving.
I didn’t want him to know yet about me and the general.
He’d have to know soon, but this was brand new and I wasn’t ready to make any announcements yet.
I pulled myself out of bed and went to take a quick bath.
I wanted to luxuriate in the hot water, but I suddenly remembered that I had only a robe to put on afterward and that finally got me moving faster.
Luckily, my room was on this same hallway and only a few doors down.
When I was ready, I slipped out of Kirstos’s room and went quickly down the hall to my own room. I wondered if I should knock on their door to see if they were up, and just as I raised my hand, I heard a muffled yell inside the room.
“Larz? Janos? Is everything okay?”
There was an immediate silence from inside, followed by a thump, like something hit the floor or one of the walls inside. “Larz, let me in! It’s Taran.”
I heard more muffled sounds and then another meaty sounding thump. I dug into my pocket for my room key and used the method Bryos had shown me—jamming the metal key to the side and forcing the lock. The lock clicked and I was able to force open the door.
I couldn’t understand what I was seeing for a moment and then I was shocked and horrified to see Janos lying flat on his back on the bed with a pillow covering his face and Luc Dimitri standing over him, his knee on the bed beside Janos, pressing down on the pillow covering Janos’s whole head, as Janos’s arms flailed and his legs kicked.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I shouted and ran forward, tackling Luc and taking him down.
His head hit the wall behind the bed, but Luc was strong, even though he was older than me.
As we struggled wildly, he managed to get the upper hand.
He kicked me off him and jumped to his feet, heading for the door.
He still hadn’t said a word or offered any kind of explanation.
Not that there was one, I suppose. He had clearly been trying to suffocate Janos with a pillow.
I could hear Janos struggling to sit up behind me and gasping for breath.
I thanked the goddess that I’d been in time to save him.
Luc had reached the door by that time and wrenched it open, but I threw myself at his back, getting him around the waist and taking him to the floor again.
He kicked back at me, connecting his boot this time with my face and I was stunned enough by the blow that I let go of him.
It was only for a few seconds, but long enough for him to scramble back to his feet and take off into the hall.
Janos’s gasping sounds behind me made me turn back to him to see if he was badly injured. That’s when I heard a voice from the doorway. “Taran? Are you all right? Do you need some help?”
I’d never been so glad to hear someone in my life. “Bryos!” I cried as I turned to see him at the door. “Run for help! Janos was attacked. Someone tried to-to kill him, and he’s not breathing right!”
He looked shocked but turned without hesitation or asking any silly questions and ran down the hallway.
I heard him yelling for help minutes later and only minutes after that when that I heard people running toward us.
By that time, I had Janos sitting up on the side of the bed, trying to take in deep breaths.
I didn’t know why I hadn’t told Bryos that the attacker had been Luc Dimitri.
Maybe because I couldn’t quite believe it myself.
I kept thinking that there had to be some other explanation and that somehow I hadn’t seen what I knew I had.
I dreaded telling Larz, who had been close friends with Luc since he’d first arrived on Laltana.
They had fought a war together and Larz considered him to be one of his best friends.
This was going to be devastating for him and for all the Guard.
Suddenly, the room was full of people, and someone who was dressed like one of Vannos’s physicians pushed me gently away so he could help Janos.
My legs gave way, and I fell back on my ass on the floor beside him, still feeling stunned by what—and who—I’d seen in that room when I came through the door.
Larz arrived seconds later and rushed over to sit beside Janos on the bed and wrap his arms around him, despite the doctor’s attempts to make him wait until he finished his examination.
Strong arms came around me as well to lift me to my feet, and when I saw it was Kirstos, I threw my arms around his neck as he held me tightly against him.
“Who did this? Did you see them, Taran?”
“Y-yes. I know who it was, but I can’t quite believe it.”
He held me back away from him to search my face, frowning at what he was seeing. “You’re hurt,” he said touching my cheek. I winced as he touched the bruise that must have been forming but tried to smile and reassure him.
“It’s nothing. He kicked me when I tried to stop him from killing Janos.”
“Who?” he asked, his voice urgent.
“I-it was Luc Dimitri. General Dimitri,” A little sob escaped before I could stop it. “Oh goddess, This is going to kill Larz.”
He glanced around the room with a fierce expression on his handsome face. “Where is Dimitri? Where did the bastard go?”
He ran out the door, but I didn’t see which way he went down the hall. He could be hiding in one of the rooms or off the hall altogether.”
He turned and began barking orders at his guards, who ran quickly out into the corridor to start searching.
If Luc tried to fell, his options would be somewhat limited, since the bridge had collapsed.
He had plenty of hiding places in this huge, old palace, however.
Enough to keep the guards searching for a while.
That must have occurred to Kirstos too, because he drew me away from the side of Janos’s bed to speak to me more privately.
“Who might know the hiding places in this castle? “
“The servants, maybe. Or Vannos’s sons. They grew up here and probably played in these halls. It was much the same for me when I was living in our palace on Laltana.”
“Good thinking. I’ll try to find one of them and go inform Mikos and King Davos, and King Stefan, as well, of what’s happened.
In the meantime, stay in this room or go back to your own and lock the door.
Barricade it too, in case Dimitri has a passkey.
How else was he able to get into Janos’s room? ”
“I-I’m not sure. Though if he’d simply knocked or called out, Janos would have let him in. Luc is one of Larz’s most trusted friends.” I put a hand up to my cheek and rubbed it, not really aware of what I was doing. It was beginning to throb. “This is going to be so hard for Larz.”
“Put some ice on your cheek, Taran. And lie down for a while. Janos will be fine now that Larz is here, and you’re still recovering from when that fuloq stabbed you.” I didn’t question what he meant by that Tygerian word—it was pretty evident that he wasn’t paying Luc any kind of compliment.
Before I could answer further, we heard a woman’s loud, shrill scream coming from the front yard outside the castle, and both Kirstos and I, along with some others in the room, crowded to the windows by each side of the bed to look out and see what the hell was going in now.
A cleaning woman was standing in the yard, pointing down at a man sprawled in the mud of the driveway, face down.
His arms were flung out in front of him, one broken so badly that white bone was sticking sharply out at an angle from his arm.
His entire body was twisted and broken for that matter, and he wasn’t moving at all.
It looked like he’d fallen from one of the rooms or maybe the roof.
I turned to say so to Kirstos but he was already running out of the room, along with the rest of his guards that had been left in the room with us. From the other side of me, I heard a gasp, and saw Larz standing beside me, his hand on the window pane.
“Luc!” he cried out in a choked voice, and I whirled around to take another look down at the person on the ground again.
“Wait…you think that’s Luc?”
“I know it is. I was talking to him at first meal, and he was wearing that same jacket.”
“Oh my god,” I said softly, taking another look, and this time I could see it, though we were about three stories up. The short, graying hair and the muscular body—the jacket that was in the Royal Guard colors.
Larz looked so upset that I laid my hand on his arm. “I’m sorry, but he wasn’t the man you thought he was, Larz. I have something to tell you. And it’s going to shock you…”