LIX
Somehow, Alex had ended up enveloped in James' arms in the night, his back plastered to James' chest. He roused slowly, enjoying the warmth yet rejecting how others would see him. He doubted he ended up in that position by accident.
?He pried himself out from James' claws, carefully and quietly. Unfortunately, Thomas was already awake and fiddling with his bag. Thomas saw that Alex had woken up but didn't greet him, laying out his sword to clean it.
?The others were sleeping still, the sharp glow of the sky not quite reaching the ground yet.
Alex rubbed his face, picking the sleep away from his eyes and running his hand down along his jaw, feeling how thick his scruff was becoming.
He was keenly aware that a beard made him look even more threatening, especially to children.
?Thomas glanced up at him.
?"You've hitched yourself to a dangerous horse," he cautioned.
?Alex looked down at James, unable to tell if the man was still sleeping. He'd have to be careful with his words.
?"I don't make a habit of looking a gift horse in the mouth," Alex replied. "I'm surviving, that's all that matters."
?Thomas stared momentarily and then averted his gaze, not acknowledging the justification. He couldn't seem to agree nor disagree with Alex's path of action. Perhaps, like Alex, he also couldn't predict whether the gamble would end well.
?"I have a feeling this is going to be dangerous."
?Alex regarded him carefully. "What do you mean?"
?"The Royal Hitchleigh, a place full of nobles, including the Theos Duke. There's bound to be many princes and princesses there, too. Everything that's been happening... We're taking Riley and James into a place like that— I have a bad feeling about it."
?Alex scratched his chin, thinking. "It's part of the job."
?"A job that I will do without question," Thomas stated defensively.
"Look, Riley told me James looks exactly the same and I have to wonder why King William is letting him walk around so freely if that's true.
" He eyed James warily. "I also have to wonder why James is going along with it so obediently. "
?Thomas was a man who had pledged loyalty to King William; his questioning of the king's motives shouldn't be taken lightly. Alex waited a moment, but James' breathing remained steady, not stirring.
?"Wouldn't most people want to be king?" Alex said, unconvinced by his own excuse.
?"A man like James? If he'd wanted to be king why didn't he do it a long time ago? He certainly had the ability and the justification. You're much closer to him than I am, you should know better than me. Why am I the one asking these questions, and not you?"
?Thomas gestured to the two of them, who had slept embraced only moments ago, providing evidence to his point.
?"I don't know," Alex admitted.
?Thomas sighed, his expression softening. "You're pulling the cloth over your eyes to anything that might suggest you made the wrong choice. It's because you're desperate— I know that. But, as much as I'm angry at you right now, I'd hate to see you get crushed if it goes awry."
?Alex tried for a smile but it was wobbly at best. He knew Thomas was right. He was willfully ignorant because he was deeply terrified of the consequences if his decision was the incorrect one. The duke had no need for a dog that didn't listen, especially one with as much baggage as Alex.
?"If this goes wrong," Thomas continued, quietly. "You have to look after my wife and my little girl for me, okay?"
?"Don't say that—"
?"It's a real possibility," Thomas insisted, cutting him off. "Whether you want it to happen or not, Moira doesn't care. It's important to me that you promise you will protect them if I am no longer able to."
?Thomas wasn't an emotional nor expressive man. But the sincerity and anxiety were pouring out at that moment, his dark eyes taken by a hard desperation, a pleading. Alex couldn't bring himself to uselessly assure him nothing bad would happen, not to a face like that.
?"I will," Alex promised. "But, it won't be necessary."
?He dragged Thomas out here, away from his family; he wouldn't allow anything to happen to him. Unlike Thomas, there was no one waiting for his return.
?"I appreciate it, truly."
?Alex hesitated. "I was wrong to bring you out here without telling you the danger."
?Thomas nodded slowly, considering his next words carefully. "I understand why you did it. I do. But I'm still angry at you for taking that choice away from me."
?Alex had expected as much.
?Thomas shrugged to himself. "But it's happened now. I'm in this mess. So, I will dedicate myself to this mission since I'm here."
?"Thank you," Alex said, sincerely. He knew the sacrifice Thomas was making.
?The sun began spilling overhead, its light and warmth pouring down and sweeping up the earth. The clouds made way for it, stepping to the side like guards. Alex stared at the sight.
?"You're different to what the other knights say about you, you know," Thomas mused.
?Alex pursed his lips. "I'm not sure I want to know what they say."
?Thomas huffed in wry laughter. "No. I don't think you do, either. None of it's truthful, anyway."
?James chose that moment to stretch, groaning as he woke from his slumber. Unlike the groggy-looking Thomas, he seemed alert immediately. Only his bed hair gave any indication that he'd been sleeping.
?"Welcome to the land of the living," Alex said.
?"No way. I see an angel."
?Alex rolled his eyes and Thomas sighed, putting his sword away.
?"I will wake up the others," Thomas stated, wanting to escape. Alex nodded and the knight stood up, wandering over to where Riley was.
?Alex watched after him. "I know you say those things to piss Thomas off, but you may want to lay off it a little."
?"He did seem a little down," James allowed. "But don't blame yourself for that. He's not the first knight who's had a kid."
?James got to his feet, stretching his limbs and jumping on his toes, easing his body ready for action.
?Alex narrowed his eyes. "How much of that did you hear?"
?"Hear what?" James' tone was distracted and uncaring as he looked off into the distance, idly concerned with something he'd seen. Alex was too tired and didn't care enough to push the issue.
? ? ? ?
Faithful to Riley's request, James didn't attempt to speak to him, at all. Rather than an awkward apology, what Riley wanted more was for James to leave him alone.
?James didn't mind a little silence. It gave him an opportunity to relate to Eris, feeling at ease with her, listening to her small thoughts that would have otherwise been drowned out with boisterous bickering. None of her ripples meant much, but they were comforting.
?"What are you thinking about?" he mused quietly, thumbing her grip.
?Another ripple. He smiled.
?The overbearing heaviness of the sun hadn't just scorched their bodies but the landscape, too.
As they traversed, the path became narrower, outlined by the coarse grey brush of dry pale grass, densely spiking from the ground like a broom.
Brown butterflies skirted above, fluttering delicately, softly.
The plain was cursed by the dizzying buzz of crickets, stinging and rattling the eardrum.
James imagined the sky was a magnificent turquoise that hung above the beige.
To him, it was a bright blue-grey. But that was fine.
He liked the summer, so he didn't feel so bad.
?Whilst James couldn't be considered unfit by any definition, his body was no longer as used to traversing long distances on foot, that much was clear.
He was competent, but the discomfort was noticeably more intense than it should've been.
His feet ached in the dull heat, feeling swollen.
Compared to the winces on some of the other men's faces, though, he was getting off easy.
?"Who were you fighting?" Alex asked Yufus. "Out of interest."
?James hadn't listened to the conversation up until that point so the question had caught him by surprise.
?"Ah, with your brother? Uh... I don't know. I didn't ask them who had hired them. Those kinds of things... not important."
?James watched as Alex frowned at the answer, unsatisfied.
?"Do you know what they wanted?"
?Yufus tapped his bottom lip in thought. "Ah, well, they want to kill, obviously. But they also asked for papers."
?"Papers?" Riley echoed, alarmed.
?"Yes. They did not think there were papers. But they wanted to look."
?A wave of unease advanced on them. Considering they'd been in the Theos records so recently, it seemed too much of a coincidence to have been something else.
?"They didn't think so?" Alex stressed.
?"No," Yufus confirmed. "It did not seem important enough for them to look after we arrived. They did not bother."
?If it was related to them, it meant that someone had been suspicious of their presence in the Theos palace, but didn't have confirmation they'd stolen anything.
That made it unlikely to have been Prince Maurice's doing since he could check himself.
He also had access to knights of his own; there would've been no point hiring mercenaries.
?Assuming it was about their visit, it had to be someone close enough to the inner workings of the Theos palace that they'd known their group had been there.
On the flip side, they couldn't have been so close that they hadn't realised that the group of knights they had attacked weren't the same ones who'd visited.
Who was this other player? Why hire mercenaries instead of using soldiers?
?"It could be a coincidence," Fletcher tried. "We should try to stay calm."
?"I think if we had something to worry about, Harrison would've spelt it out for us," Alex concurred.
?James snorted. "Scholars are snakes among brutes. I wouldn't give him so much credit."
?"I'm nice," Fletcher protested, frowning in insult.
?"You're a propagandist," James reminded him, contradicting the claim.
?Fletcher grumbled under his breath.
?Thankfully, no mercenaries had ambushed them on their journey and they'd arrived in Hitchleigh shortly after lunch. Despite the town being so small, it was packed full of nobles, particularly women, flocking to the streets like pigeons to seed. James kept his head down, wary.
?The excitement was thrumming in the air, almost contagiously. James had been to the Royal Hitchleigh once as a child. He couldn't recall much from the time before his mentor, but he'd distinctively remembered the bone-aching crunch he'd heard after one of the jousters had fallen off their horse.
?"How are we going to find a room amongst this?" Thomas posed.
?It had been a question that had jinxed them.
Not a single inn or hotel had a room to provide them, not even a cupboard.
It wouldn't have been a big issue for them to have slept outside again if they weren't in such a vulnerable position.
It was too dangerous to leave themselves open whilst they were under threat.
?"My uncle would probably house us," Riley said, carefully.
?Thomas' tone was flat. "Your uncle being the duke?"
?The men collectively protested. They were supposed to be low-key, not thrusting themselves into danger. Even Yufus, with his limited knowledge about Khearian hierarchies, seemed hesitant.
?"It would make it easy for us to investigate him," Riley went on, kicking the ground. "There isn't anywhere safer with the number of guards that follow him."
?"We're here for the widows, not for Llwyd," Alex cautioned.
?"We're here for both," Riley snapped. "Anyway, that's my suggestion. It's that or we sleep with the horses in a field. Up to you."
?It wasn't an easy decision for Alex to make.
However, Riley's endless justifications and assurances did make a difference.
Riley took them to the duke's villa, not far from the outskirts of the town, a large stone mansion with high metal fencing bordering the perimeter.
Like the rest of Hitchleigh, it was very active, with men doing laps around the courtyard.
The air had gone cold with their arrival.
?One of the guards at the gate eyed them warily.
?"What do you want?"
?"I'm Riley Muir, Duke Cedwyn's nephew. I wondered if my companions and I could request his audience?"
?The man gestured his head, silently ordering the second guard to check. James noticed how excessively tense they were, erratic, like soldiers on a battlefield. There was no banter, no fun, only cold suspicion shared between them.
?Eventually, they were allowed in and were escorted through to the main hall. Numerous gazes stalked them as if waiting for one of them to flinch. The servants didn't seem much friendlier, eyeing them as they scuttled by. The paranoia was catching.
?James found himself becoming lost in the frescoes covering the interior walls, the art surrounding them.
Delicately painted women embraced men amongst nature, the men injured and the blood melting into poppies.
James was sure it was telling a story of some sort, perhaps even a true one, but he wasn't sure what.
?"Is that really you, Riley?"
?At the top of the stairs stood Cedwyn, his face weathered, his hair ashen. He was much skinner than James remembered, his cheeks hollowed. James knew not to be fooled by his appearance, though; Cedwyn had always been gravely competent.
?"Uncle." Riley smiled. "It's been a long time."
?"Four years," Cedwyn stated.
?He came down the stairs, his feet firm and heavy against the stone. James watched, on edge.
?They embraced, smacking each other's backs in a drawn-out hug. James didn't miss the way Riley's hands grappled at Cedwyn's shirt, the material clumping under his clenched fingers.
?"I've missed you," Cedwyn said, pulling back. "But, why are you here? Can I help you in any way?"
?"I wish this was a social visit but my companions and I are actually a bit stuck."
?The duke's eyes scanned their group quickly as if only just realising Riley had brought other guests. James kept his head down, looking up through his hair, staying unremarkable. The duke's attention snagged on Alex in particular.
?"Stuck?" the duke questioned.
?"We're here to give an interview but there are no spare rooms at any of the inns."
?"I would think not," Cedwyn agreed. "But, that's no matter. Please, stay here instead. I insist."
?It was interesting the way that Cedwyn's hand hadn't left Riley's shoulder once, holding him in place. James couldn't tell if it was threatening or friendly.
?Riley breathed a sigh of relief. "You're a lifesaver. Thank you, truly."
?"Nonsense. Anything for my family. I'll get the servants to show you to your rooms and then you can join me for some late lunch."
?Before doing so, Cedwyn surprised all of them by approaching Alex and placing himself in between Alex and his nephew. He stuck his hand out.
?"Lord Chamberlain," he greeted.
?Sharp, indeed. James was nervously impressed. Even in Cedwyn's self-imposed social isolation, he'd remained just as shrewd.
?Alex's smile was forced. He gripped Cedwyn's palm firmly. "That's my father's name. Please, call me Alexander."
?Those intelligent eyes creased as he smiled. He didn't let go. "I had no idea my nephew was so close to Drykas nobility."
?Alex's reaction was steady, but James could tell he was selecting his next words carefully.
?"I am greatly indebted to him. He's a hard worker and a good friend."
?"I'm glad he's getting on well. As his uncle, I worry. I hope you can understand that."
?"Of course."
?After another moment, Cedwyn finally released him.
Cedwyn was feeling Alex out, that much was clear.
It was tense for all of them. Cedwyn was not only suspected of aiding Prince Maurice's bid for power but also Fabian's familial massacre.
There hadn't been a single unfortunate event that didn't have the Straton's family name tied to it.
?"I must go. The maids will show you to your rooms. I will greet you all properly in due time."
?The servants quickly took over, their smiles strained. They took their bags from them, but Riley hugged his.
?"I'll take mine," Riley insisted. The maids didn't dare contradict him.
?As they were led down the corridor, the eyes of the frescoes followed them, and whispers dissected their every move. James felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, his instincts wary of who was watching them behind dark corners.
?"Something about this place seems creepy," Alex quietly murmured to James.
?"Something is definitely strange," James agreed. "I wonder if the duke has something big planned."
?"Like what, though?"
?"That's for you to think about."
?"No," Alex said. "We're in this together, Prince."
?Alex was wrong about that. But, in any case, James no longer felt guilty listening to Alex cling to him. It now felt pleasing.
?Hopefully, those widows would waste their time gambling on horses and their group could collect their testimonies soon. Then, Alex would be set free.