17. Kailin #2
"What's going on?" Shovia asked, direct as always.
Alar set the cup down and looked at Codric first. Something passed between the cousins that didn't need words, and then Codric gave him a barely perceptible nod.
"I owe all of you the truth," Alar said.
"I should have told you a long time ago, and I'm sorry that I didn't." He took a breath.
"My full name is Prince Alaranthus Tekumuton the Fifth.
I am the fifth son of King Alaranthus Tekumuton the Fourth, ruler of Catonia and head of the Elurian Federation Council. "
The silence that followed was so thick I could feel it compressing my chest. Or maybe it wasn't the silence but what was about to happen. My prince was leaving, and I was giving him my blessing because his life mattered more to me than our relationship.
Our love would endure.
Morek's cup stopped halfway to his mouth. His eyes went wide, and for the first time since I'd known him, he seemed frozen, stuck in a moment that his accelerated processing couldn't fast-forward through.
Shovia went very still, every muscle controlled, and every thought shielded behind those impenetrable walls of hers.
Then she turned slowly toward Codric.
"And who are you?" she said.
Codric met her gaze without flinching. "Codric Teress. Cousin to the prince. My mother, Duchess Evelina, is his father's cousin, and my father is Duke Cordium Terassitan. I'm minor royalty. Barely deserving of the designation."
Shovia stared at him for a long, charged moment, then she turned to me with accusation in her eyes. "How long have you known?"
"For a while," I admitted. "Alar told me shortly after we arrived at the Citadel."
Shovia's jaw tightened, but she didn't explode, which was almost worse. Shovia's anger was loud and immediate and burned itself out quickly. This controlled stillness meant the wound went deep.
"The Elucian Dragon Force command has known as well," Alar said.
"Shaman Saphir has known who I am since the Circle of Fate.
The wing and section commanders were told as much, for security.
General Lesten knows the rest. My identity had to remain confidential for diplomatic reasons and also for my safety. "
"Diplomatic reasons," Shovia repeated flatly.
"If it became public knowledge that an Elurian prince had infiltrated the pilgrimage under an assumed name, it would have caused an international scandal.
But more importantly, it would have revealed that the Catonian royal family has Elucian blood in their lineage, which is something my father has gone to great lengths to conceal. "
Morek finally lowered his cup. "You're a prince," he said, as if repeating it would help it make sense.
"I am."
"A prince. Of Catonia. The biggest and most powerful province in the Elurian Federation."
"Yes."
Morek looked at me. "And you've been sleeping with him this whole time knowing he was a prince?"
Trust Morek to cut straight to the most irrelevant detail.
"His title wasn't the reason I fell in love with him, Morek. It happened long before I knew who he was."
"No, I know, I just—" He shook his head. "A prince. Sitting at our dinner table eating my stew. My mother is going to lose her mind when I tell her."
"You can't tell her," Alar said. "Not yet. The fewer people who know, the better."
"Right. A secret prince. Got it." Morek picked his caff up again. "So, why did Lesten summon you? Is this about the letters from your mother?"
Alar nodded. "My family submitted a formal diplomatic request for my immediate release. Lesten has no choice but to comply."
"You're leaving," Codric said.
"Tomorrow. After breakfast."
Another stunned silence followed.
Tomorrow.
Codric set his cup down with careful precision. "Am I going too?"
"No. The request names only me. You can stay."
I watched Codric's face cycle through emotions he would normally never let show. Relief and guilt and something raw that he covered quickly with a swallow of caff.
"I should go with you," he said. "We've been inseparable since we were toddlers, Alar. I don't know how to be Codric without Alar."
"You know exactly how to be Codric." Alar's voice was steady, but I could hear the effort it cost him. "You need to stay. You're one of the seven. Shovia needs you. Elucia needs you."
"What about you? What about what you need?"
"What I need isn't relevant anymore."
Shovia reached over and took Codric's hand. "I'll keep him so busy he won't have time to think about you," she told Alar.
It was her way of saying she understood, that she forgave them, or at least that she was willing to set aside her hurt feelings for the sake of what really mattered right now.
"What does your mother say about your father's condition?" Codric asked, his hand closing around Shovia's.
Alar recounted the phone conversation, his mother's evasiveness, her talk of unconventional measures and complex situations.
"I don't think it's a physical illness," he concluded.
"I think it's political. Something is happening in Catonia that required pulling me home, and my father's health was just an excuse. "
Codric leaned back in his chair. "A political crisis. That could mean anything. A challenge to the Crown from one of the other provinces. An attempted coalition against Catonia's leadership of the council." He paused. "Or an assassination attempt."
My blood chilled.
"What?" I said.
"An assassination attempt on the king would explain a lot," Codric said, his voice taking on an analytical quality.
"The letters from Alar's mother, each one more urgent than the last. The coded language about his father's declining health.
The diplomatic summons when the personal appeals failed.
If someone tried to kill the king and the royal family is circling the wagons, they'd want every prince home and accounted for. "
"My father has survived several assassination attempts," Alar said. "You might be right about the panic to call all of his sons to him so they are protected."
"It would explain the urgency," Codric said. "When we left, the political landscape had already been shifting. Several provinces have been making noises about Catonia's dominance on the council. If someone decided to accelerate that shift by removing the king—"
"We shouldn't speculate," Alar cut him off. "We don't have enough information."
"We're analyzing available data and drawing reasonable conclusions."
I sat very still, my relief at Alar's departure curdling into something colder.
I had been so focused on the threat from Veynathei and the mountain passes that I hadn't considered other dangers.
The dream showed him dying in Elucia, but that didn't mean Catonia was safe.
If his family was facing assassination attempts, Alar might be walking from one death trap into another.
"You might not be safe there either," I said.
Alar turned to me, and I saw in his eyes that he'd already thought of this. "Catonia has an army, a royal guard, and fortified palaces. Whatever is happening, I'll be well protected there. You have nothing to worry about."
"Here you have a dragon to protect you."
"The same dragon that your dreams predicted will kill me."
"Say what?" Shovia nearly shrieked. "You dreamt that Veynathei kills Alar?"
"Not intentionally," I rushed to explain. "In both dreams featuring Veynathei it was an accident. She wasn't there in the other two."
Some fates can't be changed.
Alar had said the same thing to me in all four dreams. Was I deluding myself thinking that going home would save him?
"Have you told Veynathei?" I asked.
"No." He stared into his caff cup. "Not yet."
The silence that followed had a pained quality. Everyone at the table understood what saying goodbye to a bonded dragon meant. We'd all bonded less than two weeks ago, and already the thought of being separated from our dragons was visceral, like imagining the removal of a limb.
"Is it possible to break the bond?" Alar asked. "Has it ever been done?"
Morek shook his head. "As far as I know, the bond is permanent. It dissolves only when one of the pair dies."
"What about distance?" Alar asked. "If I'm in Catonia and she's here, will the bond hold? It's only been two weeks. It hasn't had time to solidify."
None of us had an answer.
Codric looked at Alar with pity in his eyes. "Did you ask Lesten?"
"He didn't know either. No bonded rider has ever been separated from their dragon by such a large distance. The bond might stretch. It might attenuate to a whisper. Or it might snap entirely, leaving us both damaged."
"Maybe you should ask Saphir," Shovia suggested. "If anyone knows, it would be him."
"I will." Alar set his cup down. "First thing tomorrow morning."
I looked at him, this man whom I loved more than I'd ever thought possible, and I ached at the terrible calculation forced by the situation.
He was leaving. The dream would not come true, at least not the version I'd seen.
He would live, but he would be gone from my life, and I would be here with a dragon-sized hole in my heart and a prophecy that was missing one more of its pieces.
But he would live, and that was what mattered the most.
If he broke his bond with Veynathei, if such a thing was even possible, and if he one day returned to Elucia and bonded with a different dragon, then the nightmare's scenario could never unfold. The dragon in the dream was Veynathei. A different dragon would mean a different future.