CHAPTER 54
Keenan
Keenan ran his fingers over the metal bars. The stone walls had bent to his will, giving him tiny hand and footholds when he needed them, but it didn’t look like the door of his cell was going to be as obliging. “Of course not,” he muttered. “That would be too easy.”
Or maybe his subconscious magic knew it would be worse than useless, given he had no way to get past the guards outside.
The door to his cell block opened a few inches. “And he didn’t harm the boy?” King Banri’s voice floated down to him. “Even though he had both sword and dagger drawn?”
“Looked like he was challenging him, but then he put them away without a single swing.”
“Doesn’t sound like the actions of a crazed kidnapper,” the king observed.
“They’ve sparred often in the last two weeks, Your Majesty. Perhaps he simply knew when to give up.”
The door opened the rest of the way, and King Banri strolled inside. He carried a wooden walking stick that he casually patted against his left palm. When he was almost to Keenan, he swung it against one of the cell doors, making it rattle.
Keenan jumped back. The king’s mouth twitched, but he gave no other sign that he noticed Keenan’s reaction.
Neither his body language nor his face gave anything away, but if Keenan had been in the Hartford market, he would have been wary.
The king moved like a cat considering its prey, and Keenan had seen far too many ill outcomes from men who moved the same way.
“I’ll get right to the point,” the king said genially. “Where is my daughter, weapon-smith?”
“Safe,” Keenan said quickly. Then he winced. “I was in a haze on the way there, and it was worse on the way back. I couldn’t tell you how to find her if I wanted to.”
“And you don’t want to?” the king challenged.
Keenan hesitated. He didn’t want to lie to the king, but he also didn’t want to cause trouble for his friends. “I’d rather not, Your Majesty.”
“She’s with your countryman, isn’t she?” King Banri’s nostrils flared. “The one who escaped.”
“Oliver isn’t keeping her against her will,” Keenan replied stiffly. He forced his hands to loosen. “I’m sure she’ll return when she’s ready.”
“Then why did she not return with you?”
Keenan smashed his eyes closed as the memories washed over him. “I told you I was in a haze. Oliver knew something was wrong with me, so he refused my request. Then the princess showed up and…”
“Yes?” the king pressed, taking a step closer. “What about my daughter?”
It wasn’t something he wanted to admit to anyone, let alone the king. But perhaps acknowledging it would keep him from reliving it. Besides, Sakura might tell the story herself when she returned.
“I threatened her,” Keenan choked out. He looked at his shaking hands, remembering how horrifyingly steady they’d been while the rest of his body could barely move. “I held my dagger to her throat and told him I would—”
The king was silent. Keenan stumbled backward and sank down on his pallet. The guilt washed over him as he felt the echo of the cold, unfeeling voice of the magical compulsion moving his limbs.
“And I would have.” He buried his head in his hands, his voice breaking as he cried, “The heavens forgive me, I would have!”
The king remained silent. Keenan’s fingers dug into his skull, and if the sphinx hadn’t been in the possession of someone who shouldn’t be trusted with it, he wouldn’t have even cared about the king’s reaction.
He deserved it. He’d let Liesl die. He’d broken the trust of Mamoru and her companions. He’d almost killed the woman he loved.
“Did you wish to?”
What kind of question was that? “Of course not!” Keenan stared at the king. “I would never hurt her if I could help it.”
“Then why did you?”
“Does it matter?” He dropped his head. “I did. Isn’t that enough?”
“No.”
Keenan sighed. It wasn’t as if he could make things worse.
“I’d just been separated from my companions when I arrived at the winter castle.
I was injured, half frozen, and lost, and I begged Queen Arisa to help me.
I told her I’d do anything if she looked for my friends.
” Although he’d expected something reasonable.
“Her price was bringing her a certain tinderbox by the first day of June. I found out tonight that it was magically binding.”
The king’s staff slapped against his palm. “But you gave her the tinderbox two weeks ago.”
“It was a fake,” Keenan confessed. “I promised those who gave me the real one that I wouldn’t let her have it.”
The king banged his staff against the cell door, making Keenan jump again. “Guard!” he barked. “Open this door. I intend to deal with the prisoner personally and immediately.”
One of the guards walked briskly down the hall, keys jingling on the ring in his hand. Keenan slowly rose at an imperious hand gesture from the king. Just how much trouble had he gotten himself into now?
The guard moved to follow when they stepped out of the dungeon, but King Banri waved him off. “I haven’t forgotten how to use this,” he said, patting the sword at his waist. “I can handle one unarmed boy who didn’t have the courage to fight a toothpick for his freedom.”
Keenan bristled at the comment. But he pushed the reaction down. It didn’t matter what they thought of him now, and the king was correct that Keenan didn’t plan to hurt him.
“I’m not going to lop your head off, so there’s no need to look so glum,” the king said casually.
When Keenan glanced over at him, he shook his head.
“I believe my daughter is rather fond of your head right where it is,” he continued calmly.
“Since she is too sensible to fall for every handsome face that comes her way, that’s already a point in your favor.
Add your refusal to hurt the seventeen-year-old boy who stood between you and freedom, plus your brutal honesty at your own cost, and I think we may just get along some day, Keenan. ”
Keenan’s steps stuttered. “But I—Mori is my friend. Of course I didn’t hurt him! And I lied to the queen and held a dagger to your daughter’s throat—”
“Do you want to return to your cell?” the king asked with a raised eyebrow.
Keenan snapped his mouth shut. “No.”
“Then stop trying to convince me to put you back there.” He gave Keenan a wry smile. “I’m not as old and foolish as I look. Old, perhaps. But I’ve seen enough desperate men to know the difference between the ones who deserve a second chance and the ones who don’t.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Keenan stammered. “I don’t know what to say.”
The king tipped his head back. “How about, ‘my unending gratitude and eternal loyalty be yours, great and beneficent father-to-be’?” When Keenan blinked at him, the king winked. “She had to get it from somewhere.”
“Yes, but Sakura’s sense of humor is a little more…”
“We all deal with the court’s unreasonable expectations in different ways,” the king said lightly. “And we have different levels of our true selves that we let them see.”
Keenan just gave him an uncomfortable smile.
“Regarding the maid you allegedly assaulted,” the king said, frowning. “Her story does not match what I believe to be true of you, but I am afraid I do not see the benefit for her to lie.”
This, Keenan could answer. “She’s the reason my deal was magically binding,” he said hurriedly. “She took the tinderbox, and I need to—”
He broke off as they turned into the next hallway. Kasumi’s face mirrored his surprise, but before he could react, her hand went to her chest. Keenan tried to cry out, but his voice wouldn’t work. He willed himself to lunge at her, but his body stayed frozen.
“I was right,” she sighed. “Unlike with my brother, the king is willing to listen to you. This just proves that if she had bothered to speak up—” She pinched her lips together and beckoned to someone in the shadows.
“Churippu, make them invisible. If either one steps out of line, burn the king.” She glared at Keenan.
“I don’t trust the weapon-smith to behave if it’s his own life at risk. ”
Keenan’s heart sank as he watched Cherry step out into the corridor. “I’m sorry, Keenan,” she said miserably as the golden light encircled her green eyes. “I have to do what she says.”