The Runaway King (Ascendance 2)

“I’ll figure something out. What about the princess? Is she here?”

Tobias nodded. “She said that if you want to talk, she’ll meet wherever you ask.” I started forward and he added, “I spent a lot of time with her this week. She is sincere about caring for you.”

“If someone can find something to eat, I’m really hungry,” I said, bypassing his evaluation of her. “It’ll take a while to change clothes, but will you ask her to join me when I’m finished?”

It was nearly an hour later before I was dressed and ready for her to enter the small dining room. I wouldn’t allow Tobias to escort her in until my leg was already propped under the table. Yet she must have known about my condition because the first thing she looked at was the chair across from me. And she sat in the chair Tobias pulled out for her before I would have had time to stand and greet her properly, if I could have done that, of course.

Her clothing tonight was simple, a blue cotton bodice and blue-striped skirt over a white chemise. Her warm brown hair fell like a waterfall down her back and was tied with a white ribbon. Whatever she was to me, I couldn’t deny her beauty. She’d turn heads even wearing sackcloth.

Amarinda began the conversation. “What have you done to your hair?”

It struck me as odd that even though I was covered in cuts and bruises, not to mention an obvious injury to my leg, my hair was the one thing she chose to comment on. Then I realized that was probably her intention, to make it clear she was seeing me without calling attention to how bad I looked. So I grinned. “I wanted to give the castle hairdresser a challenge.”

“It’s thoughtful of you to always find ways to entertain your servants.”

“That’s just the kind of good person he is,” Tobias said.

Amarinda smiled at him. “You’d be proud of Tobias. He did an admirable job in your absence. On the day the regents were supposed to vote on the stewardship, he sent them a ten-page paper explaining in great detail how, with only eighteen regents, their vote had no binding authority. He was brilliant!”

“Thank you, my lady,” Tobias said.

“So the vote will be delayed?” I asked.

She shook her head. “There will be no vote. You alone are the ruler of Carthya.”

I closed my eyes as feelings of relief coursed through me. Then, glancing at Tobias, I asked, “How can I repay you?”

“Just promise never to do that to me again. No offense, Jaron, but I don’t want your life. Even locked away behind closed doors I got a taste for how awful it can be.”

“Did anyone try to kill you while I was gone?”

“No.”

“Then you didn’t even get a taste. Will you leave us now?”

After Tobias bowed and left, I turned to Amarinda. “You sent Imogen to the pirates.”

A lock of the princess’s hair fell forward as she slowly nodded. “We talked for a very long time before she left the castle. I told her what you had said to me about the attack. Imogen was sure you would go to the pirates. She offered to go there too, certain that if anyone could change your mind, she could. Or if not, at least she could keep you safe.”

“You should have forbidden her from going.”

“I could also command the sun not to rise and yet it would. She would have gone anyway, Jaron.”

“And what about you? I left you in a terrible position.”

“Not really.” Her long eyelashes fluttered, then she said, “My part in this was insignificant.”

“Nothing was more significant than to have someone to carry on for Carthya. Besides that, I put you at risk. Mott has already ridden on ahead to inform Kerwyn of Gregor’s treachery.” For that part, I barely looked at her. Gregor had been her closest friend. “My biggest worry was what would happen to you if I didn’t return.”

“If there was any threat, Gregor would have protected me. Whatever his intentions with you, he’d still have made sure I was safe.” She lowered her eyes. “I think he believed that once he sat on the throne, he’d have me for a wife.”

“Was he correct?”

She frowned. “Under no circumstances would I ever have accepted him. Did you think I could spend so much time with him and not see what he was?”

“Then you knew?”

“Not exactly. But I was suspicious. After your family’s deaths, I realized there had been small hints of his disloyalty. I made the decision to form a friendship with Gregor, hoping that in a closer relationship I could find some evidence against him. The only reason I brought Conner that dinner was because Gregor had suggested it. I think that was his way of testing me against you.”