Ba’shea’s yellow eyes narrowed down at A’bbni. “Be quiet, boy.”
A’bbni’s fingers scratched at the hold on his hair, but he kept his eyes on Mii’ra. “Lord Kella knows, you can ask him if you do not believe me,” he said. “Did Vr Ii-Heshar make you think that I would be all right with taking the Commander as my husband? That I would quietly submit to him, out of fear for myself or my brother?”
“Vr Ii-Heshar,” Mii’ra said quietly, staring at the prince on his knees on the floor.
Ba’shea’s fingers pulled his head back painfully. A’bbni swallowed hard but forced himself to continue. “Tell me, Vr Ii-Heshar, how long has your family been defying the imperial law against slavery?”
“Ah, your half-breed told you about that, did he?” Ba’shea asked. A’bbni gritted his teeth at that. “We never stopped. It was hard to keep it secret sometimes, but there are so many quarries and mines, it’s easy to find buyers. Some were even sent out of the country.”
“To Kendarin? Does the High King know? How long have you been lying to Var An-Sha’kri and Vr An-Gea’la about your intentions?” That last comment was a guess on A’bbni’s part, but the stunned look on Mii’ra’s face told him that he judged correctly.
“Vr Ii-Heshar,” Mii’ra said, her voice suddenly becoming stronger. “Slavery is illegal! It is the reason we are so concerned about the crown prince. Have you been defying the liberation edict all this time?”
Ba’shea’s grip suddenly loosened, and A’bbni fell forward onto his hands, his hair pulling loose from its tie, and he took a deep breath.
“Var An-Sha’kri, are you really so foolish that you did not see it?” Ba’shea asked.
Mii’ra straightened up, though her height was nowhere near comparable to Ba’shea’s. “That was not the plan, Vr Ii-Heshar. Our goal was to remove En’shea Er-Ha’sen.”
Ba’shea laughed, and A’bbni shuddered at the sound, so much like Hi’jan’s laughter. “Really now, Mii’ra, you think that your family does not benefit from the slave trade? Where do all those gemstones your family receive come from, do you think?”
“You said nothing about your grandson abusing the princes,” Mii’ra said, her voice full of undisguised fury. “That is despicable!”
The room suddenly rang with the sound of Ba’shea’s palm connecting with Mii’ra’s cheek. A’bbni gasped and scrambled to his feet, staring at Mii’ra, who clutched her face, a trickle of blood coursing from a cut on her cheek where one of Ba’shea’s rings had caught her. “Leave her alone,” he said, trying to bring some authority he did not feel into his voice.
“Now why would he take orders from a fugitive slave?” came a cold voice from the doorway that flooded A’bbni’s mind like a burst dam and made his heart skip a beat painfully in his chest. He turned his eyes toward the door and met familiar golden eyes. “Dear Cousin,” En’shea greeted, his smile predatory. “We have missed you.”
A’bbni forced himself to take a deep breath, despite his pounding heart. “We wish we could say the same about you, Cousin,” he said, keeping his voice light and pleasant like En’shea did.
“We must say, your disappearing act was quite impressive,” En’shea said, tucking his hands into the long sleeves of his yellow and gold robe. “But we will ensure it does not happen again.” En’shea stepped into the room, but he was not alone.
“Hello, little mouse.” Hi’jan’s voice sent ice through his veins, and A’bbni backed up with an involuntary gasp, the edge of the table hitting his lower back and preventing him from going further. “You are not going to greet your master after you’ve been away for so long?” Hi’jan’s eyes sparked with cold amusement. He came in and closed the door behind them. He was wearing the scarlet cape of a Commander; the gold Commander pin he wore on one shoulder was new. It gleamed under the flicker of the torches against the wall.
A’bbni felt his ears drop back in fear. There was no way he was going to get past all four of them to the door, and even if he did, he was sure Hi’jan had guards stationed nearby with the Emperor in The Keep now. The best he could hope for was to keep them all talking long enough that they would leave. He forced his eyes away from Hi’jan and back to the teenager in front of him.
“Did you know, Cousin, that Commander Hin-Ve’ssa and the Council offered the throne to me in exchange for your life?” he asked.
En’shea’s eyes glittered, his gold-painted lips pulling up into a cold smirk. “Did they? Is that supposed to surprise us, Dear Cousin?”
“No,” A’bbni said lightly. “We just assumed you would wish to know.”
“Your concern for our well-being is touching,” En’shea said dryly. “And what did you say to that, Dear Cousin? Did you accept their offer?” A’bbni said nothing, though his eyes flicked unconsciously back over to Hi’jan, whose glare made his skin crawl. En’shea’s gold lips curved into an icy smirk. “Ah, we see. Perhaps you should have. We are certain their offer would have spared you significant amounts of suffering.”
A’bbni thought that unlikely, but he just said, as lightly as he could manage, “I will take my chances.”
En’shea quirked a dark brow and said, “Do you wish to know what we did to Commander An-Sher’vaat when we found out it was she who helped you escape?”
A’bbni bit his tongue. He would not give En’shea the satisfaction of an answer that he was going to ignore anyway.
“It took five days for her to die. Can you imagine the suffering?”
Unfortunately, he could. A’bbni forced himself to evoke his physician’s composure and again said nothing, keeping his features carefully schooled into neutrality. A flicker of disappointment seemed to cross En’shea’s face that he had not gotten a reaction from him, but just as suddenly, it was gone. “We will look forward to sharing the details with you when we do the same to your brother,” he said. “We may even take you to see for yourself. Her head is on the wall next to your perfidious Father.”
The words stung like En’shea had slapped him with them, and A’bbni felt his fingers clench into fists, but he forced himself to give En’shea a smile. “You always did have a knack for decorating,” he said, keeping his tone pleasant, the same way he had with the Council when he knew they were trying to provoke him.
En’shea stared at him, and A’bbni felt a slight thrill that he had rendered his ruthless cousin speechless, even if only for a moment.
“The time for games is done, Your Reverence,” Ba’shea sneered, breaking the tense silence. “When your brother and your blond bitch come, you can have the satisfaction of knowing that you killed them by refusing to cooperate with us.”
