I know that voice.Dietan knows it, too, and lowers his knife as I slowly put the satchel down. The stranger pulls down his hood.
“Marcus!” Dietan cries.
They wrap their arms around each other, clapping backs like long-lost brothers. After, Marcus holds him at arm’s length, as if unable to believe his eyes. “Thank the gods you’re alive!”
“Shouldn’t you be in Loegria?” Dietan exclaims at the same time.
“You didn’t really think I’d turn around and go home without you, did you? Can you imagine if I showed up in Lundenwic and told the king I’d lost you in the Waste?”
“He would not be pleased.”
“He’d have my head. But it took longer than expected to sneak into Engel. And now I hear you’ve run into some trouble? No one could have foreseenthat,” he says sarcastically.
“Nothing I couldn’t handle,” Dietan demurs.
“Oh, that much is obvious, Your Highness. This is just a social call. We just trekked all the way through a fucking desert to say hello.” Marcus laughs.
“We?” Dietan asks as footsteps descend the stairs. Jared peers down at him from halfway up, his expression morphing from confusion into joy. He’s limping from a recent injury, but he doesn’t let it slow him. He nearly slides down the stairs and collides with Dietan.
“Good gods, man!” Jared says. “What happened to you? You look like shit.”
I haven’t seen Dietan smile like this in a long time. “It’s a long story…” he says.
It’s then that Jared spots me. “Aren! You’re still alive! Ophelia won’t put me in an early grave after all!”
“I wouldn’t be here if she wasn’t,” says Dietan.
Jared hugs me next and lifts me off my feet. “It’s so good to see you!”
“You too,” I say, my heart lightening at the sight of friendly faces.How did they— When did they—I have a thousand questions and can’t decide which to ask first.
“Come, quickly, move away from the door,” says Marcus, sliding a chair under the handle and ushering us deeper into the house. “I assume you’re here for the uprising.”
“Uprising?” asks Dietan, echoing my own confusion. “What uprising?”
Jared leads us up the stairs, leaning on the banister as he goes, grinning delightedly despite the effort.
“This uprising,” says Marcus, beaming as he opens the door to a room off the landing. Because there they are—my people.
Arnfried, Lambert, and Tess are crowding around the map laid out on a small table. They look up in shock when we enter.
“Aren,” exclaims Lambert, leaping up to hug me. “You all right?”
“Been better,” I say as I greet Arnfried and Tess with hugs as well.
I can’t help but notice that Rosamond, Nelson, and Bing are not among them.
And why are these three not gone from this wretched city by now, safe and free?Arnfried was supposed to be back with his mothers by now.
But they’re here, and they deserve to meet the man they sacrificed so much to save. I step aside, revealing Dietan. “This is Prince Dietan of Loegria. He was dead, but he’s feeling much better now—right?”
“Right,” says Dietan, drawing himself up with a measure of his usual, regal charm. “Hello, everyone. Thank you for your part in my escape.”
Lambert gives him an elaborate bow, while Tess nods and greets him with a more subdued and respectful, “Your Highness.” I’m reminded of how easy I feel with him now, after everything we’ve been through together.
“Have you eaten, Your Highness?” asks Tess. “Aren?”
“Just breakfast,” I say. “And not much of it.”
