That voice.
Bryn sucked in a gasp. There was only one person who ever called her “mouse.”
Her jaw fell open as a chill passed over her body like she’d walked through a ghost—or was facing one.
In a trembling whisper, she said, “Mars?”
Her brother released her hand. He coughed a few times, sounding weak, before saying, “Why in the Saints’ names did you come back here, mouse?”
Bryn grabbed the air until she found his shoulders. She needed to verify that he was flesh and bone, not a spirit. Her breath came so fast she thought she might pass out.
“Is it really you?”
That chuckle again. “It’s me.”
“I was told you were dead!”
“Not all rumors are true.”
She squeezed his shoulders tight. “I don’t understand. How…”
“Captain Carr plotted to assassinate me, but the soldier he paid to kill me in a military practice drill was one of my closest childhood friends. Finleydidhave to wound me to make it look convincing, and unfortunately, the wounds were more severe than either of us intended. Afterward, he managed to sneak me here to the passages where a handful of loyal servants have been helping me recover.”
That explained all the frequently used passages free of dust and cobwebs.
“You mean you’ve been hiding out in these passages formonths? Alone? In the dark?”
Her brother was strangely silent. Eventually, he said, “The dark has no impact on me.” Before she could ask what he meant, he found her hand and raised it to his face, where her fingers brushed against the familiar jaw and nose before discovering a cloth tied around his eyes. “Finley’s wounds left me blind.”
Her heart faltered as she silenced a gasp. “But you knew it was me. And you caught the brick.”
“Using sound, not sight.”
She pressed a hand to her mouth. “Oh, Mars.”
He released her hand. “That isn’t the worst of it, I’m afraid. The wounds were severe; I almost died when an infection set it. I’ve only recently been able to move around on my own. If it wasn’t for Illiana—”
“Who’s Illiana?”
Mars hesitated. “A kitchen maid. She oversees the herb garden—she has a way with healing plants. She’s been bringing me medicine, food, news from the outside. At great risk to herself, I may add.”
“She’s sympathetic to the rebels?” Bryn asked.
“She is.”
If that is so, then she could get a message to Christof Joster, Bryn realized.
Mars broke into another coughing fit, and Bryn frowned. “It can’t be good for you to have spent so much time down here. You need fresh air and sunlight.”
“And reveal to Carr that I’m alive? No. Not until I’m healed enough to confront him properly.”
Bryn held back the fears that tiptoed into her head. Mars’ lost sight wouldn’t heal even if the rest of his body did; how could he go up against Captain Carr impaired?
“And this Illiana, did she tell you that I had returned?”
Mars’s voice darkened. “She did. That’s how I knew it was you down here. She says the whole castle is speculating that Carr intends to marry you.”
A shudder ran through Bryn as she recalled Captain Carr’s advances. “I have no loyalty to that usurper, I can assure you. You can ask Illiana to convey to the rebels that I’m sympathetic to their cause. I didn’t return here under the pretenses everyone believes. The throne isn’t my aim. I’m only here because—”
