“I can’t say right now.” But… there was something he deserved to know.
Legs, wait, it may not be best to tell him about his parents.
He needs to know. And he needs to know it wasn’t us.
But it was us, it was Elista. The mistweaver was from Elista!
Oh… right. But still…
It’s up to you, my child.
Up to me.
I put my head down on my arms, which rested on the table, and groaned.
“Are you well?” he asked.
I looked up. “No. I was hurt, a lot… trying to save your parents.” That wasn’t entirely true. I’d been trying to save Silence. But I’d killed the woman who killed his parents, that was worth something, wasn’t it? But I wasn’t going to put it like that. So, I glossed over the story a little. “A madwoman from… from Elista, she went to kill your parents, and probably you too. We… ah, we went to stop her. And we did stop her, but… not until it was too late. She was too strong. She… your parents…” I didn’t know how to say it. I looked up to see him trembling.
“They’re dead?”
“Yes.”
A single tear left his eye, sliding down the side of his face to her ear. “But you fought one of your own, tried to stop her?”
Well, not exactly. “Yes.”
“That’s why you’re all cut up?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t say anything else!” Maverick commanded as he strode into the room with Sparrow, Jack, Fennec, and Foggy. “Either of you. I’d prefer not to start an international incident over a casual conversation.” He strode over to stand over me and the prince. His gaze lingered on me for some time. “You well?” he asked.
“Somehow, yes,” I answered. Though I must still look a mess in my shredded dress with spider-silk webs over parts of me, including up the side of my face.
His mouth twitched a half-grin for the barest of moments. “Tough little one, aren’t you?”
“I guess so.”
He turned to the prince. “You’re not dead?”
“It would seem I am not. I was just… immobilized for a while.” He rolled his head to the side and looked at me with a clear we-know-whose-fault-that-is sort of look.
Maverick drew in a long breath. “We can’t return you right away. We’re sorry for the trouble. Once our transporter returns, we’ll—”
“I’ve been thinking about that.” The prince’s tone was weary and tentative.
“Oh?”
“It seems someone from Elista is trying to kill me.” The prince lifted his head enough to look around at all of us. “But clearly none of you are. In fact, from what I’ve heard you’ve been trying to help? You may have saved me? I’m less certain about that, but I know this. If you wanted me dead, I’d be dead.”
Maverick nodded, saying nothing.
“So… Why don’t you want me dead?”
“We have no quarrel with Vauphan.” Maverick’s tone was even.
“Then why have you been annexing our northern territories for the past three years?”
