“We’ll talk,” his mother said calmly. “But you’re exhausted. You need to rest now, and clean up.” She turned to the guards holding him. “Take him to his rooms. There are servants waiting for him there.”
He fought. He screamed and swore and kicked. But the men holding him were well armored, and strong, and there were too many of them. They dragged him to the rooms that had been his home since he left the nursery, and pushed him through the doorway. Servantswerethere, waiting for him, but he swore at them too, and struggled with the guards as they tried to pull him toward the bathing room. It couldn’t be real. It couldn’t have happened. He needed to go back downstairs and— He didn’t knowwhathe needed. He needed to make it not be true.
“Release him,” his mother said.
Finnvid hadn’t seen her follow them up the stairs, but the guards didn’t seem surprised by her sudden presence, and let go of Finnvid so quickly that he stumbled to his knees.
He didn’t bother to stand, just stared up at her and whispered, “Why? They came asallies.”
She turned to the servants. “Leave us. Guards, wait outside, please.”
As they all began to move, she stepped forward and then crouched to take Finnvid’s hand. “Come,” she said, and she guided him to his feet. But as she tried to lead him to the low padded bench by the window, he jerked his hand away.
“They may still be alive.” He headed for the door. “I need to go to them! We can help them—”
“Listen to yourself,” she said firmly. “You’re talking about the Torians. Worrying aboutthem. Did you notice how many of our own men those animals killed? Do you evencareabout the Elkati lives that were lost today?”
“I care.” At some level, he was sure he did. “But theyattackedthe Sacrati! The Torians came in peace.”
“Torianscame in peace?” She sounded scornful, but her tone gentled as she added, “We know what they did to you. How they treated you. It’s quite common for prisoners to get confused, and form bonds with their captors. Quite common for slaves todiein defense of the ones who took away their freedom. It will pass, Finnvid.”
“My captors? They escorted me home! What kind of captors would deliver their prisoner to his family?”
“So youwillinglytraveled to Windthorn and stayed with the Torians all through the fall?”
“No, of course not. Initially, I was a prisoner. But the Sacrati thought I was trespassing on their land!Theydidn’t know I’d been invited to a meeting with the Torian warlord. And he didn’t tell them!Hewas the one who left me imprisoned.” Finnvid’s shocked brain finally began to understand what had happened. “Andhe’sthe one who sent the message to you. When we arrived in the valley, and the couriers were sent with messages . . . he sent his version of the story to you, andyou read it and you believed it.”
Finnvid shook his head vigorously and started for the door. “They may not be dead. Maybe not all of them.” Arrows were lethal, especially at close range, but Sacrati were tough. Theos was invincible, surely, and the others almost as strong. The Sacrati, everyone who’d stood by him and befriended him, they couldn’t all be dead. He wouldn’t let that be true.
“We received the message, and we acted accordingly,” his mother said. “What’s done is done. You must understand: the Sacrati attacked us and we responded in self-defense. It’s tragic, but it’s over. We can’t afford to have Sacrati returning to Windthorn and saying anything different.”
“That’s the story the other Torians will tell?” He spun toward her. “No. Maybe at first, but they’ll tell the truth eventually.”
“They didn’t see what happened. They were still in the vestibule. They didn’tseeone of the Sacrati lunge at a guard, yet they’ll believe it happened. Everyone knows Sacrati are aggressive, and our guards had no reason to attack other than self-defense.”
Her tone was so level, so confident, that for a moment Finnvid doubted himself. Then he wondered how many other lies she’d told him in the same tone, lies he hadn’t caught. “Iwon’t believe it.” He wouldn’t sacrifice the only power he had left. “By the sword,” he said, the Torian oath sounding strange in the Elkati, “Iwill know what happened.”
This was right. He could feel it deep in his gut. “Iwill know. Maybe I can believe that it was a mistake, as long as you do the right thingnow. The Sacrati need to be tended to. If any of them are still alive, they need healing. I will do it myself.” He turned and started for the door again. What if someonehadsurvived the attack, but had been killed as the bodies were sorted through, while Finnvid wasted time talking to his mother?
“No, Finnvid,” she snapped. “We’ll take care of them. You need to stay here. You need to get clean, and dress yourself as befits a prince.” He could hear her following him. “If they twisted your mind, and made you someone you aren’t, then they deserve to die. So if you want any survivors to live, you need to show me that you’re the same loyal, obedient son you’ve always been.”
Finnvid stood frozen.
“As soon as you agree to let the servants come in and bathe you, I will go downstairs and see what’s to be done for any surviving Sacrati. If anyhavesurvived, they’ll be cared for.” Her voice was deceptively gentle. “But I’m a mother, and when my ability to protect is thwarted, I resort to my ability to take revenge. If I find that I wasn’t able to protect you from their manipulations . . . Iwilltake revenge on anyone within my reach.”
It was chilling.
How would Theos respond to such a situation? But Finnvid couldn’t smash something and then fuck whoever was handy. What about Andros? He’d smile and laugh and assume the other person was joking, because surely no one could ever be so cold-blooded. Yet Finnvid knew better than imaginary Andros. So he answered as himself—the older, wiser him that he’d become over the past months. “I understand,” he said. “And I hope thereareSacrati alive, for your sake as well as theirs. Because if they survive and are cared for, you’ll have a useful tool for controlling me. Without them? I’m honestly not sure how you’ll make me do what you want.”
They stared at each other for a moment until Finnvid said, “Call the servants, please. I’d like to bathe.”
She gave him another look, then turned and headed for the door. He was gratified to see her moving briskly, but it wasn’t enough to take away the shock and the fear. The servants came in and led him into the bathing room and added a few buckets of steaming water to the tub before encouraging him to undress and climb in. One part of him was aware of their clucking and fussing over every scratch from his adventures, but mostly he was elsewhere. In the warm bathhouse of Windthorn, on Theos’s hard floor with the Sacrati sleeping almost beside him. At the training grounds, on the cold trail, in the stormy forest with Theos above him, in that moment of tenderness before it all went to hell.
And then in the hall below. Finnvid had laughed—laughed—when he’d seen the Sacrati’s alarm. He’d given them foolish words of comfort. Had they listened to him? Had they believed him? Had Theos’s last thought been that Finnvid had betrayed him again, lied to himagain?
He pushed himself out of the tub, drawing a cry from the man who’d been trying to shave him. “I’ll do it myself,” Finnvid growled. He couldn’t sit there any longer, being pampered while people he cared about were—what? Dead?
Yes, at least some of the Sacrati were dead. He’d seen too much of the carnage to believe otherwise. It seemed impossible that Theos could be among them; he was too vibrant, too alive. But which of the Sacratishouldbe vulnerable to something as puny as an arrow? What had happened in the hallway hadn’t been in accordance with any rules Finnvid understood.
