Which meant, no matter who she was, he had no right to court her at this time.
No right to be claimed by her, until the Seasons made their choice.
Blessed Numahao.
He was still reeling from that realization, when someone pushed his way forward from the back of the room.
“Lily?”
Dilys whirled, aggression rising in instinctive response. He recognized one of his men from theKracken.A ballista operator named Talin.
“You know these women, Talin?” It was impossible to keep the growl out of his voice.
“Tey, moa Myerielua.Well... only a little. I met them tonight. Lily and her sister Gabriella, from Summerlea.” Talin inched forward, watching Dilys carefully as he called, “Lily? It’s me, Talin. Are you hurt?”
The weeping one in the yellow dress looked up with a gasp, but when she caught sight of Talin, she burst into fresh tears and start babbling incoherently in Sun Tongue, the native Summerlea dialect, confirming Dilys’s earlier guess as to the girls’ origins.
Talin started to go to her, but a warning growl from Dilys stopped him in his tracks.
Dilys gave himself a shake and forced the aggression down. He had no rights here. None at all.
“Sorry,” he muttered to the still-frozen Talin. “Go to her.”
Even after granting Talin permission to approach the women, the moment the ballista operator knelt beside them, Dilys’s clawed fingers flexed, aching to rend something. Preferably Talin.
“Lily,” Talin was saying. “Can you tell me what happened? Are you hurt? Does any of this blood belong to you?”
The girl shook her head wildly and said in Eru, the common tongue, “No. I’m not hurt. He tried, but she stopped him.” And then she started babbling in Sun Tongue again.
“Who stopped him? Who did this? Where did she go?” Dilys asked. This time, the sound of his growling voice didn’t make Lily scream. It made her shudder, clam up, and cringe back against Talin, clearly seeking his protection.
Talin shot him a sharp glance which, under the circumstances, was, admittedly, warranted. He’d clearly established enough of a rapport with Lily that she felt comfortable seeking his protection. That gave him the right to provide it, even to protect her from his prince.
Dilys bit back a snarl and curled his fingers into fists. It was a gesture of peace—albeit an uneasy peace—a sheathing of claws that he could not force to retract.
Talin turned back to his female. “Lily, who stopped him?”
“She did.” She clutched the bloody body of the other Summerlander closer. “But he was going to kill me.”
“Are you saying your sister did this? Gabriella stopped him?”
Lily buried her face in Talin’s neck, nodding and sobbing, her whole body heaving as Talin gathered her close.
Thunderstruck, Dilys stared at the bloodied form of the unconscious woman in the lilac dress. The Shout had come fromher? A Summerlander farm girl? How was that possible?
Her face was turned away and there was too much blood and hair covering it to make out her features. One arm lay limp at her side, slender, fine-boned, the palm looking so slight and vulnerable. Her palm was scraped. Her gown was bloodied, torn, and soiled with mud and dirt. That had not happened here, in this building. And it hadn’t happened by accident, either. There were several muddy boot prints on the waistline of her gown.
Someone had kicked her. Stomped on her.
He glanced at the pile of meat that had been her attacker. Gauged the man’s size by the length of his femur and the meaty hand still attached to the remains of his arm. A big, full-grown man. Hulking, by the mass of him. Not as large as a Winterman or a Calbernan, but compared to the women, plenty large enough.
He turned back to the Calbernans crowded behind him. Spotted Ryll in the midst. “Ryll, send for a healer. Quickly.”
Talin was rocking Lily, trying to soothe her as she sobbed in Sun Tongue against his throat. After a few minutes, Talin looked up with a frown. “Forgive me, my prince. My Sun Tongue is not the best. She keeps saying something about the princess. That she’s killed the princess.”
It took a moment for that to process.
And then, for the second time, Dilys’s whole body froze as that fiery, newborn volcano at his core erupted all over again.
