“I’ll be happy to discuss all of that with you once I see Gabriella.”
“And I may let you see her once I’m satisfied I know what transpired.”
Aggression flared. Battle claws pressed against the tips of Dilys’s fingers. “I insist you take me to her,” Dilys persisted. He tried to summonsusirena,intending to make Atrialan step aside, but the magic didn’t respond to his call. The water had replenished some of his physical strength, but not his magical stores.
“Is that how it works in Calberna? Foreigners bark orders at your mother, the Queen, and she obeys?”
Despite his agitation, Dilys felt his cheeks grow hot. Atrialan was right, much as Dilys hated to admit it. TheMyerialwould be ashamed at her son’s lapse in protocol. He took a breath and forced himself to calm down. “Forgive me, Your Grace. My concern forMyerialannaSummer has made me forget myself. You know how badly she was injured. She may need my help again.”
“She doesn’t. Her recovery has been nothing short of miraculous. In fact, while you’ve been lying in bed doing your best imitation of a death sleep for the last two days, she’s been awake and outside soaking up the sun. She’s already almost fully recovered. Tildavera tells me we owe Summer’s life and a good portion of her swift recovery to you, which is why I’m going to overlook your impertinence just now. But that’s where my goodwill ends. Until I get some answers, you’re not getting anywhere near her.”
Atrialan’s teeth snapped together in a sharp, cold smile. “So what’s it to be, Your Highness? Do you want to stand here arguing, or are you going to stop wasting both our time and explain to me exactly what thefarkis going on? Including why you and every Calbernan in Konumarr ended up in the queen’s school with a dead man and my wife’s sister beaten nearly to the grave, and why your men have taken it upon themselves to post guards and erectthat”—Atrialan jabbed a finger towards the window at Dilys’s back—“around my palace?”
Dilys turned to see what Atrialan was pointing at, and his jaw dropped a little. A shining wall of water shimmered a few inches from his balcony, so crystal clear it was almost completely transparent. A sea veil. Similar to the protective veil of water he put around his room each night as he slept, only much stronger. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed it.
“Ah.” Dilys rubbed his jaw to hide his discomfort. “I didn’t realize they’d done that.”
“Done what? What is it?”
“It’s a sea veil. A protective ward. Nothing dangerous.” That wasn’t entirely true. The sea veil did offer protection against attack and intrusion, but it also allowed the Calbernans to identify everyone who passed through the veil, and to trap or drown any or all of those people, should the situation warrant. Atrialan didn’t need to know that, however. “I can only assume my men thought it best to add Calbernan protections to your own, given my weakened state and the attack on Gabriella. I wouldn’t know for sure, as I only just awakened and you’re the first person I’ve spoken to.” He blinked innocently and offered a small, congenial smile.
“And the Calbernans who seem to think they have some right to set themselves up as Princess Summer’s personal guard?”
They would have. Of course, they would have. They’d stumbled across the first Siren born in twenty-five hundred years. Every Calbernan in Wintercraig—in all of Mystral, for that matter—would die to protect her. Just as, to a man, they’d also die to protect the secret of what Summer was.
“I am their prince. I intend to make Gabriella mylianaand the mother of Calberna’s futureMyerial.My men know this. They therefore protect her as they would their own princess.”
“Summeris the Season you plan to marry?” Atrialan’s voice dripped with disbelief. “Wasn’t she the one you dismissed out of hand your first day here? What was it you called her? Oh, yes,”—his eyes narrowed—“milked tea.”
“Doeseveryoneknow about that?” Dilys groaned and scrubbed his face. He was never going to live that down. “I apologized to all three Seasons for that bit of stupidity the day it happened. The apology was accepted.”
Atrialan raised his brows. “And they say Calbernans understand women.”
Dilys grimaced. He deserved that. But how it stung to be lectured about dealing with women by Wynter of the Craig.
“We’ll come back to the situation between you and Summer later,” Atrialan announced briskly. “I still have more questions about what went on the night she was attacked. Witnesses say you and your men all started running at exactly the same time—even those of you over on this side of the fjord—and every one of you ran straight for the school. How is it possible that every Calbernan in Konumarr realized Princess Summer was in trouble at exactly the same instant? And how did every one of you know exactly where to go?”
That one was easy to answer without evasions or lies. “We are gifted with acute hearing. We heard her scream. When a woman screams the way she and her companion did, Calbernans come running. It’s in our nature.”
“Princess Summer’s attacker was literally reduced to a bloody pile of meat. You claim you did it, but you have no injuries—not even a scrape on your knuckles—and the only blood on you belonged to Summer. How is that possible?”
“Did you see what that filthykrillodid to Gabriella? I slaughtered him so fast, he didn’t have time to fight back. As for why there wasn’t a drop of his blood on me, the healer—Nurse Greenleaf?—has no doubt already informed you my sea gifts—the ones that grant me dominion over water—also grant me at least limited control over blood, including the ability to remove it from my person, which I did before I laid my hands on Gabriella. And before you ask, I used that same ability to stop Gabriella’s internal bleeding and keep as much of her blood pumping through her veins as possible until the healer completed her work and Gabriella was no longer in danger of bleeding to death.” He met Wynter’s gaze full on and told him with complete sincerity. “Had it been necessary for me to give my life to save hers, I would have done it without a second thought.”
“Hmm.” Atrialan grunted. He appeared slightly mollified, which meant Dilys hadn’t yet contradicted anything Ari, Ryll, or the others might have already told him, but also still clearly suspicious. He possessed a much stronger instinct for sussing out lies and evasions than Dilys had realized. But it was also clear that he had recognized the ring of truth in Dilys’s last statement. “You have spent every day since your arrival courting Spring and Autumn. In fact, my sources tell me you and Summer have avoided each other since day one. So how is it, Sealord, that you suddenly decided the woman you want for your wife is the one woman you made a point of disdaining from the start? You haven’t shared more than a dozen words with her since the day of your arrival, and now suddenly no other woman will do and you are so devoted you’d give your life for her? A woman you know nothing about. A woman you made clear you were not interested in courting. How exactly does that happen?”
“I was never not interested in Gabriella.”
“You have a funny way of showing it.”
Dilys bit back a sharp retort. He told himself Atrialan had every right to be protective of the women in his family. The quality was an admirable one. Highly Calbernan, in fact. It was just a pain in the ass to be on the receiving end of that bristling, intrusive protectiveness.
“You want the truth? Fine. Here it is. I am the only child of Calberna’s queen. When I marry, my daughter—should Numahao grant my wife and I the blessing of a daughter—will become the next queen of Calberna. As with every other nation on Mystral, it behooves Calberna to have a strong ruler. Which is why, before I left the Isles, I was instructed by the Queen’s Council to marry either Spring or Autumn. The opinion was that they were the two strongest of the Seasons and therefore the best choices to mother Calberna’s next queen. I am a dutiful son. Despite my attraction to Gabriella—which contrary to your belief, was both instant and strong—I tried to do what the Queen’s Council expected of me. But as the days passed, it became increasingly clear that while duty required me to pursue Spring or Autumn, my heart kept leading me back to Gabriella. It’s true, she has been avoiding me. I do not know why. But I intend to spend the rest of my time here getting to the bottom of that mystery and convincing her that I am the right and only man for her.”
Dilys leaned back against the dressing table and crossed his arms. “Now, please, Your Grace, I’ve answered all your questions. I need to see Gabriella. I need to make certain with my own eyes that she is as fully recovered as you say.” He smiled tightly. “It’s a Calbernan thing.” And it was. He’d been separated from his future mate for two days, and the need to be near her, to touch her, to make sure she was all right, was beginning to claw at him.
“We’re not done yet. I understand Calberna is having trouble in the Olemas Ocean.”
Dilys scowled. “Even if we were—and I’m not saying we are—what bearing does that have on my going to see Gabriella?”
