“No.” He wrapped a hand around my trembling one and offered me a warm smile. “I appreciate your suggestion, but I won’t hear of our taking a detour. Your condition is far worse.”
I dropped my gaze to the hideous wound. Seeing how bad off he was made me worry even more about what would happen to me. But first, I had a job to do. Worrying about myself would have to wait for later.
I slipped to my knees in front of him, where I faced him as I grasped the roll of bandages. “Where do I start?”
He chuckled. “You start with the vials. They’re the cleansers. Use the clean water first, and the brownish one to sterilize.”
I plucked one of the clothes from the pile and began my work. It wasn’t easy removing the filth from the wound, and I heard him suppress a hiss more than once.
“Sorry,” I murmured as I worked my way around the rough edges.
He lifted his chin and stiffened his jaw. “No need to apologize. I’ve had worse treatment from less striking faces.”
A faint blush accented my cheeks, but I shook it off. “Do you always compliment your nurses?”
“Only when the compliments are true.”
I scooted around to his side to hide my stupid cheeks and applied the ointment there. “So, um, Your Highness, do you always get into this much trouble on these hunts?”
“Cassian.”
I paused in my work and blinked at him. “Come again?”
“My name. It’s Cassian.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Are you sure I should be calling you that?”
“It would be more advisable than you calling me Your Highness.”
I resumed my work, but with a head full of curiosity. “Why is that? Do you have assassins out to kill you or something?”
“I wouldn’t doubt that, but I would rather my subjects not hear you refer to me by my title.”
I leaned to the side and captured his eye. “Why? Shouldn’t they want to see you?”
A bitter smile slipped onto the man’s lips. “The start of my reign was not…auspicious.”
“Meaning what?”
A heavy sigh escaped him. “I took up the throne five years ago upon the death of my father. He had managed to keep the nethral at bay during his entire reign, but upon my ascension, they poured across the borders like a pestilence.”
I winced. “That couldn’t have been easy on you, losing your father and having to fight those things.”
“I could have borne the burden if my people hadn’t suffered, but many of their villages and homes were destroyed due to my inexperience. Many blamed me for my inexperience.”
“Is that what Vhulkar was talking about? About you being jealous of their power?” I guessed.
“Yes. They swept through the borderlands as quickly as the north gales, and with the same cold intensity. Many villages were completely destroyed, and some of my people took the invasion as a sign that my ascension wasn’t viewed very favorably by God.” He lifted his eyes to the brightening sky, and there was a tinge of haunting sadness in them. “Those most against my rule gave me a new title. The Stormcrowned King.”
Chapter 13
My mouth dropped open. “But it wasn’t your fault!”
Cassian closed his eyes, and his face was a picture of sorrow. “Fear and sadness breed anger, and I can’t help wondering myself if God had tested me and found me wanting. I was slow in mobilizing the army against the nethral, and my mistake cost many lives.”
I slipped around in front of him and grasped his shoulders. “Listen, Cassian. I know I only just, well, arrived here, but I already know that you’re a good person. Even good people make mistakes, and from what I’ve seen, you always try your hardest to fix them. Maybe your people just need to be shown the you that your men see every day. If they did, then I’m sure there wouldn’t be any more grumblings about you not being good enough.”
A playful smile danced across his lips. “What do you recommend I do, my counselor?”
