One of Dari’s eyebrows quirked up. “Is aught amiss?”
The child shrugged his broad shoulders. He was of an age where his mind hadn’t quite caught up to his rapidly developing size.
Dari tapped the seat next to her on thevesha-bench. “Do sit.”
“Aye, milady.”
The princess could see fresh tear stains on the boy’s dirty cheeks. ‘Twasn’t like Bezan to bring Bazi with him to work the gardens in such a state. “Where is your grand-sire?”
“I do not know,” the child tearfully admitted. “I have been alone in our hut for nigh unto three days. I hoped that mayhap you would know where he is so I walked toArakiathis morn.”
A sick feeling knotted in Dari’s belly. Mayhap all oddities could not be placed at King Elian’s feet, yet mayhap they could. “Where was the last place you saw him?”
“Here. In the gardens.”
“How were you separated from him?”
Bazi didn’t speak. He gazed at the ground whilst shuffling his feet.
“Bazi?”
Silence.
Dari placed her hand o’er his dirty one. “You can tell me anything, Bazi. You trust me do you not?”
“Aye,” he said quietly.
“Then talk to me.” She gave his hand a gentle squeeze. “I cannot aid you do I know naught of what transpired.”
Bazi seemed to mull that o’er for a long moment. Again, he shrugged. “We were separated by the king.”
Dari’s hearts immediately sped up. “The king?”
“Aye.”
“Tell me exactly what you saw.”
It took several minutes and much prodding, but eventually the princess got the story out of the young boy. His grand-sire had been pruning that wretched, goddess-forsaken tree, when the king threw a temper. Elian had slapped the elderly Bezan to the ground whilst Bazi had watched in hiding.
“And then he threw my grand-sire into the tree,” Bazi finished, “and the tree made my grand-sire disappear.”
Dari felt like vomiting. Her pulse raced as she tried to decide what to do. Bazi was too young to understand what the tree had done to his grand-sire. He was too young to comprehend most things as it were. But there was one thing she was awares that the child would understand: security.
“I will take care of you forever, child. I give you my vow. Leastways, this must remain our little secret for now, aye?”
“Secret?”
The princess nodded. “I will feed you, clothe you, tutor you, and shelter you within my rooms, but you must vow unto me that you will stay hidden from the view of others. Only my bound servant Qenda can know of you. Do you understand me, Bazi?”
“I have to be a secret?” His nose crinkled. “Why?”
“That I might care for you without the king’s interference. Now do you understand?”
“Oh aye.” He was quiet for a spell and then, “Do you think I will see my grand-sire again?”
Dari briefly closed her eyes. She would not give him false hope. “Nay, child.” She squeezed his hand again. “I would that you could, but your grand-sire has passed through theRah.”
He quietly cried. Her hearts ached as she held him.
