Xaydin held Gisela back.
She looked up at him with a frown. “Something wrong?”
He turned around to walk backwards while facing Gisela so that he could mouth the words, “My brother never calls Dash…Dash.” Being raised with the Tenmaruns, Masakage was more formal than that. Unlike Xaydin, Masakage wasn’t really friends with the king.
No. Masakage either called him king or by his full name, King Deciel.
And now that he thought about it, Masakage had said and done several things that didn’t ring true.
Every part of him was on alert now, and in case he was right, he wanted Gisela to be wary, too.
She cut a suspicious glance to his brother before meeting Xaydin’s stare. “What do I do?” she whispered.
“Act naturally. Watch him.” He turned around and quickened his steps. “Kage!”
His “brother” slowed to allow him to catch up. “Yes?”
“Did you leave a coin with theaþaswere?”
“Why would I leave coin with him? He didn’t charge me for the service.”
Right…
Xaydin silently cursed. This definitely wasn’t Masakage. How had he missed that? Masakage would have offered one of his fortune coins to Fenrys and Saress.
Why hadn’t he realized that sooner? That annoying habit of handing out coins was one Masakage couldn’t stop himself from doing. It was compulsive.
Damn it!
Which begged the question, who was with them? They’d started this quest with Masakage.
Was his brother still alive?
Grinding his teeth, he cursed himself for being distracted. This was his fault. Had Gisela not been with them, he would have realized the masquerade sooner. Too much of his attention had been on her and not what he should have been focused on.
If his brother was hurt, he’d never forgive himself.
What if they killed him?
Not possible. Masakage was too powerful for that. He refused to believe that his brother could be killed by some two-bit animal who was playing this game with them.
Which was the real question. Why do this? If they wanted to stop him or Gisela, why not just attack?
Who hired them?
It definitely wasn’t Dash. The king would have never called in someone else after telling Xaydin to do this. While Dash was as suspicious as anyone Xaydin had ever known, Xaydin was one of the exceptionally few Dash trusted.
No, something else was going on here.
Something sinister, and he would find his brother, then kill this bastard.
Forced to stay calm, Xaydin didn’t say anything as they made their way back to Fenrys who looked completely crestfallen.
“Did you kill him?” the boy asked with a catch in his voice. “Was he in pain?”
Xaydin knelt down by where he sat on a rock, waiting. “You wanted to spare him pain, didn’t you?”
Fenrys refused to look at him.
