He shook like a leaf in autumn, but stayed silent.
“Please, Derrick,” I cried. “Please let me help you. I will call the servants and get you food—”
His eyes rolled back and his knees buckled. My arms quickly wrapped around him as his head lolled against my back. The crown of Lycaster fell from his head with a clatter.
I braced myself as I held him, but I could not help the smile that bloomed when three gentle notes from a harp played in my mind.
Alastar XII had let me in.
“What in the high halls of hell is going on?”
General Hyton’s footsteps sprinted down the patio steps. Derrick’s weight lifted off my body as the General heaved him over his shoulder.
Shit, this did not look good. In the General’s eyes, I could have put Derrick under a spell and caused him to faint.
I tried not to sound defensive. “He has not eaten in days, General. We should get him—”
“I know,” General Hyton huffed. “He refused anything we gave him in the Western tower—threw the bread right back at the guards like it was full of maggots.”
The Western tower? Derrick had been locked in a cell all day? Isthathow far the General went to keep Derrick safe?
Two guards appeared at the General’s side and each one balanced the weight of their Duke’s limp body between them.
“Take him to his chambers,” the General ordered.
The soldiers obeyed, taking Derrick in the opposite direction of the ballroom doors.
“Not the passages!” he barked. “Someone could be waiting with a knife. Take him through the ballroom so everyone can have eyes on him.”
The soldiers turned on their heels. My heart ached at the sight of Derrick’s feet dragging lifelessly against the cobblestones.
I kneaded the fabric of my skirt. Derrick had lost his parents, killed a man, and was starving. No wonder he was starting to go…
No, I refused to even think of the word. Derrick always had a sharp mind and a dazzling wit. He just needed some comfort. Anyone in his situation would.
“Forbidden to lie, and yet you kept so many secrets.”
I turned and General Hyton’s shadow washed over me. I could have played meek and helpless, but that would do me no good. He knew I was a sorceress and therefore dangerous. Leaning into that assumption might keep my head on my shoulders.
Besides, he merely held the crown of Lycaster in his hand, not a sword.
I set my jaw and looked up. “You executed Brandt Olson.”
His eyes were hard as he stepped forward. “I am the enforcer of laws, not the arbiter of mercy. He committed high treason.”
“As have I, yet here I stand.”
He caught my chin and my eyes met his. My neck was so bare and exposed, I nearly felt the edge of Traitor’s Bane on my skin.
His finger traced my jaw as he kept me in his hold. “An answer for an answer, let’s see if you will give me the whole truth this time.”
A chill pricked my skin, but I held firm.
“Nikkolas Bloodstone was not hiring cadets from my academy to be mere fortress guards or to repopulate the province,” he said. “That ‘militia’ Olson confessed to is a real army, isn’t it?”
I could have spat in his face.
“Yes,” I hissed.
