He shook his head, taking a deep breath.“Assassin.They wanted something.”
He lifted his hand, revealing his blood-splattered ring.I had never seen him without it, knew the ring was important to him, but it didn’t look valuable enough to kill for.
“This ring signifies more than you know, boy.Whoever attacked me, they wanted it.”
“What did they look like?”I asked, wiping away the rest of the blood from his leg and going in search of a bandage.It would hold him until he saw the physician.
“Couldn’t tell.The corridor was dimly lit, and they were dressed in all black.”
I froze.“Do you think—”
He nodded.“I think these are the same people that murdered your brother.I’m afraid they might come after you next.They wanted the ring.I know who they work for now, and I can promise you it is nothing good.You need to be extra cautious.Don’t leave the palace grounds without sufficient guards.Try not to go anywhere alone, even though I know Howland is always right behind you.Keep your guard up.For everyone.”
My mind flashed back to the girl with Analleia.She had tried to drug him once before.Maybe her friend wasn’t who she said she was.But no.They had wanted to get information from him.Not the ring.
But I’ll double check.
“Do you have any idea who they were?”
He grunted as he sat upright, examining his knee.“Only that the guild of assassins they were from is highly trained and deadly.They will move about without you ever knowing and strike when you least expect it.You will only see them when they want you to.But I got them.I stabbed them in the right of their abdomen.I tried to look for a blood trail, but the rain was on their side.”
Thunder rumbled in the distance, laughing at us as it prepared to remove every trace of evidence.I glanced to the doors of my balcony.If they truly had murdered my brother, my siblings and I were next.And if he had left a wound on the perpetrator—that made them far easier to identify.
I walked out of the royal apartments, instructing one of the soldiers to send messengers to visit the physicians in the city and to report back if any of them had someone come in with a knife wound to the abdomen.
A wound like that would fester and kill without treatment.
We would find our assassin—dead or alive.
Chapter Thirty-One
Analleia
Iawoke in a pool ofmy own blood.Some sticky.Some dried.Was I dead?I lifted my head, trying to get a view of my surroundings, but all I saw was red.My shirt was pulled up, my wound bared.It looked fresh, yet somehow partially knit together.My head swam with dizziness.
How am I alive?
