“What was his name?” he asked. “I do not think I have ever asked you that.”
“Amare,” Addax said. “He was a man of great vision and great honor, something that threatened some people.”
Cole sat back with his warmed wine, interested in a rare glimpse into their past. “And these people are the ones who started the rebellion against him?”
Addax nodded. “Mostly,” he said. “My father had a younger brother, Ekon, who coveted his power. It was Ekon who started the rebellion against my father and stole his throne.”
Cole nodded faintly. “Surely he would have wanted you dead, too, Ad. You are your father’s heir.”
“That is true, but we had the loyalty of my father’s servants,” he said. “When the rebellion started, they took Essien and I away, dressing us as servant children. We had a sister, you know. Adanya was her name. I do not know what became of her and that will always haunt me. I am the eldest son, after all. I should have made sure she was protected.”
Cole had never heard that before. As the music blared and the roar of conversation filled that stuffy tavern, he found himself in a serious conversation with Addax and Essien on ataboo subject. Perhaps it was the wine causing them to speak of things they kept well-buried, but Cole had seen them both drunk before.
This was something else.
Perhaps it was simply time to speak on it.
“You were a child,” he said. “You cannot blame yourself for not being able to help her. It sounds as if you were lucky to escape with your lives as it was.”
Addax looked at him. “Would you feel the same way if we were speaking about your sisters?” he asked. “Allie and Effie and Addie? How would you feel then?”
Cole conceded the point. “Guilty as hell,” he said. “I did not mean to diminish your feelings, Ad. I apologize.”
Addax held up a hand. “You did not,” he said. “I did not mean to be confrontational, but Adanya’s fate has always been with me, like a shadow.”
“Hopefully, she was helped to escape just like you were,” he said. “Mayhap she is safe just as you are, living a good life.”
But Addax shook his head. “Do you know what I think?” he said. “I think my uncle spared her to marry her. What better way to assume the throne of Kitara by marrying his niece, the king’s daughter? I do not think she is dead. She is a queen. But it makes me sick to think on it.”
Cole felt a good deal of sympathy for him. “Do you ever think of returning?”
A smile flickered across Addax’s lips. “I do,” he said. “I think of it often. I think of the money Es and I earned from the tournaments we competed in and the money your father and William Marshal pays us. I am saving my money so I can buy an army to take with me back to Kitara. An army of the most brutal mercenaries the world has ever seen. I will return to Kitara and I will retake it, someday. At least, that has always been my intention, but since leaving Kitara those years ago, my life hasgone in directions I could never have dreamed of. Mayhap I shall return to Kitara, but not now. I still have much more to do here in the land of people who seem to fight so much against one another.”
Cole chuckled. “And more knights to defeat in the joust.”
“Exactly.”
Cole sat forward, looking Addax in the eyes. “You have become my closest friend, Ad,” he said. “The past two years have seen you and I go through a great deal together. We have faced life and death together. I hope you will not return to Kitara without me by your side.”
Addax smiled warmly at him. “I would not have it any other way, Cole,” he said. “You are my brother even if you do not look like me.”
“But I think like you. And my heart is the same. That is enough.”
Addax held up his cup to them and they shared a toast to their friendship. It was a genuine moment between them, the misplaced prince and the spawn of the man many considered the prince of darkness. In a sense, they were both misplaced, both trying to find where they belonged.
Andwhothey belonged to.
“But until I accompany you back to Kitara, the world we live in is here and now,” Cole said after a moment. “I feel like my world has changed. Everything I thought it would be doesn’t seem so certain any longer.”
Addax leaned forward on the table, looking at him closely. “Lady Corisande?”
Cole nodded slowly. “Lady Corisande,” he said. Then, he snorted. “Odd, isn’t it? Feeling that way about a woman I have only just met.”
Before Addax could reply, Essien suddenly leapt up from the table and grabbed a serving wench who had just lost her dancepartner. Handsome, young Essien could charm even the most frigid heart and the serving wench, once she got over her shock of being grabbed by a strange man, wholeheartedly jumped into the dance with him.
Cole and Addax watched Essien swing the woman around as she squealed with delight.
“There he goes,” Addax sighed. “I swear to you, we are going to have to flee England at some point because he will have gotten another girl in trouble. If I could only find him a wife.”
