Page 97 of His Realm

“I am not a young vampyr,” she informed Balon, “and both Lord Ormiston and Keres are far older than me. I’m confident when I tell you again, no, we require no sustenance.”

“As you like,” he agreed, then looked back at me. “Your meal will arrive presently. Would you prefer water or mead?”

“Water is great,” I assured him.

“Please,” he said tiredly, “I beg you, do not try to leave the castle, as I promise you, none of you will survive outside the walls.”

I didn’t doubt that.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Cirillo informed him, sighing deeply. “We all await the prince’s imminent arrival.”

“The prince may not arrive for some time,” Balon replied, his voice gentle, as though he didn’t enjoy squashing Cirillo’s hopes.

What surprised me was Carice’s scoff. “You don’t understand whom you’ve taken from him. Not yet. But you will.”

Balon scowled at her, and then left. As soon as the door closed, Carice rushed to the door and locked it, spinning around and looking at the rest of us like a cornered animal.

“I will stand guard,” Cirillo promised her. “I swear on my life, no one will touch you.”

She started to cry then, and I understood. All of it, what the nobles looked like, Ødger’s spectacle, Sorin’s death, and being imprisoned in the castle because of location and climate was more than she could bear. Lady Carice was overwrought.

“Tell me everything he promised you.”

She remained silent, her gaze on the floor.

“You worry for your son, for his place in the palace,” I suggested.

Slowly, she returned her gaze to me. “Ødger sent Sorin to speak to me a week before the attack on the king. He promised that if Varic died, if I helped, he would name Chryos his heir and make me a queen.”

“Did you know that Ødger demanded me from the king and the king said yes?”

She gasped as she stared at me.

“Ødger demanded you for Balon, but whereas the king was fine to let me go, he said no in regard to you.”

“I was not to be sent from the palace?”

I shook my head. “You are Cassius’s love. The king would never allow anyone to hurt his son’s love.”

“But you are Varic’s.”

“The king saw Cassius’s heart clearly because it was so much like his own. Varic’s is alien to him, and he had to be educated.”

“So originally, the king was going to send you here?”

“Yes. Keres and I were supposed to be sent.”

“But he changed his mind?”

“The queen changed his mind about me. Keres had still agreed to come to visit, with me and Varic, when we came after the wedding.”

“And no one communicated this to anyone?”

“There wasn’t any time.”

She screamed suddenly and started pacing. “I’ve made a terrible mistake.”

“You were seeing the other courtesans cast out and thought that would be fine for you, but what would happen to your son?”