‘No one seems scared of Loethar,’ Leo admitted, echoing Gavriel’s thoughts.
‘That’s because we’ve never given them reason to be … until now. Be assured, majesty, the panic will hit soon enough. I think we’ve been wrong to ignore the threat but my opinion is worth little.’
‘Not to me,’ Leo said and then froze as one of the servants appeared, walking so briskly she was bringing behind her a draught.
‘Prince Leo,’ she said, nodding her head, ‘Morkom has been looking for you everywhere.’ Her tone was filled with accusation.
Gavriel saw Leo’s eyes narrow. ‘And he can continue to look, Genrie,’ the prince said coolly. ‘He is, after all, a servant. One I appreciate and like very much but a servant all the same … just like you.’
Genrie bristled and Gavriel found her all the more alluring for her pursed lips and frostiness. The fact was Genrie was efficient, keen at her job, and liked by all the senior people in the palace because she was discreet and pragmatic. But she had an abrupt, at times superior manner that he understood would certainly rub the youthful prince the wrong way. ‘Er, his majesty is late because of me, Genrie,’ he chimed in. ‘Forgive me. He’s here now and well aware that he is due for supper shortly with the queen. Who are you having supper with? Perhaps I could —’
‘Master De Vis,’ she began, her tone wintry, ‘I was expressly sent by the queen to find his majesty and I —’
‘And he is found.’ Leo cut across her words with a sardonic smile. ‘Thank you.’
It was a dismissal and she had no option but to curtsey and move on, but not without throwing a glare at Gavriel.
Gavriel sighed. ‘Now she’ll never let me feel her pert —’
‘Ah, the kitchens have sent up some berry liquor,’ the prince said, ignoring his friend’s moans as they entered his suite. ‘Want some?’
‘No, majesty, but you go ahead.’
Leo gave him a look of disdain. ‘Gav, it sounds to me like we’re going to be together for a while.’
‘I should be honest and tell you that I’ve been instructed by your father and my father not to leave your side. We’re as good as glued together from hereon.’
That caught the prince’s attention. He gawped at Gavriel. ‘You jest.’
Gavriel shook his head. ‘New rules. You now have a full-time champion.’
‘What about Piven?’
‘He has his nurserymaids. You need a man!’ Gavriel said the last with a flourish, flexing the muscles in his upper arm in a light attempt at humour he didn’t feel.
The boy gave a low whistle. ‘In that case can we drop the majesty title? It makes me feel awkward. You and Corb never used to call me that. Your doing it now makes me feel like my father.’ He tipped water into the small measure of dark syrup he had poured into a goblet.
‘In front of others I must show respect, you know that.’
Leo drank the contents of the goblet, giving a sound of pleasure as he swallowed the last mouthful. ‘Fine, but when we’re alone I want to be just Leo or dunderhead to you as I’ve always been.’ He pushed back the fringe of his sandy-coloured hair. ‘So is that all you know about the Valisar magic?’
Gavriel thought he’d got away too easily on the previous conversation. ‘I know that it’s whispered about as the Valisar Enchantment. Your father told me only today in fact that it’s the magic that kills the females of his line. Whether they die in the womb, at birth or beyond it, none has survived more than an hour or so.’
‘Why? The magic is too powerful for them?’
‘Seems so.’
‘Or perhaps it chooses only the boys to live.’
‘Yes, more likely.’
‘My poor sister,’ Leo mused. ‘I’d like to have taught her how to shoot a catapult. Piven just can’t get it.’
‘Even if she had survived, Leo, I wonder whether your father could have risked her being found by Loethar.’
The boy looked up, surprised. ‘You mean he’s pleased she’s dead?’
‘No,’ Gavriel hurried to say. ‘But I think I sensed that he felt relief that she could not be hurt by the barbarian.’
‘But why couldn’t my father have protected us all if she’d lived?’
Gavriel shrugged. He too wasn’t sure about this. ‘I imagine because a baby is dangerous. It can give you away with a whimper if you’re hiding; it needs its mother and the kind of care that if we were on the run we couldn’t give. I think your sister’s death released your father from having to make that decision,’ he said, hating the lie as it treacherously left his lips. ‘I’m calling Morkom for your bath.’
‘But how is my father going to protect my little brother?’
‘I’m not sure. I’m not privy to that,’ Gavriel replied, utterly sure now that Piven would be ignored and left to Loethar’s discretion. No one wanted another child’s blood on his hands by killing Piven to save him from the barbarian.
‘I shall speak to him about Piven. Where is the king, do you know?’
‘I imagine he’s at the barracks. Our army is going to be facing the marauders soon. He’s probably doing his best to ensure their spirits are high, and their courage.’
‘What about ours?’
‘We’ll have to help each other.’ The words sounded prophetic as he said them. ‘And I think we have to get used to it.’
Loethar licked the blade, enjoying the sensation of the metallic tanginess in his mouth. Blue blood. Regal blood. He could get drunk on it. He looked at Stracker. ‘Impale him and all the family in the central square. That should reinforce who now controls Barronel and loosen a few tongues as to where any of the Vested may be.’
‘I presume you want a spectacle made of the rest of the family?’
‘Cross them. That always humbles an audience. And don’t hasten their deaths. No mercy.’
Stracker nodded, glancing at the enormous raven sitting on the back of Loethar’s chair.
‘I want sorcerers, witches, wizards — call them whatever you will, they’re all the same to me,’ Loethar continued. ‘But I want to know who the Vested are and where we can find them. Offer rewards, spread fear, use whatever tools necessary but I hunger for my knowledge. I must be fed.’ He grinned and the malevolence behind his words was heightened by the sight of his bloodstained teeth. He wiped his tongue along them, licking his lips at the residue of taste.
‘I shall see to it,’ Stracker said.
‘I plan to be alone tonight,’ Loethar added, then changed his mind. ‘Actually, send me up that cowering little princess. And have a barrel of wine brought up with her. Maybe it will help dull the sound of her shrieks.’
Both men laughed. Once his Right had departed, the contrived smile froze on Loethar’s face. He was close now. Very close. He hoped the Penravians were suffering in their dreams with images of the havoc he was going to loose upon them. He hoped they had heard the stories of what he had unleashed upon the rest of the Set, the terror he had achieved and the torturous pain he had heaped on each realm. Word ran ahead of him, he knew, and he hoped the people of Penraven were listening carefully, for he wanted their king … but most of all he wanted what the Valisar royals possessed. He stroked the raven’s head and it blinked its pale eyes.
‘Almost there now,