Page 44 of The Uncrowned Prince

“Very little is not the same as nothing,” he pointed out.

“No, it is not.”

“Then I suppose in this case it must be a code for ‘I am not going to tell you and asking will eventually get you stabbed.’”

Karreya’s glare was more exasperated than hostile. Perhaps he was progressing in her esteem.

“It means, Abreian, that I cannot tell you because I am sworn not to.”

“Fair enough.” Vaniell tried to give the impression that he was relaxing into his seat, but on the inside, every instinct was prickling with curiosity. Who was Senaya, really? And what could she have said that Karreya had promised not to repeat? “Do you have a better idea of where to search for your father now?”

She nodded once. “I believe I know where to start. However…” She shot him a look that was almost hesitant. “You will not like it.”

Vaniell shrugged and grinned. “You aren’t going to like what I intend to do either, so I suppose we’ll call it even. Where is your next destination?”

“The royal palace,” she said flatly, and Vaniell almost dropped his teacup.

“You plan to look for your father…inside the palace?”

She nodded again, and Vaniell’s grin grew positively wicked. “You can’t imagine how delighted I am to hear you say that.”

Karreya glanced suspiciously into her teacup, and then back at him. “You say this is not poison, but does it somehow cloud the mind? Why exactly are you delighted? I thought you wanted me to stay out of sight and allow you to do the questioning.”

“I do,” Vaniell allowed. “So it is fortunate for both of us that I, also, have an urgent need to find a way into the royal palace.”

It took Karreya less than half a second to arrive at the correct conclusion. “You have discovered a clue about the king’s death. You believe you know who has done this.”

He nodded—a single, slow dip of his head, his eyes never leaving hers. “I do.”

“Why does it matter so much to you? Why not allow the Irians to deal with their own problems?”

He was not quite prepared for her blunt query, and so had no ready answer. How could he explain without telling her more than he wanted her to know?

“You are Garimoran,” she said ruthlessly. “You have your own battles against your own king. Why concern yourself with the troubles of this Throne when you cannot even save your own?”

It hurt, but it was a fair question. One he would have asked for himself were he in her position.

“I suppose because…” He might come to regret it, but considering what he was asking her to do, he owed her at least some piece of the truth. “Because I have reason to believe that the one at fault is not a stranger to me.”

Karreya did not appear to be startled. Rather, she seemed to deflate slightly and set her teacup to the side. “You feel responsible.”

Hewasresponsible. He’d known the longest. Had been given clues to his tormentor’s identity long before he’d had the courage to see them. And for too many years, he’d lent the weight of his own talents to the bastard’s insidious plans.

So many lives had been ruined because he was too afraid to act. Too afraid to say no. Because he hadn’t felt strong enough to stand up to the man who wore his father’s face. Because he thought by some miracle he could spare the lives of those he loved if only he did what he was told.

So he had bent his neck and done terrible things while fury brewed beneath his skin, until that fury could no longer be contained. Until rebellion was the only hope that got him out of bed each day. But still he had not dared to act openly—not until his mother had looked him in the eye and told him she would rather die than watch him continue down that road.

She was the only person in his life who’d seen him and known him, who had believed he was more than his scandalous reputation. He would have sacrificed anything to protect her, so her words had stabbed him through the heart.

But they had also given him the courage to fully revolt against the imposter’s plans for him. To disappear rather than marry Princess Evaraine. At least he had not ruined her happiness—as well as his brother’s—before taking himself beyond the king’s power to manipulate.

And now… Now it felt as though he had no purpose except to fix what he had broken. Repay what he had stolen. Take responsibility for the monster he had helped to create.

But he was not ready to say all of that to Karreya. “Someone has to be responsible,” he said with a shrug. “And if the perpetrator is one of my own, it seems right that I find a way to act before Abreia is taken to the brink of war by lies and misdirection.”

She nodded as if she understood. “That is all very well, but if I am to take you with me, I must know how far you are willing to go.”

“To the ends of the kingdom?” He gave her a smile that the old Vaniell had worn like a shield, but she was having none of it.

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