Page 20 of The Prince

Caro’s fears were immediately validated. Light shown into the dark hallway from a second open door a few feet down from where Caro was standing. A flicker of moment caught Caro’s attention, and he looked up just in time to see the trailing hem of a dressing gown vanish around a corner ahead.

“He’s getting away!” Caro yelled into the sitting room, but his legs were already moving. Caro took off down the passageway, hoping some of the soldiers would follow as he tried to catch up to the fleeing king. He slid around the corner just in timeto see a foot disappear around a left-hand turn, and when he reached that corner Caro saw a flash of graying blond hair—King Cyphus’s back as he descended a staircase. Caro was catching up. Eyes on the prize, he scampered down the stairs, arriving at a landing with a hallway heading left and right as well as the switchback for more stairs. King Cyphus couldn’t have gotten so far ahead that Caro wouldn’t see him down the hall, so Caro took the stairs. Twice more, Caro reached a landing and had to continue downward, following what he hoped was the king’s path into the depths of the castle until he finally reached the bottom level, and his only option was to try the hallway.

The mage lights were out in this hall. Caro squinted through the gloom, trying to still his panting breaths so he could listen for any noise ahead. He crept forward slowly, looking to both sides and straining his ears for the slightest noise to indicate where the king had gone. He didn’t dare call up his magic to search; he might be able to pinpoint where the king was hiding, but the glow would give away his own position far faster. He inched his way forward, trying to sense some clue as to where the king had gone.

A sudden clatter off to Caro’s right, like the sound of several items falling to the floor, had Caro turning in that direction. A second clatter and a muffled curse and Caro hurried his steps. He passed through an opening of some sort, the solid edges dark in the gloom, as he followed a third, muffled, clanking noise.

And then the thud of a door closing andthunkof a heavy bar dropping to lock it echoed in what Caro realized was a rather small room. The limited light immediately vanished, leaving Caro standing in complete darkness, trapped.

Interlude

BRAXTON WIPED SWEAT, blood, and other substances off his face with a handkerchief. He had made the mistake of trying to wipe with the back of his hand far too many times in previous battles, and scraping the skin off his nose with the armored edge of his vambraces wasn’t something he wanted to do today. The room was a disaster. Blood had splattered everywhere, punctuated by the bodies lying where they had fallen. Fen stood over the final two guards, who had surrendered and sat against the far wall. Thris called out orders to the soldiers tearing apart the royal apartments, searching for the king. Grall leaned against one of the overturned couches, his own handkerchief up as he attempted to stymie a bloody nose. And Caro…

Braxton cast around, searching for a head of bright, blond hair and coming up empty. Braxton searched among the bodies, his heart in his mouth at what he’d find before finally letting out a sigh of relief when there was no sign of Caro.

“Has anyone seen Caro?” Braxton called, heading through the doorway into the lavish, garish bedroom. Nearly every surface was gold, from the gilded walls and furniture, to all the decorations. Even the bedding was stitched with gold thread. Braxton wondered how that could even be comfortable; he had to squint to keep from being blinded. Caro’s hair might haveblended in with the general theme, but he definitely wasn’t there or in the attached dressing and washing rooms either. Braxton returned to the sitting room to look again.

“Make sure to preserve this body,” Fen explained to some of the soldiers. He was reorganizing their group post-battle, moving bodies out of the way to prevent them from becoming a tripping hazard should the room become another battlefield. “We need to display him somehow, to reassure the people their tyrant prince is no more.”

“Has anyone seen Caro?” Braxton repeated. He only received headshakes in reply.

“He yelled something over by the doorway around when the prince was killed,” Grall said, his words muffled by the handkerchief pressed to his nose. “But I had my hands full at the time, so I don’t know what.”

Braxton nodded his thanks and headed for the secret doorway, stepping out into the hallway, heart sinking when he didn’t immediately find Caro. What he did find was a pool of light emanating from a second open door a few feet down the hall. Braxton jogged over, peeking in to find a screen of clothing. He shoved the clothes aside and grimaced at the shocked exclamations from Thris’s soldiers searching the king’s closet on the other side.

“My guess is the king escaped this way,” he said to the group who had turned to look at him. Caro had followed the king. Braxton was certain of that. But Caro wasn’t… Braxton cut that thought off before it could grow. Caro knew basic sword work and his body was healed, but he hadn’t yet had the time to build up his endurance. If the king was proficient in fighting, he could likely overpower Caro far too easily, but Braxton halted his thoughts again. He wasn’t going there. Besides, Caro had extremely powerful magic that as far as Braxton had been ableto tell was actually stronger than his father’s or his brother’s had been. A lot of the problems Caro had told Braxton about from his childhood came down to how damned jealous his family was of him.

Braxton returned to the sitting room. “We need to organize a search of the castle. The king escaped from a second door and it looks like Caro went after him.”

“We need to know how the rest of our allies are faring first, unfortunately,” Thris replied with a grimace full of frustration. They had really hoped to catch both the king and prince in their one attack. Now the king had a chance to regroup while they were stuck in place, waiting.

Braxton went over to one of the windows, looking out into the early morning sunlight as it bathed the lush garden below. Everything looked serene, far different to the blood-soaked nightmare behind him and the anxious thudding in his heart over Caro being missing. However, as he watched a plume of black smoke billowed past, blowing on a breeze that danced between the trees and bushes below.

“Something’s definitely on fire out there, so they’re doing something.”

Before anyone could respond, the sounds of booted feet running on carpet, a muffledthud, thud, came from the outside hallway where the double doors into the suite were thrown open.

“Coming to report!” someone yelled.

The white flash of Fen’s teeth as he grinned was all Braxton needed to drop his grip on his sword hilt and relax, but the rest didn’t relax until Fen called out a response.

“Jensen, get your ass in here!”

Fen’s second in command, Jensen, entered the room with one of Thris’s men at his side. They both saluted, and thankfully Jensen began to explain without any more fanfare.

“Our simultaneous attack on all three gates was successful. The western gate had deteriorated, exactly as General Thris said, so we were able to make entry into the outer bailey quickly and get the other two gates open. The majority of the soldiers surrendered, especially when they saw the coup fighters also wore Namin uniforms. There is some reactionary rioting in the city, and as you also predicted, we ended up with a supporting force of shopkeepers and laborers helping from the rear as soon as word got out that we were here. There were a handful of areas in the bailey where fighting was serious. Captain Zain believes she took out the Triumviré barracks, which housed the most difficult fighters. Their building caught fire too, which helped us. She sent us to report while she finishes the remaining cleanup.”

“Excellent work,” Fen replied with a firm nod. “General Thris, the castle and country are yours. How would you like to proceed?”

Thris stepped forward. “We need to find the king before that is actually true. I want a full, systematic search of the castle conducted. I want all servants brought to the servant dining hall, and all nobles brought to the throne room. Aside from our soldiers, no one should be allowed elsewhere. We will find the king and Prince Caro, and bring an end to the rule of kleptocracy.”

Jensen and Thris’s man saluted again before leaving. Zain would absolutely ensure no stone went unturned from her end in the search party. Now that they knew the castle was secured, it was time for Braxton to start his own search. Caro was somewhere inside this damned castle, and Braxton was going to find him. No matter how long it took.

Chapter Fifteen

CARO STOOD INthe dark, completely frozen in place, his heart thudding frantically. He couldn’t see the end of his nose, let alone anything else; the darkness was absolute. He was certain he had made a major mistake and gotten himself locked into a room of some sort as a prisoner or a hostage. After what felt like forever, a flare of light lit the room, giving him a chance to get his bearings. He was in what appeared to be an empty storeroom, five foot square and built completely of solid stone. A small window set into the door at head height was open, revealing perfectly functional mage lights in the hallway. Caro had definitely, stupidly, walked right into a trap.

King Cyphus appeared in the window, blocking the light with his smarmy smirk. “You and your nasty little friends have failed. Spectacularly failed.” He laughed, but his eyes were cold and sharp, calculating as he looked at Caro. “I’ll have this castle back to rights by nightfall, and every single one of them will be publicly beheaded, especially the damned bastards from Toval. And you will watch as every head rolls, knowing you won’t receive the luxury of a quick death. Oh no. For your betrayal, I will ensure yours is slow and incredibly painful.”

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