Page 76 of The King's Menagerie

"He will not move for anyone but me," Ramsay finally said. "It is the way he was trained. If I am not on him, or at least with him, he shall not move."

"Make him move, or it will be the prince's life."

"You dare not kill Kajan until you have what you want from the king," Ramsay replied calmly. "If you want me to make that horse move, you shall have to try other tactics. Harming Kajan will not change the simple facts of my horse's training—he will only move when I am physically with him."

Snarling and cursing in frustration, Mazin tied Kajan to the 0, then slid off the horse and stalked back toward Ramsay. He stopped well out of harm's way. "Get up."

Ramsay obeyed—and whistled sharply as he did so. Immediately obedient, Feather raced off, vanishing down the path and into the forest before Ramsay had even completely risen to his feet.

Mazin bellowed in anger and charged him.

The fight was brutal and bitter. Mazin had not lied—he knew how to use the knives he carried. The problem with a knife fight was that no one came out unscathed. It was a good fight if anyone managed to survive at all.

But a man trained to kill would never be better than one raised since childhood to stop those killers at all costs.

When Mazin was at last disarmed, Ramsay finally took hold and snapped his neck. He let the body drop, then put fingers to his lips and whistled high and long. Then he turned and headed for the house as quickly as he could while bloodpoured and dripped from several wounds. Thankfully, while annoying and possibly a problem if left neglected too long, none of them were immediately dangerous.

Nadir sat in front of the stove, pale-faced and bloody but definitely alive. "He left me for dead, eager to get to the prince. He did not bother to make certain of it," he said with a weak smile. "I suspect I left you the bulk of the work. I am sorry."

Ramsay went to his bed and fetched a chest that held the medical supplies he had bought shortly after arriving and settling into his new home. Returning to Nadir, he set them down. "One moment, I must fetch His Highness, then we will patch the both of us up."

"I'll be fine," Nadir said. "Your wounds are far more concerning."

"I'll be all right for a few minutes yet. Be right back." Ramsay went outside just as his horse returned to the clearing. "Are you all right, Kajan?"

"Uh-uh-huh," Kajan managed. "Why did papa's man try to take me?" He clung tight to Ramsay once he was freed from the horse, shaking and crying.

"I do not know," Ramsay said quietly. "But he will not hurt you anymore, all right? Come on, let's go help poor Nadir, who tried to stop him."

Inside, Kajan sniffled and sat curled up against Nadir's good side while Ramsay patched up his wounded one. Once that was done, Nadir stitched up the worst of Ramsay's wounds and then bandaged all of them. "It's a miracle you were not hurt worse."

"It is," Ramsay replied. "You have skills of your own, to have not been killed. That wound barely missed hitting something vital."

"I had my own adventures before I joined Shafiq's harem, and since then have received extensive training. Still nowherenear your skill level," Nadir said, envy clear in his voice. "Knife fights usually leave everyone dead."

Ramsay shrugged the praise aside. "It is what I have been trained to do since I was a boy. If men like that could mark me so easily, I would not be fit to be a Holy Protector. It is a very sacred duty in my homeland."

"Sacred usually means lonely," Nadir said softly.

Ramsay did not reply. Instead he said only, "You need rest."

"So do you, but we need to get home more," Nadir argued. "Mazin is dead, but the rest of his family is still about, and who knows what else is waiting for us between here and the capital."

"Nothing," Ramsay said flatly. "They would not dare risk it, not when Mazin was right here in the thick of it and seven men were following us. The rest of their resources are waiting in the city or the palace. With so much at stake, they would not put themselves at risk until absolutely necessary. What I do not know is why."

Nadir grimaced as Ramsay helped him to his feet. "Have you a spare change of clothes? As to Mazin, I can answer the why—corruption. Tavamara has always had a smuggling problem, and right alongside it a human trafficking problem. No matter what we do, how hard the battle is fought, new rats who trade in human lives crop up. Many changes are coming to how various systems work, including most importantly how goods are handled at the warehouses. Import, export, it's all changing, to counter illegal goods, bribery, and more.

"Mazin's family is amongst the most heavily corrupt. Several of them were recently arrested on a host of charges, nearly all tied to taking advantage of the current system. Not just his family stands to lose fortunes as their cheap and easy ways of making absurd amounts of money of smuggling and traffickingare cut off." He sighed. "At least until they devise new work arounds, but in the meantime it will still be many lives saved."

Ramsay nodded. "I see. They thought to kidnap the prince to force the king not to go through with the change in the system."

"Yes," Nadir replied. "It goes for final voting and the king's signature in four days. If we had not been able to locate Kajan by then, the king would have been forced not to sign, and Mazin's family—along with others—would have continued to flourish at the cost of others."

"That is why they were especially frantic to get the boy back," Ramsay said, nodding. "They dared not take further action, until they heard—or did not hear— from Mazin."

Nadir stripped off his torn and bloody clothes and accepted the ones Ramsay had pulled out for him. They did not really fit well, but the loose pants and robes were slightly too big for Ramsay, having been bought used, and so fit Nadir better than they might have otherwise. "Shafiq suspected, but we hoped we were wrong…"

Ramsay nodded and motioned to Kajan. "Come along, it is time to go home for real this time, Kajan. I promise. In two days, you will see your papa."

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