Page 93 of Crown of Hearts
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I hurried through the hallways in the hope of finding Cai. I had to tell him that Ray had finally tracked Eloisa down. I peeked into the library, where I found Jack browsing through the books.
“Have you seen Cai?” He flinched for a second as if caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to do, but I honestly didn’t mind him borrowing some of the books and I hoped he knew that. It wasn’t like I was going to read them anyway.
“No, I haven’t, Your Majesty. Is something wrong?”
“Thankfully, no. I just need to tell him something.”
“I see.” He nodded and assumed an upright stance, his hands hanging uncomfortably at his sides.
I lingered in the doorway. “Jack, can I ask you something and will you promise to answer me honestly?”
He scanned left and right, confirming that we were indeed alone in the library. “Yes, Your Majesty?”
“Do you think Cai is all right? With everything happening surrounding Argon and the engagement, I’ve grown worried about him. He doesn’t seem quite himself.”
“I think...” Jack took a breath. “I think he’s worried.”
“What do you think is bothering him so much?” I knew Cai had plenty on his mind. We all did. But I was missing pieces of the puzzle.
“Everything, Your Majesty.”
Cai had told me the haunting tales about the war with Argon, his eyes glazed over as he stared into the distance, awakening the demons in his memories. His face told stories of bloodied steel against steel. And yet I couldn’t help but feel that I hadn’t heard all there was to it. Jack was there with him the whole time. I stepped into the library, closing the door behind me.
“Jack, what really happened on the battlefield that day?”
He let out a long sigh so devastating that I almost regretted asking him, but Ineeded to know.
“Cai met an Argonian girl. A blacksmith’s daughter, I think.”
“What?” I blurted out, too loudly. Of all the things in the world that I could have expected Jack to say, this wasn’t it.
“They met by accident in the woods one day. Cai had gone for a ride and fell off his horse. She was collecting mushrooms or something of the sort. At first, she didn’t know who he was. He’d hurt his ankle, and she took him back to her father’s house to help him.”
Jack let his finger trace one of the spines of a library book before pulling his hand back, jaw clenched. “When he told me what had happened and that he wanted to see her again, I warned him against it. It was a very bad idea for more reasons than one. Even if she was nice, if she found out he was the Norrandish prince, she could always turn and betray him in one way or another. After all, she was still Argonian. My duty above all else is to protect Cai. And it was simply too risky.”
“But?” I urged him on.
“But Cai had already made up his mind and saw her again anyway. I’m not sure if he was truly in love with her or if she was just a friend or something to distract him from the chaos of war. I don’t know if he ever told her the truth about who he really was.”
“Do you think it was partly because he was trying to get over his heartbreak with Delany?” I asked.
Jack shook his head. “No, Your Majesty. Cai was always fond of Delany, but it was onlybecause he knew he had to marry her. I don’t believe he ever truly loved her. Not in the way you’re meant to. I daresay he was practically relieved the day she told him that she was going to marry his cousin.”
I couldn’t help the hint of jealousy that pricked up in the back of my mind.
“One day, the girl didn’t show up at their meeting place. He knew something was wrong. So he sent scouts to the village. ButArgonian soldiers found them and hell broke loose, fighting and fire and innocent people getting in the way. Cai had never meant for it to happen.”
Jack stalked towards the windows, gazing out as he recalled the memory. “The king of Argon’s younger brother, Dexus, was fighting at the front then. His guards caught Cai, beat him and dragged him to the village centre. It turned out that one of Dexus’ spies had followed Cai and found out about the Argonian girl. They’d caught her, and killed her there in front of him.”
I felt the sharp intake of my breath at his words. “Were you and Alastor there when it happened?”
Jack nodded slowly. “I can still see it, and the pictures in my mind make me sick to my stomach, even to this day. Cai tried to fight, of course, but we were injured and outmanned. We didn’t stand a chance. It was brutal and awful.”
My stomach lurched at the thought of it all. At the idea of what Cai had had to bear. My hand grasped some of the fabric of my skirt as I went to stand next to Jack.
“After she was dead, they beat us until we were unconscious. When we came to, their mutilated bodies surrounded us. We were lucky a group of Cai’s soldiers had discovered us and saved us. It was war, after all. Alastor and I buried her. Cai killed Dexus on the battlefield. Drove his sword right through him. Not that it would change anything. After that, he never mentioned a word about it again, and Alastor and I knew better than to bring it up. Something changed inside Cai that day.”
