The prince skidded to a halt just inside the entrance to his father’s sickroom. Sure enough, King Orram was awake and sitting up, though his eyelids drooped and he still looked terribly weak and frail. Nevertheless, he smiled ruefully up at Relam.
“Finally turned up to welcome me back to the world of the living?” he asked.
Relam shook his head, laughing. “I had no idea. You were still asleep this morning and-” He stopped, not wanting to burden his weakened father with the news from the Citadel.
“And you spent the rest of the day at the Citadel interrogating prisoners,” the king finished, nodding understandingly. “Which likely means you have had your fill of climbing stairs for a while.”
“Yes, your majesty,” Aven said with heartfelt sincerity. “There are a lot of stairs in that building. I almost wanted to jump to get back down faster.”
The king laughed weakly, which set off a fit of racking coughs. Relam immediately snatched up a glass of water and held it for his father to drink. The king slapped his hand away and took the glass himself.
“I’m not a total invalid,” he grunted. Then, he promptly lost his hold on the glass and it tumbled to the floor, spilling its contents over the king’s bed and then shattering into a hundred sharp-edged fragments.
“Well, maybe a mostly invalid then,” Relam observed, bending to scoop up the pieces. But Aven had beat him to it. The boy quickly scraped the bits of glass into a small mound, then set off in search of a dustpan.
“Efficient boy, isn’t he?” Orram observed as Relam held a fresh glass for him to drink.
“Very,” Relam agreed. “Good kid to have around.”
“Speaking of good to have around, Narin, come here,” the king said, waving weakly to the guard.
Narin exchanged a glance with Relam and moved to the king’s bedside, kneeling. “Yes, your majesty?” he asked quietly.
“I hear that I am in need of a new guard commander,” Relam’s father said, sighing. “In light of your recent service-” The king was taken by a sudden fit of coughing and had to break off abruptly. Narin waited patiently for the ailing monarch to regain his composure.
“To hell with the formalities,” the king muttered. “Thanks for taking care of those assassins and questioning them today. You’re the new guard commander.”
Narin bowed from the waist. “I live to serve,” he replied gravely. “I accept this position, and swear to fill it ably. You and your family will be safe under my protection, your majesty. And I will find out who killed my predecessor and bring him to justice.”
“The city is full of petty thieves,” the king said, frowning. “I think you’ll have a hard time finding the right one.”
Narin shrugged. “If it was in fact a thief that slew him.”
“Who else?”
“Perhaps the master of the assassins,” the new guard commander said quietly.
Relam pondered this. It made some sense, eliminating guards who had witnessed the attack and been a part of the capture. But what had the guard commander been doing out in the city in the first place. Unless-
“He knew something,” Relam whispered.
Narin and his father stared at him, confused. “Sorry?” the king said. “I must have dozed off again because I’m not sure what or who you’re talking about.”
“You didn’t doze off,” Narin replied. “What is it, your highness?”
“Bannen must have known, or suspected, something,” Relam said. “Don’t you see? He was following up a hunch when he was attacked, that’s why he was outside the palace. The master of the assassins must have guessed that as well, or at least recognized that having him out of the way would make my family more vulnerable to attack-”
“Not hardly,” Narin growled.
“Sorry,” Relam said quickly. “I didn’t mean to insult you Narin. But there’s always some confusion when leaders change, you know.”
“That is true,” Narin allowed nodding slowly. “So you think that Bannen’s death was planned?”
“Yes,” Relam said.
“It’s possible,” the king concurred. “Maybe even likely. Bannen had no family, lived at the palace, and as far as I know has never left the premises except in the company of the royal family. Is that accurate, Narin?”
“Yes, your majesty. Bannen spent every waking hour here at the palace.”
“Continue to look into this, commander. Ask around, see if there were any witnesses to the attack, see if they can identify who killed Bannen.”
“As you wish, sire,” Narin replied, rising. “Will that be all, your majesty?”
“Yes,” the king replied. “I need rest. There’s a formal banquet just a few days from now and I need to be at full strength for that.”
Narin hesitated in the doorway. “Your majesty, is that wise, bringing so many people into the palace so soon after an assassination attempt?”
“We could just cancel it,” Relam muttered. Anything to avoid having to deal with Garenes again.
“There won’t be that many,” Orram said, waving the commander’s protests aside. “Just the families of the cadets and a few other dignitaries, all people we have known and trusted for a very long time.”
The guard commander looked as though he wanted to say something more, but he merely bowed. “By your leave, sire,” he said stiffly. Then, he marched out, briefly glancing at Relam to gauge his reaction. Relam shrugged ever so slightly in reply.
“Go,” his father said weakly. “If your mother is up, ask her to join me.”
Relam abruptly realized that he had not seen his mother since he entered the royal suite. “Is she ill too?” he asked, looking around.
“Slightly,” the king grunted. “A touch of the chills, nothing serious. She’s been resting for the last few hours.”
Relam bit his lip worriedly. “I’ll send her to you, if she’s up,” he promised, turning to the door. At the entrance, he turned back to look
