“Someone must pay,” the king continued, glaring at Narin. “And that will be you, commander. You failed me. You failed the queen.”
“No!” Relam said quickly. “Father, be reasonable!”
Narin paled and his mouth tightened to a thin line. “Your majesty, please, give me time to get to the bottom of this. As your guard commander-”
“You are not my commander,” the king snarled. “Not anymore. My queen is dead because of you. Guards!”
The guards on duty burst into the room immediately. When they saw no obvious threats, they stood in the doorway, weapons held loosely, looking confused.
“Sorry, your majesty,” one said finally. “We thought we heard someone summon us.”
“It’s fine,” Relam broke in. “Just go back to your posts, thank you.”
“Quiet!” his father roared, rounding on him. “I am king here! And my orders are to arrest this man, your former guard commander for failing to protect the line.”
“No!” Relam shouted.
“Silence!” his father countered, springing to his feet. “Now guardsmen, or I’ll have the lot of you arrested.”
The guards moved forward uncertainly. Narin rose calmly staring at Relam steadily. Then, he turned and surrendered his weapons to his own men, slowly extending them hilt first to the nearest guard. The guard hesitated, then took them. Two other guards grabbed their former commander by the arms and waited for the king’s orders.
In that moment, Relam realized that if Narin was imprisoned, there would be little chance of his mother’s murderers being caught. Narin knew the events best, had contacts all over the city, and had men loyal to him. He was the only one who could solve this and find the men responsible. But he could not do that from a cell.
Relam searched desperately for a solution to the problem, racking his brains for any seed of an idea. But it was all too much too fast. He was jerked back to reality by his father’s next words.
“You will imprison him in the Citadel, where he will rot with no food or drink until such time as he dies,” the king commanded. “Such is the price of failure.”
The guards turned and began to march Narin away through the door.
“Wait!” Relam said, stopping them.
The guards halted expectantly, turning back to face the prince.
“How dare you defy me!” the king roared, springing to his feet. “Get on with it!” he shouted at the guards.
“Father, I have a suggestion,” Relam said, thinking quickly. “Let me go with the guards. We will take the prisoner to the Citadel dungeons.” Relam looked at Narin, turning so his father could not see his face, and winked slowly. “There we will execute him and bury him. He has failed you, and me, and by allowing the queen’s death committed treason. And the penalty for treason has always been death.”
The king nodded slowly, and sank back into his chair. “Go,” he said to Relam. “See it done.”
Narin inclined his head gravely to Relam. The prince paused only to take his sword from the weapons rack, then swept out of the royal suite. “Come on,” Relam muttered as he passed the guards.
Chapter 24
As soon as the door closed, Relam turned to the palace guards and gathered them around him.
“You’re not dying today,” he told Narin. “I need you to find the murderers and bring them to justice.”
“I will do my best,” Narin promised with a thin smile. “It will be very easy to move around the city if people think that I am dead.”
“Do you have a place to stay? Money? Maybe a disguise to help conceal our treachery?”
“I have friends in the city,” Narin replied. “Friends I can trust. They will help.”
“Good,” Relam muttered. He turned his attention to the guards next. “Listen to me. If anyone asks what happened, you accompanied me to the Citadel and watched me execute former commander Narin. He was buried like a common criminal, outside the city in an unmarked grave.”
“That won’t be enough,” Narin warned. “Your father will likely check to be sure that you actually killed me.”
“And how would he do that?”
“He would check with the Citadel, see if you arrived with a prisoner and left with a body in a bag.”
“Then that’s exactly what we’ll do,” Relam decided. “These guards will be the witnesses. Then, we’ll carry you outside the city, dig a grave, put the bag and a log in it or something. You hide out for a day or two, then sneak back in. Maybe on market day, two days from now, when there’s more traffic than usual.”
“That is a truly devious plan,” Narin allowed. He glanced at the four guards clustered around them. “I trust that the four of you will keep our little secret?”
“Always, commander,” one promised. The others nodded agreement.
Relam nodded. “Good, then let’s get going. We have a traitor to execute.”
The guards grinned mirthlessly, and even Narin gave a small smile. Then Relam frowned at them severely and they all assumed grave expressions. Narin bowed his head tamely and slumped his shoulders, looking for all the world like a defeated man on his way to his death.
“Much better,” Relam muttered. “Follow me.”
They marched straight through the main halls of the palace. Relam wanted the marching off of the former guard commander to have as many witnesses as possible so that his father would be more likely to believe it had actually happened. A few officials gave them curious glances, which Relam ignored, sweeping on with the guards in tow.
The small band emerged onto the front steps of the palace, into a light rain. Relam stoically led the way out into the weather, the guards following behind. The palace guards on duty at the front door were more occupied with staying dry than policing who was coming and going and gave them
