The captain nodded robotically, and it was then I knew. With the evocation of the Dyzvati weakened by Princezna Haydyn’s grief and age, Stovia’s magic was able to penetrate it. He was compelling the soldiers to do his awful deeds.
As the captain hauled me to my feet, I was weighed down by my despairing heart.
Stovia appeared before me, holding Valena close, her little cheeks red from his slaps. “You attempt to disobey me, Rogan, and I will make you pay. For this disobedience, the Rosonias will pay. You now must live with the fact you killed Valena’s family.”
Stovia laughed gleefully at my horrified expression.
“Don’t listen to him, Rogan.” Kir struggled against a soldier, his face mottled with anger. “He was going to kill them anyway. Don’t let him make you think you did it.”
Stovia curled his lip in disgust. “I’ve had enough of you. Sandstone!”
The whip appeared in the soldier’s hand and Kir was thrust into the dirt.
“NO!” I screamed, my heart lodged somewhere in my throat.
“NO!”
“NO!” I bolted upright in bed. The sheets twisted around my body, my skin clammy, my hair stuck to my neck. Almost immediately, I sensed I wasn’t alone. Glancing left, I saw her sitting in an armchair by my bed.
“You were having a nightmare again.” Her soft, gentle eyes were sad. “More memories?”
I nodded, my throat constricted with the nightmare that still held me in its talons. “More memories.”
Haydyn sighed and slowly drew to her feet. I watched her float across my large bedroom suite and pull the heavy brocade curtains back from my windows. I winced as the sunlight streamed in, too bright, too adamant, willing my bad memories away whilst I steadfastly anchored myself to them.
“I told you I’d speak to Raj to see if he had a tonic to help you sleep without the dreams.”
Raj was the Royal Healer; Valena was his apprentice. I shook my head. “I told you no.”
“You’re the only one who ever says no to me.” Haydyn sauntered back to sit on my bed. Her pale hair gleamed almost silver in the sunlight, her countenance serene except for the teasing in her lovely eyes. “I wonder why I let you.”
“Because you love me,” I stated matter-of-factly as I pushed back the covers. I needed to ready myself for the day.
“Yes, I do.”
The statement was so melancholy, I spun to face her. It was then I saw it. The gloom in the back of her eyes, in the dark purpling beneath them. Those exhaustion bruises had been appearing more and more over the last few weeks, and I didn’t like it. “Something’s the matter.”
Haydyn shook her head. “Just tired is all.”
“Perhaps we should speak to Raj about a tonic for you.”
She wasn’t amenable but as always, to appease me, she nodded. “Perhaps.”
I grimaced when I realized she was fully dressed. Most times when Haydyn came into my suite, it was still so early she was in her nightclothes. “I overslept?”
Haydyn grinned. “Haven forbid, but you did.”
I rolled my eyes at her teasing. “You know I hate oversleeping. It muddles up my entire day.”
“I know. That’s why I let you sleep.” She grinned unrepentantly. Sometimes she really was like an annoying younger sister. “You need to loosen the reins on your life now and then, Rogan.”
Making a face at her suggestion, I pulled on the servants’ bell to let them know I was ready for my morning bath. They would come to me as quickly as they would to Haydyn. After all, I was her best friend, her family. I had been ever since I had been brought to the palace nine years ago by Syracen Stovia. I was only twelve years old at the time. Haydyn was ten. Upon our arrival, Valena was taken from me and given to Raj. Kir lived with Syracen and his family. And I lived at the palace with Haydyn.
Both grieving for the families we’d lost, it hadn’t taken long for us to find solace in one another.
Haydyn’s mother had died in childbirth, leaving Haydyn alone with her father. The Rada had pushed and pushed him to take another wife, to have more children, but he had loved Haydyn’s mother too dearly. He couldn’t bear the thought of making someone else his kralovna. That left only the kral and his baby daughter.
Two peas in a pod they were, Haydyn told me. Inseparable. She had depended on her father for everything. Love, comfort, affection, friendship, advice, security. With him gone, she was adrift. And I happened to be the float she grasped on to in his passing. She demanded I be given the suite next to hers where I had roomed ever since. I was also granted the run of the palace as if I were royalty. In return, she looked to me for love, comfort, affection, friendship, advice, and security.
I feared my presence was hindering Haydyn to become the truly independent leader Phaedra needed, but I gave her my strength because she was the only family I had left. And because, after a number of years of begging me to tell her why I screamed in my sleep, I told her what Syracen Stovia had done to my family, to Kir’s and Valena’s families as well. There was only my word against his. By then I had been at the palace for four years.
Kir had escaped only a year after our arrival, and Haydyn had grown strong enough that Stovia didn’t chase him for fear of disrupting the peace. And Valena couldn’t remember anything before being brought here.
But Haydyn believed me. And she demanded the Rada listen. She ordered that all twelve members of the Rada Council travel to Silvera to judge Vikomt Syracen Stovia for his crimes. Even if the captain of the Guard had not come forward and confessed what he remembered doing under the compulsion of Stovia, I knew Haydyn would not have stopped until the vikomt was punished.
She was only fourteen years old then. But I was her family. And he had wronged me.
I pledged my everlasting loyalty to Haydyn that day.
The Rada were disgusted by Stovia’s methods and ordered him imprisoned in Silvera Jail—the lone prisoner. He didn’t take the news well. I remember the sweat beading on his forehead and the nosebleed he sustained as he fought to break through Haydyn’s evocation. Powerful as he was, he was strong enough to reach for Haydyn to use her as a shield in order to escape. The captain of the Guard did his duty, however, and killed the threat to the princezna’s life.
Syracen Stovia’s death didn’t ease my grief. But I felt freer than I had since the death of my family.
The servants arrived and Haydyn took her leave while I helped the girls fill the bath with the hot water. Like every morning, they swatted at me to stop.
“The Handmaiden of Phaedra shouldn’t be doing servants’ work.”
I grunted at the nickname I had been given many years ago. It made me sound like something I wasn’t.
After they were gone, I soaked in the tub and grew irritated at having lost productive hours in the day by oversleeping. I hurried out of the bath, toweling my long hair dry before braiding it. It hung heavy and damp down my back, the ends brushing the bottom of my spine. Quickly, I stepped into a dark rose dress of the finest velvet. All my clothing was chosen by Haydyn, and she loved clothes and jewelry. None of these things interested me but for Haydyn’s sake, I wore everything she bestowed upon me.
“Ah good, you’re dressed.” Haydyn barged into my room without knocking. Lord Matai, second lieutenant of the Guard and a young vikomt of a good family, was Haydyn’s newest bodyguard. He hovered protectively, even when she was alone with me.