And So It Begins (14 page)

“You would demand that from a
castle
servant, not a body servant, my prince,” Derek told him with a touch of mild teasing. “You would do better to demand pampering with scented oils and silk powders while I trim your finger and toenails, and order I select clothing from your wardrobe that accentuates your striking features and brings out the color of your eyes.”

Kherin only grunted as the cool air of the sickroom brushed against his skin, though he was fully aware of Derek’s hands on his waist as he urged the prince to stand still. More noticeable was the warmth of his palm against his hip as the trader leaned down to retrieve the dry clothing. It was only the chill in the room and the sluggish flow of blood through his still-recovering body that saved him from the embarrassment of responding to the way Derek’s hand slid on his clammy skin, though a sudden draft sent a wave of ice through him that had him shivering under the trader’s touch and pressing into his warmth nonetheless. Kherin heard the trader chuckle as his arms slipped around him to stroke the chill from his skin.

The gentleness of the trader’s eyes when Kherin looked up brought a prickling that made him realize he was sweating.

“It seems your fever has broken after all,” Derek told him musingly, and the lingering strokes of the trader’s hands threatened to undo the hold the chill had kept on his body. “A bath may not be out of order soon, provided the healer agrees to let you into the city for a short while. But we should get you dressed before the fever returns.”

Kherin felt the loss when Derek let him go in favor of presenting the dry clothes, though he offered no protests when Derek helped him dress in a nightshirt identical to what had been discarded, and the pants identical to what the trader had offered in the Crossroads. The welcome feel of the trader’s hands for once subdued any resistance against the trader’s mothering, and he instead moved unresistingly as Derek eased him back to his sickbed. He forced himself to relax as he angled his legs to the side to make room for Derek on the edge.

Only after Kherin was positioned comfortably, and after Derek had raised the blankets to cover him to the hips, did Derek assume his own position of leaning with an arm over the prince’s legs. Then the trader’s quiet question of, “What happened?” stole what comfort Derek’s touch had given him, and brought instead the chill of horror as Kherin heard his own words recount exactly what he had witnessed.

Derek listened without interruption, though he moved to Adrien’s bed as Kherin told him what little his brother had said, and he leaned to examine the mark on Adrien’s shoulder when Kherin mentioned the blood and torn skin. The frown was evident in his features when he returned to his seat by Kherin’s legs, and his eyes had grown dark and worried by the time the tale came to an end.

Still, the gentleness of Derek’s hand against Kherin’s cheek as the words trailed off reminded him that whatever it was he had now witnessed twice, it was over for the moment. Adrien yet lived, and he was at peace, and for now, that was enough. It was both surprising and not that Derek pulled him into the embrace he so needed once the telling was over, and though neither of them spoke, the strength of Derek’s arms said what Kherin needed to hear. He closed his eyes as Derek threaded his fingers lightly through his hair, breathing in the familiar and welcoming scent of Derek’s skin.

“You will still need to rest, my prince, and Willum should have no argument with you remaining here while Adrien recovers,” Derek murmured softly, his breath warm against Kherin’s ear, his fingers stroking lightly against his scalp, his arm steady and sure as he kept Kherin close.

The mention of his brother’s name should have broken the spell of the trader’s touch, but it didn’t, and instead Kherin flushed against the smooth skin of the trader’s neck, tightening his arms as the feel of the trader against him soothed in a way that nothing else could. The reality was slow to sink in, but somehow the truth made it into this calm and intimate moment. Derek’s warmth, his touch, his presence….

The blooming of warm emotion inside him as he acknowledged what his heart seemed to have known all along.

Gods, he had loved Derek forever, but how long had he been
in love
with Derek without ever realizing it? And would he have ever been willing to admit it had Derek’s actions in the way-stop not proven what he truly wanted wasn’t out of his reach? There was no certainty in that, but there was no changing the certainty of what he now knew, either. What had happened in the way-stop hadn’t simply been a matter of being
claimed
by Derek, it had been the result of his wanting to be claimed by
Derek
.

A heavy breath released by his brother shattered his thoughts before they could wander further down that road, and the sudden awareness of incense and herbs as Derek released him made it clear now was not the time to work through those particular emotions.

He shifted more comfortably against the pillows as the trader’s hands fell away, and tried to school his features before he met the trader’s eyes, though he wondered how much Derek truly saw. While he had told Derek what had happened inside the sickroom, he had yet to hear what the trader had been doing since he had left Kherin under the healer’s care. Believing he had simply taken lodging and rested would have been laughable had the circumstances been different, but since they were not, Kherin forced a small smile across his lips and spoke his first words since his recital of the previous night had ended.

“So what were you doing last night?”

Derek’s answering laugh was both quiet and amused. “Ah, my prince, it seems you may learn the ways of a trader yet. I have actually been spending some time with the Defenders, and with the Defender Leader,” Derek told him simply, and his smile grew just a little tighter. “It seems Gresham hasn’t changed from his time as a mere Defender.”

Kherin grunted. He had yet to meet the Defender Leader named Gresham, but it was obvious from Derek’s words it was a meeting that he should not be looking forward to. The touch of Derek’s hand to his cheek drove any thoughts of the Leader from his mind, though the words he said brought chills instead of comfort.

“I did, however, learn more about the attack that left your brother in this state.”

Derek’s tale was far darker and much more brutal than Kherin’s, though it was told in the same calm, quiet tones that had been used by the prince. The sudden surge of northern activity, it seemed, had started just after Adrien’s company arrived at Gravlorn, with the northerners seemingly crossing wherever the trees could hide them, and remaining hidden until they had the numbers for an attack. And those attacks came from the east and west, surprising the Defenders who only looked north.

Kherin’s frustrated demand of how the Defenders had allowed themselves to be surprised more than once brought a warning to Derek’s eyes, but not even that could stop Kherin from snapping, “The camp should have been prepared for them. They should never have been able to get near Adrien!”

One dark eyebrow lifted, though there was gentleness in the touch that swept through the prince’s hair. “Adrien is a Defender, my prince, and so getting near the northerners is a requirement during battle. Your brother wouldn’t remain outside the fighting any more than you would, had your positions been reversed.”

Kherin flushed as the words struck home, and Derek’s expression softened into something resembling a gentle smile, though it was fainter and more brittle. “The attack that injured your brother happened at night, during a time in which Gresham, your current Defender Leader, saw no harm in allowing visits to the city for morale purposes, and so the camp was nearly empty—”

“How the hell could he let the Defenders leave the camp empty with attacks happening so often?” The anger in Kherin’s voice sharpened it to a rasp, but Derek only sighed as his hand dropped to the prince’s knee.

“He tends to be lenient with his Defenders, which has made him popular among their ranks. And I’m afraid he may side with your father on his beliefs about the northerners.”

Kherin bristled. “His
beliefs
?”

Derek’s smile turned grim. “The Defenders have sent the northerners back across the river during every attack to date, and so his responsibility to the kingdom has thus far been upheld.”

Sheer exasperation leeched into Kherin’s blood at hearing the words he was sure were a direct quote from his father. But pushing the matter of the Leader’s responsibility aside….

“Why?” he demanded suddenly, scrubbing a hand through the matted tangle of his hair. “The messages we received at Delfore said the northerners were attacking more frequently, but does anyone have any idea why? Or why
now
, after spending so long on their side of the river?”

Derek shook his head, and the smile he offered was weak. “I don’t know why, for either question. When Adrien made it back to the camp that night, there was likely so much happening at once that few were aware of the extent of his injuries. Fewer still know of the seizures that have plagued him since.” The hand he raised between them stopped Kherin’s next words. “Willum doesn’t know the cause, and so he can’t treat the condition.”

Kherin stared at the near repetition of the healer’s words, and then his eyes went to Adrien, still calm and immobile in the other bed, and to the scar on Adrien’s brow, barely visible in the distance between them, though unquestionably there in the faint light of another rainy morning. Derek was shaking his head when Kherin looked back.

“Willum is certain they are not the result of that. Nevertheless, the seizures are coming more often now, and with each one, the symptoms are worse and take longer to subdue.”

Kherin shook his head slowly, feeling the helplessness return at the memory of what he had seen last night—twice last night—and what he had seen in the aftermath. The sweat, the blood, the near-lifelessness of his brother even now…. Derek’s hand moved to his cheek.

“The healer is doing his best, and there is nothing either of us can do to make his work any easier.”

Kherin breathed, then blinked, forcing himself to calm yet again. Slowly, he nodded, letting out a sigh of resignation as he shifted to a more comfortable position on the bed. “Patience isn’t my strongest attribute, you know,” he offered at last, bringing a soft smile to Derek’s face.

“Oh, I learned that well enough some time ago, my prince,” Derek answered in a voice that again held a touch of amusement, though the trader’s expression sobered when he dropped his hand to the prince’s knee. “You should also know a message has been sent to Delfore to inform your father of your arrival in Gravlorn.”

Icy horror shot through Kherin at the mention of his home city and the king, though Derek tried to quell it with a firm stroke of his hand along the prince’s thigh.

“Your father will know soon enough that you are here, my prince, and Willum may send a message shortly to assure your father your health has been restored. Your father—”

“Will send half the damn castle to Gravlorn to drag me back to Delfore!” Sheer disbelief sharpened his voice as he struggled to sit up, and the mix of fear at what his father would do when he learned Derek had deceived him only made his horror turn more sickeningly in his stomach. “Couldn’t you have stopped them?”

“I wouldn’t have, even had I been able,” Derek told him flatly, and for once he didn’t soften as Kherin froze. “You are his son, as well as a prince of the kingdom, and though you think he gives little credence to either, it is both unfair and undeserving to keep your presence and your illness in Gravlorn from him.”

Kherin remained stiff and unmoving. Then for the first time he could remember, it was Derek who finally sighed and gave in, his features taking on a look Kherin had rarely seen on the trader’s face—one of resignation, with a lingering touch of regret.

“I had intended for this to be only a brief visit, and one that could be forgiven should your father learn of it. Had Adrien been whole, it is unlikely a message would have been sent at all, but as it stands….” Derek sighed again, meeting the prince’s eyes carefully. “I am so sorry, Kherin. I wouldn’t have brought you here had I known what we would find.”

“You bringing me here was the only way I could have known what was happening here,” Kherin answered, clearly but quietly. His anger had vanished, but not the intensity in his eyes. “I wouldn’t know how much danger this city could be facing from the northerners, or how much worse it could be since the Defenders prefer the taverns to the river.” Or how good if felt to have Derek’s lips on his, and have his body ravished by the trader’s, even if it was in the drab and shabby remains of the way-stop. “But I’m not the one who’s going to pay the most for this. Derek, you
lied
to Father….”

“And I will deal with that when I return to Delfore,” Derek finished, smiling gently. The smile faded quickly. “But regardless, there is one other matter you may not be aware of.” He paused as Kherin again returned his stare. “Gresham is aware of your presence in the city, and so a message pressing you into duty may arrive before long.”

Kherin fought back a grimace as he heard the words that should have been expected. Duty at the camp may be unwanted and unwelcome, but that could amount to precious little where the duty of the Defenders was concerned. Even so….

“He certainly didn’t waste any time,” he muttered.

“I don’t believe word of your arrival included your condition,” the trader confirmed with a hint of irritation. “Nevertheless, Willum’s release will be mandatory before duty can be imposed. Gresham will be required to follow the healer’s recommendation on that.”

“Well, you know I’m not going to argue about the duty,” Kherin conceded, knowing full well he would have little choice in any case. “The Gods know how many times I argued with Father over my right to come here for that exact reason. And if there’s no illness keeping me off the patrols—”

“When the time is right,” Derek finished firmly. He brushed the hair over the prince’s ear. “And I don’t think it’s the patrols you’re going to find issue with when you do begin your tenure. It would likely be the lack of them, if anything, that would spur your complaints. But the trappings of duty may not be your largest concern once you leave the hospice.”