Chapter 23: Curse of Blades: Chapter 23

Myri was on her way to Coulta's room at dawn when she nearly collided with Prince-General Rohan. The man was wearing his uniform as usual, but it was dirty and rumpled and he looked tired.

"Were you going to see Coulta?" he asked when she apologized with a curtsy.

"I am," she answered. "He woke up at midday yesterday and he's recovering. Did you need to talk to him?"

He shook his head. "I need to speak to my brother. I thought he might be visiting Coulta."

Myri also had a feeling that was exactly where they would find Wildas, but she hoped they had listened to her. "He might be," was all she said.

"I'll walk with you," he offered.

She nodded and continued on her way with him beside her. He was quiet company, not flirting or flattering her like the few times she'd interacted with him. She could tell he was exhausted, but it probably wouldn't do for her to try telling him to rest, she speculated.

"Wait out here," she instructed when they reached Coulta's guarded door. "If he's in there, I'll send him out. If he's not, I'll come tell you."

Rohan didn't seem to mind being ordered around by her, just thanked her and leaned against the wall.

She slipped inside and sighed as she shut the door. Of course they hadn't listened to her. If she had been in a more pleasant mood, she would have tried to find the most amusing way to wake them up, but she didn't think Rohan wanted to wait much longer.

"Do you ever listen to what healers tell you?" she demanded loudly as she roughly gathered the prince's discarded clothing. "Either of you?"

She marched to the side of the bed to find them both looking at her with more amusement than her chastisement should have gotten. She glared at them both, then threw the clothes in the prince's face. "Your brother is waiting in the hallway for you."

Wildas hurried to get out of bed, pulling the bed curtain closed on his side to hide himself from her. She just rolled her eyes.

Turning to Coulta she pointed a finger at him. "And you are going to wish you had died already. Twice as much of that tea for you, whether you actually need it or not. Now, let me make sure you didn't make your wound worse."

"It's not bleeding through," he stated as she sat on the nearby chair and began to remove the bandage. "I couldn't have made it worse. And I thought you said you wouldn't put extra effort into healing me."

She chose to ignore him, instead muttering, "Men. You're impossible. I can't trust you to let yourselves heal."

"Maybe you need to keep a closer watch on us," Wildas suggested, pulling on his shirt as he stepped around the bed.

She snorted, finally tossing the dirty bandage away and looking more closely at Coulta's wound. "I'm only one healer. I can't chase after the two of you like some concerned nursemaid."

"Nursemaid wasn't what I had in mind," he replied. "I thought wife would be better."

She turned to look at him, completely caught off guard. "You can't mean that. I'm not some rich lord's daughter."

He smiled and shook his head. "So far, both of the people I've asked to marry me seem to think I couldn't possibly choose to marry them." He moved closer and gently grasped her hand. "I'm horrible at following instructions from healers, and I'm sure I'll be terrible as a husband, but I trust you and I count you as a friend. I would rather have friends than strangers of my father's choosing. I understand if you don't want it, though. It's your choice."

She stared at him for a long moment. He certainly looked sincere, and everyone else seemed to think she was his lover or some such anyway. Being a queen would certainly be strange, but hopefully that wouldn't happen for several years and she could become more used to the idea.

"I accept," she said, even before she realized she was going to.

He smiled and kissed her lightly on the lips. "Thank you. I need to go deal with Rohan, but I'll be back here for dinner. You can ask anything you need to then."

She nodded, but as he turned to leave she asked, "What of Anil?"

He paused to turn back to her. "Don't say anything to her until I can ask her."

Myri smiled. "I'm glad you're planning to ask her, too. Don't keep Rohan waiting."

He gave her a nod before he continued to the door.

"Myri," Coulta said, his voice tight, "I will do everything I can to change his mind if you don't stop pushing on my shoulder like that."

She turned abruptly to her patient, ashamed to realize she had been using her hand on his injured shoulder to hold herself in a twisted position while talking to Wildas. "You deserve it," she replied, though not with as much annoyance as she had felt earlier. "I suppose that means I'll be marrying, you, too. Have you shown him that letter?"

"Not yet, but I told him everything I learned about our souls being linked."

She used the wash basin to wet a cloth and clean the salve from the wound. "Anil and I knew it was him that the letter talked about," she admitted. "We didn't think he'd be able to marry you, though."

"Neither did I," Coulta replied quietly. "I didn't even let myself believe it was him until last night. Apparently Shelton more or less told him that we were soul-partners, as Shelton's friend called it."

Myri nodded and placed more healing salve on his shoulder. "You should let him see the letter anyway."

"I plan to."

Neither of them said anything else until she had bandaged him again. Then she laughed and got up from her chair. "My life has changed more than I ever expected."

"You're not the only one."

---

Rohan looked like he was half asleep leaning against the wall outside Coulta's room. He straightened as soon as he saw Wildas, however, and gave him a halfhearted smirk.

"Wearing the same clothes you wore yesterday?" Rohan asked.

"So are you," Wildas replied, taking in his brother's rumpled and dirty appearance.

"Well, I kept mine on all night."

Wildas rolled his eyes. "Are you going to tell me what you found?"

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Rohan started walking down the hallway and Wildas followed. "Someone had moved the bodies. They were buried in a shallow grave, with nothing but the clothes they'd been wearing. Even our arrows had been removed or broken off. We found their camp later in the day." He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "They built a lean-to out there, camouflaged with tree branches and mud. There were nine sleeping places in it, all of which looked to have been used recently. With three men dead, that leaves six more out there. We watched the place all night, but they never came back. I don't think they abandoned it, either. They left too much damning evidence."

He pulled a rolled parchment from the pouch at his side and handed it to Wildas. Pausing next to a lit wall torch, Wildas unrolled it to find a list of names, including his own and his father's.

"What is this?" he asked, scanning it.

"I would say it's a list of people to be assassinated, judging by the attack the other day."

"There are at least a hundred names here," Wildas commented, stunned. "Damn, even Coulta is on here!"

"I'm sure he's considered a traitor now, so that doesn't surprise me." Rohan took the paper back and returned it to his pouch. "It gets worse, though," he said as they continued on. "The riders who went to inform Duke Bracin of his son's arrest met up with us on the way back to the castle. Everyone at the estate is dead. The only body unaccounted for is Ashnil's."

"Do you suppose he was kidnapped and forced to attempt the assassination? It makes more sense to me than him simply deciding to do it himself."

"We'll never know for certain. I barely finished speaking with the men about Bracin when one of the guards from the dungeon found me. Apparently someone posing as a member of Duke Bracin's estate demanded to speak to Ashnil alone last night. He was alive and well last night after the visitor left, but they found him dead this morning."

Rohan rubbed his face with a groan. "I'm betting on him being forced into it. The night of the attack, as I was trying to get everything ready for the morning mission, the weapons master I gave that little crossbow to asked to speak with me. I haven't had time to tell you, or anyone at all, about it, as I was obviously occupied."

"I know," Wildas assured him. "All of this seems to be coming down on us at once."

"I wish less people wanted to kill you," Rohan grumbled.

"So do I, trust me," Wildas declared as they started up a case of stairs. "What did the weapons master tell you?"

"That the only place weapons like that are made is Dyrai."

Wildas felt a chill go up his spine at the mere name of the place. "How did Ashnil get a weapon made in Dyrai? And, if Varin supplied it, how did he get it?"

Rohan shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine, but I do know that it can't mean anything good for us."

Wildas paused at the top of the stairs and looked back at his brother. "When I spoke to Varin, he asked me what I would do to avoid a civil war. We know that's what he's getting at now, but I didn't realize how long he must have been planning for this."

"I'm sure running off with his pet assassin wasn't the best response you could have made for our sake," Rohan replied.

"He was looking for any excuse to start a war anyway! Why else would he have tried to have me killed?"

Rohan raised an eyebrow. "Have you asked him yet?"

"Asked Varin why he wanted to kill me?" he replied, confused.

"No. Coulta. To marry you."

Wildas glared at him. "Yes, and if you say anything to anyone before I'm ready to make an announcement, I will have you drawn and quartered."

Rohan snorted. "You can't do that."

"Don't test me."

"But it's such fun."

---

Anil had been planning to visit her mare that morning, then go to the brood stables for her daily shift. She was at the main stable at dawn when more than thirty horsemen in the uniform of the Royal Guard rode into the courtyard and called for grooms. Hoping to be of use, Anil went out with the usual grooms and grabbed the headstall of the first horse she encountered. It happened to be ridden by a man she recognized from the night of their arrival, the man who had ordered Coulta to be arrested.

"You're the other person who helped bring my brother home, aren't you?" he asked her when he'd swung off the horse's back.

She nodded. Unsure of how she was supposed to address him – he was obviously a prince if his brother was Wildas, but she had no idea what honorific she was supposed to use – she simply said, "Yes."

"Were you told of the attack two days ago?"

Startled, she looked up and him and shook her head. "What attack?"

"Someone tried to kill Wildas when we went for a ride outside the city," he explained quietly. "Coulta saved him, but was hurt in the process. Shot in the shoulder. Last I heard, he was going to recover just fine. I just thought you should know if no one had told you."

"I'm living at the stables with the other hands," she told him. "I suppose there hasn't been much time for anyone to come tell me." She hoped that was the case, anyway, and not that her three companions on the journey from Windwick no longer wished to call her a friend.

She forced that depressing thought away. Surely Myri would have said something to her if she were still living at the castle with them. The healer was busy now, especially if Coulta was badly injured. Surely Wildas was too worried to leave his savior's side, either.

"Prince-General Rohan!"

He stepped away from Anil to meet the man in uniform who was running up to the group of men and horses.

"The prisoner!" the man panted. "He's dead!"

"Damn!" Rohan turned back to the soldiers behind him. "You all go rest. I'll see to this and make a report. You've earned some sleep."

Then he ran off behind the other man, who she assumed was a guard from the dungeon.

Anil wasn't sure exactly what was happening, but she led Rohan's horse to the stable and decided to go visit the castle to see how Coulta was fairing. She didn't truly need to be at the brood stable until afternoon, as she would be spending the first half of the night on foal watch. She would help with the soldiers' horses, then go to the castle for a bit. The least she could do was check on people she still considered friends.

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