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“The Cryons would benefit the most from it,” Lady Madeema pointed out.
“But how would they have known Sir Priough was aboard that ship?” I managed to hold on to enough clarity to mull this over, even through the red fog growing stronger inside my brain.
Lady Madeema didn’t reply, she only stared at me. Her silence gave me the same answer she had before, I don’t have that information yet.
“Frygg,” I yelled, my hand swiped out against a vase on one of the many pedestals decorating my chambers. “This is unbelievable!”
The vase flew across the room and shattered against one of the larger pillars so loud, I nearly didn’t hear the small scream coming from behind it.
However, Lady Madeema had. Controlled, she called out, “Guards!”
With a few strides, I reached the pillar, pulling out my sword, and moving around it, to stare into the face of one of the members of the species that had been weighing so heavily on my mind. Terrified, she cowered away from me. “Frygg!”
Guards entered, blasters drawn, “Your Imperial Highness!”
The merrily stared at me through strange, sapphire eyes. They were large on her face, giving her an innocent appearance.
“What are you doing here?” I snarled, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her up from her knees.
“Arrest her,” Lady Madeema ordered in a cold voice.
The merrily shook in my grip, her eyes beseeched me, and something strange happened inside me. The fire of fury that had been burning inside me cooled, instead a different anger grew, anger directed at Lady Madeema for giving orders in my chambers.
“Out!” I yelled. “All of you.”
I kept my grip on the merrily. “What are you doing in my chambers?”
“I—I—” she stuttered.
“Speak.”
Furtively she held up a violet scarf. “Lady Natoi left her scarf here earlier, she sent me to pick it up.”
She wasn’t lying about that. Lady Natoi had indeed been in my chamber earlier, in a valiant, but unsuccessful effort to convince me that mating her would benefit both our interests. Mostly hers, but I had refrained from pointing that out and had, I thought, rather nicely declined her offer and requested she leave.
“And you are?”
“Hea—ther. Heather Seymour,” she stuttered.
“How did you get in here?” I continued my interrogation, determined not to acknowledge the fact that this merrily had just accomplished the unthinkable: nobody had ever stopped one of my temper fits. Granted, it hadn’t fully broken out yet, but I had experienced it often enough to know when I was on the cusp of losing myself.
“I-I the guards let me in—but then you entered and I didn’t—I didn’t want to disturb you, so…”
“So you hunkered behind the pillar trying to figure a way out,” I concluded, slightly amused. I didn’t think the merrily had done anything nefarious, still, she overheard things she shouldn’t have.
“What did you hear?”
“I swear, I don’t know. I was so—nervous. Something about a ship and—” She interrupted herself and looked me in the eyes. “I’m so sorry your friend died, that’s terrible.”
That’s what she got out of this? I searched her eyes for any clue of deceit, but they were wide, and honest, and oh-so blue. So deep. Like a pool I could get lost in.
“It’s alright, he wasn’t really… a friend,” I amended, stretching the truth, well, lying. I had hated Sir Priough just as much as I hated King Crough. Still, his loss was a hard hit—just for a different reason than she assumed.
“You better return that scarf to Lady Natoi,” I finally said when we had stared at each other long enough.
She sent an uncertain, sideward glance at me, as if she worried I would call the guards in to have her arrested after all. I gave her an encouraging nod and something I hoped would pass as a smile. Smile? When was the last time I smiled?
By the door, I stopped her. “Heather Seymour of the humans.”
