Knight's End (The Knight Trilogy) (25 page)

“You’re a knight. Protect
ing people is what you do,” she argued.

Aston
shook his head, staring into
Jade’s
eyes. “If t
he Rogue had decided to go after you in
Northsbury
, I wouldn’t have been able to stop him. I don’t want to feel that helpless again.”
He
gave her
a quick kiss, holding her face in his hands a moment m
ore before walking out the door
where Talbot waited for him.

“You okay?”
the prince
asked as Aston mounted Jade’s horse. He nodded without looking at Talbot and the pair took off into the forest.

They arrived at the palace gate fifteen minutes later. The guard at the gate was knocked out. A questioning glance at Talbot told Aston that the prince seriously
was
going to keep him from being seen. They had ap
proximately three hours before t
he Rogue made his appearance.

Talbot led him
around to the back of the palace, jumping off his horse and grabbing a rope hanging from a window
fort
y
feet up.

“This is how we will get in,” he told Aston, pulling on the rope to make
sure it was still stable. The knight
nodded at Talbot and the prince began his climb. Aston was surprised.
The last time he’d
watched the prince scale a wall, he
’d taken his sweet time. Now, Talbot
looked almost trained.

“The lazy prince is good for something… who knew?” Aston murmured. Talbot called down to him that he was clear and
the knight
grabbed the rope, starting his own climb. When he reached
the window, he waited for
t
he prince
to tell him it was safe for him to enter before clambering in through the window.

“I told you I could get you in here without being seen,” Talbot told him with a smile.

“No one will suspect our horses outside your w
indow?” Aston questioned.

The prince
frowned.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, climbing back out the window. Aston laughed and watched as the prince reached the ground and climbed on his horse, heading toward the stables. Footsteps outside the door made him freeze and he quickly jumped under Talbot’s bed. The door opened seconds later.

“Talbot?” King Donn called. When no one answered, the king stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. Aston
heard the man moving slowly around the room.
Donn’s
feet s
topped next to the bed and the knight
held his breath, praying he wouldn’t stoop down to look. Thankfully, the king continued around the room, stopping at the window.

“Sneaking out through your window, Talbot? Some things never change,” he chuckled. “G
uess it won’t be my fault when t
he Rogue slits your throat.” Aston heard the king clomp back to door and then leave. He waited a moment longer before coming out from under the bed.

It wasn’t long before
Talbot
returned.
“Horses are taken care of,” he said, his cheeks rosy with embarrassment. Aston only looked at him. “What?”

“Your father was here,” the knight
told him.

“Did he see you?” Talbot asked, glancing around the room as if his father were still there, hiding in the shadows.

Aston shook his head.
“No, I was under your bed. He said it wouldn’t be his
fault when t
he Rogue slit your throat.”

Talbot sighed and sat down on his bed. “Father has been difficult ever since you left. He knows it’s my fault you’re gone, but not on the level that he should. He only knows that I’m the one who gave him the bad news. He doesn’t know I lied. Ever since, he’s treated me like no more than a common soldier. Worse than that, even.
I can’t believe he didn’t tell me that the Rogue was coming tonight.
”

Aston sat beside the prince. “What will happen to you when you tell him the truth?”

Talbot shrugged. The cloc
k in the hall chimed once. He
looked
over at Aston. “Two hours left
. I’ll go get some food from the kitchen. Just hide again if anyone comes near.”

Aston nodded and watched the prince leave, suddenly feeling bad for the man. Everything Talbot had ever done had been to please his father and now the king didn’t care about Talbot at all. He hadn’t sounded the least bit remorseful talking about his son dying. Could losing one knight really mean that much to the king? Aston didn’t think so.

More footsteps in the hall stopped his thoughts and pushed him under the bed again. This time when the door opened, he wasn’t sure who it was. They didn’t say a word, only walked around the room. Aston heard a scraping sound and knew that whoever was there had found the grappling hook on the window an
d removed it. After one more
circle
of
the room, the visitor left.

Talbot returned shortly after the mystery man left. He carried a tray of food: bread, cheese, goblets of water and a bowl of grapes. Aston ate quickly, no
t mentioning the visitor to the prince
. A knock at the door startled them both. Aston grabbed one loaf of bread and a goblet and eased under the bed. Talbot let him settle for a moment before going to the door.

“Ernst! What are you still doing here?” he asked the raven-haired man.

Ernst smiled at him.
“Your father invited me to stay, since the hour is so late. He worried about me t
ravelling in the darkness when t
he Rogue is supposed to appear tonight,” he told the prince.

“That’s odd. My father normally doesn’t care about anyone but himself,” Talbot
said, his brow furrowing.

The visiting prince
shrugged.
“I suppose he’s trying to change before
t
he Rogue decides he’s next.
It’s almost midnight, Talbot. Best be saying your last words,” he said before leaving the doorway a
nd walking down the hall toward
the guest quarters.

Taken aback, Talbot closed the door and wandered back to his bed, dropping heavily upon it.
Aston climbed out and sat beside him again, tossing the last bite of bread into his mouth.

Talbot looked at him.
“That was odd
.”

**

Midnight was minutes away. Aston was concealed under Talbot’s bed,
dagger in hand. The prince was in his
bed, lying awake in the darkness. The Rogue Royal always killed his targets at midnight, right as the clock
began to chime, echoing loudly throughout the palace
. The door creaked open and Talbot stilled, hoping he looked like a sleeping victim and not the tense prince he actually was. No light came in through the opened door, and Talbot knew his killer had arrived.

Aston waited under the bed as the door clicked shut and soft steps made their way to the bedside. He a
lways arrived too late to help t
he Rogue’s victims, but not this time.

Talbot clenched the dagger in
h
is hand tighter, hoping his sweaty palms didn’t loosen his grip. He waited unt
il t
he Rogue stopped next to the bed before springing up, grasping for the man beside him. He heard a pained grunt as his arm connected with someone’s face
,
and then he was wrenched from the bed and thrown, face first, onto the floor.

Talbot groaned as he was grabbed by the hair and lifted, his grey eyes meeting shining green. His eyes widened.

“Er..Ernst?” he stammered.
Ernst
growled and spun Talbot around, pressing his dagger against the captive prince’s neck. Talbot grasped at his arm, cursing himself for dropping his own weapon when he’d fallen from the bed. He came face to face with Aston.

“What are you doing here, knight?” Ernst growled. His nose hurt like hell where Talbot had smashed it and now there were two people who knew who he was. He’d been trying to save Aston’s life, but now he would have to kill him, too.

Talbot cried out as the murderer
w
renched his arm behind his back; Ernst was
angrier at the prince than ever before. If Talbot wasn’t such a selfish, spoiled man, Aston never
would have been exiled and he
would have let Talbot live. He pushed the cold metal of his ruby-hilted dagger further against Talbot’s throat; the prince’s whimper told him he’d broken the skin.

“Ernst, please,” Talbot
pleaded, his voice only a whisper. Speaking pressed the dagger tighter against his flesh
, and Aston watched as a thin ribbon of blood slid to his collar.

“Please, don’t kill him,” Aston added, his hands in front of him in surrender. His dagger was held in his left hand, blade down. He didn’t know if he could reach Ernst before he slit Talbot’s throat. The best Aston could do right now was try to convince Ernst to let the prince live.

Ernst glared at the prince in his grasp before turning to Aston. “Why do you want to save him? You’re the reason I
targeted
him. If he wasn’t around, you never would have been exiled. You’d still be a knight and have your title. If I get rid of
him,
”- at the word, his grip on Talbot tightened -“your life will return to normal.”

“If you kill him, I’ll be
hunted
forever. Talbot is the only m
an who can clear my name,”
Aston
said, trying to reason with Ernst.

“He
deserves
to die,” Ernst argued.

“If you let him live, he’s going to tell King Donn everything. My name will be cleared
,
and I’ll be able to live whatever life I want. That’s what you want, right? You want to kill Talbot so I can be free?”

Ernst returned his eyes to the quivering Talbot.
“He deserves this, Aston. You aren’t the only man he’s wronged. Half this country will rejoice when their prince is dead.”

“The ot
her half will mourn,” Aston argued
. “He’s becoming a better man. He’s fixing what he’s done wrong.”

“Only to save his own life!”

“Does it matter? He knows what will happen if he doesn’t change
,
and he’s willing to make things right! Just let him go, Ernst.”

“I have to kill you too, Aston,” Ernst said, his eyes lingering on the pr
ince before glancing up at the knight
. “You know who I am. Talbot knows who I am. You both have to die.”

“Jade knows too!” Aston shouted when Ernst’s blade moved horizontally across Talbot’s neck. The prince’s eyes bulged as his throat was cut, but the wound wasn’t fatal.

Ernst
narrowed his eyes
at Aston.
“What
about
my sister?” he asked.
The clock in the hall
started its twelve ch
imes.

“Jade loves me, Ernst. She’ll know you killed me. She knows I’m here. She’s waiting for me to come home, right now. Are you going to kill her
,
too? She’ll tell every
one who you are if I die,” the knight
said, rushing through his words as he heard the clock.

Ernst heard it too, but he hesitated. He curs
ed, knowing Aston
was right. His sister was innocent in the ways of war, but
she would never forgive him if he killed her knight. Furthermore, he could never hurt his sister. He would let Jade turn him in and hang before he’d hurt her.

Killing Aston would hurt her worse than any sword, any dagger, ever could.

Another curse found Talbot on the floor, his right arm bent at an odd angle, his left hand clutching his throat. He l
ooked up at Ernst.
“Thank you,” he said.

Ernst glared at the prince and spat at his feet. “Don’t thank me. Thank your knight. Thank my sister. Hell, you can even thank your father, but I didn’t do this for you,” he said. He sent one last look to Aston before leaving the room, slamming the door behind him.

The knight sat on the prince
’s bed, his knees weak. In all his years as a knight, he’d never been more scared than when he thought Talbot was g
oing to die. A groan from the prince
made him look at the prince, watching as he struggled to stand. Aston went to him,
pulling him up and si
tting him on the bed.

“You should go now, Aston. It’s after midnight. Someone will co
me to see if I’m dead now that t
he Rogue has left,” he said, sliding himself further onto the bed.
Aston nodded and clapped the prince
on his left shoulder before grabbing his grappling hook and tossing the rope out the window.