The False Prince (22 page)

W
e stopped at a place known simply as the Traveler’s Inn. It wasn’t far from the castle. Nobles not invited to stay within the castle walls often slept there. I told Conner it was too fancy because they’d only expect people of wealth and influence to stay there. The irony amused me and escaped him.

“I am a person of wealth and influence,” Conner said, irritated. “My face is known, so I won’t have anyone wonder why I’m staying at a commoner’s tavern. And nobody will look at you, if you keep your head down.”

Mott stayed with Roden, Tobias, Imogen, and me, while Conner went inside to reserve three rooms for us. I wondered as I stared at Imogen whether she would run away if she had her own room, but then dismissed those thoughts. She had no money to support herself in a strange town, and besides, she would likely consider it dishonorable to run.

“Why bring us along?” Roden asked me after Conner had left. “Will you enjoy having us watch in humiliation as you’re declared?”

“He saved our lives,” Tobias said. “He brought us along to make sure Conner didn’t have us killed back at Farthenwood.”

“Tobias is right,” Mott said. “Cregan told me his orders were to kill the two boys left behind.”

Roden folded his arms and arched his head. “Cregan wouldn’t have killed me. He wanted me to become the prince.”

“That isn’t Cregan’s decision to make,” Tobias said.

“Besides,” Mott added, “you will understand in time that Conner’s decision was the right one.”

I flashed Mott a glare. That was going too far. He lowered his eyes and said nothing more.

“What’s she here for?” Tobias asked, nodding at Imogen. Then he smiled. “Oh. You’ll use her to convince the princess. Amarinda would never suspect her of lying.”

Imogen flushed and stared at me with hatred in her eyes. It was nearly the same accusation she had already made to me.

“After I’m declared, you’re all free to go,” I said. “All I ask is if there are any secrets between us, that you keep them.”

“I don’t believe you,” Roden said bitterly. “We’re too dangerous with all we know. So you’ll excuse me if I wait to see whether we walk free before I celebrate your generosity.”

“You’re excused,” I said, and slumped down again and closed my eyes.

That didn’t last. Conner returned only seconds later. “There are no rooms available in all of Drylliad,” he said. “It cost me more than three rooms combined to take the reservation of a man who should have arrived by now. Bribing the inn-keeper to claim his messenger never arrived to make the reservation was enormously expensive.”

“Only one room?” I asked. “What about Imogen?”

“She’ll sleep out here in the carriage,” Conner said.

“No, we will,” I protested. “A lady won’t be treated that way.”

“She’s no lady,” Conner said. “She’s my kitchen maid, whom you are in the process of stealing away for yourself!”

“She won’t belong to me any more than she should belong to you right now! She takes the room.”

A wicked glint sparked in Conner’s eyes. He smiled and offered a hand to her. “Very well, my dear. Come with me.”

I swatted his hand away and Mott sat forward, saying, “I’ll stay in the carriage with Roden and Tobias, to make sure there’s enough space in the room. You can give Imogen the second bed and hang a sheet for her privacy. Conner and Sage, you two can share the rest of the room.”

It was an acceptable compromise. Imogen didn’t seem happy about it, but it was the best of her options. She refused either my hand or Conner’s to help her out of the carriage, and followed Conner and me into the inn.

As we walked, I asked Conner why the inn was so full.

“Keep your head down,” he hissed. “The rumor of the deaths of the royal family has spread throughout Carthya. Everyone has come to see who the new king will be tomorrow night.”

“Are you still confident in your plan?”

“Less confident than I was,” Conner whispered. “I didn’t anticipate so much competition. You will have to do a very good job tomorrow in convincing them.”

A grin spread across my face. “Don’t worry. I will.”

I
t wasn’t a large room, but it was clean and pleasant and would be enough for the three of us for one night. Two small beds stood along one wall. I helped Conner push Imogen’s bed against the opposite wall, then quickly offered to sleep on the floor.

“I’m still an orphan and you’re still a noble,” I said to Conner. “You should have the other bed.”

“Of course I should. And watch your tongue when saying I’m
still
a noble. I will always be a noble if you hope to remain a prince.”

“My mistake,” I said, putting on whatever expression of humility he would expect to see.

Imogen and I took a sheet off her bed and hung it from the ceiling. It wasn’t a perfect solution for her privacy, but it was the best any of us could hope for. She removed one of the blankets from her bed for me to sleep with on the floor. I put myself directly between hers and Conner’s beds.

He noticed. “You think I’d try any mischief with that disgusting girl? I knew her mother, who was worthless too. Imogen’s safe with me, boy. It’s you she should worry about.”

I let that comment pass. No doubt she was worried about me, but for entirely different reasons.

It was very late at night when I heard her roll off her bed onto her feet. Conner’s snoring was ferocious, so it was no surprise that he didn’t hear her and wake up. She stepped from behind the hanging sheet and touched my shoulder. I sat up and she put a finger to her lips, then motioned for me to follow her.

In the chance that Conner did awaken, I positioned my blanket so that in the darkness, it would appear someone was here. But I’d learned from more than one time in his presence during the night that he never woke up.

Once on Imogen’s side of the makeshift curtain, she pointed to the window.

“Are you too warm?” I asked.

“Can you take me out there?” she whispered. “Is it safe?”

I inched the window open, examined the wall in the moonlight, and nodded. In typical Carthyan style, a ledge had been built directly below the window. I crawled through the window first, and then helped her through.

The night was cool and the breeze had picked up somewhat. But she didn’t seem to hate me right now, so it was probably our last chance for any private conversation. We sat on the ledge and leaned against the wall of the inn, letting our legs dangle below.

“Do you often go out on ledges at night?” I asked.

“You do. I saw you once crawling around the walls of Farthenwood.” She shrugged and said, “I don’t think you saw me watching you, though.”

I hadn’t seen her. Which was amazing because I’d always watched carefully for anyone below me on the grounds.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she added. “All I could think about was the carriage ride. Roden is so angry with you.”

“Is he? With so much cheerfulness in that ride, I barely noticed.”

She ignored that. “Doesn’t he understand why you brought him? What would’ve happened if you’d left him behind?”

I was silent. It was nothing new to have someone mad at me, but Roden’s anger bothered me and I couldn’t quite figure out why.

“Back at Farthenwood, I said horrible things to you,” Imogen continued. “I don’t know why I said them.”

“Maybe I deserved some of it.”

“No, you didn’t. I blamed you for my own worries about coming to Drylliad, leaving the safety of Farthenwood. But now that I’m gone, I can’t imagine returning there. Anything is better than Farthenwood.” She lowered her eyes. “I’m sorry. I should have trusted you.”

I deserved no trust, and yet she asked
my
forgiveness? Could she see me in the darkness and know how her words bit into my heart? Or did I have no heart, no soul? Conner had said we must prepare to sacrifice our very souls to bring Prince Jaron to the throne. I had done just that, although not in the way Conner thought.

“Are you nervous about tomorrow, Sage?”

“Yes.” Even with the truth on my side, there was so much that could go wrong.

“Don’t be. You look so very like him in that painting that they’re sure to accept you. I watched you as we rode in the carriage. If I’m not careful, I may begin calling you Jaron myself.”

“Would you?” For reasons I couldn’t explain, even to myself, I longed to hear someone call me by my real name. I was tired of Sage. There were so many things I disliked about him lately.

She hesitated a moment before smiling. “Right now? What am I supposed to call you, Jaron or Prince or Your Majesty or what?”

I shook my head. “They all sound so wrong for me. But after tomorrow, there will be no more Sage. Only Jaron.”

Her smile fell. I could see the curve of her mouth by the light of the midnight sky. “I won’t know Jaron. Don’t make me give up Sage yet.”

There was nothing I could say to that. A wisp of her hair blew in the nighttime breeze. I caught the hair and tucked it behind her ear. She smiled, then reached for a pin and fastened it again, always maintaining her neat servant’s braid. I wondered if she could ever learn to see herself as something other than a servant, something greater.

“We should probably go inside.” Imogen sat up straight. “I can’t imagine what would happen if Conner found us out here.”

“We’re not doing anything wrong,” I said. “And I’m not afraid of him.”

“But I am. Will you help me in?”

I stood, and when my footing was secure I helped her to stand. But instead of turning to reenter the window, she faced me. “Back at Farthenwood, you told me there were more things happening than I understood. What did you mean by that?”

I pressed my lips together, then said, “I meant that there’s a big difference between acting like a prince and being a prince. If you see me after I’m crowned, will you try to talk to me as Jaron? Can you do that?”

Without answering, she crouched down to the window. Before she returned to the room, she paused and said, “You’ll become a king tomorrow, the most powerful person in the land. But I’ll still be Imogen, a servant girl. After tomorrow, it will no longer be appropriate for me to talk to you.”

Before I could answer, she disappeared through the window. By the time I climbed through and shut it tightly, she was already back in her bed. Her message was clear. I was a prince now, and she had returned to being Imogen the mute.

M
orning came early. I’d barely slept, if at all. One thought after another had tumbled through my mind faster than I could make sense of it. For most of the past four years, I had accepted the idea that I would be Sage for the rest of my life. Letting that go and allowing myself to be Jaron again was more difficult than I had anticipated.

I was already awake when Conner tried to kick me into consciousness, so his foot hit my hands and nothing worse. Then he called for Imogen to wake up and go downstairs to order us a breakfast. Ours was to be served in our room, then she could take something to the boys in the carriage. He gave her no instructions on when she could eat.

“We’ll stay here in the room until it’s time to leave,” Conner said. “I’ve got only hours left to prepare you for presentation.”

“I am prepared,” I grumbled.

Conner smirked at me. “I would have expected more humility from you today. Our highest priority is to rehearse the order of action tonight. And don’t try to tell me you know about that.”

I didn’t. “Tell me, then.”

“Get dressed and straighten this room first, or else the maids will wonder about our arrangement last night. I have a few duties for Mott to attend to this morning that I must speak with him about.”

By the time I dressed and replaced the hanging sheet and my blanket on Imogen’s bed, Conner was returning with Imogen behind him. She carried a tray that she set on a table in our room. I wondered if she had risked speaking to the staff to order our breakfast, or if not, how she had communicated our order to them.

“Maybe it was a good thing you brought her along,” Conner said. “It’s handy to have a traveling servant.”

“I thought that’s what Mott is for,” I said.

“He’s more than a common servant. Surely you’ve noticed that by now.”

Imogen left as quickly as she could, and Conner handed me a plate filled with hot cakes, eggs, and thick slices of bacon.

“It’s a large breakfast,” I said hungrily.

“This is nothing compared to what lies ahead for you,” Conner said. “Once you’re the prince, you may tell your servants anything you wish to eat and they will provide it. They will feed it to you if you desire.”

“I don’t. There’s no need to tempt me for this position, Conner. You have me. Now tell me about court tonight.”

“All twenty of the king’s regents will meet in the throne room at five o’clock. Also there will be the king’s closest adviser, the high chamberlain, Lord Kerwyn. No need for you to know all of their names. Jaron likely would not have known them, so no one will expect you to.”

I didn’t know all of them. But there were some I expected to recognize. Kerwyn would know me best. He’d suffered through my childhood beside my family. But would he recognize me after all this time? It was doubtful. I’d changed a lot in four years.

Conner continued, “The first act of the meeting will be to officially announce the deaths of the king, queen, and Crown Prince Darius.”

I winced at that. Conner didn’t notice. He never had before, either.

“The announcement is merely a formality. Most of the regents have known this from the start. And the others will have heard enough rumors to confirm the likelihood in their minds. Then we’ll have a report from the three regents who traveled to Avenia to seek any news as to the life or death of Prince Jaron. They will report a confirmation that he’s dead.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“Because he is dead!” Conner snapped. “Who do you think hired the pirates so many years ago?”

The news knocked the wind from my lungs. It overwhelmed any sense of pretense I’d been able to maintain thus far with him. All that kept me from attacking him was the knowledge that I still wanted him with me at the castle tonight.

“Why?” My voice was hoarse. I didn’t trust myself to say anything more.

“I thought it’d force us into war with Avenia. Eckbert stood by and did nothing year after year while Avenia inched its way deeper into Carthyan lands. But if Avenian pirates killed his son, he’d be forced to act. Unfortunately, despite the pirates’ assurances to me that everyone on that ship went down, Jaron’s body was never found. Eckbert was able to appease his critics by saying he wouldn’t go to war until he had Jaron’s body as evidence in the attack. However, Avenia has backed off since their suspected involvement in Jaron’s death, so in a way, my plan worked better than I could have hoped for. Our borders are safer and no war was needed.”

Conner paused as if he expected me to say something. What did he want? Congratulations? He seemed to sense my discomfort, then added, “I know this secret is safe with you because you can’t reveal it without betraying your own true identity.”

“No,” I mumbled. “I can’t betray my identity.” Yet.

Conner brushed his hands together as if the matter were settled. “So let’s continue. When the three regents report that Prince Jaron is dead, this will be the time when, as the high chamberlain, Lord Kerwyn will stand and declare that a new king must be chosen. However, before he stands, I will come forward and announce that the regents are wrong about Jaron’s death. That’s when I will introduce you to the court. There will be a bit of commotion initially, but Kerwyn will have you brought to him. There will be several questions, a careful examination of you. It will take some time, and no matter what they say, you must answer calmly and with confidence. You must keep your sharp tongue under control. And you must not make a single mistake. Can you do it?”

“I can.”

That pleased Conner. “Good. We’ll work on your answers through much of today, make sure you know everything to say, and of course, I’ll be there to assist should you get into any trouble.”

I pushed my plate aside, unable to eat anything else. Conner pushed it back to me. “You must have your energy today.”

I shoved my chair behind me and stood. “You said you have proof I can offer them. What is it?”

“Later,” Conner said. “You don’t get that unless I’m certain you are going to be declared prince tonight. You have only a few hours to learn everything else you must. If you’ve finished eating, are you ready to get started?”

I closed my eyes and tried to control my breathing. My heart raced at the prospect of all that lay ahead of me that day. No matter what Conner told me or tried to teach, one thing was certain. I was not, nor would I ever be, ready. But that wasn’t what he wanted to hear. So I looked at him and said, “Okay. Let’s begin.”