Rae struggled in Ven’s grip, boiling with rage.

  What in the heavens is wrong with you? He opened his mouth to shout, but the words died in his throat when he felt a kiss pressed into his hair.

  “Don’t worry, darling. Go back to sleep,” Ven said, leaving Rae reeling.

  Before Rae regained the power of speech, he heard a terrible voice.

  “It seems my suspicions were correct,” Duke Ashem said.

  Rae’s heart seized, his muscles locked. Of all the terrible things that he imagined happening if he confessed to Ven, why had he spent so little time considering this?

  Tears pricked in his eyes. What would the Duke want, to keep his silence? Maybe he was above blackmail, maybe he’d use this revelation to turn Bejuk against him. Rae would be without allies, an easy kill…

  “Father, please don’t be angry, can’t you see you’re frightening my friend?”

  Ven’s hand was at the back of Rae’s head, hiding his face against his chest. Under his cheek, he could feel the steady pulsing of Ven’s heart.

  “Your friend? Have you no shame? Do you know how much stress you cause me, traipsing around the peaks and valleys jumping on any man or woman who will have you? Who is it this time?”

  Rae held onto Ven for dear life.

  “She’s shy, and you’re frightening her,” Ven said.

  “Is she from a prominent family?”

  “I wouldn’t say so. She’s a dancer,”

  “A dancer? You-” the Duke’s thought was cut off by his outrage.

  Ven shifted, pulling the blankets over Rae’s head as he slid out from under him.

  “Father, you knew I was hosting a get-together here. You surely guessed what I would be doing. Why come down here if you find it so distasteful?”

  Ven’s weight didn’t leave the bed, one hand holding the blanket in place over Rae’s head, but he spoke as if he hardly remembered his bedfellow existed.

  “I wanted to talk to you and your sister, and give her a break from the palace,”

  The Shana… she’s here too.

  Rae’s stomach turned. Why, oh why did he come to this place in the first place? Why was he so happy to drink himself into a stupor, when his enemies were so close?

  “Is sister doing well?”

  “Her nerves are getting to her, but Bejuk says her physical health is fine,”

  “I can imagine why she’s worried…” Ven said.

  “You blame me?”

  The Duke spoke as he always had, self-assured, arrogant, and unsentimental. Despite this, Rae felt there was something gross about listening to a private conversation like this. But he couldn’t come out of his hiding place and escape, so he could only pray Ven would finish things quickly.

  “Who else am I to blame, the Shak?” Ven asked.

  “You can blame his father, for failing to give her a son,”

  “And if the baby ends up being a boy, will you to war?”

  Of course not, Rae thought, there are much easier ways to get rid of such inconveniences…

  “Of course not, Bejuk wouldn’t stand by and let me march on the Shak’s Camp,”

  “Then what will you do?”

  “About the boy? He’s not too troublesome. Zott will kill him if I ask… but there’s little point in that… I think we can tolerate him,”

  “Why?”

  “He’s young, easily led. Not as choleric as his father,”

  “You must be jealous! He’s the son you’ve always wanted,” Ven laughed. The bed shook with it.

  Duke Ashem’s voice remained cold, like knives cutting through Ven’s joy.

  “By the heavens, you’re hopeless. If you insist on playing games, I’ll leave you,”

  Boots thudded, and a door slammed shut. Rae touched Ven’s wrist.

  “It’s okay, you can come out now”

  Rae crawled out, running his fingers through his staticky hair, “I’m shy? I’m a dancer?”

  “You’re the son my father always wanted!”

  “I doubt that will last… I need to get home,”

  Ven left the room to make arrangements, while Rae tried to make himself presentable.

  His clothes were dishevelled and sweaty, but the main problem was his hair. He borrowed a comb and fought tears as he tried to untangle it.

  Stupid… stupid… stupid…

  He’d never been so drunk in his life. Why didn’t he just go home when he had the chance? Slurring and red-faced, he had thrown himself at Ven, clung to him, pleaded for...

  The ribbon! He found it draped across dark wood floorboards beside the bed. For once, his fingers cooperated as he tied the bow.

  The room was simple, lacking in personal effects, but Rae supposed Ven only came here a few nights a season. He spent much of his time at his ancestral home, and when he did visit this area, he also had a room at Duke Ashem’s mansion near the palace.

  But he used this place for… rendezvous… Rae wondered how many.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  There was a chill in the air, and the warmth of liquor was long gone. Rae was fingering the velvet cloaks in the closet when Ven returned.

  “Are you cold? Take one,” he said, “and follow me, quickly,”

  Rae didn’t speak as he was led down winding corridors. His fingers twisted the soft fabric of the cloak, the scent of Ven’s perfumes subtly cloying to it. Ven’s strides were long, his head swivelling in constant surveillance.

  Without warning, Ven stopped.

  Before he could react, Rae was shoved through a door, which slammed shut behind him.

  “-Greetings father!” Ven’s voice was cheerful, and a little too loud. Rae heard Duke Ashem’s gruff voice murmur a response, as he backed away from the door.

  He glanced around the room, hoping to find an escape route. Rae had abysmal luck. What he found was the worst thing he could have imagined.

  “Your Majesty?” he gasped.

  The lady of the mountains, the Ashem Shana, was sat at a table under a window. Before her, sat a plate of sweets, steaming tea, and an open book. She was staring at Rae, her mouth hanging open.

  Silence hung between them, like the condemned. She looked Rae up and down, then glanced at the door.

  Rae looked there too. In his shock, his senses were heightened: he heard Ven attempting to lure his father to another part of the mansion.

  Once again, his gaze met with the Shana’s, her face framed by mahogany curls. He brought a finger to his lips. She frowned and gestured for him to come closer. Rae tiptoed over, wincing whenever the floor creaked underfoot.

  The Shana glanced at a chair, but Rae dared not move it, lest he make more noise. Once he was standing beside the table, the Shana whispered:

  “Your Majesty, are you my brother’s guest?”

  Rae grimaced. This was too strange. She was his stepmother. He was her ruler. He had seldom ever spoken to her. All his pain and torment were bound to her.

  And she knew! She might not know the specifics of his relationship with Ven, but whatever she was imagining was probably much worse.

  “I… I felt unwell last night. So young master Ven suggested I stay the night,”

  She studied him. He stared back. Ignoring her round belly, he noticed she was smaller and younger than he’d ever noticed before.

  “If that’s the case, you needn’t sneak around. We can call for Duke Bejuk to come check on you,” she said.

  Rae raised his hands “I’m fine. Fine,” he said.

  Thank the heavens, she relented.

  “I had noticed Ven seemed to favour you, but I didn’t realise you had become such good friends,” she said, and Rae almost wished Duke Ashem would enter and put him out of his misery.

  “How about Your Majesty? Are you feeling well?” Rae asked.

  How awkward it was; to have two ‘Your Majesties’ in the same room, especially given their history.

  The Shana touched her belly, “yes, not too bad,” she spoke softly, “many thanks to your majesty for your benevolence,”

  “Benevolence?”

  “For letting me and my daughters remain in the palace,”

  “I-“ Rae stuttered, “I- I couldn’t very well send you away. Not with- the children are so young… and your health is fragile-”

  In his shock, Rae’s voice rose above a whisper and the Shana pressed her palm over his mouth. They stood in silence for a moment, until it was clear that Duke Ashem was none the wiser.

  “Father can be so stubborn, rather than waiting for him to leave, it would be better to escape now,” she said.

  She took Rae’s forearm and led him to the window. She made a small hand gesture, half wave half grasping motion.

  Zott appeared outside the window with a thud.

  “Zott, please don’t make any noise, his majesty needs to return to the palace without being noticed,”

  Zott nodded, stepping aside. Rae climbed through the window.

  “Please,” he turned back to the Shana, “forgive the trouble,”

  “Worry not. I’ll tell Ven you said goodbye,”

  The Ashem hunting lodge did not have the manicured gardens and courtyards of the palace. The vegetation around the perimeter of the building had been hacked back, but beyond that was nothing but forest.

  Rae stared at Zott’s back as they pushed through the foliage. The muscles of his shoulders were so tense that it showed through the fabric.

  “I suppose… you must be tired… it’s still very early…” Rae said.

  Zott said nothing.

  “If it’s too much trouble, I can find my own way back,”

  Mountain folk were masters of navigating the peaks and valleys. Rae hadn’t explored these mountains at all before but from the incline of the earth, the direction of the wind, and the way light filtered through the trees, he could guess the direction back to Saoshak.

  Still, Zott said nothing.

  “Zott,”

  Zott used a knife to cut them a route through undergrowth. His steps were light, considered, and gentle.

  “The Shana… when she told you to be silent, she only meant not to let Duke Ashem hear. Not that it’s just us, you can talk,”

  At last, Zott made a sound. He grunted, and his stance relaxed, ever so slightly.

  “You… I know your loyalties lie first with Duke Ashem… if he asks, you’ll always tell him the truth… But if he never asks, can you not mention that I stayed the night?”

  In the shade of the forest, the cold was deep. Rae held his borrowed cloak with numb fingers.

  The forest was silent, Zott had paused mid-step.

  “You and Master Ven…”

  “Y-yes?”

  “Were you able to find any useful information?” Zott asked.

  For a moment, Rae was dumbstruck. Then guilt washed over him.

  The party! I was meant to be gathering information, and instead, I spent the whole time fawning over Ven!

  Of course, Zott was angry. He had trusted Rae to get to the bottom of the poisoning incident. He loved the Shali so dearly, that he would risk his own life, or kill, to protect them.

  Stupid. Selfish.

  “I wasn’t able to find much out… and later I took ill, so…”

  “Took ill? You should have called for Duke Bejuk,”

  Why did everyone keep saying that?

  “It wasn’t that serious. After a night’s rest, I’m already feeling much better,”

  “A night’s rest,” Zott repeated, his amber eyes gleaming.

  “Ugh-!” Distracted by the sight, Rae had caught his foot on a root and pitched forward.

  A hand on his forearm. Zott hauled him up from the ground, and they kept walking.

  “Young master Ven is very hospitable,”

  Rae’s cheeks were hot; trembling tension in his hands.

  “You’ve got the wrong idea…” he trailed off.

  “I want to warn you-”

  Rae braced himself for a threat. If you cause problems for my master, I’ll slit your throat and throw you down a ravine. Something like that would explain why Zott wouldn’t look directly at him.

  “-He can be flighty and impulsive. It’s not my place to tell you who to consort with… but he’s not someone you should give your heart to,”

  His heart. His heart? Was that what was on the line? Rae’s heart was the least of his worries. His life, his dignity… those were what mattered. His heart being shattered, being trampled, was something it had never occurred to him to be worried about.

  “Are you… are you saying this out of concern for me? Or concern for Ven?”

  “Young master Ven has broken enough hearts in his lifetime. He’d be a fool not to know what’s coming by now. The one I’m worried about is you,”

  Rae didn’t know what to say.

  “Also my master… he’s irritable enough. If he found out you two were ‘involved’, the damage might be catastrophic,”

  You have no idea how close we were to disaster, Rae thought.