Page 26 of The Shadows Between Us
“But what could they possibly gain from such a horrible scheme?” I ask.
He shrugs. “Perhaps they thought they were helping by making me king.”
“If they were truly your friends, they would know you had no desire to see your parents hurt.”
Kallias swallows the food in his mouth and pauses, as if wondering whether to tell me something.
“It’s not the only reason I’ve kept them at bay.”
“What do you mean?”
His eyes meet mine. “It’s one thing to be tracking down the late king and queen’s murderer. It’s another thing entirely to have an assassin after me while trying to root out my parents’ murderer.”
“Someone is trying to kill you?” I ask, surprised. “How do you know?”
He finishes his chicken and starts on a salted cucumber. “They’ve failed once already. Last month, my gloves were laced with a topicalpoison. When I put them on, my hands felt as though they were on fire. The toxin would have spread to my heart in under a minute, I’m told.”
I eye the hands hidden behind gloves now. “Are you all right? How did you survive?”
“I am not so easy to kill. My shadows saved me.”
I wonder if he also wears his gloves to cover burn marks. Whatever the poison was, it sounds terribly nasty.
“And you think your friends could have had something to do with it?” I ask.
“My friends. The council. Anyone of the nobility. A servant in the palace. It could be anyone. I can’t take any chances.”
I think of Leandros, Petros, and Rhouben. I honestly doubt any of them are capable of murder, especially with the way they look at their once-friend every time Kallias enters a room. They miss him. And what would they have to gain anyway? I suppose Leandros’s uncle is on the council. If there’s no king, Ikaros Vasco will remain in power for far longer. But that doesn’t gain Leandros anything. He can’t obtain the crown. A distant relative of the king would get it first.
And Petros doesn’t strike me as the power-hungry type. I know little of his family, but he can’t have any claim to the throne. Rhouben wants nothing more than to be free of his betrothed, as far as I can tell.
But I say none of this. If the king has already decided not to trust anyone, there’s little I can do to convince him otherwise. And doing so would only putmeunder suspicion.
“Do you have any ideas as to who’s responsible? Anything more specific than someone currently in the palace?”
Kallias eyes me suspiciously over the rim of his goblet.
“You are my ticket to acknowledgment. Remember? Without you I have nothing. No parties or respect.” Until I can gain the latter on my own, of course. “No one is allowed to kill you on my watch. I want to help.”
He nods, as though satisfied with my answer.
“I think someone on the council was involved. Simply because if I’m gone, there’s no one in my direct line to pass the crown to. The council would rule my empire indefinitely. Until a new sovereign could be determined. I have many third cousins. They would have to battle for it. And it had to have been a noble or a member of the guard.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because the palace was in a lockdown the night of the late king and queen’s deaths. There was an insurgent group of peasants who were let into the palace, causing havoc. And no one save nobility would have been allowed into the safe room with my parents. When the room was opened, their bodies were found.”
“Where were you?” I ask.
“On the other side of the palace. I’d been engaged in a game of sport with other noblemen’s sons. We were taken to another safe room when the shooters were discovered to be within the palace.”
“But it wasn’t the shooters who got to the king and queen?”
“No. The intruders were all caught before they made it to the royal suites. It was a distraction. Someone let them in so they could have the opportunity to murder my father and mother.”
The room goes quiet. Neither Kallias nor I are touching our food any longer.
“Such a dreary topic,” Kallias says at last. “I don’t wish to burden you with my troubles. I appreciate you wanting to help. But this is not for you to worry about.”
