Two-Faced (Assassin at Court Series Book 1) (3 page)

Chapter 8

            
 
T
he excited chatter continued throughout dinner. It did not quiet until the Queen stood again to address them. “Ladies, with the conclusion of dinner comes the end of the first trial. A Princess and future Queen must be able to groom and dress oneself in a manner befitting of a royal. Therefore, you all were judged tonight on the sole basis of your appearance and chosen attire. Nothing short of the most beautiful young lady in the kingdom is good enough for the heir of the House of Roth. The fifty girls who were deemed to be the least aesthetically appealing will find their bags waiting outside their rooms when you all retire from the formal dining hall. There will be carriages waiting outside the High Palace to return you to your homes. For the fifty girls who will remain with us, breakfast shall be served at seven am sharp. The morning is yours to do with as you please. The next trial will commence at two o’clock in the afternoon. I bid you all farewell.”

              At the end of her speech, the Queen exited the dais and left the dining hall with her entourage in tow. Most of the girls decided to linger in the dining room and gossip amongst themselves. I am pretty sure their real reason for staying was to put off what was inevitable for half of the princess hopefuls for as long as possible.  If I was one of the fifty deemed too aesthetically unappealing, I needed to know sooner rather than later. The more time I had to come up with an alternative assassination plot the better. 

              As I made my exit out of the dining hall, a real palace guard intercepted me.

“Lady Alastair, Your Highness requested that I escort you to your rooms when you were ready to leave.” The respectful bow of his head did nothing to abate the scathing look I gave him.

“That will not be necessary, Sir. Please inform,
Your Highness
, that I am capable of making my way to my room on my own.”

His apologetic look told me he was not budging. “I apologize, My Lady, but I have my orders.” He motioned with his arm for me to lead the way.

Thank the Gods for small victories. At least he left me with a little dignity. I sighed and allowed him to follow me. I suppose one did not ignore a direct command of the Crowned Prince if one wanted to keep his station, or more importantly his head. The House of Roth had quite a reputation for their lack of mercy.

I reached my rooms to find neither Emily’s nor my belongings sitting outside our door. Now that I was alone, I allowed myself to laugh out loud at the absurdity of it all. The whole ordeal was one huge sexist, shallow, demeaning process. The fact that women were being reduced to what they wore, how they looked, and whether they
behaved
as a suitable wife made me sick to my stomach. It also made me think a great deal less of the boy I met who claimed to be a palace guard now that I knew he was the Crowned Prince. What kind of person went along with such an offensive custom?

Chapter 9

            
 
I
nearly made it to dreamland when I heard a way too perky voice shuffle into the room.

              “Oh my Gods, Skyler, you will never believe what I found out after you left!”

              “Tell me in the morning,” I grumbled without opening my eyes.

              “I can’t wait. This is way too juicy. You
have
to wake up
now.”

              I briefly wondered if I suffocated my roommate with the pillow I was sleeping on would that disqualify me from the competition? Then again, I could dispose of the body under the cover of night and feign ignorance in regards to knowing her whereabouts.

              “Come on, Skyler, wake up.” She actually shook me. Did she seriously not know how close she was to not seeing the sunrise?

              “Skyler,” she started up again.

              I sat up and smacked her in the face with a pillow. It was a small concession to smothering her with it.  “Fine!” I shouted. “I’m up. Tell me whatever it is you feel is so urgent so I can go back to sleep.”

              She blinked, surprised at my sudden moodiness. I swear I saw a tear threatening to fall.
Gah! Why me?
I thought to myself. “I get grouchy when woken up out of my sleep,” I said by way of apology.

              “It’s okay. I understand,” she sniffed.

              I patted the bed beside me. “Have a seat and spill whatever it is that is so juicy.”

              I smiled at her.

              She smiled back.

              Good, I abated the waterworks for a third time that day.

              “So the heart stopping blonde sitting at our table was Iliana Camille from the House of Van Pennington. It is the richest and most powerful house in Anthame next to the House of Roth. She was so pissed that the Prince completely ignored her and talked to you that she let it slip that she was the Queen’s favorite to win the competition. She said this whole thing is rigged and Queen Elianora made a bargain with her family for her to wed the Prince.  How unfair is that?” Emily pouted as she flopped back on the bed. “What is the use of even having a competition, if the winner has already been selected?”

              I smiled patiently at her. “Because the competition is as old as the kingdom of Anthame itself and far be it from the perfect House of Roth to not honor an age old tradition. What would the noble families think?” I mimicked the Queen’s haughty and condescending voice so perfectly you might have thought she was in the room.

              Emily looked at me scandalized, then burst into a fit of giggles. I dissolved into my own fit alongside her. What did I care that the competition was fixed for Iliana to win? I only needed to make it to into the Elite to fulfill the job I’d come to the palace for. In a twisted way, it made the situation even more comical. For all the scheming and backdoor deals the Queen did with the House of Van Pennington, it wasn’t going to do her or poor Iliana any good. A dead prince couldn’t take a bride.

Chapter 10

            
 
E
mily tried to wake me for breakfast the next morning, but I threatened to do more than launch a pillow at her face if she did not leave me alone. She heeded my threat and left for breakfast by herself. An hour later, a knock at the door woke me up out of my sleep again. I tugged the knife loose I had lodged between my mattresses and got up to answer it.

              “Who is there?” I called out.

              “Room service,” a suspiciously muffled voice spoke through the door.

              I shifted into a defensive stance, but kept the knife hidden behind my back. I flung the door open with my free hand. The Crowned Prince grinned at me across the threshold. His grin disappeared when he took in my stance. I quickly straightened my spine in an attempt to play it off. Women, especially women of noble houses did not have combat training, no matter how low on the social hierarchy they might be. High society women were born, bred and raised for one thing: to marry a Lord of a Noble House and produce an heir. The Prince looked as if he wanted to say something, but then shook his head.

              “I thought we could have breakfast together,” his said by way of greeting.

             
Seriously?
“Good morning to you too. And no, we cannot. I’ve already eaten. Breakfast was served for us girls at seven sharp remember.”

              He gave me a look that said he did not buy my bluff. “You are just getting out of bed. There is no way you went down for breakfast this morning.”

              I placed the hand not hiding the knife behind my back on my hip. “Says who?”

              He pointedly looked me up and down. “Says the fact that you are still in your bed clothes. Though I have to admit, I don’t mind your indecency.”

              My cheeks heated, but I narrowed my eyes at him all the same. “Why don’t you go find Iliana Camille of the House of Van Pennington to have breakfast with? She is the girl whose supposed to win this charade in the end right? Your hand picked bride-to-be?”

              It was the Prince’s turn to look at me through narrowly slit eyes. “You should not speak on matters you clearly know so little about, Lady Alastair.”

             
Oh. I hit a nerve. Great!
I expected him to stomp off in a royally, affronted huff. His next actions came as a complete surprise.

“I think we started off on the wrong foot. Good morning, Lady Alastair. I would be honored if you accompanied me to breakfast in the royal garden.” His dimpled grin was back in place. The Crowned Prince had recovered yet again, though not as quick this time. He let the mask slip.
What would mommy dearest think?

              I started to ask him as much or respond with something else equally acerbic, but he cut me off before I was able to get out a reply.

              “I tell you what,” his eyes twinkled with the mirth of one who knew a hidden secret only they were in on, “if you say yes, I will not think too hardly about why you have a near perfect defensive stance and are clutching a dagger behind your back.”

             
Shit. He had me there.
“Fine,” I relented. I need ten minutes to get dressed and I will meet you there.”

              “Great. I will send a guard to escort you. It is a part of the Roth family’s private residences so you will not be granted access otherwise. Do not be late,” he said in a perfect imitation of his mother’s voice that rivaled my own.

Chapter 11

            
 
I
sat in the royal family’s private rose garden at a crystal table inlaid with gold across from the Crowned Prince himself.
If my family could see me now,
I thought bitterly to myself. The Prince’s voice pulled me back from the memories that threatened to pull me under.

              “What were you thinking about?” He looked quizzically at me.

              “Nothing, just childhood memories,” I shook my head.

              “Not good ones from the looks of it.”

              I did not like the way his gaze bore into me. I had the nagging feeling he saw past the façade or at least was attempting to. I playfully smiled in an effort to ease the seriousness of the moment. “We can’t all be a part of the royal House of Roth and have our every waking memory filled with wealth and extravagance.” My intentions were not malicious. I spoke in lightly teasing tones.

Still a shadow crossed over his face at my words. “I am no different than the next person. My life has its high and low points just like everyone else.”

              “Yes,
Your Highness,
I am sure. You live just as the rest of us lowly non-royals do.”

              The shadow was gone just as quickly as it appeared. He leaned over the table and took my hands in his. “Call me Zander, My Lady.”

              I quickly snatched my hands back. “Fine, Zander. Then call me Skyler.”

              He grabbed my hands again. This time he tightened his grip. It was not bruising, but he held my hands within his firm enough so I could not so easily escape a second time. He was back to peering into my eyes straining to see past the mask. “Alright,
Skyler,
please tell me what a Lady of the House of Alastair could possibly have experienced in life to even have the word
lowly
in her vocabulary and to carry such dark shadows beneath her beautiful green gaze.”

              I squared my shoulders and stared right back at him. “Alastair is a House of lesser nobility in a provincial town. We live more like the common people than the nobility. While the High Noble Houses gorge themselves on excess and frivolity, we along with the common people must work ourselves, in many cases to the death, just to provide the most basic of needs for our families. And even then, we are faced with sometimes going without or making
hard
decisions just to be able to eat.”

The Prince had the decency to look away in quiet acknowledgement. “The reformation treaty signed by the House of Roth and the Common People after the civil revolt was supposed to change all of that,” he said limply. The excuse was lame even to him.

              I knew I should probably change the subject before I said something offensive or worse treasonous, but I have never been one not to voice my opinion. “Sure it eradicated the strict caste system of old times, but the problem of the kingdom’s resources and wealth being concentrated in the hands of a few was never really solved. The oppressive conditions the lesser nobles and common people were living in only marginally improved. “

              To my surprise the Prince nodded in agreement with me from across the table. “If you had the power to make a real difference, what changes would you make?”

              “Seriously? You want to know?” I asked in astonishment.

              He squeezed my hand reassuringly. “Yes, I want to hear what you have to say.”

              “Well for starters I would redistribute the resources in the kingdom. I am not naïve enough to think that the High Nobles will relinquish their high society stations and extravagances. However, with enough push from the Royal Family, the High Nobles could be persuaded to relinquish control over the shipping industry. It turns them a decent amount of profit but it is not Anthame’s most lucrative industry. As long as they retain control of the mining industry, our export of coal and precious stones to neighboring lands will more than keep their pockets lined. Control of the shipping industry could be turned over to the lesser nobles and common people to create a thriving merchant class. The rich would stay rich but the poor could have a real chance to improve their quality of life.” I stopped short when I realized the Prince was staring at me with a peculiar look on his face. The emotions behind the look I could not exactly pinpoint. “Did I say something wrong?” I asked him tentatively.

              He brought my hands to his lips and kissed them. “Quite the contrary, My Lady, Skyler he corrected himself. You are
refreshing
. It is not every day a Lady speaks her mind so openly and brilliantly.”

              I snorted at his last comment. “I’m not defending ignorance but can you blame them? Noble women may enjoy greater comforts than common women but the societal constraints placed on them ensure that they are far less free to speak their minds, educate themselves, or do anything besides marry noble Lords and breed heirs.” The Prince picked up on the condemnation that crept into my voice.

              “How can you speak of noble women with such derision when you are in fact, a noble woman yourself, and here for the same reason the other ninety-nine girls came to the High Palace?”

              “I may be competing in this stupid contest, but it is because I made the decision myself to do so for a specific purpose. I did not blindly travel to the High Palace because my already ridiculously rich noble family is jockeying for more power. I am nobody’s pawn but my own.”

              “And tell me Skyler, what is your purpose here?”

              The question caught me more off guard than it should have. I would have liked to think it was because my true purpose there could never be revealed. In truth, it was because my purpose was becoming muddled with the more run-ins I had with the man beneath the mask of the Crowned Prince.

I said I was nobody’s pawn but my own, but how much truth was really in that statement. I had not come to the High Palace on my own accord. I came because I was an assassin hired to kill the Prince.  I was playing at a dangerous game. To fulfill my contract quietly and neatly as requested I needed to get close to the Prince. To get close to the Prince I needed to gain his trust, which I was doing by spending time with him. The problem was the more time I spent around him the more I got to know him as a person. I liked Zander, the person. When the time came to kill him, could I do it? My mind dredged up memories of four years prior.

It was a week after the deaths of my mother, father and brother. A terrible disease circulated through Arythmia’s low society. The Common People’s water supply had become contaminated and none of the High Nobles wanted to incur the cost of cleaning it up. A group of commoners petitioned the royal family for help, but they said it was the nobles’ duty. The High Nobles of the city were too busy bickering back and forth amongst themselves about whose responsibility it was to actually do anything about it. The Common People were left with no choice but to keep using the bad water. We could not heat it before use because that required burning kerosene gas. As expensive as it was, we always had a limited supply of it.  One night I went to bed and the next morning I woke up without a family. My mother, father and brother had all passed in their sleeps, sickened by the water. When the High Noble in our part of the city sent an undertaker to retrieve the bodies for burning, he also sent someone to inform me that I needed to vacate the premises. I could not stay there if I could not pay the taxes. It’s funny he could send somebody to kick a thirteen year old girl who had just lost her family out on the street, but he could not send somebody to purify our water. Maybe my family would have never fallen ill. The first couple of nights I slept in the field behind our home. Then, the same High Noble sent the same man to tell me I could not stay there either. He owned the field too and felt entitled to taxes on it as well. I found myself in a dark alleyway that no one could lay claim to. I fell asleep and awoke to a trio of men ripping away at my clothes. I screamed and tried to fight them off, but it was three of them and one of me. Then Samael appeared and sliced the throats of them all. He took me away from the alley and gave me warm clothes and my first meal in days. Then he explained to me what he did and offered me an opportunity to learn to defend myself and to never have to starve or live on the streets again. I was thirteen and alone and afraid and I accepted his offer.

              “I lost you again,” Zander gave my hand a gentle squeeze to draw me back to the present.

              “I’m sorry, again.” I knew the smile I shot him across the table failed to reach my eyes.

              He let my hands go to trace a finger down the length of my cheek. “I don’t know the cause of your shadows, but if you ever need to talk about them, I’m a pretty good listener. And I bet I’d be pretty good at making you forget them,” he added with a wink. The sleazy comment had its intended effect. This time when I smiled at him, it reached my eyes. 

              “I bet you say that to all the girls,” I teased him.

              “No, just you.” This time the look he sent me was a lot less playful and a lot more heated. A blush crept into my cheeks at the intensity of it.

              Zander abruptly stood up from the table and offered me his hand. “Do you want to go for a walk? The flowers are in full bloom. It makes the garden lovely this time of year.”

              “Actually, I would love to. Roses are my favorite, but I have to pass. I have to get back to my room and prepare for the Queen’s next
trial
. I do not want to be late,” I said in my Queenly voice.

              Zander’s laughed echoed through the garden. “Your impression is almost as good as mine. I love my mother but she can be a bit ridiculous. This competition is a prime example. It is absurd.”

              “You mean because you are going to wed Iliana regardless?” I couldn’t help but probe.

              A look of pure repugnance crossed his face. “My mother is in for a rude awakening if she thinks I’ll agree to marry Iliana. I mean because the competition is exactly what you think it is. Farcical and insulting.”

              For reasons I refused to consider too deeply, his words sent happy flutters through my stomach.

“Then why agree to the competition at all?”

              “I didn’t. The competition is all of my mother’s doing. I tried to talk her out of it, but she would not listen. The Queen is big on traditions and customs. We had a huge argument about it. Tradition dictates that I should have been the one receiving you all on the first day and overseeing the
trials.
But I refused to participate. I told my mother she could pick who ever she wanted from the lot, but I was not going to marry one of them. She went ahead with the competition in hopes that she could convince me to change my mind. She should know by now that I am as stubborn as she is.”

              “Then why were you present at dinner last night?” I asked skeptically.

              Zander leaned in close to me and place a gentle kiss on my lips. “I saw something in the hallway that made going worthwhile,” he moved his lips against mine.

              When I moved to pull back he curled an arm around my waist, pulling me in closer. The initially chaste kiss morphed into something much more hot and demanding as he deepened it. My brain told me to pull away, I could easily break his hold, but my hormones had ideas of their own. I pressed my body closer to his and allowed my tongue to explore his mouth as his explored mine.

We stayed like that until I heard someone clear their throat. I jumped back out of instinct. A girl of no more than 9 years of age looked at us with large, innocent eyes. Then she abruptly broke into a fit of giggles.

“Zander has a girlfriend, Zander has a girlfriend,” she laughed in a sing-song voice.

“What are you doing out here alone, Kiera?” Zander knelt beside her.

The little girl looked up at him with a look of pure adoration. There was no doubt in my mind that he was her hero. “I got bored,” she pouted. “Mother and Father are always too busy to play with me so I was looking for you. The guards said you were having breakfast in the gardens. Will you play with me Zander?” She looked at him through pleading eyes.

Zander kissed the top of her head. “Of course, I will. Don’t I always have time for my favorite little sister?

She erupted in giggles again. “I’m your only little sister, silly.”

“All the more reason for me to have all the time in the world for you.”

“Uh, I’ll leave you to alone,” I said awkwardly.

Zander looked at me with the mischievous glint in his eyes. I was starting to learn that that look always meant he was up to something. “Kiera, this is Skyler.” He directed the little girl’s attention to me. “Isn’t she pretty?”

The girl nodded her head as she beamed up at me.

“Wouldn’t you like for her to spend the day playing with us?”

Again, the girl nodded her head as she beamed up at me.

I was being played. “What about your mother?” I tried to protest one final, yet feeble, time.

“I’ll deal with my mother. Just say yes. Come on, you may be able to deny me, but can you really deny a cute little girl?”