Page 38 of Lady of the Lake

He looks at me again with the faintest gleam of vulnerability in his eyes, but just as swiftly, the look is gone. “Did I ever mention the years I spent in the dungeons?”

Surprise flickers in my chest. “No, you’ve failed to mention it.”

“Twice, actually. But the first time, Aedan was involved. I was quite young then, only twenty-six, and I’d wandered into one of his dreams. One of his sex dreams, to be specific. He favors women, but this one was about the king. My father was dressed as a milkmaid. He was with a bullanda cow in a compromising position, and the whole dream made me wish I had the magical ability to erase my own memory.”

My jaw drops. “I’ll never see your father the same way again.”

“I was young and hadn’t learned the value of discretion yet. Aedan quickly learned that I had visited his dream. The addition of the animals, and what they were doing with my father, meant the dream bordered on treason, and Aedan wanted to shut me up for good. He accused me of hiring a death-weaver to kill the king from afar. Aedan even planted the evidence. Letters he forged. He found a woman to confess, a poor peasant he tortured into submission. That sealed my fate, and that’s how I ended up in the dungeon. The first time, anyway.”

“And your father simply believed the fake evidence?” I ask.

“It didn’t take much to convince him. He always preferred my brother. Lothyr’s mother loved my father, though Father grew tired of her. My mother never fell for him. She loved me, not him. And when he realized it, that knowledge was like a poison in his veins.”

I don’t know how anyone could love Auberon. “What about the next time you were in prison?”

“Someone accused me of fucking the king’s favored mistress.”

“Another fake accusation?”

“Oh, that one was absolutely true—many times over. Father wasn’t doing it properly.”

A laugh escapes my lips. “Of course.”

“So, I was thrown back in the dungeon and forgotten again. But Lothyr died in the civil uprising, and they had no choice butto release me. When I emerged from prison that time, idiot that I was, I’d imagined joy, that freedom would seem like heaven after so long starving in a five-foot cell. I’d spent years imagining sunlight on my skin, the oaky smell of the forest in my lungs, the soft moss beneath my feet, and the delighted moans of women. But when I stepped out of the dungeons…” He seems to catch himself, and his expression closes off. His easy smile slides back into place. “Anyway, here I am. The last prince standing.”

“What happened after the civil war?” Everyone in Brocéliande blamed him for the horrors after the war. But Talan had once told me that his father lost his mind after Lothyr died and used his dragons on the “traitors.”

He looks off into the distance. “Do you know, it was a long time ago.”

“Were you close to your brother?”

“Yes. I think Lothyr is the only reason I was released from the dungeons the first time. If it weren’t for Lothyr, I would have lost my mind.” A dark smile. “Assuming I already haven’t.”

“Were you kept in the same prisons as everyone else?” I ask. “Or did you have the royal version of a prison?”

“A small, dark cell.” His voice grows quiet, edged with steel. “The same cell where they’d kept my mother before me. I always believed I’d share her fate because her death was the most vivid thing to me. My clearest memory. The dragon fire. The devouring flames, singeing, burning…I thought that was my destiny. Strange that I made it this far when I always thought I’d die young.”

Barbs scrape at my ribs, and I feel my chest crack. “So, why are we going to see a man you hate?”

He glances my way, a smile ghosting over his lips. “This time, I accepted the invitation as an excuse to get you close to him.”

I’d already guessed as much. “I assumed you’d want some measure of control over him. You couldn’t get to him through his dreams?”

“No. Since I intruded on his milkmaid dream, his mind has become a fortress. I can still catch a glimpse of his dreams, but I can’t shape them or see them clearly. This requires your more…aggressive approach.”

“What’s the plan?”

“There’s been talk about a special faction within Aedan’s bannermen,” Talan says. “A secretive group of soldiers loyal only to him, trained to subvert the chain of command.”

“You’re talking about a military coup of Auberon’s army,” I say in surprise. My fingers tighten on the reins. If this is true, I need to get this information to Avalon Tower immediately.

“Just rumors, perhaps.” Talan’s expression shutters. “But there must be some kernel of truth in it. And I want Aedan to tell me.”

“So, this is like Ker-Ys all over again. I get him to confess to you privately?”

“Exactly. At a certain point in the banquet, we will find our way to his room. That will be your opportunity.”

“And what do I get out of it?” I ask.

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