Page 58 of Ties of Dust

“Do we have a report at last?” Cassius asked his father as he drew alongside him.

“Ah, Cassius.” The king looked him over vaguely. “It seems we do.” He waved a hand at the guard. “Go on.”

The guard bowed to Cassius before continuing. “As I was saying, Your Majesty, my investigators have succeeded in discovering the identities of the attackers. The two groups do not appear to be linked.”

“But they must be,” the king said impatiently. “You tell me that the attack on Princess Miriam and the attack on my son were unrelated? Implausible.”

“I agree, Your Majesty,” the guard assured him. “But it does not seem that the different attackers were known to each other, or shared a common cause.”

“Where did they hail from?”

The question came from Sir Keavling, and Cassius barely held in a scathing rebuke at the inappropriateness ofthe nobleman inserting himself. It would get him nowhere, given his father had taken it in stride.

“They were Torrenese, My Lord,” the guard said.

“All of them?” pressed Sir Keavling.

“Yes.”

The king and Sir Keavling exchanged a pointed look that raised Cassius’s ire again.

“It seems the treachery of our neighbors to the west runs deeper than we guessed.”

“Indeed, Your Majesty,” Sir Keavling said gravely. “Clandestinely funding disasters and criminal activity within their neighboring kingdoms in order to increase their own prosperity is bad enough. But an open attack against your heir?”

Cassius could scarcely believe his ears at the brazen words.

“You repeat wild gossip as if it’s established fact,” he protested. He turned to the king. “Father, there is absolutely no proof that the Torrenese crown had any hand in the attacks. A group of strangers unknown to each other and with no shared cause doesn’t suggest loyalty to king and country. It suggests loyalty to money. They were most likely hired mercenaries.”

“Who’s speaking speculation as fact now?” his father replied.

Impatient, Cassius turned to the guard. “Do you have more information for us?”

“Yes, Your Highness.” The guard cast a cautious look at the king. “I agree with His Highness that what we’ve learned of the men in question bears all the marks of mercenaries. In fact, at least one of the men who attacked the Siqualian princess was known to be a mercenary for hire. Rumor painted him as highly skilled and deadly.”

“So highly skilled that a young woman with as much strength as your little finger was able to intercept his attack and kill him without the princess receiving so much as a scratch?” the king said skeptically.

Cassius glanced around, his eyes landing on Flora not far away. She certainly didn’t look deadly, her hands folded calmly in front of her as she watched the musicians taking up their places on the far side of the room. But his father couldn’t be more wrong to characterize her as weak and unskilled. Cassius remembered the attack on the princess perfectly. Flora had been efficient and decisive. She’d saved the life of Princess Miriam, and probably others as well. The would-be assassins had managed to infiltrate the trees without any of them noticing, and their aim had been true. They’d come shockingly close to success.

“What about the men who attempted to waylay me in Torrens?” he asked abruptly.

The guard’s brow was furrowed. “They are more puzzling, Your Highness. They were much easier to track down, hailing from very near where you were attacked. We found no evidence that they were trained or skilled in combat, or that they had a history of mercenary activities. They were, however, both extremely desperate for money. I would be astonished to learn that their motivation was anything but coins, plain and simple.”

Cassius considered this information. It was a very different account from the first attack.

“What about the third man?” he asked. “The one who got away? Any leads on his identity?”

The guard shook his head. “I’m afraid not, Your Highness. If there was a third player, he hasn’t been identified. The two dead men were from the same small community, and had been missing since the evening before you wereattacked. It was no great surprise to anyone to learn that they’d gotten themselves into trouble. But there was no one else missing from the town, and every man who could reasonably be a suspect was accounted for at the time of the attack.”

“That’s odd,” Cassius mused.

“Not so odd,” said his father, frowning. “No doubt the other townsfolk are covering for the culprit. We cannot let that stand. Whoever he is must be found and pay the penalty for attempting to harm Carrack’s crown prince.”

“Agreed, Your Majesty,” said Sir Keavling. “It’s an insult not to be endured.”

King Aelius nodded. “Round up every man in that village if necessary.”

“Father, think what you’re saying,” said Cassius quickly. “The village in question is not in Carrack. Your guards have no authority to seize anyone within the borders of Torrens. We must tread with care if we wish to investigate without provoking war.”

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