Page 8 of Courting the Tiger King

“Lady Zennon Darke?”

“In here,” Zennon called, voice shaking convincingly, and it wasn’t until Neah took in the destruction of the room and the bodies piled up that she considered her friend may not have been acting.

“Lady, are you—” The guard halted as he took in the scene and Neah was relieved to see his eyes were a human blue. He strode across to her within seconds and bowed crisply. “My Lady, I’ve been directed by the king to request your presence at the palace. It seems our enemies got here first. Are you injured at all?”

Zennon shook her head and leaned against the post of her bed. “The blood—it’s not mine.”

The guard ran his eyes over her small form and looked impressed, understandable given the carnage. “Will you allow us to escort you to the king?”

The king. What did he want with Zennon?

“Of course.” She strode toward Neah’s hiding place and Neah backed away from the door, handing Zennon her cloak and a pair of boots when she reached inside. Their eyes met for a moment and Neah nodded reassuringly. She’d give the guards a head start and follow Zennon in the morning. Whatever was going on here was bigger than she could have anticipated.

CHAPTER FOUR

NEAH

The house was still after the guards and Zennon left and Neah decided to make the most of the peace by cleaning herself up as best she could, despite the absence of the attendants that would normally have been in the house. At this late hour, they’d all left. Lucky for them, or they might have shared the same fate as the guards.

Still, Neah managed to fill a large tub half-way with steaming water that was probably a little too hot to be comfortable. But the lure of the sweetly fragranced soap was large enough that she didn’t wait for the bath to cool before stepping in. Really, she just wanted to be free of the smell of horse that clung to her skin.

The water rose as she sank in, climbing up and over her shoulders, and she dunked her head while trying to ignore the way the heat made her face sting. Tension slipped out of her muscles as she rested her arms on the rim of the tub, basking in the steam for a few minutes before she set about cleaning the blood and dirt from her face, body, and hair. By the time she stood up in a rush of water, the contents of the tub were stained pink and her skin was flushed and honey-scented.

She was familiar enough with Zennon’s estate, had stayed there several times while waiting for her next orders or to delivernews and gossip. Zennon acted as an intermediary, a half-way point, providing both sanctuary and plausible deniability—because who would be suspicious of one Lady visiting another? Whereas frequent trips into the palace to report to the king’s captain of the guard would surely garner unwanted attention.

It did feel strange, though, being there without Zennon. Her presence was soothing, her countenance calm, and after the day Neah’d had she could have used a little of that. Instead, she was left to borrow some of Zennon’s clothes and cobble together a sparse dinner with what was left in the pantry. Mostly bread, cheese, and dried meat.

A generous helping of honey wine helped quiet the buzz in Neah’s mind as she rummaged in Zennon’s closet. It was lucky that she and Zennon were similar in size, though Neah had more of a lean musculature than Zennon who was soft and curvy, otherwise Neah might have been stuck putting her dirty clothes back on.

She carried her finds to the bedroom next to Zennon’s and laid them out on the perfectly-made bed before slipping on a simple nightdress. It wasn’t often that Neah managed to sleep well, but she would try to get a few hours of rest before following her friend to the palace.

Maybe it should have bothered her that there were dead guards in the room down the hall, or that she’d killed four people that night, but she could only feel relief that Zennon was safe and that tomorrow she’d see her father and explain what she’d learned.

The bed was soft and she sighed as she sank into the mattress, pulling up the heavy covers and wriggling into their depths until they started to warm against her. It was a bed too big for one person, but she didn’t mind. It gave her space to roll around. Regardless, it was much more comfortable than the bed she’d been staying in previously at a noble’s estate in the northeast of the kingdom. Lord Pembroke was known for his disdain for the current monarchy and so it seemed as good a place as any to linger in an attempt to glean any plans that might be being hatched by the king’s enemies.

Her father always said that a good spy was merely in the right place at the right time, so she endeavoured to be in as many of those places as possible. So far, she’d managed to foil a number of small plots against the king and his allies, but they were nothing compared to what she’d heard at Pembroke’s party at the beginning of the week.

Neah rolled and tucked one leg out of the covers, folding it back into the cool outer top of the coverlet as she tried to empty her head of the worries that had pursued her across her three-day ride. She would never be able to sleep at this rate. Maybe it had something to do with her animal form, locked away and prowling under her skin but unable to escape for whatever reason, but sleep was a luxury that often eluded her until she was so exhausted she could drop at any moment.

But she made do, and she needed to have her wits about her when she travelled to the king’s palace if she was to keep up the pretence of nobility. Or, at least, that nobility was the sum of her parts rather than the shallow surface.

She rolled again, her skin feeling too tight, like her nerves were buzzing. Was this just anticipation? Or more worry for Zennon, mysteriously spirited away into the king’s clutches? The palace was where her father lived, where Neah had grown up for the most part before she was sent away to train in the less lady-like arts of violence. So Neah hadn’t actually seen the king since he’d been crowned, though their paths had occasionally crossed while he’d been a prince.

Zennon would be safe there, doubly so when Neah arrived.

Neah squeezed her eyes shut, trying to focus on the comfort of the bed and the soft honey smell of her clean hair. Instead, shesaw blood on the backs of her eyelids, the gleam of steel in the dark.

Sleep, as usual, didn’t come easy.

At dawn, the staff returned to the estate and Neah was waiting for them already dressed in Zennon’s finery.

Most of them knew who she was, even if they didn’t know the truth ofwhat, and were excited by the prospect of Zennon’s stay at the palace. They readied a horse and carriage for Neah with an enthusiasm that only dulled when she informed them of the clean-up waiting inside in the form of the guards and assassins. Though, as best Neah could glean from eavesdropping, most of them felt that a little gore was worth the potential elevation of household that would come if Zennon married the king.

The idea shouldn’t have surprised Neah as much as it did, but it was atypical of a king to send for a bride rather than hosting a ball for the purpose of courtship. No, Neah would find out what was happening for herself soon enough.

A scant hour later, the carriage set off and the gentle rocking motion had Neah’s eyes drooping. She’d tossed and turned for most of the night, managing a harried couple of hours of rest before giving up and preparing herself for the day ahead. At least she’d managed some sleep, a small miracle likely a result of the post-battle crash that left her feeling drained.

She caught her head as it bobbed down once more, shaking herself and pulling open the brocade lace of the curtain that covered the small window. Travelling on the open road through the forest in this part of the kingdom wasn’t typically too dangerous, but it was still better for her to remain alert. You could never be too careful.

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