Born of Silence (68 page)

“Oh good grief, not you, too.”

Now it was his turn to frown. “How do you mean?”

She would laugh if it wasn’t so ridiculous. “Captain, I’m not a prisoner or a slave or anything else that’s bad.” She held her hands up to show him her skin. “Do you see any bruises on me?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Do I look abused in any way?”

“No, but—”

“There are no buts.” She patted him lightly on his arm, grateful and offended by his concern. “How long have you been a guard for the governor?”

“About four years.”

“Four years,” she repeated, thinking about how many things had changed in her life in such a short period of time. In some ways it seemed like an eternity and in others, like a blink.

“Do you know, Captain, that I’ve known the current governor far longer than that? In fact, he was a member of the Resistance before he took the throne.”

His jaw went slack. “What?”

“It’s true. I swear it.”

“I don’t understand. If he was one of the Resistance, then why did they take him prisoner?”

Her stomach knotted at that question. “They didn’t realize who he was. And neither did I. Not until it was too late. Because he was the prince, whenever he fought with us he didn’t dare show his face. Yet he was there by our sides. Battle after battle. He fought for all of us against his uncle. Many times. Both here in the palace and out on the streets. I can’t tell you how much money and blood he’s spent and shed in defense of his people.”

He shook his head in denial. “I don’t believe it. When he came to power, he slaughtered so many who were innocent.”

“Innocent?” she asked in disbelief. “You said you’d been here
for four years. Were you not aware of what was done to him under his uncle’s reign?”

He looked away, but not before she saw the horror in his dark eyes. “I heard some stories from others. But I never saw anything myself.”

“Stories or bragging?” she asked him.

His face turned bright red. “Bragging mostly.”

She didn’t even want to contemplate what they’d said. It wasn’t often someone was given a free reign to brutalize a member of the aristocracy with impunity. “I promise you the stories you heard didn’t do the reality justice. When he came to power, Darling only attacked the ones who’d hurt him. It’s why you’re still a captain and why he never went after you. I’m going to wager that you never once did him harm.”

His gaze told her that she’d guessed correctly. “What about the gerents, then? Why are they rebelling against him?”

“They’re angry that Darling changed the amount of time they can work their employees into the ground. All of this was caused by that one, simple thing.” She gestured down the hall that led to where she’d left Hauk and Fain. “You’ve seen the men and women who’ve come in here to protect and watch over Governor Cruel. Do you know who and what they are?”

“I’m not sure. But I think I heard a couple of them say Sentella and Tavali.”

“Exactly. Do you truly think they’d protect a monster?”

“Yeah, I wondered about that.”

“You shouldn’t,” she assured him. “I promise you, they would be the first to kill Darling if he was the animal the media said he was. For that matter…” She lifted the hem of her dress to show him the small blaster she had sheathed in an ankle holster. “I’ve been armed since His Majesty was attacked in his office. I stay awake while he sleeps. If he were hurting me in any way or posing
a threat to our people, I promise you, I would have killed him myself.”

“The news says that he’s brainwashed you.”

She scoffed. “Do you really think that?”

“But I’ve heard you scream while you’ve been here. A lot.”

Heat stung her cheeks again. “It wasn’t from pain. I assure you.”

“What about all the blood in your room and his that the housekeepers clean up on a daily basis?”

“It’s not mine, and it never has been mine. It’s from the governor when we change his bandages or he gets nosebleeds… which he gets a lot.” She left off a couple of other causes since she doubted Darling would want a stranger to know his business. “Not one drop of the blood has ever belonged to me. A simple DNA test will show that.”

There was still doubt in his eyes.

She opened her mouth to further allay his fears, but before she could speak, something shattered loudly. At first she couldn’t tell where it came from.

Not until Fain and Hauk jumped to their feet, then kicked in Darling’s door.

In that instant, she knew.

Darling was under attack.

22

By the time Zarya and the guard made it to Darling’s room, the fight was over.

Darling stood over the bodies of two assassins while Hauk cursed in his effort to get Darling to show him the wound on his side.

Holding a wadded up shirt against the injury, Darling smacked at Hauk’s hand. “I’m trying to stop the bleeding, asshole.”

Unperturbed, Hauk acted more like a patient mother than a bodyguard. “I want to see how bad it is.”

“It’s fine, Hauk. Believe me, I’ve had a lot worse. It glanced off the rib and didn’t go deep.” Darling’s nonchalance left her speechless. But then, she’d seen him as Kere handle some rather nasty wounds without reacting to them either.

Fain shook his head at Darling and Hauk as they continued to argue over the shirt. “Just call for a medic, Dancer, damn. Leave the boy alone.”

“No,” Darling snapped. “No medics. I don’t trust them. I’m not about to let one of them treat me, especially given all the shit going on right now.”

Fain made an obscene gesture at him. “Not one of yours,
dumbass. I wouldn’t trust them, either. Call the Sentella. Didn’t I see a medic come in with them?”

Hauk shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

Darling nodded at Fain. “Kerste came in about four hours ago.”

“Isn’t he a gunner?” Hauk asked.

Darling rolled his eyes, which had thankfully stopped jerking—she didn’t want to think about what would have happened had they been doing that while he fought his attackers. “No. He’s medical. Don’t you remember? He’s the one who stitched your leg that time when you went after those bounty hunters who’d been preying on kids.”

“Oh yeah.” Hauk’s scowl deepened. “Then why did he come here?”

Darling gestured sarcastically to the shirt that was now saturated with blood. “Syn wanted someone close to me in case something misfired after the surgery.”

“Ah.” While Hauk pulled out his link to call Kerste, Darling gave her a small smile to let her know he really was all right.

Then he looked past her to his guard. “Captain Harren? Would you please contact the sentries and make sure that none of them were attacked by the assassins? I don’t want one of them lying under a bush, bleeding out because they haven’t been missed yet.”

Zarya wasn’t sure why it surprised her that he knew the guard’s name. But the expression on Harren’s face was comical. It was a mixture of disbelief, shock, and a big dollop of fear and trepidation.

“How do you know my name, Majesty?”

“I know everyone’s name,” Darling said matter-of-factly. “Especially the ones like you, who are decent and who take pride in doing their job well.” He glanced to Zarya, before he returned his attention to Harren. “I also know you have a thing for my sister. And if you want to talk to her or ask her out, you need to.
Otherwise she’s going to think you’re a depraved stalker the way you watch her every time she comes home.”

Harren’s face turned bright red. “You wouldn’t be offended if I asked her out?”

“Hardly, and neither would she. Her last boyfriend was a mechanic in the Sentella.” He jerked his chin toward the open window, then returned to their original topic. “The assassins came in through the north side. Preskitt and Xheris have that patrol. Since they’re not due to check in for another twenty minutes, you might want to start with them and make sure they’re okay.”

By his expression, she could tell that stunned Harren even more.

Before Harren could move to obey, Darling turned to get away from Hauk. The moment he did, the assassin tattoo on his back was plainly visible. Harren gasped audibly.

Darling faced him. “Is something wrong, Captain?”

He gestured toward Darling’s back. “You have a soldier’s mark, Majesty?”

Hauk gave him an arrogant smirk. “Sentella, actually. It’s a trained assassin mark.”

“You’re a member of the Sentella?” Harren asked Darling.

It was Hauk who answered. “He’s been with us since almost the beginning.”

Harren gaped in her direction before he met Darling’s gaze. “I’ll have all of the patrols check in immediately, Majesty.”

“Thank you.”

Harren bowed respectfully. “You’re welcome, my lord. And I’ll personally see to it that there are more patrols added to secure your chambers.”

“I appreciate your diligence, Captain.” Darling gestured at the bodies on the floor. “But as you can see, I can take care of myself.”

Harren appeared to want to argue, but as the Sentella medic
brushed past him, he gave Darling a formal military salute. “Call for me if you need anything at all, my lord.”

Zarya had a sudden childish urge to say “I told you so” to Harren, but somehow she managed to keep it inside.

After he left, Fain let out a low whistle. “Either you’re winning them over, Dar, or he hit his head. Hard.”

“I vote for head injury.” Darling dropped his shirt to the floor so that the Sentella medic could tend him. “Hi, Kerste. How’s your daughter doing in her new school?”

Kerste smiled. “She’s adjusting well. Thanks for asking.” He pinned each of them with a pointed stare. “Now, if we could have the room, it would be a lot easier to seal this.”

Fain inclined his head to the larger of the two bodies lying on the floor. “I’ll take fat ass,” he said to Hauk, “if you can grab the other.”

“Uh-huh, give me the bloody one while you get the broken neck. Thanks, big brother.” Groaning in protest, Hauk took his by the legs so that he could drag him toward the hallway while Fain threw the other body over his shoulder.

Zarya started to ask them about waiting for investigators to inspect the bodies, but then reconsidered. It wasn’t like they didn’t know what had happened.

While Kerste tended Darling, she followed the Andarions outside. As soon as they had the door closed, the brothers started searching the assassins for credentials and information.

Hauk took the hand of the one he’d carried and put the dead man’s index finger against his mobile. After a few seconds, he cursed. “Not a pro team. This one is… or rather, was a mechanic.” He reached for the other man’s hand and scanned it. “This was an out-of-work programmer.” He glanced at her over his shoulder. “I think they belong to you, Princess.”

“How so?”

He handed her his mobile.

Zarya scanned the man’s file, then winced. They were both Resistance fighters. Newly recruited. She tried to use Hauk’s device to access Resistance files so that she could find out more about them and their mission, but someone had blocked her access.

So she went to the bounty sheets. Since those were public, she had no problem finding the contract out on Darling’s life. It made the one for Kere look like a joke.