Prince Incognito (16 page)

* * *

The Arabian filly pranced nervously under Lillian as she tried to hold her still, inching closer to her uncle’s compound in hopes of catching a glimpse of the helicopter that had landed.

Was it Lydian? She thought she recognized the helicopter, but she wasn’t nearly
an expert on flying machines. Still, she wasn’t about to leave the area if there was any chance that Alec or his men were aboard the craft. Without a passport or any money, she didn’t know how she was ever going to get back to Sardis. The helicopter could be a godsend. She prayed God would give her wisdom, even as the half-wild horse beneath her trotted unbidden toward the fortress that loomed
above the desert.

* * *

“Lillian?” Alec called from where he crouched with his men on either side of the doorway, protected by the sturdy stone walls from anything those inside might shoot at them. “If you’re in there, tell me you’re okay.”

Silence.

David laughed. “She’s in no position to speak right now.”

Alec’s stomach sank. What did the tyrant’s cryptic response
mean? Had he already disposed of Lily? Alec couldn’t bear the thought. And yet, how else could he explain her lack of response?

He looked at his men. “Did you see Lillian go in there with him?”

“We came around the corner right behind him. He had a female with him, but I didn’t get a close look.” The soldier answered in a hushed whisper.

“Can anyone ID the woman who was with him?”

With regret on their faces, the soldiers shook their heads.

Alec pinched his eyes shut. Had Lily gone willingly with her uncle? “Was the female showing any sign of resistance?”

The soldier nearest him answered without hesitation. “She appeared to be accompanying him of her own free will.”

FIFTEEN

T
hree soldiers rode out on horseback toward her. Lily wanted to rein her horse in, but the wild filly refused to be controlled. Besides, the armed men had clearly already spotted her, so there would be little point in trying to run away.

“Halt.” The lead rider raised his gun.

At the sight of the automatic rifle, the filly had the good sense to come to a stop.

“Lily?” one of the soldiers asked.

“Yes.”

“How did you get out here?”

Before she could explain, another soldier pulled close to her horse, grabbing the halter. “You need to come with us.”

* * *

Silently, so that Bardici wouldn’t hear, Alec dispensed the men in teams. “I want the windows to this room guarded. Don’t let him escape. Make a sweep of the compound.
I’m not convinced Lily is in that room.”

Moments after he sent the last group of men down the hallway, Titus approached from the other direction, motioning to Alec with his finger. “This way.”

Though reluctant to leave the room where Bardici was barricaded, Alec hobbled around the corner in time to see three men leading a smaller, feminine figure.

“Shh.” The soldiers shushed
them both as Lily stifled her squeal upon seeing him.

David Bardici’s shout echoed down the hallway. “If you want to see Lillian alive again, you and your men will back away from this door.”

Alec pulled Lily into his arms as he turned back to respond to the man’s threats. “I repeat, David Bardici, you have been removed from your post and are wanted on charges of treason.”

“You
don’t have the authority to arrest me! The monarchy is head of the armed forces, and the Bardicis have a ruling majority on the oligarchy council.”

“Do they?” Alec questioned loudly as his men began to gather again in the hallway. With Lily safe in his arms, he had no qualms blasting his way past the general’s barricade, though he’d prefer to take him without a fight. He didn’t want to risk
the lives of the men who trusted him to lead them.

“Of course we do!” David shouted from the other side of the door. “The Bardicis have three against two.”

“No, Uncle David,” Lily called out from under the protective drape of Alec’s arm. “At best, you have two against three. I will always side with the Royal House of Lydia.”

Knowing Lily’s words had exposed David’s sole negotiating
point as a desperate bluff, Alec lifted his gun, motioning to his men to draw their weapons and stand behind where he stood, closest to the doors. “This is your final warning. Come out—”

But before he could finish his sentence, the doors burst open, revealing David standing in the doorway, holding Sandra Bardici in front of him, his gun pressed to her neck.

“Stand down,” Bardici shouted
at the soldiers, his eyes roving crazily until they landed on Lily, tucked almost out of sight in Alec’s shadow less than a meter from where he stood. The sneer of a smile bent his lips. “Lillian, you will tell these soldiers to fall back, or you will never see your mother alive again.”

Lily tensed against him, and Alec could feel her warring with how to respond.

It was a call he couldn’t
ask her to make.

Moving quickly, deftly, he executed the move he’d replayed in his mind since the moment the general had pulled a gun on Lily on her father’s boat. His hand snapped forward, jerking the gun away from the general.

Just as quickly, Sandra Bardici lunged toward the weapon.

“Mother, no!” Lily screamed, darting out from under Alec’s arm to stop her mother.

Alec
couldn’t let her step past the shield of his body armor. He turned his back on the Bardicis, covering Lily as a gun went off behind him.

When he spun around again a second later, David Bardici had crumpled to the floor, and the soldiers on the other side of the doorway leaped forward to restrain Sandra, pulling the gun easily from her trembling hands.

“Mother?” Lily gasped, looking
down at her prone, bloodied uncle on the floor, and then back up to her mother.

But Sandra sneered down at David. “You’ll never pull a gun on me again!”

The soldiers led her away, while Titus crouched by the general’s side and checked his pulse. “He’s gone.”

“And with him, any answers he might have given us about the elusive 8.” Alec looked in the direction the men had taken
Sandra. “I wonder if that’s why she felt she had to kill him?”

“She won’t tell you anything,” Lily predicted. “But my father—”

“Your father has been cooperative ever since your mother left him.”

“I don’t know how much he knows, though. In many ways, I think he was his brother’s puppet, not a knowledgeable conspirator.”

Alec pulled her close against him, taking comfort in
the knowledge that he’d kept her safe. That she’d taken a stand on his side.

But would his siblings agree?

“Let’s get things closed up here and get back to Lydia.”

* * *

Lily focused on breathing slowly, evenly, as she accompanied Alec onboard her uncle’s helicopter. After refueling the copter he and his men had arrived in, Alec had sent Sandra back to Lydia in the custody
of his men. Grateful for the use of the second Lydian helicopter, Lily felt relieved that she didn’t have to face her mother for the ride home.

She tried to tell herself everything would be fine, even though her mother had left her father and shot her uncle. Even though she was still deep in debt and could easily be charged with treason for signing the oligarchy covenant at her uncle’s orders.

“How’s your foot?” she asked Alec as he situated himself in the seat and the copter lifted off.

He didn’t answer, but settled his gaze on her face.

She felt a blush rise to her cheeks, and tried to shake it off. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry my uncle shot you, that my family has been attacking yours—”

His hand slid over hers. “I’m sorry, too.”

“What’s going to happen?”

“I don’t know. It’s all up in the air, isn’t it? My father’s still in a coma, my brother, Thaddeus, is still missing. As near as I can tell, the only way to ultimately resolve the question of the crown is to find my brother. He’s the only one who knows where to find the Scepter of Charlemagne.”

“The Scepter of Charlemagne.” Lily immediately recalled her uncle asking her about it. “Why
is it so important?”

“The crowned head of Lydia has always held the scepter. There’s a document inside the scepter that has been signed by every monarch in the history of the kingdom. Whoever holds the scepter controls the crown.”

Lily let out a slow breath. “No wonder my uncle was so determined to get his hands on it. But how are we ever going to find it? No one even knows where Thaddeus
is.”

“Kirk thinks he may be able to locate him, but it could take a while.”

“What’s going to happen until then?”

Alec offered her a cautious smile. “The ruling oligarchy will remain in place until Thaddeus is crowned. With your uncle dead, that leaves you and your dad to rule along with my sisters.”

“But won’t we be charged with treason for conspiring with my uncle?”

“To my knowledge, you never conspired with David Bardici.” Alec looked at her with trust in his eyes.

Lily felt her own eyes well with appreciative tears. “I never did—but Uncle David said all those terrible things—”

“Your uncle David was a terrible man. I don’t believe any of the accusations he made against you. In the case of your father, however, it gets a little trickier.”
Alec conceded, “But, if he can give us information that would lead us to this 8, if he can help us end this once and for all, I’m sure he could get a lighter sentence. Now your mother, on the other hand—”

Lily shuddered. “She murdered my uncle.”

“It could be classified as self-defense.”

“She murdered my horses. All this time, I thought she was a sycophant, going along with whatever
my father or uncle said. But she was playing them just to get her own way.” Lily thought for a little while longer, realizing that her uncle had tried to paint
her
as just such a character. Alec said he didn’t believe the terrible things her uncle had said about her, but in light of her mother’s actions, Lily still felt the burden of proof. “My uncle accused me of behaving that way.”

“He
said you deliberately made me fall in love with you so you could manipulate me and learn my secrets.”

“I didn’t—”

But Alec raised a finger to her mouth, shushing her. “If that’s what you were trying to do, you were awful at it.”

Her eyes widened. Was he saying he hadn’t fallen in love with her after all?

“You didn’t learn anything from me,” Alec clarified. “You didn’t ask
me about any of the things your uncle wanted to know.” He leaned closer to her over the armrest that separated their seats. “But, as far as falling in love with you…” He removed his finger from her lips and leaned closer.

Lily’s mouth fell open. “I don’t know if it’s wise to act on feelings right now,” she cautioned him. “You’ve got a country to reassure and a Parliament to placate. If they
see you with me, how will they ever trust you?”

“I’m not part of the ruling oligarchy. You are. Perhaps they need to see you with me to know they can trust you.”

“Be careful, Alec. Be very, very careful.” She settled back into her seat.

Alec leaned back in his seat as well. “I will.”

* * *

The sun was rising on a new day as the helicopter neared Sardis.

Lily
realized what she needed to do. “Is there any way I can get to my uncle’s estate?” she asked.

“Right now?”

“It’s rather urgent.”

Exhausted though he was, Alec didn’t want Lily visiting the place alone. “We can land in the courtyard.” He passed the order along to the pilot, then asked Lily, “What’s so important that we’ve got to go now?”

“If we can prove that Basil abdicated,
that will erase any question of whether your family has the right to rule Lydia, correct? This oligarchy nonsense can be done away with, and your family can be returned to the throne.”

“But your uncle burned the abdication documents.” Alec had gotten enough of a glimpse of the papers as Lily and her uncle had waved them around to know they were the real thing.

“Trust me.” Lily smiled
as they arrived at the sprawling mansion.

Alec hesitated at the thought of trekking through the halls on his injured foot.

Lily must have realized how exhausted he was. “You can wait here. I’ll be right back.”

She hurried inside.

Alec stepped out and leaned against the copter, easing the pressure on his foot, and heard a vehicle approaching. Immediately on his guard, he
was relieved to see his sisters and their fiancés jump out of the vehicle when it came to a stop.

“
There
you are,” Isabelle accused him. “We’ve all been going crazy waiting for you to return, and no sooner does your helicopter come into view than you head here.”

“What are you doing here?” Stasi asked.

“Lily needed to get something.”

“Couldn’t it wait?”

He shrugged.

Kirk leaned against the car beside him and spoke in a conspiratorial tone. “On the night of the state dinner, you were supposed to learn about your next promotion, weren’t you?”

“That’s right. With everything else that’s been going on, I almost forgot. But my promotion was arranged between my father, as head of the military, and General Bardici, the head of the army. Neither of them
can tell us what they decided.”

“Your sisters have been discussing it.”

Isabelle smiled up at her brother. “We want you to be the new general in charge of the army.”

Alec reeled back. “From lieutenant to general? That’s quite a promotion.”

“We don’t know who else we can trust,” Stasi explained. “Bardici’s highest-ranking officers followed his orders—including orders against
our family.”

“We may never know for certain the extent of their allegiances.” As Isabelle finished her statement, Lily burst from the building, papers in hand.

Alec watched his sisters eye her warily. He knew they didn’t trust her because she was a Bardici. “What have you got, Lily?”

She laid out the papers on the back of his sister’s car. “These are Basil’s original abdication
documents. They prove that the members of your family have every right to the crown. The papers my uncle burned were only copies I made on aged paper. If he’d stopped to examine them under better light, he’d have realized he didn’t have the originals.” She looked at Alec with hope in her eyes. “These should restore your family to the throne.”

“Are you sure?” Levi, the law expert, bent over
the papers, studying them closely.

While he analyzed the documents, Stasi and Isabelle eyed each other over his head.

Isabelle raised an eyebrow.

Stasi turned to Lily. “Why would you help our family?”