“A tributary should not wear those.” Not if their keeper is treating them correctly. Even the teeth marks should fade quickly.
“She should not even have been a tributary!” Corrin’s voice fills with indignation. “She was carrying a child. A third one, that he forced her to bear, with some stranger she’d never met before! The law states—”
“I know what the law states. Thank you, though.” My anger simmers as I hear these new facts.
She purses her lips. “Not only was he still feeding off her regularly as she reached term, but he would invite other keepers over to feed off her and use her in other ways. He liked an audience.” She gives me a knowing look.
My fist closes over my quill, snapping it in half.
A knock sounds.
“Fates, grant me an hour to myself.” There has been a parade of people all morning. “Is there anything else you feel you need to share, Corrin?”
She clears her throat. “When Princess Romeria rescued her from that dreadful situation, Gracen believed her days of serving as tributary were over, and she was very relieved about that.”
So that’s why Corrin is here. She’s noticed my interest in Gracen and has put two and two together. I shouldn’t be surprised. “Sometimes things change. In case you didn’t know, I’m running out of tributaries.” And yet her words spark my disappointment.
“It is a dangerous position to hold in the castle as of late,” she agrees. “Very dangerous for anyone, but especially a mother of three, who might find herself in a dungeon or execution square through no fault of her own.”
Corrin would never dare come outright and tell me I can’t have Gracen as my tributary, but she may as well have. Her defiant expression says as much.
“I think we are done here. You may enter!” I holler to whoever waits outside.
Rhodes strolls in. The lithe warrior’s smooth, umber skin glows as if he ran hard all the way here. Kazimir is behind him. “Your Highness,” they echo each other.
“Thank you, Corrin. You may go.”
“Your Highness.” She bows and strolls out, ignoring the captains as if they don’t exist.
“Are you sure she’s not the one trying to poison you?” Kazimir says the moment the door shuts.
“That would be beneath Corrin. What have you found out, Rhodes?”
“I followed Lord Danthrin to Port Street last night, as requested, Your Highness.”
“And?”
“He spent an hour at Jadelight.”
One of the pricier brothels in the area. “Drowning the sorrow of his recent losses between a mortal’s legs? He doesn’t spend like an impoverished lord.”
“From what I hear, he has been there every night this week.”
“And did you find out who the unlucky lady is?” After what Corrin told me, she certainly is unlucky.
Rhodes’s deep brown eyes crinkle with his smile. “Not yet, but I will. Afterward, he made his way across the street to the Goat’s Knoll.”
“A step down, if he was looking for another vein.” The tavern is a seedy meeting place for ale and sex and blood—or all three.
“He did not partake.”
“And how much time did Bexley grant him?” Why else would he be there?
“He did not meet with her. She was not even there. At least not in the main room.”
“That is a rare occurrence.” I don’t think I’ve ever shown up there and found its owner absent. “Who was Danthrin there for, then?”
“He shared a drink and a laugh with Lord Spire first.”
I rub my chin in thought. Fernhoth and Freywich are leagues apart. What business would one have with the other?
“A drink is not proof of anything. Perhaps it was friendly chatter,” Kazimir offers.
“There’s nothing friendly about Spire. Did he meet with anyone else?”
“Some males I have not seen before. From Kier, I think.”
“They are a long way from home. What are they doing in my city?” And my realm, for that matter.
“I asked around and several sources named them mercenaries.”
“Loyal to whom?”
“To whoever has gold, is my guess. But they spend much time in Kettling.”
“And so the plot thickens.” What are you up to, Danthrin? And who could he be working with? Adley, maybe? Was my future father-in-law’s efforts to help Danthrin reclaim Gracen and her children a way to show power by swaying my decision, or an offer of help to this lowly lord in exchange for something? Still, there will be others involved. That much I know. “Keep an eye on our rabbit. See where else he hops. And I think I’ll pay Bexley a visit. Without a guard.”