Red Heir - Lisa Henry Page 0,74

the soldier he was talking to now looked over at Quinn and Loth and caught Loth’s gaze. Then he blanched and ducked his head, and Loth really wasn’t sure how to take the gesture at all. Was it deferential? Loth wasn’t practised enough at receiving deferential gestures to be sure. Moments later, the soldier left.

Ser Greylord came and sat next to them. “Your Grace,” he said quietly, and they both turned their heads.

“Sorry,” Loth said after a second, because Greylord wasn’t talking to him, was he? Loth had forgotten, just for a moment, that he wasn’t royalty anymore. “Habit.”

Loth couldn’t deny that there was a part of him that would miss being the prince—it had been nice to sweep his arms in the air and make pronouncements, to pretend that anyone cared what he thought. Still, it was only fair that Quinn got to claim his crown. He’d certainly earned it, and Loth suspected he’d be a decent king. He was pulled out of his musings by Greylord saying, “Actually, it’s perfect.”

“What is?”

“You, still answering to your grace like that. The way you do it automatically will work well for us.” Greylord lowered his voice. “We can’t be certain how the castle guard will respond to the prince being alive. They may say they’re loyal, but that might just be lip service. It might be prudent if we continue to have two princes while we see which way the wind’s blowing, so to speak.”

“So I’m assassin bait?” Loth asked, somehow unsurprised. At least if he got murdered in his bed, it would be a nice bed.

“It’s more like an extra layer of protection for the pair of you,” Greylord corrected. “And there’d be no risk per se, because of course you’d both have a personal guard.”

“Oh?” Quinn leaned forward, elbows coming to rest on his knees, giving Lord Greylord all his attention. Loth did not sulk when Quinn pulled his hand away to move. He did not.

“I’ve talked to the lovely Ada, and she’s agreed to continue to guard Quinn as per her contract,” Greylord said, and Loth and Quinn exchanged a glance. The lovely Ada? Loth tucked that away for later consideration and focussed on the matter at hand.

“And me?”

“Oh, I’ll keep an eye on you.”

Loth found himself comforted by that. He’d worried, just for a second, that they’d give him some useless, wet-behind-the-ears kid. He hummed. “And this is your plan to keep the prince safe? Us both pretending we’re the heir?”

“For the time being, yes. Nobody here will admit to knowing who the real prince is, after all.”

Quinn screwed up his nose doubtfully, but Loth could see where Greylord was going with this. “They won’t, will they? They’re under contract.”

“Exactly.” To prove his point, Greylord made a show of standing, clearing his throat and declaring loudly, “Well, I certainly don’t know which one of you the prince is, and there’s no way to tell.”

Quinn grinned, and said,” I can assure you, it’s definitely not me. I’m just a horse-buggering peasant, remember?”

Loth gasped dramatically. “Well it’s not me, I’m just a scribe, so it must be you!” When he glanced up, Ada and Calarian were approaching, wearing identical mischievous expressions. Dave lumbered after them.

“Is not. Ask anyone.” Quinn’s lips twitched. “Ada? Which one of us is the heir?”

Ada grinned. “No idea. It’s definitely one of you, but as long as I’m getting paid I don’t care.”

“Cal?”

Calarian shrugged. “Collectivist anarchists don't believe in royalty, so I never bothered to find out. If there’s ever a revolution and I need to shoot the prince, I'll figure it out then.”

Oh yes, this was going to work wonderfully, Loth could already tell—just as long as Dave didn’t have an unexpected moment of brilliance, although the odds of that were slim. Loth asked though, just to be sure. “Dave? Who’s the prince?”

“There's two of them!” Dave said happily, and it was perfect, because who was going to argue with a seven-foot orc, especially one with a deadly dragon by his side?

“That’s right, Dave. There are two princes,” Greylord said, a tiny, smug smile on his face. Loth had the suspicion that Greylord would be excellent at chess, despite his previous denials, if he put his mind to it. “For now, it appears that most of the soldiers remaining are happy enough to continue doing their duty, as long as there’s a prince somewhere in the mix. The trick during any transition of power, of course, is to let everyone continue doing the things