been drugged. Keira! They’d parted with unfinished business. She was upset and so was he. She’d wonder where he’d disappeared to—and why he didn’t return. Guilt and worry gripped him. “Keira?” he croaked.
“Shush,” said the whispers. “Wait. Must be quiet.”
There was a sensation of depth to the air. They were deep beneath the palace. A warren of tunnels, his blurry vision told him. He was carried into a small room and deposited gently on a bed. Only then did a light come on.
Dozens of fretful eunuchs surrounded him, their faces various shades of pale against their robes and tunics. Jared still wore his suit, but it had been through hell. His shirt was hanging out; buttons and a cuff link were missing. “Sir, the nanomeds have been administered. Soon the toxins will be gone and you’ll feel better.”
“I’m already feeling better.” He pulled off his tie. “What happened?”
“Taye found you in your apartment,” one young man said. “You were unconscious. He knew the poison you’d been given because you smelled like snowbell liqueur. He gave you a blood cleaner, which started the reversal of the toxin’s effects.”
“It was just in time,” another said. “Your breathing had slowed so much that your lips were turning blue.”
“But security was outside my door. How did he do all that without their noticing?”
“They helped. They were so worried about losing their jobs for gross oversight, they let Taye talk them into it if he promised to say you died on the way to the doctor for emergency care.”
“Nice of them.”
“I borrowed the clothes of a security officer and delivered you to the morgue,” Taye said. “The report went out that your body had arrived. No one bothered to double-check because you looked dead. I returned with the others and we pulled you out of cold storage.”
“Question—what the hell were you doing in my quarters?”
“I came to find you, sir. To tell you about the queen.”
Jared sat up so fast his head spun. “What happened to her? What!” After a brief struggle, the eunuchs pushed him back down. It wasn’t hard to do. He was as weak as a baby.
“She fell ill upon learning of your death. She is sleeping now.”
Sleeping. That didn’t sound like Keira. “Send word I’m alive.”
“Beware, she is not alone. Tibor is with her, but also Vemekk and the physician. If the wrong people discover you’re alive…”
“Okay, scratch that idea.” He owed his life to Taye’s quick thinking. If anyone found out what he’d done for Jared, they’d both be executed. “Thank you.” The phrase seemed monumentally insufficient. “You saved me at tremendous risk.”
“Of course. We are believers and fear for the welfare of the goddess.” At that, several bowed their heads, whispering silent prayers. “And you were kind to us, sir. Always. Even if it were only your welfare alone that we feared for, we’d have helped you.”
The door slammed open, rattling plaster from the ceiling. Everyone’s heads swerved at once to view the newcomer. Hefting his sword in one hand and a weapon that resembled a futuristic sawed-off shotgun in his other, Tibor Frix lurched into the room.
His face was contorted in pain, his eyes raw and wild. “They got her. They took her.”
Jared swung his legs off the bed as his fear for Kiera brought back his strength. He grabbed the material of Frix’s tunic in his fists and swept the man off his feet and into the wall. “Tell me where and who, or I’ll kill you right here, right now. I swear it.” Jared’s head pounded with blood. He gave Tibor an extra shake.
“He’s on our side!” Taye shouted. The eunuchs were trying to pull Jared away.
Frix was on their side?
Tibor placed a hand over Jared’s arm. To calm him or to keep from getting strangled? “Vemekk and Rissallen, they...” The guard paused to pant. He was either drugged or in terrible pain. “They sent her to the warlord’s flagship. It waits in a secret location just over the border in Drakken space.”
“Sound a warning. Come on. We have to warn the palace. Tell the military—Zaafran and Fair Cirrus.”
“No!” Tibor shouted harshly. “His flagship is protected by the finest dreadnought in their fleet. If we show up with warships of our own, we’ll spark a battle with your wife trapped between sides.”
Jared dropped his hands. Fuck. They were taking Keira to the warlord. The pounding in his head thundered to a crescendo. “What do I have to do to get her back?” He turned his hands