“I will talk to my father. He’s a reasonable man.”
Max arched a brow at his lie.
“He loves us.”
Which was true, but… “That makes him highly unreasonable.”
The prince nodded. “If you and your brother come with me… Let my father see that you’re capable of rational thought and speech. It will change everything. I promise. Come and help me to set this right.”
Still, Max was skeptical. It wasn’t as easy as the prince made it sound. He knew that. Yet as he looked among the desolate, fear-filled faces, he knew he had to try.
For them.
Illarion wended his way through the others to approach Max. Surely you don’t believe his lies.
“We have to try.”
Shaking his head, Illarion didn’t want to participate, but he loved his brother too much to let him go about his stupidity alone.
So together, they headed back toward the palace, with Eumon in the lead.
For the first time, they emerged out of the dungeon and into the palace grounds that led to where the royal family lived.
They had just reached the gardens when a man who appeared eerily similar to Vane approached them.
“What is this?”
“We’re going to see Father.”
The newcomer scowled with fierce disapproval. “What have you done?”
The prince let out a tired sigh. “Linus, please. I have to speak to him and I don’t have time.”
“You heard what the priest told Father. We’ve angered the gods. If you don’t return them for execution right now, they’ll demand our heads, too! Do you want to die?”
“And what’s to stop them from doing that anyway after the others are gone? The gods are capricious. You know that. I don’t trust them.”
Linus gestured at Max and then Illarion. “But you would trust an animal?”
“They’re not just animals. They can speak.”
Linus scoffed. “Now you’re being ridiculous. Did you perchance eat a bad lotus batch?”
“He’s not wrong.”
Linus’s gaze had widened at the sound of Max’s voice. “You can think and talk?”
“Of course.”
His eyes darkened dangerously as he moved to confront Max. “Are you the reason Dagon did this to me?”
“Did what?”
In response to his brother’s question, Linus turned on Eumon. “Or did you do it?”
“Do what?” Eumon repeated.
Linus raked him with a scathing glare. “You were always Father’s favored son. Had your life not been threatened, I’m sure he’d have let me die, as he did our mother.”