The Sleeping Prince - Melinda Salisbury Page 0,114

closer to grimace than grin. “Hello, Twylla,” he says, stopping a few feet from her and putting his helmet down on a pew.

“Hello, Lief,” she replies, returning his smile.

His entire face lights up, and it’s painful to look at him; his feelings shine as brightly as his armour, and I know in that moment that he did love her, he still does, no matter what she believes. I turn to her and see an identical expression of yearning on her face. I might as well not exist. There is only those two.

I think he must be under a spell, that’s what this is, why he didn’t come back or write. He couldn’t. The Sleeping Prince put him under a spell, and now Twylla will break it. Like in the stories, one kiss and he’ll be freed and the three of us can go, get Silas, and find a way to defeat the Sleeping Prince.

Then I realize Lief is here, and Silas is not. Lief was fighting Silas. He must have beaten Silas to be here…

I reach for a pew, my mouth falling open in a silent scream.

I look at Twylla. All the love and longing on her face is gone. “You’ve done it again, haven’t you?” she says.

“I can explain.”

“Are we really going to have this conversation again?” she snarls, and both Lief and I flinch away from her. “You can’t help being a traitor, can you? How can you be related to Errin? She risks her life for the people she loves. You’ve betrayed everyone who’s ever shown you kindness, time and again, for your own gain.”

“I don’t expect you to understand.”

She shakes her head and looks down at his sword. “Is that Merek’s?” When he doesn’t reply, she laughs bitterly. “Of course it is. If it’s Merek’s you have to have it, don’t you. His home, his sword, his bride…”

“I don’t remember you being unwilling,” Lief says coldly, and Twylla sucks in a long breath. “I didn’t know he was going to kill Merek,” he continues, obviously at pains to keep his voice even, and my heart twists sharply. My brother was there when the king was killed. He’s been there since the beginning. “I thought he was going to take him prisoner. I never meant him any real harm.”

“And you called me naïve.”

He shakes his head. “Twylla, I—”

“If you say you still love me then I swear to the Gods I will kill you,” she hisses.

“I wasn’t going to,” he says, and the ring of honesty in his words makes her recoil. “I was going to tell you to hide. Make sure you cannot be found.”

“Are you helping us?”

“He wants your head next to Merek’s on the Lortune gate,” Lief says. “And though we are no longer … friends, I don’t want to see that.”

I see Twylla blanch and my own rage rises, boiling and caustic. “Lief?” I say, and the sound jolts them both. They startle and turn to me.

“Errin.” Lief tries for a smile.

“Where have you been? Why didn’t you come back? Why didn’t you write?”

He looks at Twylla; then his gaze slides back to me. “We can talk about this later.”

“You’re the Silver Knight? You’re with him?”

My voice echoes and Lief looks over his shoulder. “Keep your voice down.”

I shake my head. “Where is Silas? Did you…” I can’t say it. “Did you?”

He shakes his head. “He’s fine.”

“But your master has him now, doesn’t he?” I spit, and Lief flushes. “Thanks to you. Tremayne is destroyed! Our village, Lief. Gone. The bakery, the forge. My apothecary. His monsters levelled it, smashed everything they could to pieces. People are dead, Lief. The baker’s wife. The blacksmith. Maybe Lirys. People we know.”

“I wasn’t here when that happened—”

“I thought you were dead,” I cut across him, spitting my words at him. “I wish you were, Gods I wish you were. Traitor.”

His eyes move between Twylla and me. “What did she tell you?” he asks.

I shake my head and step away from him. “Tell us how to get out of here. You owe me that much. You owe her more.”

“Errin, I—”

Then the sound of boots. “Lief?” That smooth, chilling voice calls from further down the corridor, and I freeze like a deer caught in a huntsman’s sight.

“Here, Your Grace,” he calls. “Hide,” he hisses at Twylla. “I can’t protect you. Hide.”

She looks at me and I nod. After glancing around, she takes a few silent steps to the screen that we’d sat behind an hour or so before,