"This attack could mean anything. It could have come from anywhere," the queen reasoned.

"It's possible, but Codey is right there was something off about those men. I took a closer look at them after the captain sent him back to his post. Everything he pointed out was true. If those men didn't come from Velash where did they come from and who sent them?"

"Who have you offened?" she asked him with a small smirk.

"This is no joke, Amaris! They could have killed Skylette! If Edwin hadn't been with her, she very well could have died!"

She clucked her tongue at him. "Sky held her own, although I will agree it was definitely good that Edwin was with her."

He grunted. "I am infinitely glad she's settled a bit and chosen a beau."

His wife began laughing loudly.

"What exactly is funny?" He propped his hands on his hips.

"She doesn't have any feelings for Edwin!"

"How can you possibly say that? They've been corresponding since her birthday ball! He arrived a week early for this ball and they've spent a great deal of time together!"

"Do you remember how it was when we met?"

His cheeks turned slightly pink. "Yes of course."

"We spent much of our time trying to avoid our parents and our respective guards and chaperones. Attempting to find dark corners to hide in and steal kisses. Sky and Edwin do none of that when they're together. They walk out in the open and spend time in the library reading together. They act nothing like lovers."

"They don't know one another well enough yet!" he insisted.

She tipped her head to the side and raised an eyebrow at him. "How long was it before we knew one another well enough to hide in those corners? Do remind me dear."

He stomped away from her. "She needs to begin acting as a queen does!"

"She never expected to be Queen. For eighteen years of her life, Darrien was going to rule, not her. You grew up knowing you would rule, you were the eldest of your brothers. You need to give her some slack darling. Give her time to get used to the idea that she is now going to be the queen."

"If I give her enough slack she'll hang us all with it," he muttered.

As she was about to answer him, the door flew open and Skylette stomped into the room. Her gaze fixed on her father. Her arm came up and she stabbed a finger at him. "You! What did you do?"

He scowled at her. "You're going to blame this incident on me?"

She shook her head. "The attack, no. What did you do to Codey?"

"Codey? What in blazes are you talking about girl?"

"I saw him, Daddy! I saw him in the garden in that damn uniform! He's been here the entire time! You knew it ... you had to know it! He never would have chosen to leave his position in the stables on his own! What. Did. You. Do," she carefully enunciated the last few words.

"Why do you think I did something?"

She let loose a loud stilted laugh. "You knew after you told me to keep away from him I'd never listen. He's my best friend, why would I comply. Your only other choice was to go to Codey and threaten him somehow. I'm surprised you didn't simply toss him out of the castle into the streets!"

"You listen to me young lady—"

"No, you listen to me! I'm not some puppet you can stand before an audience of your choice and pose, feed lines to and make me do what you want! I'm a person! I have a mind of my own and I intend to use it! Leave me alone and let me live my life the way I want to!" She turned and stormed from the room.

He flapped an arm after her. "See, she's impossible! She doesn't listen!"

"You are the impossible one. You took away the only person she could have gone to for comfort when Darrien died."

He grumbled. "It was for her good. I was protecting her."

"If you had given them a chance what was a friendship could have been so much more. You never paid much attention to the two of them when they were together. She and Codey were much more than friends; they simply never had a chance to realize it."

"That is exactly why they needed to be separated!"

She rolled her eyes. "That's an idiotic reason to separate them."

"I was protecting our daughter." He repeated as he glared at her.

"Exactly what were you protecting her from, from Codey? He's just a man! And in case you haven't noticed he's grown up to be a very fine one at that! Have you seen him wield a blade? His father would have been quite pound. I think he's even better than his father was."

"It doesn't matter. She will marry Edwin." He slashed a hand through the air and headed for the door, stopping before he left the room to look back at her. "It is for the best. She is far better off well away from Codey."

She made a small sound of exasperation once he'd left. She couldn't understand why he didn't wish for Skylette and Codey to have a relationship. It wasn't as if he disliked Codey. In fact, he'd been excellent friends with Codey's father!

***

"What in the hell was that about?"

Codey glanced at Arthur. "What was what about?"

"Are you seriously going to try and deflect?"

"I'm not deflecting anything. I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You called the princess by her given name. Not only by her given name, you have your own nickname for her! Care to explain?"

"There's nothing to explain. It was a slip, heat of the moment and all of that," he explained while waving a hand around in the air.

"That is the biggest load of horse manure you've ever shoveled and I bet you've shoveled quite a bit in your time. You know her."

"And you don't know squat."

"Look Codey, don't try and bullshit me. I'm a prince remember? I've spent enough time in a royal court to know bull when I hear it. That girl used to spend half her time in the stables and you worked there. You want to tell me you don't know her. Bull and shit."

Codey wished he could smack his friend, but Arthur was in fact a prince. It didn't matter that he was here to train, in reality he was the youngest son of the king of Arieland. His father had sent him here when he was eight to foster. Arthur wouldn't inherit the throne; he was the youngest of four. With two older brothers and a sister, he was last in line. His only choice was to become a knight or marry a princess from another kingdom. His father had chosen to send him to Erilia to become a knight.

"As descriptive as that was, I'm sorry but the princess and I are not well acquainted. I saw her in passing, but that was all."

Arthur snorted, making his disbelief obvious. "Whenever you're ready to come clean let me know."

He shook his head. "What do you make of this attack?"

"Everything you said was right on. I don't buy that it was Velash. That would be too obvious. Something stinks about this entire thing."

"If it isn't Velash we need to figure out who it is and that's where we run into a problem," Codey responded.

"A big problem," Arthur agreed.

Codey stared toward the castle while deep in thought. Who would want to harm the royal family? He had no answer to that question. No matter how hard he thought the only answer he came up with again and again was Velash. Yet, it made no sense. King Mal wasn't stupid. He would never send assassins in so boldly when it would start a war his people could never win. It was suicide.

There was definitely something deeper going on. Someone out there blamed the Constantine's for something. It was something perhaps they didn't even realize they participated in and he had no idea how long ago it may have occurred. He scowled over that possibility. How did they find a perpetrator when they had no idea where to start looking?

The problems with this situation were mounting. There seemed to be no end to the questions.

He pushed away from the wall when the captain came striding toward them.

"Gentlemen, your help this evening was indispensable."

"Only doing our duty sir," Codey told him.

"If it wasn't for the two of you I doubt Prince Edwin would have been able to hold those men off. It's likely the princess would have died without the two of you." He paused and clasped his hands behind his back. After a moment, he cleared his throat and fixed his gaze on Codey. "You did an exceptional job with those observations, Codey. I don't think I would have picked up on any of the things you did."

"You've been at this longer than I have sir."

He gave his head a small shake. "I have, but it's become a bit routine and I'm afraid I've stopped looking for that which isn't obvious."

"I understand." He didn't know how else to answer without insulting his superior.

"It doesn't matter. We've got a problem and we need to find the culprit behind this mess."

"Yes sir."

Arthur looked between them before focusing on the captain. "Any ideas where to begin looking sir?"

"No, none at the moment, the king is focused on Velash."

"A mistake," Codey told him.

"Yes, I agree. The king agrees as well, but he has no other enemies in sight." The captain shrugged.

Arthur tapped a finger against his chin. "Soooo ... we need to figure out who else might want to harm the royal family."

"That's where the two of you might come in handy. I'm on my way to talk to the king. I want you to be prepared to leave."

"Leave? And where exactly might we be going?" Arthur asked.

"Kingsley," he replied.

"Kingsley?" Codey asked him.

"Since it was attacked thirteen years ago a new baron has taken over. I don't know the situation there, but I want someone to check into it."

Codey narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "What do you suspect is happening?"

"Nothing ... everything, I can't say."

"That's not exactly an answer."

"No one has been to Kingsley since it was sacked and the king is evasive about it when questioned. The new baron is some relative of the previous baron. His mother came in and took over when the baron died. The boy was too young at the time to inherit the title or some nonsense. The king will explain nothing about the situation."

Codey scowled at the explanation. "That's a load of crap. The baron, his wife, and son all died in the attack. He had no other living relatives."

The captain's eyebrows rose. "You knew them?"

"Yes, my father was a knight in Kingsley, remember?"

"Ah yes, I forgot you were born there."

"Whoever this man is, he isn't a relative of the baron's. He's a liar."

"Or a relative you knew nothing about perhaps. It is possible." Arthur pointed out.

"Arthur has a point. Even if you grew up in Kingsley, it doesn't mean you knew everything that went on in the baron's home. You were quite young when the attack occurred after all."

Codey only nodded.

"How do you believe we can be of any assistance?" Arthur questioned him.

"I'll explain everything once I've spoken to the king. Keep to you post for the moment and let me try and convince the king that this endeavor might be worth a try." He turned and strode off down the path through the gardens.

"So back to Kingsley huh?"

Codey grunted and leaned back against the garden wall. "Never planned on returning."

"Never?"

"Nope."

"You've never felt the need to go back and visit the place you were born?" Arthur glanced over at him.

"I barely remember it. There's no desire inside me to force the memories to return. Do you know how hard I worked to force out the memories of that massacre?"

"You witnessed it?"

"No. My mother hid me in one of the kitchen cupboards when the fighting began. I could hear it though. All of it, going on beyond the darkness inside the tiny space of my hiding spot. The clashing of blades, the screams of the dying and the yells of men fighting, it became my entire world. I have no idea how long it lasted. When it became quiet, I was too frightened to emerge so I remained inside, in the dark. There I remained until Susanna; another servant from the baron's home found me and brought me here. Nothing inside me desires to return to that place to remember any of that. To see where the bodies of my parents were lying, bloody and dead. No thank you. I've been done with Kingsley since I was six years old."

Arthur cleared his throat and opened his mouth to speak, stopped and closed it.

"Don't bother, there's nothing you can say to make it better," Codey told him.

"I didn't know. I'm sorry."

"No one did." Save for Skylette, he finished silently. She had been the only person he'd ever explained the entire story to, the only one who had know the details of that day. What he'd seen and how terrified he'd been. The only person he'd told who knew how the dark and enclosed spaces still frightened him. He missed having her to talk to about things like that. Even if Arthur was his friend, he wasn't certain how he would react to information like that. It wasn't something a soldier should admit to. Fear.

Fear of any kind at all was frowned upon.

Lettie would never tease him about his fear. She would show concern and be there to comfort him. As she had in the past. Now? Now, he wasn't certain how she would react. He'd walked away from her without a word or a backward glance. She probably hated him. And he wouldn't blame her for it.