Prince's Fire by Amy Raby

Author:Amy Raby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

20

Though it was early yet, Celeste crawled exhausted into bed. The interrogation of Bayard had taken all day. Her part in the interrogation had not been difficult—not in and of itself. It was like riding a horse, an undemanding activity unless one had to do it all day long. Then one got tired and sore.

She’d had to sustain a truth spell on Bayard and report to Justien anytime the man lied or evaded a question. Sustaining magic continuously for hours on end drained her. By lunchtime, she was exhausted, and since there wasn’t another mind mage available whom Lucien trusted, she went back and sustained her spells for another six hours.

It had been worth it. Justien had pulled many important details out of Bayard. It turned out that Justien and Vitala’s sweep had missed two of the conspirators, both of whom had been away from the enclave at the time of the assault. Bayard gave them the details on who those men were and where to find them, and Justien dispatched his people to intercept them.

Bayard confessed that about five years ago, Councilor Worryn had approached him and promised aid to his resistance movement in the form of money and gunpowder in exchange for Bayard training an assassin to target Prince Rayn. Later, when the Inyans had learned the chosen assassin was a woman, they’d come up with the idea of having her seduce Rayn first. That way the prince might produce an heir that Councilor Worryn could later use to control the throne.

Part of that plan had succeeded.

The Inyans had insisted that the assassination take place outside of their country. This had to do with Inyan laws mandating the use of truth spells on all political officials, including Land Council members, when a public figure was assassinated in Inya. Plans were put in motion to send Rayn to Kjall and assassinate him there.

Prince Rayn traveled to Kjall as intended. Zoe and three of the war mages on her team went with them, Zoe traveling openly and the others in secret. The assassins found the Imperial Palace impregnable, but when Rayn traveled to Riorca on the Goshawk, they made an assassination attempt there, which failed and resulted in the loss of the war mages. Later, while Zoe was en route to Riorca again, this time on the Soldier’s Sweep, another team of Bayard’s tried to assassinate Rayn—and failed again.

Now Zoe was on the Water Spirit with Prince Rayn.

Would she make another attempt on Rayn’s life?

Yes, Bayard had said, but only if she could get Rayn alone and distracted. Rayn was a fire mage. In a fair fight, he was more than a match for her. She would attempt to seduce him or otherwise throw him off his guard rather than attack him openly.

This was Celeste’s worst fear. No matter what she did, she could not protect Prince Rayn during his journey on the Water Spirit. All she could do was hope and pray that he didn’t put himself into a situation where he was alone with Zoe.

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