Mirabella was certain that was the case.

  Later that day, they arrived at the healer’s hut. Leogane hadn’t spoken another word to Mirabella, and she’d been just as grateful. If they came under attack by Vladek’s men, she would stay with the party, as long as Rina was watching out for her. For now, she had every intention of speaking to Justina, but Leogane pulled Mirabella from her horse and guided her into the thatched one-room house without a word.

  Then he posted guards at the windows and door and headed back outside.

  The king said to the maid, “You come with me.”

  “Send Justina inside with me,” the princess said, furious that the king would stop her from speaking with her maid. Everyone seemed to conspire against her. She wanted to know if she could make friends with her now that she was no longer under her guardian’s control.

  But he didn’t listen to her or respond.

  Rina suspected the king wanted to learn the truth—was Justina on the princess’s side, or her uncle’s? She figured the woman was a spy for the princess’s uncle. She glanced at Artur who was keeping an eye on Rina, not on the princess.

  “Do you mind if I go inside the healer’s hut also?” Normally Rina would have just done so, but she felt she was walking a fine line here.

  “Aye. I’ll go with you,” Artur said. At least he didn’t have to ask the king’s permission for her to join Mirabella.

  “Would you like some mead, my lady?” the healer asked Mirabella. The black-haired woman was standing over a kettle, stirring some bubbling liquid. Curls of blue mist rose from the frothing liquid. Her mouth curved up and the warmth reached all the way to her sparkling amber eyes. “Mead, my lady,” the woman asked again. She appeared youthful, maybe in her early twenties, yet her voice and actions seemed much older.

  “Thank you,” Mirabella said.

  “But she has her own flask to drink from,” Rina quickly said.

  Mirabella looked surprised that Rina would jump in and stop her from accepting the healer’s generosity. “She’s…right. Do you hear much news here about the surrounding region?”

  “People come through here from time to time, aye,” the woman said and motioned to a wooden chair beside a small round table. “Have a seat. What is it you wish to know?”

  “Do you know anything about Count Vladek?” Mirabella asked, still standing.

  The woman’s lips curved up even more. “He is a handsome man, about the same age as your king.”

  “He is not my king.”

  Smiling more broadly, the woman nodded, and went back to stirring her broth, or whatever it was.

  Artur was standing in the doorway, his arms folded across his chest, looking commanding.

  “What is your name? I’m afraid I’ve been locked up forever in the tower and don’t have any gift for your hospitality—”

  “You have many gifts, my lady. You will soon learn to use them.”

  “I’m a magic user?” Mirabella quickly asked, then glanced at Rina and Artur as if she made a mistake in asking the healer in front of the others.

  The woman’s dark brows rose.

  “Not a magic user? Then what?”

  “Your mother was from Racine.”

  “Where Count Vladek is from?”

  “Aye. I am Sistenia and have to tell you that you must not wed Leogane if you wish to put matters right with your uncle.”

  “You know? You know how poorly my uncle treated me? That he killed my father? Tell the king for me! Be my witness!”

  “Leogane cares not what befell your father or you. Just like your uncle, he’s a greedy man.”

  Artur cleared his throat, reminding the healer he was here with the king, and he didn’t appreciate her words.

  The healer sighed. “He doesn’t want you, and yet he has removed you from Castle Mayden. Why? Because he wants the lands and coin that King Inari will bestow upon him. He is the king’s first choice. Leogane will take you as a wife, and maybe you will suffer an accident? He will then marry his chief advisor’s daughter, the woman he already loves, and have your properties too.”

  Rina glanced at Artur, looking to see if that was so. He wouldn’t meet her gaze so she suspected it was true.

  Mirabella took a sip of her wine from her flask. “What about Count Vladek? Would he not gain much by marrying me?”

  “He has already told King Inari he doesn’t want anything but you. You are of Racine bloodlines. You belong with your people.”

  Rina thought that appealed to Mirabella. Belonging someplace with her own people. People that would care about her. Sounded inviting. Yet, Rina still couldn’t set aside the feeling that Count Vladek may very well have had his men attempt to kill her escort and take her by force. But maybe that was the only way he’d be able to have her, because Leogane already was the king’s first choice.

  “I don’t want Count Vladek’s men to attack my escort. I don’t want to see any more of his men die either.”

  Sistenia didn’t say anything, just stirred the contents of her pot.

  “Can you get word to him?”

  The woman’s lips turned up. “Aye.”

  “Will he…will he listen.”

  “It’s difficult to say. He wishes to please you, but he also wants you. He feels no one will take care of you like one of your own kind.”

  Rina suspected no one had ever wanted to please the princess, nor had anyone wanted her, and the notion had to appeal to her. But the healer was definitely siding with Vladek, and Rina didn’t trust her. She was surprised Artur didn’t take the healer to task for what she was saying about Leogane, even if it was true.

  Rina suspected the king had no plan to let her take the princess to her home either. He would believe his castle would protect her better. And he could be right. But would he fight on the princess’s behalf to help her get rid of her uncle? Free the people from his tyranny? If they discovered he truly was a tyrant, not caring a thing about the people, only about the rich and powerful that he kept at his beck and call. Should any of them disappoint him, would he throw them to the wolves, so to speak?

  "Have you ever seen people such as these that Leogane’s men have been fighting?" Rina asked the healer.

  "Such as?"

  "The men who die and leave dust behind?"

  The healer shook her head.

  There was something not quite right about the healer, Rina thought. She didn’t even act surprised that men died and turned to dust. What was up with that? She had eyed Rina's sword thrice already and Rina didn't think the woman should worry about her being a warrior unless she had some reason to worry. Rina moved the princess farther away from the healer and her bubbling black cauldron, just in case she had to protect her. "Have you been here long?" Rina asked the woman.

  "Aye, for years."

  Rina looked at the princess for confirmation. She shook her head. "I've never been out of the castle, not since I was taken there when I was seven."

  Rina had hoped she could confirm that the woman was who she appeared to be. Or not to be, as Rina feared. "You've never encountered these creatures before?" Rina asked the woman again.

  "I have said no, have I not?"

  Rina smiled. "Aye, but, well, they seemed to know you." Which was totally made up, but if she got a rise out of the woman, she could tell if she was in league with them or not.

  The woman gave her a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "I have never seen them before. I'm sure word has gotten out that I'm the healer for the region."

  "Aww, but what could you do for them when they turn to dust? I mean, they don't appear to need a healer once they are injured."

  "I wouldn't know, though I'm sure if they live in this area at all, the word would have reached them about me."

  "Uh-huh." Which was true, and the woman was careful not to react in any way that said otherwise. But it still didn’t explain how the healer could live here without encountering them. Rina still didn't trust the woman. Suffice it to say, she did have trust issues. Some of that was due to her boyfriend cheating on her right before she came on this mission. So it wasn't that she was just jaded.

  "Do you want something to drink?" the healer asked Rina.

  This time Rina gave her a smile that was just as insincere. She patted her flask at her hip. "I'm good but thank you for the generous offer." She probably put the sweet sarcasm on a little thickly, but she was a warrior, not a politician. "Do you know Healer Xanadu?"

  She was the healer in Rina’s neck of the woods and most healers knew of each other, since this wasn't that far from home. Though that wasn't her name exactly. It was Xander, but the healer should pick up on that right away.

  The healer frowned. "I'm not sure. It sounds like someone I should know, but it doesn't sound quite right somehow."

  Okay, Rina could give her that. She was awful with names herself. Still, she didn't trust the woman.

  The door squeaked open, and a guard walked inside. “His Grace wished me to stay inside with the lady also.”

  The healer turned her head a little and nodded. “As you wish.”

  Sinking onto the hard-wooden chair, Mirabella sipped from her own flask farther away from the healer.

  8

  Two of Leogane’s men gathered wood for a campfire while others caught game for the meal. The rest kept watch while Leogane spoke to Justina. “Tell me about your mistress.”

  Justina looked back at the hut, as if she were afraid to tell the truth.

  His jaw tightened; he couldn’t abide by anyone being cruel to servants. “You have nothing to fear from the lady. Please tell me what she’s like.”

  “Why she is cruel, my lord. She pulled the wings off a baby bird, and killed the poor thing afterwards. She pushed a young boy into a swollen river, and no one could save him before he drowned. She loves nothing, man or beast. Even when governesses would try to teach her anything, she would throw such fits her tutors quit. She has started fires in the castle, escaped so many times that she has to be guarded always. And, I hate to say this about the princess, but…” The woman looked at the ground, and bit her lip, then looked up at Leogane. “Everyone knows she makes up any story she can to suit herself. She blames others for her actions too.”

  He nodded sympathetically, then crossed his arms and took a deep breath. “Yet you seemed relieved you were leaving Castle Mayden. If it meant serving the lady further, why is this so?”

  “That place is a horrible castle to stay at. You saw the way it was, isolated from the rest of the world like a giant prison.”

  “Was the lady imprisoned in the tower for very long?”

  “I wouldn’t know.”

  But she knew about everything else. It seemed odd she would not know about this. “Her father died in a hunting accident when she was seven. Was that when she was moved to the tower?” He wondered then if that was when the trouble began. A troubled child, angered her father was no longer king, or maybe because he’d died.

  Before Justina could answer, Erlig, his chief advisor, hurried to speak with him, his face ashen, his posture concerned. “Your Grace,” he said, “I must speak with you in private.”

  Leogane said to Justina, “Wait here for me. I have further questions.”

  She curtseyed deeply, smiling. “Aye, my lord, and I eagerly await your return.”

  Too eagerly, he thought.

  Out of her hearing, he said, “What’s the trouble Erlig?”

  “We found the healer dead in the bushes several yards from the house. She’s black haired like the woman inside, but I swear the woman we found dead is the healer, and the other, an imposter. The dead woman smelled of herbs normally used for healing potions. She had been gathering medicinal herbs in the woods and then storing them in a pouch attached to her belt.”

  Leogane pulled his sword, and so did Erlig and stormed to the hut. But then thinking better of it, he sheathed his sword, and motioned for his advisor to do the same. Carefully, he pulled the door open, and seeing the princess unharmed he said, “The boar is done. Come join us outside.”

  She should have done as he told her, but instead, she turned her head toward the campfire outside. “It doesn’t smell done to me.”

  ‘Twas not the fact she acted contrary to his wishes that perturbed him so, but she seemed to sense things she ought not. Worse, if he didn’t get her out of the hut at once before the imposter realized what he intended his men to do…

  “I wish to speak with you in private, princess. Does it always have to be a contest of wills between us?” he asked, his voice on edge.

  She rose slowly from the chair, and he imagined if she could do so even more slowly, she would. When she neared him, he seized her arm, ignoring her gasp, and pulled her out of the hut. He motioned to Erlig to enter, though Rina nodded to Leogane as if telling him he was doing the right thing.

  As if he needed her to tell him he was. Already two more of his men were at his side, and the three rushed in, then slammed the door. With Artur in there also, and Rina, if she was trustworthy, they would question the healer and put an end to the imposter’s life.

  Leogane pulled the princess farther away from the hut, hoping the woman inside wouldn’t shriek or that Mirabella wouldn’t hear their swords cut the woman down. Had the imposter thought to poison him and his men? That’s what he assumed.

  “What…what’s happening?” Mirabella asked, her face stricken.

  He realized then, she would guess what was going on. “The woman was an imposter and murdered the real healer. My men found her dead in the bushes some distance from the hut.” Though he hadn’t expected the lady’s brown eyes to roll back in her head, the color to drain from her cheeks so quickly, or her knees to buckle out from under her, he caught her as soon as she swooned. He couldn’t help but notice the softness of her curves resting in his arms, or the sweet fragrance of rosewater that enveloped her like a floral fairy meadow. ‘Twas unacceptable that he felt anything for the woman.

  Taking his mind off the temptress, he wondered if the woman had no heart, felt nothing for man or beast, why had she fainted dead away? ‘Twas not a trick either. He had seen women perform such faints to get his attention or other male admirer’s, but in their cases, their cheeks remained the same color as before. He carried her to his bedding and lay her on the blankets next to the fire, caressing her hand and patting it, not sure what else to do.

  “Is the lady all right?” Erlig asked, joining him.

  “Aye. Is the witch dead?”

  “Aye. But you won’t believe what happened.”

  “What?”

  “Jeremka stabbed her several times, missing her heart and the woman still didn’t die. When Artur cut off her head, she turned to dust.”

  “She was one of them then. One of Count Vladek’s people.”

  “Artur said aye. The imposter healer was telling the princess that she should go with Vladek. That he wasn’t being paid to wed her like you were. There was something else, Your Grace.” Erlig motioned to the princess. “Jeremka overheard the princess telling the healer to get in touch with Vladek.”

  “The princess was going to have all of us murdered in our sleep.” Leogane was afraid the princess wasn’t to be trusted so she could get her way, but this was going too far.

  Erlig quirked a black brow and folded his arms. “Nay, the princess asked the woman to get a message to the count. Specifically, to tell him not to harm her escort.”

  “Not to harm us?” Leogane couldn’t believe it. The woman was cold blooded like Vladek’s people if the maid’s words were true.

  “Her mother was from Racine. Did you know?”

  The king stood. “She was a magic user?”

  Erlig shrugged. “I don’t know that everyone from there is. Maybe only the ones who are sent to thwart us and take the lady home with them. The imposter told the princess you wanted her lands, whereas the count wanted them not. He only wishes the lady because she belongs with her people.”

  Leogane did not believe the count one bit. Why would anyone give up the lady’s lands when they were offered as her dowry? If Vladek wished her so badly, why had he not sought to take her earlier? Something about this stank, like a mongrel dog that had rolled in something dead.

  “Anything else?”

  “The imposter told the princess that you would take her for your wife, then she would meet with an accident, and you would then marry my daughter, the woman you truly love.”

  Shaking his head, Leogane paced. “I assume the princess believes it.”

  He had a mind to leave the woman behind for Count Vladek’s minions to pick her up and take her to Racine, while the king returned home to his castle where the beautiful Callie awaited his warm embrace and wedded bliss.

  Yet, things didn’t add up. Why would the princess not want her escort killed, if she was a cold-blooded woman like the maid had said? He glanced over at the woman who watched them, her eyes big. She hadn’t made a move toward them to help with her mistress.

  Erlig looked back at her maid, apparently also wondering why the woman wasn’t helping with the princess.

  “Get me some water.” Leogane crouched beside Mirabella. He couldn’t ignore the fact she’d tried to get word to the count’s men not to harm them.

  Erlig hurried back with a bucket of cold water, while his men either continued to cook the boar they had killed or served on guard duty.

  Taking a cloth from his pack, the king wetted it and wiped the princess’s face. Immediately she tried to sit up, but held her head and lay back down.

  He watched her, noticing at once the color had not returned to her face. “Are you all right, princess?”

  Her eyes filled with tears, and she looked away.

  “She murdered the healer, my lady.” Then he lied, figuring it was the truth, though he didn’t know for certain. “She intended to poison us, all but you, before we bedded down for the night.”

  Mirabella closed her eyes, and tears dribbled down her cheeks.

  He patted her hand, and stood. Was she upset her message would not get to Count Vladek? “The boar will be done soon, my lady. Then we’ll sleep, and get an early start in the morn.” He motioned to Erlig. “Watch her.”