Chapter 43: The Nursery
The morning light that filtered through the barred window was gray and lifeless. It did not bring warmth to the trophy room. It only illuminated the dark stain on the rug where Rurik had bled out the night before. The body was gone. The maids had come in the early hours of the dawn to scrub the floor, keeping their eyes averted from me as if I were a ghost or a demon.
I sat on the edge of the bed with my hands clasped in my lap. I had not slept. Every time I closed my eyes I saw Kael lying in the sand with his eyes fixed on the retreating convoy. I saw the look of betrayal and agony on his face. The silence of the mountain fortress was heavy enough to crush bone. It was broken only by the sound of the heavy oak door unlocking.
I tensed and reached for the iron po
