The Prince’s Forbidden Gardener

Chapter 15 The Price of Protection

“The blade,” he said. “It came into contact with a spell.”

The dagger lay on the table between Kael and Roland, as cold as the air in the room.

Roland pulled his hand back before touching the dagger. The people’s soldiers learned early on where not to put their fingers.

Kael, on the other hand, couldn’t take his eyes off it.

The metal brought back memories of the very moment of the assassination attempt: his open defense, the unexpected gap, Elara where no gardener should have left a trace.

“A spell…” Roland repeated.

The prince nodded slowly. “Not on the blade. Not directly. Someone used it near a source of magic—probably a mage.”

Roland stood motionless.

He’d seen enough wounds to know when a man was trying not to show pain. Kael didn’t take his eyes off the blade. He seemed to be silently counting how many doors he’d left open.

“So they’re not just assassins,” Roland said.

“No,” Kael shook his head. His voice dropped a notch. “They’re mages.”

Roland thought of Elara in the infirmary bed, pale, her fingers clenched around the blanket. He would have preferred not to remember her so clearly. He thought of Thomas, old and defenseless, forced to face a blade simply because the prince had wanted to flush out a traitor.

Kael seemed to sense his thoughts.

“I knew it,” he admitted.

Roland looked up, a questioning expression on his face.

“About the explosion,” Kael said. “I knew there was magic involved. But I thought it was one mage, perhaps two. Not someone able to move inside the palace.”

His hand clenched the edge of the table.

“I didn’t think they’d use magic just to take out two gardeners.”

Roland wanted to say the risk had been obvious from the start. He also knew soldiers paid for speaking that way to princes.

But that night, Kael didn’t seem like a man seeking obedience, but rather a man left alone to face his own decision.

“You don’t like Thomas. Neither do I,” Roland said slowly. “But I saw him step in front of a blade to protect his daughter. That part wasn’t a lie.”

The prince fell silent.

“Elara,” Roland added, softer than expected, “is frightened and confused. But she didn’t deserve to be used like that.”

Kael didn’t understand why that tone was harder for him to ignore. He lowered his eyes to the blade. He told himself it was just annoyance at a judgment spoken with too much intimacy.

For the first time since Roland had known him, he didn’t respond coldly. He didn’t hide behind his rank. He didn’t turn blame into a command.

“I know.”

Those two words were enough to shift the atmosphere in the room. It was a small, almost rough admission. But it was real.

For a moment, Kael seemed less like the heir to the crown than a man too young for the dead already walking beside him.

“I can’t undo what I’ve done,” said the prince. “But I can prevent it from happening again.” For the first time, the thought of protecting her didn’t seem like just part of the investigation.

Kael looked back at the map of the palace. His finger traced the infirmary corridor, then moved down toward the gardens, all the way to the servants’ quarters.

“They can’t go back down there.”

Roland clenched his jaw. “If you lock them up, they’ll look guilty.”

“I don’t intend to lock them up,” he confirmed. “I’ll promote them.”

Kael spoke as if he were already signing the decree in his mind. “Thomas will be appointed head of the royal family’s indoor gardens. The girl will assist him. They’ll have access to the upper greenhouses, the service quarters in the east wing, and a salary commensurate with their new positions.”

“A reward,” the soldier summarized.

“A reparation,” Kael corrected. “We’ve stated that they had useful information. If I were to send them back to the gardens now, half the palace would realize they were just decoys. The other half would think the crown abandons those who risk their lives for it.”

Roland understood. Prestige, money, status. But above all, proximity to the loyal guards. Controlled doors. Guarded corridors. A lie disguised as a promotion.

For a moment, Roland almost smiled. Almost.

“I don’t have many men I can trust, Roland. Not anymore.” He looked at the closed door, as if all the palace guards were standing behind it. “Someone opened a passage from the inside. Someone listened to false information and passed it on to the enemy. Someone decided that two witnesses had to die before dawn.”

Roland stood straight, but he felt the weight of those words settle on his shoulders.

Kael looked him in the eye.

“I’m glad to have at least one man I can trust among my guards.”

Roland’s reply got stuck between his teeth.

He received it as he would have received an order, standing motionless, hands at his sides, and back straight. But it wasn’t an order. It was something harder to bear, because it didn’t demand obedience. It acknowledged his worth.

Common soldiers could be useful, brave, expendable. Trusted was another matter. Trust belonged to families, bloodlines, and halls where men like Roland were kept outside the door.

If he failed, Kael would remember his name. That was the problem.

Kael took the blade, wrapped it back in the dark cloth, and stowed it away in the bottom drawer. “At dawn, Elara and Thomas will enter the direct service of the royal household.”