Charles wanted to conduct a little test to see if all hope was lost. He would sneak up on Alpheus from behind and throw a knife directly at his back. He had always been an excellent hunter and knife throwing was a good way to finish off a kill.
He got his chance three days later when Alpheus went off in search of the palace post master to send a letter. Taking aim, he had a perfect shot at the middle of that idiot's spine.
The knife flew directly at his target yet bounced off what seed to be a wall of air and clattered to the ground. The prince whirled around at the noise and noticed the fallen knife with a mixture of confusion and alarm.
Having gotten the impossible answer he was searching for, Charles carefully crept away from the scene. He had been wearing gloves and the knife was not affiliated with the dukedom of Orla so he should be safe.
Sigmund had been telling the truth. Alpheus was, for all intents and purposes, immortal. This made no sense. Even if you did believe in mountain spirits, the blessing worked in the strangest ways.
Only a few weeks ago Charles had seen him sporting a black eye. Did it only protect from deadly attacks? How would the spirits be able to distinguish between a regular injury and a potentially fatal one? What about illnesses?
He understood very little about his enemy's bizarre power. What he did understand was that the battle was lost. He should go ho rather than stay here and torture himself.
Never again would he find soone as beautiful or brilliant as Catherine du Pont. But what did it matter anymore? He had wanted a political partner but now the politics of this country were outside his control.
There were plenty of won who could make a more satisfactory duchess than his mother at the very least. Charles would have the boring, lifeless marriage he had always imagined before Catherine ca along. She would go on and use that brain of hers to benefit the tiny and pathetic Kanta clan.
All of the fight drained out of him. He wasn't as unreasonable as Sigmund; he knew how to accept defeat after a certain point.
Althoughthe way Sigmund had worded what he said about Alpheus' immortality had been strange. He said the only way to hurt him was to hurt his wife. Did he intend to follow through on that?
He had promised ages ago that he wouldn't harm Catherine but with how erratic he had been acting lately it was entirely possible he would go back on his promise. To warn her or not to warn her?
It was likely she already knew Sigmund was out to get her. She was always on guard with those she didn't trust. Including him.
Charles owed her nothing. He would go ho, recoup his losses, and focus on the dukedom for a while. With any luck, by the ti he ca back to the capital she would already be off traipsing through the mountains.
If she wanted to throw her life away she was welco to it. He did not care anymore.
===
I scrunched up my face in worry when Al told what happened in the corridor. "There was a knife on the ground near you that ca out of nowhere?!"
He nodded somberly. "Yes. It was almost as if it bounced off of sothing but I never heard it hit. I only heard one thump as it landed on the ground. The post master and I weren't able to find whoever threw it either. There were no distinguishing markings."
My money was on either Sigmund or Duke Orlabut which one of them? And why? Didn't they know that attacking a mber of the royal family would get them killed? You would think they would be sneakier about it.
Right now that wasn't as important as the fact that sobody had actually tried to kill my husband. I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his chest, trembling. He held back tightly, clearly upset by this too.
We were still in danger here. As things quieted down we had gotten too complacent.
I had expected a more subtle first move from the enemy, not sothing as brazen as knife throwing. Nowhere was safe now. Would I ever feel comfortable leaving our rooms after this? Did I have to hide away until spring unable to do anything?
"I'm so glad you're okay," I mumbled into his shirt as tears threatened to spill over.
Up until now it had been all latent threats based largely on speculation. I had not been ready to be confronted with actual violence. Suddenly I couldn't help it. The impact of what happened hit fully and I burst into tears.
Al rubbed my back comfortingly and said inane things such as "it's okay" and "I'm fine" in an attempt to reassure but it didn't work. He could have died. All of this security in the castle and soone had still managed to get past it.
Would we even be safe in our quarters? What if one of them ca after us here? Should we run away now?
"I don't want to stay here anymore!" I sobbed. "I hate this scary place!"
"Katie" he said helplessly.
There was nothing Al could do. None of his family had a spare room for us to stay or rations to spare during the cold, harsh winter. If we wanted to make it through to spring we needed to stay where we were, which was ironic considering soone here was trying to kill us.
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