“I think you know what this is about,” Cardan says, taking a long slug.
Oak sits. “Lady Elaine? Randalin? The conspiracy? I can explain.”
Cardan waves his words away. “You have done enough and more than enoughexplaining. I think it is my turn to speak.”
“Your Majesty,” Oak acknowledges.
Cardan meets his gaze. “For someone who cannot outright lie, you twist the truth so far that I am surprised it doesn’t cry out in agony.”
Oak doesn’t even bother denying that.
“Which makes perfect sense, given your father . . . and your sister. But you’ve even managed to deceive her. Which she doesn’t like admitting—doesn’t like, period, really.”
Again, Oak says nothing.
“When did you start, with the conspiracies?”
“I don’t want—” Oak begins.
“The throne?” Cardan finishes for him. “Obviously not. Nor have you waffled on that point. And if your sisters and your parents imagined you’d change your mind, that’s for their own mad reasons. It’s the only thing on which you have remained steadfast for more than a handful of years. And, I will have you know, I thought the same thing when I was a prince.”
Oak can’t help recalling the part he had in taking that choice away from Cardan.
“No, I don’t suspect you of wanting to be High King,” Cardan says, and then smiles a wicked, little smile. “Nor did I believe you wanted me dead for some other reason. I never thought that.”
Oak opens his mouth and closes it.Isn’tthat what this is about?Wasn’tthat what Cardan believed? He overheard the High King tell Jude as much, back in their rooms in the palace, before he left to try to save Madoc. “I am not sure I understand.”
“When your first bodyguard tried to kill you, I ought to have asked more questions. Certainly after one or two of your lovers died. But I thought what everyone else thought—that you were too trusting and easily manipulated as a result. That you chose your friends poorly and your lovers even more poorly. But you chose both carefully and well, didn’t you?”
Oak gets up and pours himself a glass of wine. He suspects he is going to need it. “I overheard you,” he says. “In your rooms, with Jude. I overheard you talking about Madoc.”
“Yes,” Cardan says. “Belatedly, that became obvious.”
If I didn’t know better, I might think this is your brother’s fault.Oak tries to remember the exact words the High King chose. He’s more like you than you want to see. “You didn’t trust me.”
“Having spent a great deal of time playing the fool myself,” Cardan says, “I recognized your game. Not at first, but long before Jude. She didn’t want to believe me, and I am never going to tire of crowing about being right.”
“So you didn’t think I was really allied with Randalin?”
Cardan smiles. “No,” he says. “But I wasn’t certain which of your allies were actually on your side. And I was rather hoping you’d let us lock you up and protect you.”
“You could have given me some sort of hint!” Oak says.
Cardan raises a single brow.
Oak shakes his head. “Yes, well,fine. I could have done the same. Andfine, you were losing blood.”
Cardan makes a gesture as though tossing off Oak’s words. “I have little experience of dispensing brotherly wisdom, but I know a great deal about mistakes. And about hiding behind a mask.” He salutes with his wineglass. “Some might say that I still do, but they would be wrong. To those I love, I am myself. Too much myself sometimes.”
Oak laughs. “Jude wouldn’t say that.”
Cardan takes a deep swallow of plum-dark wine, looking pleased with himself. “Shewould, but she’d be lying. But, most important”—he raises a single finger—“Iknew what you were up to before she did.” Then a second. “And if you decide you want to risk your life, perhaps you could also risk a little personal discomfort and let your family in on your plans.”
Oak lets out a long sigh. “I will take that under advisement.”
“Please do,” says Cardan. “And there is one more thing.”
Oak takes an even bigger slug of his wine.
