Chapter 20: The Gate

Cavan woke to a cold bed.

He reached across the sheet and found it empty, and the pillow had no warmth left in it.

He sat up.

The ring lay on a folded paper on the desk, bright in the first light.

He read the note once.

The Prime's condition is stable. The treatment is complete.

He read the last four words again, and the world narrowed to a single hard point.

Then he was out of the bed.

He did not stop for boots.

He took the stairs three at a time, in his shirt and trousers.

The ring was clenched in one fist, and his other palm was pressed to his stomach.

A guard at the great door said, "Your Highness?"

"Which way?"

"The doctor went toward the gate, sir. A quarter hour ago."

Cavan ran.

The courtyard stones were cold and wet under his bare feet.

He ran past the well and the stables, and the garden wall, and at the end of the long yard he saw him.

Fenny stood in the arch of the gate with his back to the Hall and a bag at his feet.

He was not moving.

His shoulders were shaking.

Cavan slowed to a walk.

His breath was loud in his chest, and the sweetness was rising off him, whether he wanted it or not.

Fenny's head came up at the scent.

He did not turn.

"Go back to bed," he said. "It's cold."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Cavan, please. I did it properly. The term is met. The contract is done. You don't owe me."

"Owe you."

Cavan stopped three paces behind him.

Then he did the only thing his legs would do.

He went down on his knees on the wet cobbles, in front of the gate and the guards and the first cooks and carters coming up from the town.

Someone dropped a pail.

Fenny turned at the noise and went white.

"What are you doing?"

"You left the ring."

"It was yours to take back."

"It wasn't." Cavan held it up. "It was yours. I never gave it to my doctor. I gave it to you."

"Get up. They're looking."

"Let them."

His voice came out rough and carrying, and he did not care.

"I was ashamed of myself," he said. "You heard me say it through a door."

He looked up at him.

"Then you put your hand on me, and it was the first time anyone touched me and wasn't afraid."

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