Chapter 16: Never Once Asked

The door swung open on the captain's scarred jaw.

He stopped dead.

He took in the bed, the shirt on the floor and the king's bare shoulder, and his face did not change at all.

"Majesty," he said.

"Captain."

"The Healer in the tower woke tonight."

I went cold under the blanket.

"She asked the physician who has been sleeping in your keeping," the captain said. "The physician said he did not know. She did not believe him."

"Who else heard?"

"The Lord Councilor's man was at the door."

Rurik was out of the bed and into his trousers before the captain finished.

"Put four men on the north stair," he said. "Not two. Four."

"Yes, Majesty."

The captain looked at the ceiling while the king found his shirt.

Then he went out, and I heard the key turn.

I sat up with the blanket held to my chest.

The wolf in me was quiet and warm, and I did not want to ruin it.

But I had been carrying it for four hundred miles and two lives, and he had earned the truth.

"Rurik."

"Yes."

"I need to tell you what I didn't say in your chamber."

He turned and sat on the foot of the bed.

"I have lived this once before," I said.

He did not laugh, and he did not call the captain.

"In the north wing," I said. "With the band on my head. I laid my hands on your chest every night for two years."

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