Free Fugitive by Kate Avery Ellison Page B

goodwill.
    I didn’t want to say yes, but for some reason, I did.
    “All right,” I said.
    “Meet me when the clock strikes ten.” She rose and drifted away, toward a cluster of women with painted smiles and fluttering eyes. They looked at me and their smiles deepened, as if they were honey and I was a bee.
    I looked away and reached for my wine glass. Some women still found me a worthy catch, just not the right one.
    Korr stood and moved toward me. I didn’t move as he planted himself in the chair Lakin had vacated.
    “Boring party, isn’t it?”
    I didn’t want to speak to him.
    “Come now,” Korr drawled. “You aren’t still angry about losing to me in that archery contest?” He fingered the ring on his hand and smirked.
    “It’s just a ring,” I said, hoping he would believe my careless tone and drop the matter.
    Korr smiled as if he didn’t believe him.
    “But I hear rumors that you’ve been seen at the palace,” I added.
    Korr’s smile vanished.
    “It’s my childhood home. I miss it.”
    “We spent most of our time at this estate,” I said. “The palace was the seat of the political, mainly. That’s all it ever meant to me. I’ll wager it’s more than sentiment that draws you there now.”
    Korr’s eyes narrowed to a squint, and his fingers stilled against the ring. “Are you trying to accuse me of something, brother?”
    I gazed at him and didn’t reply.
    He made a sound of disgust and threw down his napkin. I watched as he stalked away, and I sighed. I rose from the table and went in search of my sister.
    A voice spoke to me from the doorway as I passed into the foyer of the house. “Prince Gabriel. I’d hoped to see you alone.”
    I stopped as a man stepped from the shadows beside one of my mother’s tapestries depicting the history of Aeralis. I recognized him—Beregrin, one of the noblemen, a former cabinet member of my father’s. Now he was as displaced as the rest of us in this new military regime. He’d been watching me earlier.
    “What is it?” I asked, feeling weary. Too many people had already baited me tonight. Did this man want to reminisce about the old days, or complain about the new? I had the strength for neither conversation at the moment.
    Beregrin stepped closer. “We need to talk.”
    “It’s a night for talk, apparently,” I muttered.
    Beregrin raised his eyebrows.
    “Never mind,” I said. “What is it?”
    “Not here,” he said. “Later. Tomorrow, in the Plaza of Horses?”
    “I’ll be there,” I said. Curiosity and foreboding stirred in my chest.
    Beregrin moved past me and was gone.
    “Making friends?” Korr asked from the doorway. “I’ll wager not.”
    I turned to face him, wondering what he’d heard. But his expression was merely curious, not triumphant. “Well, then why don’t you go make some, and leave me alone?”
    “Oh,” Korr said, stepping into the foyer. “I have plenty of friends. You’re the one whose social life is lacking.”
    “I’d rather have no friends at all than the kind you seem to be acquiring.”
    “Yet another accusation,” Korr said. He dropped the simpering tone and pinned me with a direct stare. “What are you trying to say, Gabriel?”
    My face flushed. He’d been seen at the palace, which was now inhabited by the Dictator and his men. “I think you have some explaining to do.”
    Korr scowled. “I owe you no information. I don’t have to defend my actions to you. You’re my brother. You should be defending me to the rumormongers.”
    I wanted to laugh. Defend him?
    Korr saw the disbelief on my face, and his expression hardened. “I see,” he said.
    The clock in the hall struck ten.
    “Excuse me.” I pushed past him and into the hall, and he let me go.
    The conservatory was at the end of the house, beside the lawns. Moonlight glistened through the glass and made strange shapes among the leaves and flowers that stood like crooked sentries at the door and along the paths. The warm air hit me