Latvala Royals: Sacrifices Page 6

  “We’re going straight inside and up to your apartment. Do you think you can do a few flights of stairs?”

  “I’ll be fine,” Elias said. He wasn’t sure he was up to the task, but that wouldn’t stop him from trying.

  As they climbed out of the vehicles and headed to the broad front doors, Elias noticed that there wasn’t another person to be seen barring the guards in the limousine. There had been two guards at the gate, but otherwise the front of the castle looked abandoned.

  Was that the way it was supposed to be? And why did he have the feeling that something seemed off? He faltered on the steps as he tried to grasp what he hoped was a returning memory. It meant something that he thought there should be guards at the door.

  “You all right?” Sander asked as he set a steadying hand on Elias’s elbow.

  “Are there usually guards at the doors?” Elias found his balance and continued into the foyer of the castle. He waited for a poignant sense of nostalgia or familiarity to hit.

  Something.

  Anything.

  “Yes, there are. Did you remember something?” Sander asked.

  “No. I don’t think so. It just seems like there should be guards at the doors.” Elias set aside his idea that memories were trying to surface and scanned the high ceiling and the large halls on either side of the foyer. There were stairs straight ahead and more hallways snaking away deeper into the fortress. The stone walls, stone floor, and arching wooden beams set high into the ceiling gave the castle a medieval feel.

  Elias rubbed his forehead. Once again, he was puzzled by the sheer lack of people. A place this enormous surely required employees.

  “I think that’s a good sign. Because there are usually two guards stationed there,” Sander said. “Your room is upstairs.”

  Elias crossed the foyer. The more he moved, the more his body protested. He kept an eye on the hallways and great rooms as he began to climb, expecting at any moment to see other people appear. But all was silent as he struggled to make it to the second landing. His feet felt leaden and a killer headache pounded behind his eyes. He realized how ridiculous it would have been for him to have left the hospital of his own accord, much less live by himself so soon after the accident.

  The second floor was a maze of halls and doors, all of which Elias ignored in favor of putting one foot in front of the other. He wasn’t sure how much farther he would make it and hoped his room wasn’t on a higher floor.

  He didn’t protest when Sander suddenly looped an arm around his back and guided him toward the second staircase. Only with Sander’s help did he make it to the third level. His feet were dragging, his vision swimming in and out of focus. He couldn’t concentrate on anything except the long hall ahead.

  A door stood open halfway down on the right.

  Elias entered the room with Sander bearing more and more of his weight. They crossed the large suite to an equally large bed, where he gratefully collapsed. He allowed Sander to straighten out his limbs on the mattress and arrange a pillow beneath his head.

  “Do you feel sick?” Sander asked.

  Elias closed his eyes and wondered how Sander knew. “Yes.”

  “I’ll put a trash can next to your bed. If you can’t make it to your bathroom, just throw up in there.”

  “There’s a bathroom in here?”

  “Yes. Across the room on the left. There’s also an antechamber where you work on your maps and other things.”

  Elias heard a shuffle and the sound of a can being placed next to the bed.

  “Nothing is familiar,” Elias said.

  “Well, you can hardly see and can hardly move. Give yourself some time to actually examine your room when you feel better. I’m going to let you sleep. If you need me, just say my name. I’ll be right outside your door.”

  Elias attempted to shape a reply. All that came out was a nonsensical garble of syllables.

  Before he could puke, darkness rose up to swallow him whole.

  Chapter 12

  Sander stared down at his son’s prone, vulnerable body. The cast looked garish and heavy, the bandages around Elias’s head almost too white against his skin. A sickly pallor had crept across Elias’s flesh during the final flight of stairs, alerting him to trouble.

  At least Elias hadn’t shaken him off or been irate at the aid. Sander supposed Elias’s condition prevented too much protest.

  He drew a light blanket up over Elias’s legs and spent a moment making the pillow a little more comfortable.

  If he could have absorbed all the sickness and pain for his son, he would have. All he could do at the moment was try to make Elias’s transition as smooth as possible and be near if Elias needed him. He was tempted to simply draw up a chair next to the bed and hold a vigil, as he’d done in the hospital, but there were other things to see to.

  At the risk of waking Elias, he bent to touch a light kiss to his son’s brow and retreated from the room.

  Leander waited in the hallway, a phone to his ear.

  “How’d it go?” Leander asked after ending the call.

  “Rough, but he made it. He passed out almost as soon as he got into bed.” Sander glanced up and down the hallway. It was empty of anyone except himself and Leander, as he’d ordered. There were multiple reasons he’d wanted everyone out of the way for Elias’s arrival, the primary being they were still hiding Elias’s condition until the following day, when the official announcement would be made. He hadn’t wanted Elias to feel overwhelmed either, with too many pairs of staring eyes.

  “Do you still want me, Jeremiah, and Erick on guard up here?” Leander asked.

  “Yes. I’ve got extra guards on the grounds surrounding the castle and I’ll be increasing the guard count at the gate. I have no idea what Elias will do once he wakes up and feels better. If he decides he’s too uncomfortable to stay, then I want us ready to shadow him wherever he goes.” Sander reached up to remove the skullcap from his head. He tucked the cap into his back pocket.

  “I checked in with Mattias. They’re ready for Emily’s ceremony tomorrow. He corralled everyone into the throne room while you were bringing Elias in so no one knows he’s here yet. The media, staff, and advisors are still in the dark,” Leander said.

  “Good, that’s the way I want it. I’ll make Elias’s food myself so we don’t have people questioning the extra plates.”

  “All right. What about Inari? I put her in the north wing for now.”

  Sander spent a moment to think about Elias’s girlfriend. He didn’t want to alienate her, yet he wasn’t ready to throw the two together again until he felt Elias was more stable and comfortable.

  “We’ll let her do whatever work she needs to from her suite until I feel like Elias is ready to have another meeting with her. He needs some time to adjust to being here before people bombard him with their presence,” Sander said.

  “Sounds good.”

  “I’m going to go catch up with Chey and Emily and see how the plans are coming along for her ceremony tomorrow.” Sander clapped Leander on the shoulder and stepped past.

  In less than twenty-four hours, the world would finally know their secret.

  There was no way to hide the inevitable.

  Chapter 13

  Elias surfaced from sleep with a raging headache pounding behind his eyes. He spent several minutes allowing his blurry vision to clear before sliding his feet to the floor.

  The room spun dizzily.

  He gripped the side of the bed with his good hand and waited until the spell passed.

  Soft light spilled across the unfamiliar furniture from lamps positioned throughout the suite. He remembered where he was only after another minute or two of intense concentration.

  Kallaster Castle.

  This was his room.

  On the bedside nightstand, someone had left a glass of water and a bottle of pain medication. Elias didn’t think twice; he reached for both and popped two pills. When he thought he could stand without falling,
he pushed up from the bed and began inspecting the unfamiliar setting.

  The furniture was all hand carved and well made. He touched a tall dresser without opening any of the drawers and paused next to a sturdy desk positioned near the large fireplace. Although he recognized a framed picture of the woman who had been introduced as his girlfriend, Elias experienced no sense of attachment or intimacy. He didn’t have a need to find her and rekindle whatever relationship they might have had.

  At a set of windows, he stared out at the gloomy landscape without recognizing the view. The sun had set some time ago, although he had no trouble making out the jagged silhouette of trees or the shimmer of water beyond the treetops. He imagined he must have spent countless hours staring at the vista from his room high in the castle, and desperately wished he could feel serenity and peace or even a sense of security.

  All he felt was lost.

  There was no sense of belonging within the walls of his own bedroom.

  He turned away from the windows and backtracked to the fireplace, where yet more framed pictures waited. To see himself standing with his father, mother, and siblings, as well as his girlfriend, was more than a little disorienting. It had been so in the hospital, and the sensation hadn’t changed.

  This was his life. His world. These were his people.

  That he felt nothing at all sparked a brief moment of rage. He reined in the desire to strike out at the photos and demolish the images.

  Breathe in. Breathe out.

  He closed his eyes and tried to center himself. The fleeting second of violence sat ill with him, as if the reaction wasn’t normal. As if, in his old life, he did not give in to his temper.

  Elias frowned. Was that a memory surfacing? Was his discomfort with violence a hint of his past? He attempted to grasp onto the wisp of emotion but it evaporated like a phantom. Maybe it had never been there at all.

  A thorough search of the dresser drawers, the attached bathroom, and his closet produced nothing. No memories. The clothes folded in drawers and hanging on hangers could have belonged to anyone. He didn’t recognize a thing. Not even a well-worn pair of boots or a leather jacket that looked as if he’d lived in it.

  When he entered the smaller side room off the main suite, Elias instinctively knew the office had been one of his favorite places. Hand-drawn maps sat atop a large desk, clearly made with skill and care. He ran his fingertips over the topmost map, desperately hoping for a flicker of something. A glimpse of the passion that had driven him to make all these things or at least a vague memory of the subterranean spaces.

  Despite his desperation, all he got for his effort was cold indifference.

  He felt nothing for the maps or the office. It was as if he had invaded someone else’s privacy and was snooping through their belongings.

  Elias snatched his hand back from the map as if he’d been burned.

  A noise from the bedroom suite distracted him from his inner turmoil. The quiet snick of the door alerted him to company.

  Or an intruder.

  In a sudden fit of self-preservation, Elias frantically searched the office for a weapon. His head pounded beneath the bandages and his vision blurred at the edges. He found a hunting knife in the slim drawer of the desk and whipped the blade from its sheath.

  There was no time to think about his reaction. There was only time to grip the handle of the knife and press his back against the wall near the door.

  Instinct demanded he not go down without a fight.

  Chapter 14

  Sander stood outside Emily’s bedroom door and lifted one hand to knock.

  It was early evening, just past seven.

  He’d put the visit off as long as possible, hoping for a last-minute miracle that had never come.

  Emily opened the door and immediately smiled. “Hi, Pop.”

  “Everything ready for tomorrow?” Sander asked, stepping inside his daughter’s room. Her suite was a testament to her feminine side: the pale pink and cream color scheme offset the heavier antique furniture passed down through generations. Emily was a neat freak and kept everything in its place, including stacks of photography magazines piled on her nightstand. Although the room might have suggested a woman of whimsy lived there, nothing could be further from the truth. Emily was pragmatic, level-headed, and businesslike. She was a lot like him that way, despite her preference for frills and flouncy décor.

  “Everything is ready. Don’t worry, Pop. I’ve got it covered.” Emily closed the door and crossed the room to sit in one of four plush chairs.

  Sander sat on an opposite seat, torso bent forward, elbows on his knees.

  “I know. I wanted to tell you a few things before tomorrow, though. You’ve been primed for this your whole life, but not to the degree Elias has.” Sander had to pause, give himself a moment to breathe. It felt wrong on all levels to be taking this step. He felt as if he was betraying his son somehow.

  “I’m listening,” Emily said quietly. She scooped back a length of silky dark hair and tucked it behind her ear.

  “I want you to know that I believe you to be perfectly capable of running this country in the event that something happens to me while Elias is recovering. Having said that, you need to remember that if you take the throne, things will change. Drastically. Councilmen who do not challenge you now will challenge you if you become queen. You have to be much more careful who you trust, and with what information. Treat everyone not of the immediate family with professional distance until you’re sure of yourself. Until you’re sure of them. Too many people not in a position of power will work toward ascending the political ladder with single-minded intent, especially with an untried royal. You will have to be especially vigilant of an assassination attempt. Some of the councilmen have little respect for women in power and, although they might put on a diplomatic front, could work behind the scenes to remove you.”

  Sander studied Emily’s expression as she absorbed everything he said. He recognized the moment the specifics of her situation really set in. She seemed to grasp that the danger to her own life was real, as was the danger to his. It wasn’t a simple matter of her becoming first in line to the throne. It was also the political machinations that the new hierarchy would bring to their door.

  “I understand,” Emily said after a time. “If you had to take a guess, Pop, what would you say the odds are that someone will attempt to assassinate you under these circumstances?”

  “Probably above sixty percent.” Sander did not mince words and did not try to sugarcoat the reality. “This is why I’m refusing to explain exactly what is wrong with Elias for now. Even the councilmen don’t know anything other than that Elias has had an accident and is recovering. If word gets out that Elias doesn’t remember who he is, I expect the percentage to go even higher. Because then they’ll consider you an easier target once I’m out of the way.”

  Emily frowned. “Higher than sixty percent? That’s a lot higher than I would have guessed.”

  “It’s the state of the world right now. You know Russia has been knocking at our back door for the past eight years. They want this land so they can build military bases right up to the shoreline. Not just Latvala’s territory, but the neighboring countries on both sides. The world is closer to war than it has ever been and any perceived weakness in our ranks will probably draw a response. It would be the same in Somero or Imatra. So when the media and the councilmen pressure you for details on Elias, stick to the basics. He’s been in an accident and is recovering. That’s it. That’s all.”

  The room fell to silence. Sander continued to study Emily as she accepted all he had to say. He knew she had heard much of it before, but he hoped he’d added enough emphasis on the danger to enhance her wariness. He had not overstated the danger to any of them or Latvala as a country.

  “And what do I do if the worst comes to pass?” Emily asked.

  “Rely on your natural instincts. Protect yourself and your country at all costs. The military in its current state
is loyal to me, although one can never predict what might happen if we were invaded along our border or bombed outright and you were queen. They’ll follow you, Emily, as long as you prove to be strong and make the same kinds of decisions I would make. Have no mercy when it comes to protecting our sovereignty. If you have to send troops to war, then send them to war. Make it understood that you won’t be pushed around despite the larger, stronger enemy. Erick and Eliana will be there to stand at your side.”

  Emily rubbed her palms on the thighs of her jeans, as if her hands had grown sweaty. Sander detected a sliver of nervousness in her demeanor and silently willed her to overcome any insecurity.

  “I’m sure none of that will happen, but I figured it didn’t hurt to ask,” Emily said with a slight lift of her chin.

  “It never hurts to ask. Stranger things have happened, as your mother likes to say. It’s better to know what to do than to be caught off guard at a bad time.”

  “Should I go to all the state visits Elias was supposed to attend? Or the ones you were scheduled to attend?” she asked.

  “I prefer that you didn’t. Not right now. You’ll be way too vulnerable in other countries. In fact, I’m pretty sure that someone might be enticed to attack if they knew you were isolated somewhere else. Hit us here, hit us hard, and then go after you. It’s better to lock everything down for a few weeks until this situation rights itself.”

  “And if it doesn’t?”

  “Then we’ll take it one step at a time, Em. For now, we’ll conduct any business by phone or video conference.”

  “All right.”

  Sander rose from the seat and crossed to Emily’s chair. He bent to press a kiss against the top of her head. She smelled like pears and almonds. “I love you. We’ll have another chat tomorrow after your ceremony. Okay?”

  “Love you, too, Pop. Okay.”

  Sander left Emily in the chair and exited the room, wishing he’d had more uplifting things to say to his daughter.