Home. I was home. And from the looks of it, they'd planned a celebration. Except all it really felt like was a defeat.
The ship creaked and groaned beneath me as it jerked and lurched as the sailors tugged the bowlines taut. I pulled my jacket closer, against the Pretanian breeze that had once been refreshing but that now felt frigid after the heat of Ardalone. Festive banners of the family crest flapped in the wind, hanging off the buildings along the road that led through the city, towards the palace. There was no crowd of onlookers, but there would be as soon as a royal carriage jangled up to greet me. It would carry back to the palace, where some ridiculous party was surely awaiting me, while all I could think about was Beatriz, in a cell, likely being tortured by that bastard Armando.
It felt surreal, seeing Highcastle again. Almost as if everything in Ardalone had been a dream. As if I'd never left in the first place. But my sun-bronzed skin and the lumpy, still-tender feel of my ruined ear were reminders that it was real. All of it had been real. I still had a battle to fight, even though I was home now, safe and sound.
Safe, while Bea was locked away in a dungeon. Sound, while that bastard Armando gave her more scars.
I ground my teeth, my knuckles white against the ship's rail. I inhaled a deep lungful of salty, briny sea breeze to anchor myself. I had to put on a brave face now. I could not appear desperate. Despite the urgency to return to Ardalone that thrummed through my veins, I had to be careful.
"You must hurry, principito," Dulciana had warned. "I will give you a month."
It was barely enough time to sail home and back, let alone muster troops.
I shoved her voice and the thought from my head with another deep breath. Calm. Rational. Logical. That is what I needed to be. Not a frenzied fool.
When the royal carriage—pristine, gilded, and drawn by a team of groomed grey horses—finally arrived, I nearly tumbled from the gangplank at the person who climbed down to open the door for me.
"Giles!" I blurted, forcing myself not to throw my arms around him.
He was here. He was safe. He was alive.
My former butler bowed stiffly. "Your Highness."
Throwing decorum to the wind, I clapped my arms around him anyway. He cleared his throat and a smile sprang to my lips. The first one since I'd left Ardalone.
"You tricky thing," I said, releasing him. "Here I was, thinking that the usurper got you, too."
Giles' lips thinned to a line. "I am not without my wiles, Your Highness." He opened the carriage door. "If you please, your family is quite eager to see you."
I half expected Anne to tumble out of the carriage, but it was empty. I eyed the hanging banners lining the streets and bit back a groan. The absence of my siblings could only mean that some massive, ostentatious return party awaited me at the palace.
"Wait," I said, seizing Giles' sleeve when he made to climb up beside the coachman. "Come sit with me. I want to know what I should brace myself for."
Giles cast a look around to the growing crowd and I tugged his sleeve again. A low, unhappy sound rumbled from his chest, but he climbed in after me and shut the carriage door.
"Your mother has planned a celebration for your return," he said, his tone as stiff as his posture as the carriage lurched into motion. "I really should not be sitting here with you, Your High—"
I sagged back against the plush carriage seat, unaccustomed to such luxury after my weeks of sleeping under the stars in Ardalone. "Giles, much as it may ruffle your sensible feathers, I royally command you to stop calling me Your Highness. And to tell me what happened."
His feathers were certainly ruffled and I fought down another grin when his jaw muscle sprang taut. "As your wish...Thomas." He cleared his throat. "I tried to locate you after the assassination, but the castle was in chaos. Dulciana had soldiers lying in wait in your chambers, so I took the liberty of disappearing and bribing information out of the servants I'd befriended. The moment I was certain that you hadn't been captured by Dulciana, I boarded the first ship for Highcastle to tell your parents what had happened."
"You certainly are not without your wiles," I said. "Makes me wonder what kinds of adventures you and Amberly got up to, back in the day."
For a moment, I thought the ghost of a smile might've passed over Giles' face, but it was gone in a blink. "I am no stranger to sneaking out of foreign countries, Your...Thomas." He shifted uncomfortably. "However, you should know that Dulciana sent a letter to your father, falsely claiming that Frederico had abducted you as a hostage. A second letter arrived yesterday, claiming that she had rescued you from her brother and promising your safe return in exchange for military aid in subduing the Ardalonian rebels."
"What?" I jerked upright.
Yesterday? But I'd been on the fastest ship, there was no way some courier had beaten me home. Which only meant...
My stomach lurched as the carriage jangled through the palace gates. Dulciana had known all along. She'd known that I was with Frederico, she'd known she would capture me. She'd set all her plans in motion before I'd so much as set foot on home soil. I scraped a hand through my hair.
"Perhaps I ought to arrange for a barber," Giles said, eyeing the mess of my hair.
"How do you know about Dulciana's letters?" I asked.
"Because your father told me about them. He trusts my word more than hers." Giles glanced out the window as the carriage lurched to a halt. "I do hope you're prepared to explain why you've invited me in here when His Majesty asks."
I followed his gaze and my heart twisted. Arrayed before the great, gilded doors of the palace, my family stood in a cluster, surrounded my courtiers. Anne bounced on her toes until my mother laid a hand on her shoulder, though Mother's eyes had latched expectantly on the carriage and tension was etched into every line of her face. Beside Anne, Andrew stood with his hands neatly folded behind his back, though his lips were set into a concerned line. Beside him, Libby squinted, as if trying to peer through the shaded carriage windows.
And then there was Father. I don't think he could've looked more unimpressed if he'd tried, though thankfully he'd restrained himself from folding his arms as he so often did when I disappointed him.
I didn't dare look at the others. I didn't dare see which courtiers had come to greet me. There was one I very much didn't want to face. Not yet. Not ever, if I could manage it.
"Thomas." Giles paused, his hand on the carriage door. "You should know that Dulciana has spies among us. I have not been able to determine who, but her second letter made mention of yours and framed it as proof of your kidnapping and coercion by Frederico. Someone told her about it, but His Majesty's opinion has wavered on the matter of whether or not her word is trustworthy."
I ground my teeth. Of course Father would be compelled to believe her. Nothing could ever come easy for me, could it?
"I know who told her," I muttered. But I didn't want to speak her name just yet.
Giles studied my face. "It wasn't only Umberwood's heiress," he said. "Dulciana mentioned things that only one of the king's advisors would know about our military. Be careful."
Pale, cloud-filtered sunlight flooded the dim carriage when Giles opened the door. And when I climbed out behind him, the court exploded into cheers.
I ground my teeth to keep from rolling my eyes and lifted a hand to them. But their gushing cries only hastened my steps up to my family.
Mother couldn't restrain Anne from throwing herself into my arms. I caught her with a laugh, shocked by how much she'd grown.
"You're safe," she breathed into my ear, then reeled back. "What happened to your ear?"
"Anne," Father said firmly, as I set her down.
Mother fired a glance at him for his stern tone, then said more gently, "Anne, let's allow him to come inside before we start prodding at him." Her eyes warmed when they met mine, though, and her lips spread in a relieved smile. She extended a hand to me. "Welcome home, Thomas."
Andrew clapped me on the back as I allowed Mother to lead me through the gilded doors.
Beside him, Libby whispered, "You look like a pirate, Thomas." Her mouth opened into a delighted O.
I chuckled, but kept my gaze studiously straight ahead when more courtiers awaited us inside the entrance hall. I inclined my head for their cheers, but was careful not to look directly at any of them. Not now. Not yet.
It was only once the heavy doors to the royal wing clanged shut behind us that my family surged for me. Anne was first, throwing her arms around my waist and squeezing me so tightly she crushed the air from my lungs. Andrew clapped an arm around my shoulders as Libby threw her arms around all three of us. Mother seized my face and pressed a kiss to my cheek. Her cheeks glistened with tears and I freed an arm from Anne to wrap it around her. She seemed smaller, somehow, and the familiar scent of her lavender and vanilla perfume truly, finally, convinced me that I was home.
Over her head, I met Father's gaze. He was inspecting me, though the firmness had fled from his face. I didn't allow myself to hope that the expression I'd never seen wash over his face before was relief.
"We were so worried," Mother whispered.
I grinned to hide the way her words wrapped around my heart. "It'll take more than a coup to kill me."
"Is that how you lost half your ear?" Anne demanded, leaning back to peer up at it again.
"No." I ruffled her hair and she danced away with a squeak. "I sold it to some Bazerans for secrets."
"Looks more like you sold it for training," Andrew said, pinching the muscles my free arm with a low whistle. I shook him off, careful not to jostle Mother.
"Don't be jealous, Andy darling. Libby likes her men stringy and delicate," I fired back with a grin.
"Thomas." My father's voice interrupted Andrew before he could retort.
The room fell silent.
"No," Mother said, with a decisive shake of her head as she rested a protective hand over my arm, still banded around her. "Not yet, Graham. It can wait. We'll discuss it tomorrow."
I tried not to let my eyes widen with worry and fought to keep my nonchalant grin in place. But I couldn't rip my eyes from Father's, desperately trying to read what he had planned. What he wanted to discuss with me.
He blew a sigh through his nose, but nodded. "Fine."
Then, to my utter surprise, he wrapped his arms around both me and Mother. Shock must've flared across my face because over Father's shoulder, Libby bit her lip to keep from laughing.
"I'm glad you're home," Father said gruffly, pulling away and straightening his jacket. Then he turned and left.
I didn't dare entertain the shoot of hope that rooted itself in my chest. I didn't dare think that maybe, just maybe, his relief at my return might mean that he would help me.
"How are you feeling?" Mother asked, untangling herself from my arm to rest a hand against my cheek. "I've arranged a celebratory ball, but you don't have to attend if you're too tired."
"I've never felt less tired in my life," I lied jovially.
Mother tilted her head, recognizing the lie.
"You need a haircut," Anne said, tapping her fingers against her lips as she studied me. "And definitely a change of clothes. You look far too rugged to pass for a gentleman right now."
"Perhaps I'm not a gentleman anymore," I offered, then winked at Libby. "Maybe I've decided to become a pirate prince."
"But really, what happened to your ear?" Anne asked again, this time leaning up on tiptoe to examine it.
"All in due time, Anne," Mother said, "Come, ladies. We must get ourselves ready. And Thomas? Do consider that haircut. Perhaps a shave, too."
Her face melted into that warm, relieved smile again when I rolled my eyes. Anne whined that she didn't care about changing for the ball when she wanted to spend time with me, but Mother ushered her and Libby out just the same.
"It's good to have you back," Andrew said, seizing me in a firm, brotherly hug. "I want to hear everything once all the pomp and ceremony is done with."
"You will." I hugged him back, hoping the pair of us would be enough to convince Father to help me.
**A/N: I honestly don't think I've ever had so much fun writing a chapter (or planning the next ones!) I think I've missed Highcastle, to say the least haha.
That said, if you enjoyed it, please take a moment to vote and comment! And maybe even hit me with your predictions of what's to come at the ball, or what you think King Graham will do when Thomas gathers the nerve to ask him for help...**