Dragons Realm by Tessa Dawn

wrong.
    There were some things, some people , worth stick­ing one’s neck out for. And Ta­tiana Ward was one of them. She hadn’t de­served this, and it would not go un­answered.
    For­ti­fy­ing her re­solve, Mina shif­ted her weight be­neath Ta­tiana’s shoulders and pre­pared to lift her, just as a tall, skinny young­ster des­cen­ded the steps.
    The boy walked as quietly as a mouse to­ward the Sk­la­vos Ahavi, his curly blond hair re­flect­ing a myriad of nat­ural high­lights in the fire­light, his down­cast eyes brim­ming with curi­os­ity and kind­ness. “Yes, mis­tress Ahavi. How may I serve you?” His voice was as gentle as his coun­ten­ance.
    Mina lowered Ta­tiana back to the floor and took a care­ful step to­ward the squire. “Are you Thomas?”
    “I am,” he answered re­spect­fully, still avert­ing his gaze.
    Mina forced her­self to swal­low her fear. “And you and Prince Dante have a spe­cial friend­ship , do you not?”
    The boy’s face lit up, and he raised his head, ex­pos­ing bright hazel eyes that seemed to shim­mer with curi­os­ity and in­tel­li­gence. “We do.” The words were merely a whis­per, but Mina heard them just the same.
    She nod­ded. “Very well, then can you keep a secret?”
    He bit his bot­tom lip and frowned as if think­ing it over. “What kind of a secret?”
    Mina looked over her shoulder at Ta­tiana and ges­tured to­ward her battered body. “This kind.”
    The boy cringed as he stared at Ta­tiana’s ter­ri­fied, broken form, slumped on the ground like so much garbage. He swal­lowed a lump in his throat and met Mina’s seek­ing gaze. “If nobody asks me a ques­tion, I will not say a word. But, if I’m ques­tioned, I must an­swer hon­estly.” He aver­ted his eyes in a ges­ture of apo­logy. “Even then, I will try to say as little as pos­sible.”
    Mina slowly nod­ded.
    It would have to do.
    “Very well. I need you to help me get Ta­tiana back to my cham­bers, and then I need you to take me to the prince. To Dante.”
    Thomas’s eyes grew as wide as sau­cers. “Oh, no, mis­tress. I can­not. You can­not . He’s in the throne room with his father.”
    She thought she heard a clipped tone at the end of that sen­tence, al­most as if he had spat the word father . “I real­ize that I can’t go in the throne room, but I need you to show me where it is. Per­haps there’s an ante­cham­ber or a nearby hall, some­where I can wait for Dante?”
    The boy wrinkled up his nose and looked off into the dis­tance, think­ing. “There’s a stor­age room, just bey­ond the back en­trance, but again, I don’t think you un­der­stand: King De­mitri would…” His voice trailed off.
    Mina raised her eye­brow and waited. “ Well? He’d what?”
    He squared his jaw. “He’d kill you if he found you.”
    Mina was wait­ing for the catch, the con­tin­gency, the ex­plan­a­tion that she knew must be com­ing, but there wasn’t one: The king would kill her if he caught her ap­proach­ing the throne room? Without ask­ing ques­tions first? She cringed. Some­how, she knew the boy was telling the truth. It was as if he had some per­sonal ex­per­i­ence with this side of the king. “I un­der­stand,” she whispered. “Just the same, my friend may be dy­ing, and I need Dante’s help. Will you take me to this stor­age room or not?”
    Thomas stared at Ta­tiana, who was now shiv­er­ing un­con­trol­lably on the floor, and slowly nod­ded his head. “Okay.”
    Mina sighed with re­lief. “Thank you.” She ap­praised him from head to toe then—he had to be at least five-foot-seven, and al­though he was thin, he had wiry, ad­oles­cent muscles. He was prob­ably far stronger than she was. “Can you help me get Ta­tiana up the stairs?”
    He nod­ded im­me­di­ately then. “Of course.”
    He stepped for­ward, slid an arm around Ta­tiana’s waist, and began to lift her off the