Hostage by Cheryl Headford Page B

could have died last night, and that would have been our fault—my fault, as I was head of the House in residence. There was no difference. It wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t our fault. It’s the war’s fault.”
    “So where do we go from here?”
    “I don’t know. I don’t know where to go. If I were Astrin, I’d hate me now, even more than I thought I hated him. What happened to my parents was an accident. What happened to Astrin wasn’t an accident. It was deliberate, and it was my fault. How can he not hate me?” Rowan rubbed his face and lowered his head.
    He took a deep breath. “There’s only one thing we can do. There are two Houses without heads, and that can’t be. We have to release him. We have to let him go back to his House, then what happens, happens, and I have to accept it.”
    “Is that wise?”
    “Wise?”
    “If you release him now, there may be no chance of peace. Without Astrin, House Raphael will be headed by Queen Agnes. She will have lost her husband as well as her son, and with enough pressure she’ll give us anything we ask to guarantee Astrin’s safe return. She’ll certainly be far easier to manipulate than Astrin.”
    “What? No. No, I wouldn’t even consider that. I’d be no better than I thought they were on my worst days if I took advantage of a woman’s grief like that. No. Whatever happens will be without us compromising our morals and pride.” Rowan snapped his fingers to summon one of the attendants, who hurried to his side and bowed low.
    “Your desire, my prince?”
    “Ensure a message is sent to Queen Agnes Raphael immediately. Tell her that her son is safe and will be returned to her as soon as he is able to travel.”
    “As you wish.” The attendant disappeared.
    “How soon can you get Astrin back to normal? Reinstate his memories?”
    Ragnor frowned. “It’s not something I would wish to force, Rowan. After what happened last night, I’m extremely reluctant to perform any further procedures. I’d much prefer to allow him to recover naturally.”
    “How long will that take? It’s not safe to allow the situation to last for any length of time. It’s too unstable, too open to manipulation and exploitation by our enemies—enemies of both Houses.”
    “It might take days—weeks. It will take at least three or four days to recover his strength, let alone his memories.”
    Rowan shook his head. “That’s too long. What can we do to shorten the timescale?”
    “We can’t force this, Rowan. I was unhappy enough with what I had to do to shut his memories away. I am not going to risk his life to force them to come back when they will do so naturally by themselves, given time.”
    “We don’t have time. There must be something we can do.”
    “Considering it is my life, my memories, and my kingdom you are discussing, you might try asking me ,” Astrin said calmly and coldly.

C HAPTER N INE
    T HE P RINCE R ETURNS
     
     
    F OR A moment there was absolute silence in which Astrin sat quietly, his hands folded in his lap and his eyes fixed on Ragnor’s shocked expression. However, on the inside he was calculating. He still remembered nothing, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t spin truth from what he had.
    “How long have you been aware?” Ragnor asked in a low voice, although it was easy for Astrin to see he was tense, like a coiled spring.
    “Aware of what? That those who have been taking great pains to assure me they are my friends are actually my sworn enemies who have hated me all my life? That far from having been ill for—three months did you say?—I have actually been a captive, drugged and helpless in the hands of those who are at war with my country? That when you said you were helping me, you were, in fact, manipulating and deceiving me?”
    Turning his head, he met Rowan’s shocked eyes. “What hurts most of all is that I liked you.”
    “You must understand, Astrin,” Ragnor said, “that what was done to you was not personal.