The False Prince (The Ascendance Series, Book 1)

Tobias was asleep in bed when I woke up, so he must have found his way back to our room sometime in the night. The idea that I’d slept through his walking freely around the room made me uncomfortable. Usually, I was a light sleeper, and I didn’t like the idea of wondering what he might have been tempted to do to me in my sleep.

Roden was already awake and still working on the book he’d taken off Tobias’s desk the night before. “I can figure out a lot of these words,” he said. “You should’ve paid more attention to Master Graves. I think he could’ve helped you.”

“I can’t pretend to be interested in someone who’s so boring,” I muttered.

Roden rolled his eyes and went back to his book while I got out of bed and began to get dressed. It would irritate Errol, I knew, but lately that fact was more motivation than deterrent.

“There’s blood all over your shirt!” Roden said.

“Noticed that, did you?”

Roden closed the book and came closer to me. “It looks like your shirt was cut too. What happened?”

“Do I need a bandage?”

“How should I know? Let me call Errol.”

I pulled off my shirt and threw it into the fireplace, which still bore a few smoldering ashes. The alcohol that Imogen had used for me was in the corner of our room. I poured just enough of it onto the shirt to stir up the fire again.

“What did you do that for?” Roden asked.

He made enough noise that Errol and the other two servants took it as a sign that it was time to enter from the hallway. I was never sure what time they arrived each morning, but they always came in when they heard us talking.

“I’ll help you finish dressing, sir.” Errol said the words as if he were tired of speaking them. He knew I didn’t want his help, and that was especially true right now.

I turned so that my back was facing the wall. “I’ll dress myself and I’ll do it privately.”

Tobias opened his eyes. “Will everyone speak quieter? I have a terrible headache here!”

“Sage’s back is bleeding again,” Roden said to Errol.

Everyone’s eyes turned to me. Errol walked between me and the wall. A gasp escaped his lips, then he said, “This is a new wound. Where did it come from?”

I shrugged, not yet ready with an explanation. Whatever I said, it’d have to be a lie. Although the truth would ruin Tobias’s last hope to become the prince, it did me no favors either.

Errol gave up asking for details and said, “The cut isn’t so deep, but we have to take care of it.”

“Just give me a bandage and I’ll wrap it myself,” I said.

Errol shook his head and left the room. It was a good thing the two weeks were almost ended. I doubted whether he could tolerate me for much longer.

“I’m already dressed.” Roden scowled at his servant, who was tugging at his shirt. “Get out!”

“You’re dismissed too,” Tobias told his man, a new servant who avoided me as often as possible. “We need to talk in private. Shut the door behind you.”

Immediately after we were alone, Roden leapt across the room, grabbed Tobias by the shoulders, and shoved him hard against the wall. “You did that to him? Were you going after me next?”

“Check me for a knife if you think I did it.” Tobias looked sideways at me. “I don’t have anything that could make a wound like that, do I, Sage?”

“You’re afraid of what Roden would find if he searched?” I asked.

Tobias threw up his hands, and Roden pulled back Tobias’s blanket and checked his pillow. Then he lifted Tobias’s mattress and gasped.

Tobias’s face paled as Roden withdrew the knife Tobias had used against me the night before. Dried blood still stained the tip of the blade. I’d made sure of that.

“How’d that get there?” Tobias whispered. His eyes narrowed as they met mine. “Oh, of course. Well, Sage has a knife too.”

“Do you think so?” I said. “I’m sure the kitchen staff will find there’s only one knife missing.” But I let Roden search my things anyway. No knife was there, and Tobias’s face paled even further.

“I’ve got to tell Conner,” Roden said. “This goes too far, Tobias.”

“Please don’t,” Tobias begged. “Conner already thinks I have a plan to get rid of him. If he thinks I tried to do anything to Sage — he’ll have my head.”

“Conner should punish you,” I said. “Being chosen as the prince is the least of your worries now.”

Tobias’s eyes filled with tears. “Help me, then.”

“You nearly killed me last night. Should I care what happens to you now?”

“Please. I’ll do anything.”

“You’re asking me to lie for you? Then I’d be the one in trouble. Why would I do that?”

His voice raised in pitch. “Please, Sage. Anything you want. Help me, and I’ll fight for you.”

He looked terrified, probably exactly as I had looked when Conner told Mott to take me to his dungeon. Tobias had played into my hands, but I felt sorry for him nonetheless. “I’ll help you, but at this price. It’s time to fail. You will be less intelligent, less impressive, and certainly less princelike.”

“Is what you told me last night true?” Tobias asked. “Does he really know about the notes?” I nodded and watched as tears filled his eyes. “Then he’s going to kill me anyway.”

“What if I promise that he won’t?” I said. “Back off and I promise that you will live, or else I’ll die trying to save you.” Now not only was Tobias out of the competition, but someone at Farthenwood owed me his life.

Errol returned to our room, accompanied by Imogen and Mott. Luckily, no attention was on Roden, who quickly hid Tobias’s knife back under the mattress.

Mott strode across our long room in less than a half dozen long steps. He turned me around to examine my back, then cursed loudly. “The master must hear of this. Tell me how this happened or I’ll take you to him for questioning. You know how that will end.”

I glanced at Tobias, who nodded his agreement to my terms.

“It’s embarrassing,” I said. “I tried to sneak out last night through the window. I got caught on the window frame and it impaled my back.”

“This is more than a scrape on your skin, Sage. You’ve been cut.”

“The window has a jagged edge,” I insisted. “I’m lucky not to be hurt worse. But it’s my own fault because I should never have been out there.” For an extra touch, I shrugged innocently and added, “I hoped nobody would notice.”

“How could you think we wouldn’t notice a wound like that?” Mott cursed under his breath. “Was this your attempt at obeying the master’s rules?”

“All I wanted was to look outside,” I said. “It would’ve been hard to go anywhere off that ledge.”

“It’d be impossible,” Mott said. “But you might have fallen to your death in the attempt.” He inhaled, then added, “Not a word of this to the master, then, but I must punish you. I hesitate because I know how weak you must be from the last few days, but you’ll miss today’s meals.”

I started to protest, then Mott arched his eyebrows and said, “Or shall we leave it to the master to choose a punishment?”

“I wasn’t hungry anyway,” I said.

Princess Amarinda had sent word that she would remain in her bedroom all morning. So Mott called Tobias and Roden to accompany him to breakfast with Conner and brought in Imogen to take care of my wound. She immediately went to work on washing away the blood. Her manner was cool and businesslike, but her touch as she cleaned my back was as gentle as ever.

“He knows you’re lying,” she whispered.

“Am I such a bad liar?”

“I’ll have to wait until you tell the truth so I can compare the differences.” She paused when I drew in a sharp gasp, and when she continued, the cloth was pressed so lightly on my back I could barely feel it. “How did it really happen?”

“A knife.”

“Who held that knife?” I hesitated and she added, “One of the other two boys, obviously. It isn’t a stab wound, though. This was done with the long edge of the blade.”

“You know your knife wounds.”

“I heard the chef say this morning that one of his knives has gone missing. He keeps them sharp. That’s why you were kneading bread, to get close to the knife block.”

“Actually, it was to keep Tobias away from the knives. He’d already stolen one, and that was as much damage as I wanted him able to cause me.”

I thought that would at least get a smile or a chuckle, but she continued as if she hadn’t heard me. “I checked first thing this morning. The knife you took is back in its place, and I found a few drops of blood on the floor.”

“I thought I had them all cleaned up.”

Frustrated, Imogen slapped at my bed. “Sage, please! Someone tried to kill you last night!”

“Not really. He just wanted me to think he could.”

“Why must you play these games?”

“Because now there are only two people competing to become the prince.”

Even without seeing her, I knew Imogen was frowning in disapproval. But she only said, “You know what I have to do now. It’s going to sting.”

“I’m getting used to —” I started to say before she pressed the wet towel to my back and made me howl.

Apparently, I’d reached the end of her sympathies. “Maybe you want Errol back,” she said.

“Maybe I do,” I moaned. “At least he wouldn’t scold me the whole time.”

“Someone should be scolding you,” she said. “If you’re not strong enough to handle all these injuries, you should stop getting them! You’ll never convince anyone you’re a prince this way.”

Imogen began to wrap a new bandage around me. This one had to go diagonally over my shoulder and down below the older bandage. After she knotted it, she noticed the change in my mood and said more softly, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that. You’ll do fine in convincing them.”

I remained facing the wall. “What if I don’t? What if after Conner chooses me, they look at me and only see Sage?”

“Would that be so bad, just to be who you are?”

This time I looked back at her, grinning. “You mean other than being executed for stealing the crown?”

She laughed. “Yes, other than that.”

Then I grew serious again. “What about you? If you were in the court when I’m presented, would you bow to me?”

After a moment, she slowly shook her head. “I hope Conner chooses you, and I think if he does that you’ll be able to convince them. You’ll be a fine king one day, but I know too much. And I won’t bow to a fraud.”

I turned away as she left the room. Unfortunately, I understood exactly how she felt. Nobody should have to bow to a false prince.