On the Prowl

those who needed protecting, the youngest among us—Jamie, Tersa, my brother, Thaddeus…him, especially, I did not want there—and the others to protect them…my ex-outlaw rogue, Aquila, and Chami, my deadly assassin. Left behind deliberately, also, was what remained of my heart—Amber, a powerful Warrior Lord, but even more vulnerable than the children. Queens feared him. Feared his bigness, his power, and the legacy his infamous father had left behind—Sandoor, who had raped his Queen and then faked both their deaths. Sandoor, who had inconveniently returned to life and heaped even greater infamy upon himself when he had been discovered to have kept that Queen captive for over a decade, a Queen whom he’d had service his needs and that of his band of rogues. He was truly dead and gone now, killed by my hand. But his son was still paying for the father’s sins. Amber would be looked upon with suspicion forever by other Queens, watched carefully by the High Court to see that he, too, did not turn rogue. Turn upon his Queen.
    “Two men are not adequate enough to protect you,” Dontaine repeated now, as he had many times before during the flight.
    My answer remained unchanged as we disembarked and walked to a waiting gray van. “You and Tomas are enough. And I can protect myself.”
    “We should have brought Chami and Aquila, milady,” Tomas said, speaking up for the first time. His southern twang softened his consonants, stretched out his vowels. Brown of hair, plain of face, as loyal and true as the sword he had sworn into my service, he was one of my trusted guards, an older warrior grown too powerful who had been cast out by his Queen and taken in by me. I smiled bitter-sweetly. Even plain and simple Tomas knew enough not to suggest Amber, the most powerful among us. And the most defenseless against the suspicions he would have faced at High Court.
    “I needed them to watch after the others, see them safe,” I said to Tomas.
    “With all respect, milady,” Tomas said in his soft drawl, “but your safety is the most crucial factor to ensure theirs.”
    “I will be fine, Tomas. I will be spending most of my time answering questions in the Council Hall. Having you two along is already luxury enough.”
    “A necessity, not a luxury, my Queen. And barely adequate,” Dontaine muttered unhappily as we climbed into the van. “And my presence was only because they wished to question me as well.”
    True enough. He was one of the newest guards to my service, and the one I was least comfortable with. He’d challenged Amber for right to my bed, and I had agreed to take him into it when I saw that Amber was losing. Amber had ended up winning, unexpectedly. That knowledge and awareness of what might have been, that we could just as easily have been lovers by now, still sat heavily between us in all our dealings.
    We traveled the next several miles from the airfield to the compound proper in silence. Then the woods fell abruptly away and we entered High Court, a pocket of civilization carved out among the otherwise untouched, pristine forests that surrounded it. A scattering of small buildings flanked and circled out from a tall, stately, three-storied manor house. Across from it, matching it in height and grandeur, was a domed stone building, the Council Hall where our ruling heads of state, so to speak, the High Council members, gathered.
    An impeccably dressed little man, his black hair lined with silver, stood at the foot of the steps leading to the manor house, three footmen arrayed in attendance behind him. He opened the door of the van and assisted me out with a courtly bow.
    “Thank you, Mathias,” I said, greeting the steward of the Great House, as his small army of footmen fanned out and gathered up our bags and trunks.
    “Welcome back, Queen Mona Lisa,” Mathias said in formal greeting.
    “I’d rather not have returned so quickly,” I muttered in reply, and caught the flicker of a smile on the proper steward’s face before he smoothed it away.
    “It is always a pleasure to have you with us,” he returned. Polite words, but he sounded as if he meant them. “The Council will see Warrior Dontaine first, as soon as you have settled into your quarters, and then you, milady, afterward. I’ve given you the south wing upstairs, the same as last time.”
    I nodded, grateful for his thoughtfulness, and followed our bags up the stairs and down the right hallway to a large, luxurious suite with