Before he left, the king promised his son that he would come back with a white deer for him.
Daniel begged him not to go. He was near tears about it, and made no attempt to hide it, and his father went anyway.
Nobody knew that this would be the last time they ever saw one another.
During the hunt, the king fell from his horse and died.
No one had expected anything of the kind. An investigation was conducted at once, thoroughly, by people who knew what they were looking for. No poison was found on his body. No sign of foul play. The only conclusion anyone could reach was that the king had fallen from his horse by accident and broken his neck.
When Daniel heard, every trace of color went out of his face.
The atmosphere of the whole kingdom changed within a day, as though the land itself had gone into mourning.
Standing at the window with his back to the room, Daniel said, "I never imagined that would be the last time I would ever see him."
Royal said nothing yet.
"And it's humiliating," Daniel went on, and his voice cracked around it. "Do you understand? A king. He died falling off a horse."
"Calm down first," Royal said gently. "Wipe your face."
Daniel wept then, without any control over it at all. "I don't want a white deer," he said. "I don't want anything. I want my father to come back."
Royal stayed with him and comforted him, and thought about how difficult it must be to be a prince — to be unable to open your grief anywhere except in one room, with one person who was not supposed to exist.
And Daniel remembered the promise he had once made to himself. That he would always protect his father and his younger brother.
Now his father was gone. Only his younger brother remained.
Some time later Royal went back to the mercenary company. Prince Laurian had returned to the kingdom, as far as anyone knew, and Daniel was fully prepared to inherit the throne, and so it seemed the sensible time to give the other half of their double life some attention.
Then Daniel contacted him, and the sound of his voice made Royal go cold.
"What happened?"
"Come back to the palace. Now. We are in serious trouble."
Royal came back at speed and found him. "What is going on?"
"Laurian is gone," Daniel said. "He's been missing for three days."
Royal stared at him. "Three days? And you're telling me now?" His temper slipped its leash. "Why didn't you inform me immediately? Is it because I'm nothing more than a shadow to you?"
"No." Daniel shook his head hard. "No. I was overwhelmed. I was confused, I couldn't think — and I didn't want to put another worry on you."
Royal made himself breathe. Something about it was wrong, and he found it quickly: Laurian was not the sort of person who would disappear without telling his brother. Laurian would not have gone anywhere at all without telling his brother.
Which led him, in one step, somewhere horrifying.
"Your father's death," Royal said slowly, "and Laurian's disappearance. Those cannot both be coincidences."
"I know." Daniel's jaw was tight. "Someone is behind all of it. Someone is doing this to us." He looked at him, and there was nothing left of the carefree prince in his face. "I need someone I can truly trust. I need it now."
Royal knelt in front of him.
"You can trust me completely," he said. "Whatever you order, I will carry it out."
He began investigating Laurian's disappearance that same day.
He was still at it when a messenger bird came down out of the sky with a letter tied to it. Royal unrolled it and read, and his expression changed as he read.
Laurian had not been missing for three days.
He had disappeared five days ago.
Royal stood absolutely still with the paper in his hand, because Daniel had said — clearly, certainly — that he had spoken with Laurian only three days ago.
Which could mean only one thing. Someone else had been wearing Laurian's face, or Laurian's voice, or Laurian's name, in order to deceive Daniel.
Royal ran.
He went for the palace at a speed that made people scatter out of his path, terrified with every stride that he was already too late. As he came up on one side of the palace he saw soldiers — countless soldiers, far more than had any business standing there — gathered across the grounds, and understood at once that something terrible had already happened.
Inside, the great hall had filled with them.
One of Daniel's closest and most trusted men found him in the confusion and caught his arm. "The royal family has been attacked," he said urgently. "You have to escape. While there's still time — go."
"I still have something to do," Royal said calmly. "Get everyone else out of the palace first. All of them. Now."
He moved through the corridors praying, in whatever language was left in him for praying, that Daniel had managed to hide somewhere safe. Then he stopped guessing and started thinking like Daniel, and the answer arrived immediately: the emergency escape route.
He ordered the last of the people he passed to protect themselves and get out, and went for the hidden passage alone.
Running along the secret path with the walls close on either side, he thought about how strange it was that in all these years he had never once imagined he would need to use this himself.
Then he came around the turn, and there was blood on the ground.