Hostage Read Free Page A

from the cabinet at the side of the bed and arranged them next to the bowl. Lastly he took fresh sheets from the linen cupboard and set them on the floor.
    By now the smell was getting to him, and he sighed as he stripped back the covers.
    He was startled when the door opened and Ragnor entered. Usually no one came near, and he’d not seen his cousin at all for a couple of weeks.
    “Good afternoon, my prince. I have new instructions, so you are relieved of this duty for today. Would you please return this afternoon?”
    “Why?” Pleased as he was that he wasn’t going to have to carry out the unpleasant task, Rowan was puzzled by what Ragnor said. What new instructions? What was going on?
    “They are your uncle’s orders, my prince. If you wish to discuss them, perhaps you could do so with him.”
    Rowan took one look at Ragnor’s inscrutable face and sighed. He left the room and went in search of his uncle. For some reason, he was completely unable to find him.

C HAPTER T WO
    L ESSONS
     
     
    W HEN R OWAN returned a few hours later, Ragnor was still with Prince Astrin. It was immediately clear that something had radically changed. Astrin was reclining almost upright against the pillows, his hair spread out like a shining halo around his head. Despite not having been taken care of for so long, it was beautiful, like pale winter sunshine. Rowan growled low in his throat. He was not going to like this boy, no matter how beautiful he was. He hated him, had always hated him, and would always hate him. Astrin had a mother and a father, and because of them, Rowan didn’t. Reason enough to hate him, no matter what he looked like.
    Ragnor turned to Rowan.
    “Your uncle is concerned you are harboring hatred of His Royal Highness that might prejudice future relations between your Houses. He had hoped that in caring for him, seeing his vulnerability, you would have softened your opinions. Unfortunately, it seems the opposite has occurred. Therefore he has made a potentially dangerous decision and decreed you are to continue to care for Prince Astrin, more intensely than before, but with the opportunity to get to know him while you are doing so.”
    Rowan stared. “You mean you’re going to let him wake up?”
    “Not entirely but sufficiently to enable him to speak to you and you to him. You are to spend time with him thrice a day. You will be responsible for assisting him to eat and exercise. He won’t be in the stasis field anymore, so you will need to supervise walks and gentle exercise outside.”
    Rowan’s eyes got wider and wider. “Outside? But he’ll escape!”
    “You will walk only in the inner quadrant. You can take him out into the enclosed gardens. There will be a heavy guard presence around the perimeter so no one can get in.”
    “I was thinking more about him getting out.”
    “That will not be a concern.”
    “Well, I think it is. He would have to be pretty poor not to make a run for it.”
    “Trust me, he won’t be running anywhere.”
    Rowan narrowed his eyes. “Why not?”
    “There are prisons other than those encased in stone, Rowan.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    Ragnor gave him a look that seemed to ask What’s new? “Every day you will come here before breakfast and eat with him. You will then exercise for one hour. At midday you will come again and have your midday meal with him, then you will exercise for two hours. After dinner you will come and feed him his dinner. On this occasion you will not exercise, but you will spend at least half an hour conversing together.”
    “I have nothing to say to him.”
    “Then you had better find something, or you will have an extremely boring time.”
    “Does no one else see how crazy this is? He’s a Class One Prisoner. He’s dangerous. He’ll—”
    “He will not be dangerous, Rowan. I can personally vouch for that.”
    Rowan gave Ragnor a hard look. “What are you going to do to him?”
    “That is not your concern. Your concern is to