Prince's Fire Read Online Free Page B

chestnut stallion stood in the middle of his stall, blowing from exertion, his ears flicked halfway back in suspicion. His left foreleg was puffy and swollen, leaving no doubt he suffered. As she approached, his ears flattened against his mane, and he bared his teeth. She reached out with her mind magic and seized him forcefully with a suggestion.
I like these people. I want them to come into my stall.
Instantly, the stallion’s ears flicked forward, and the expression on his face changed. He lowered his head and chewed, a submissive gesture. “We can go in now,” said Celeste.
    â€œI love it when you come around here. It’s a miracle what you can do with a vicious animal.” Tatia entered the stall and knelt by the stallion’s foreleg.
    Celeste followed, trailed by her bodyguard. The praise embarrassed her a little. What she did wasn’t miraculous; it was just typical mind magic applied to an animal. Most mind mages could only ply their skills on people, but a few women could apply the magic more broadly, and Celeste was one of them.
    Healing magic, which Tatia possessed, seemed less particular; it worked equally well on people or animals regardless of the mage’s degree of talent. While Tatia worked on the swollen foreleg, Celeste kept her eye on the stallion’s ears and body language, making sure he didn’t get any ideas.
    â€œSo you’re looking for gossip about the prince?” asked Tatia.
    â€œYes. You may have heard that Lucien offered him my hand in marriage last night.”
    Tatia looked up. “Well,
that’s
news. Did he accept?”
    â€œIt was sudden. He’s thinking about it.”
    Tatia’s eyes twinkled. “And what do you think of him? I caught a glimpse of him in the hallway. He’s a fine-looking man.”
    Celeste had a feeling Tatia hadn’t run into the prince by chance; in all likelihood, she’d deduced where he would be and deliberately stationed herself there. That was what made Tatia so useful to her, not just as a friend but as a source of information. Tatia’s family was well-off but not of noble lineage. She moved in different circles than Celeste and was privy to a brand of gossip that Celeste was not. “He’s handsome, yes. But he seemed . . . distant. It could just be the suddenness of the proposal.” And hopefully not the fact that she wasn’t pretty enough for him. She motioned at the chestnut’s foreleg. Tatia was hanging on her words with such interest that she seemed to have forgotten about the horse. “Have you heard anything about Prince Rayn’s romantic life in Inya? Have there been other proposals? Can you think of any reason he’d be disinterested in this one?”
    Tatia probed the chestnut’s foreleg. The swelling began to diminish in response to her healing magic. “I’m not aware of any other proposals, but I did hear something. A couple of years ago, Prince Rayn was—how do I say this?—indiscreet in a relationship.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œHe impregnated a girl.”
    â€œHe has a
child
?” The stallion laid back his ears, and Celeste threw a suggestion at him.
I’m perfectly happy just standing here.
He relaxed.
    â€œA daughter,” said Tatia. “You didn’t know? Everyone was talking about it. He apparently slept with some palace servant, and they must have been lax with their wards, because now he’s got a bastard.”
    â€œThree gods.” She had about a million follow-up questions. How serious was his relationship with the servant woman, and who was raising the illegitimate daughter? In a day of near-universal warding, how had he managed to get someone pregnant?
    This could be the reason Rayn had made no response to the marriage proposal, leaving Lornis to smooth things over. He might be in love with the servingwoman. Since she was lowborn, he couldn’t marry her. Perhaps he