Aliya was about to get out of this assailant's hold in the most painful way possible, for him of course. In the split second before she did that the man let go and she whirled to face him slipping into a ready stance as she turned.
When she faced this mystery man he looked momentarily taken aback as he took in her raised fists and tucked chin. He was dressed from head to toe in black and had a hood pulled up that covered his head but he was a good foot taller than her so from her new vantage point she could see his face clearly. It somehow looked familiar but she knew she'd never seen him before.
He laughed softly. "Well, I did expect a lady of your reputation not to scream so I don't know why the sight of you ready to fight me is so funny."
He chuckled some more and rubbed the back of his hand across his face as if to wipe away his amusement. He had dark red hair and strong features, then she figured it out, his eyes, it was his eyes. He had the same eyes as Cade.
"Who are you?"
He raised a brow and crossed his arms looking imperiously down at her. He leaned close until they were almost nose to nose. She was sure that the hood was not blocking out her features as well.
He grinned lopsidedly. "Why don't you guess? That sounds fun."
She shook her head and took a step back dropping her hands in the process. Normally she wouldn't drop her guard so completely but for some reason, she could not help it, not if it meant putting distance between them.
He pouted, a strange look for a grown man's face. "I see, my little brother's future bride is no fun at all. I was hoping for better."
"Which one are you?" It was a rude way to go about getting an answer from someone in the imperial family but at the moment she could care less if she offended him.
"Fearless though, even if you're not fun." His silly expressions dropped entirely and she was impressed at his second face. Gone was the teasing grin and in its place was a man who looked deathly serious. "I'm the second."
He nodded his head to her, not a bow of course, royalty would never bow to anyone, but a nod of respect. "I am Nilthan the Second Imperial Prince, at your service, my lady."
More confused than ever even if her suspicions had been confirmed she asked. "What business do you have with me? Why did her ladyship send me out here? Did she know you were here?"
He nodded, "Of course, Lady Kira knew that I wanted an audience with you. Trust me if I could have spoken to you without all this skulking around I would have. However, between my father, my elder brother, and your fiance I'd be lucky to ever see your face if I didn't take matters into my own hands. Luckily, Lady Kira was a good friend of my mother's and she sympathizes with my plight." His expression hardened. "I trust that you will not make that information known, it would put Tate Delmont's mother into an awkward position to say the least."
She nodded without realizing it, she didn't understand what any of this was about but in no way would she do anything to get Lady Kira in trouble. "Of course, I won't say anything, at least not now since I don't know what's going on so how could I? Why have you sought me out?"
He sighed and took a step backward and sat on a bench against the wall of vines. In his current position, well actually this entire time his position had been in the exact spot that no one would be able to spot him, not from the Delmont House and not from any of the neighboring homes. They were cloaked in complete privacy.
"I wanted to make you an offer."
"Me?" She said dubiously. "Why and what?"
He crossed his arms. "I want you to get something for me."
She stared down at him blankly. Why could no one just make sense? Why couldn't these high-born people just say what they wanted and get it over with? She lifted an eyebrow that clearly said, go on.
"There is a book at the Academny's library that I want. It's the only copy in the Empire and a family heirloom."
She cocked her head not buying it. "I beg your pardon, your highness, but I don't think so, why would a 'family heirloom' as you say be in the Academy's Library?"
He looked at her for a moment considering. "How much do you know about my family?"
"Very little. I know Cade is your father's seventh son and I met your older brother, or more accurately I've seen him up close but we didn't speak. Your father spoke to me privately but he didn't say anything about the family so that's all I know."
"Cade is to marry you but he hasn't told you about our family at all?" His tone was a mix of doubtful and incredulous.
She shrugged her shoulders. "We've never discussed family before." She didn't admit to him that she'd been avoiding him since the marriage had come up. Learning that you were going to marry someone was probably the time to go into family trees if you hadn't already, but she'd not given Cade that chance.
"Well let me enlighten you then. My older brother Rigo is only three months my senior. He, Cade, and two of my other siblings are all the children of the Emperor and the Empress. I am the son of a dragon rider. My father saw her, he wanted her, and he took her. She died giving birth to me and her dragon died as well. She was from a noble house but one that did not have much influence with my father. She was nothing but an amusing toy, and he didn't lose much when she died. He was however left with me. As for the child after me, the Empress had a daughter Margo then there is Alton then Oro. My father's second mistress and current one, Lady Bridgett gave birth to twins a daughter Willow, and the sixth prince Warren. Then the Empress gave birth to my baby brother Cade, of whom you are now betrothed."
He looked at her to see if she followed, she just stared at him. In truth this was interesting information, it suddenly occurred to her that it was odd she didn't already know it. Wasn't the imperial family something every citizen should know about, wasn't it something Tate should have taught her? Why hadn't he? More importantly, why hadn't it occurred to her to wonder about this until now? Was she stupid? Knowing the players in the Imperial family was no small matter. She was afraid that she was about to discover the consequences of her ignorance.
"As you can probably guess myself, Willow and Warren are not exactly looked upon fondly by most in the nobility. Heck, my father has only ever dined with me privately twice in my life." He shook his hands out of the deep sleeves and put his palms up in a gesture of innocence. "You can see then that I have no power of my own. The heirloom belonged to my mother's family. It was passed down through the generations but when she died my father donated all her belongings to the Academy and the book, along with the rest of her personal collection, was added to the Library." He gave her a pitable look. "I've long wanted to get this particular book back. It would mean a lot for me to have it as a remeberance of my mother, I've always been told it was her most prized possession. I also can't ask anyone in my family for it."
"Why can't you ask Cade?" She wanted to know his answer.
He looked away deeply troubled, or was he just trying to seem troubled? She coldn't shake her suspicions of him. "Believe it or not I like Cade, he's a good kid. If I asked him to get this for me and the wrong person found out it would put him in a very difficult position."
"What about me, what position will this put me in?"
He grinned at her. "Well that depends on how sucessful you are. If no one notices you take it then I can almost assure you no one will miss it. It's not remotly something a professor would reference for thier materials. It's a history book but not one that is well known. If you are caught you can just say that you didn't know you couldn't take library books off the grounds. If that were to happen I'd just have to devise antoher plan won't I?"
"What do I get out of getting this book for you? I'm not a thief and you've made no argument for me being one."
Now his grin turned positivly devilish. "Have you heard a story lately about a dead dragon?"
"Huh?"
"Come now, think, I know you have. A dead dragon at the veil wasn't it."
She remembered, the dragon of the rider who's gotten sucked into the veil with Tate. The Emperor had said it was dead. "What of it?" The thought of that dragon just made her sad and depressed. She didn't want to think of the implications of the riders dragon dying when he went into the misty veil.
"Don't you want to see it?"
"Why would I want that, it's dead." She snapped.
"Are you sure about that?" He smirked.
She felt frozen as his words sunk in. Was he saying what she thought he was saying? If so then that meant that Tate and that rider might be...
It was a hope and a wish she'd been holding onto but if he was telling the truth then she'd be able to see some proof in that direction with her own eyes.
"Where is it?"
He leaned back and shook his head. "I'll tell you after I get my mother's book."
Her mind spun, still unsure of anything she asked, "what does it look like?"
"It's blue," then to her shock he described a very familiar book.