Chapter 20

His eyes were red in the dim room. The sun had gone down behind the mountains while I read, and what light there was came from the desk lamp beside me, orange, and the moon in the window, white, and met somewhere in the middle of him.

“Yes,” I said. “I’m in your shirt. And you just threw your sister out of my room without looking at me. Where have you been?”

The red flickered. He stopped where he was, a few feet from the bed. For a moment, I watched him decide whether to be the King or Caspian, and then his shoulders came down.

“Vivienne left an hour ago. Her father met her at the gate.” He pushed his wet hair back. “Valerian came to the council chamber afterward and called you an ambitious rogue in front of eleven councillors. I let him finish. Then I reminded him whose council it is. He’ll be my enemy now in the open instead of in private.” A pause. “The captain of the house guard is relieved of his post; he confirmed an order and broke it in the same hour. And I