Neffa walked through the palace, close to the wall. She kept her head down and focused on what she was carrying. The thudding of hard heels warned her, and she stopped and pressed herself to the wall before she would be run over. The son of the house strode past on his way to the king’s quarters.

Damn it. She hoped that he was quick. His father didn’t need to be getting upset right now.

When he passed, she checked the hall and remained in place as the king’s mistress flounced past. She liked to move silently and catch the servants unaware. Her temper was legendary, as was her bitch status.

Neffa waited until the woman in the elaborate robes had slithered around the corner and began her calm steps to the king’s recovery chamber.

Six weeks. She had been six weeks away from being a doctor with offers to travel the stars. Six weeks before her classes ended, her scholarship from the palace had been cancelled, and the university had kicked her out on her ass, sending her home. She was a registered Keedon. There was no way for her to pay her fees without help from the palace, and the palace had cancelled her funding. No businesses would hire one of her kind, so she had to make her way home. That had been a whole other issue.

Neffa nodded to the guards that she passed and the other servants that went by in the hallways. The thing about an indentured population was that labour was cheap and trapped.

The Keedon were a species who had the bad taste to be travelling in the vicinity over thirty years ago, and when the Orumel destroyed their engines, they made this world their home and were put to work.

Neffa was a halfbreed. Part Orumel, part Keedon, but her alien blood made her ineligible for any position other than manual labour. Her mother’s position as an herbalist in the township had given Neffa a leg up, but her job opportunities ended at the palace as an attendant to the recovery chamber.

She walked to the king’s chamber and opened the door. The prince and mistress looked at her with scowls, but the king gave her a wide smile. “Neffa. I was wondering what was keeping you.”

“Traffic in the halls, Your Majesty. Are you ready for your treatment?”

The king was sitting up in bed, a bed robe over his shoulders and his legs covered by the bedclothes.

She walked to the side of his bed that was open and asked him, “May I proceed?”

He flipped the bedding back, and his mistress gasped. “Really? Can’t this wait until later?”

“Pree-ath, I need this to continue to heal. You are not here for your conversation anyway. Remain quiet.”

Neffa’s eyes widened, but she kept her face straight as she tucked a long towel under the wound she was there to treat.

The mistress huffed and remained silent.

Neffa worked as the prince asked, “Why is that creature here?”

The king snorted. “She’s the best healer in the area. She’s going to be her family’s first official doctor.”

Neffa tensed and looked at him in confusion. “No, Your Majesty, I am not.”

King Arewen looked at her. “Did you flunk out?”

“No, Your Majesty. My funding was cancelled before I could complete the courses. I was ejected.”

Prince Orvalik cleared his throat. “I assessed her class history and determined that the scholarship was a waste of resources.”

Well, that explained it. Orvalik had been in the same classes as she had, and she had been moved up two years. He had always come first until she was taking the same tests with him. That had been a rock into his ego.

She kept working on the king while he shouted at his son.

The stitches were holding, and his trip down the cliff face hadn’t done him any harm aside from the ten-inch gash on his thigh.

She applied the poultice that would heal his skin in another day or so. She wiped her hands and packed up her bottles and cloths. “Your Majesty, keep your voice down. You are recovering and have other courtiers to shout at.”

The king drew in a deep breath and looked at her with a sad smile. “I will be in touch, Neffa. We will get you back in that course.”

“Your Majesty, there isn’t any way. The course is over. All I can do is challenge the exams, but I am not allowed to travel.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know. I have been locked in the city since I returned.” She shrugged.

The prince hissed, “Why don’t you shut up, you stupid cunt!”

The king looked like he was going to start shouting.

Neffa got to her feet and looked at the mistress and prince. “He needs to rest now. Shoo.”

They gasped, and the mistress said, “How dare you?”

“Oh, shut it, Pree-ath. Do you want him to keep screaming at you and possibly send you out on your ass?”

Pree-ath straightened.

Orvalik walked over to Neffa and struck her across the face. Neffa flew to the side and hit a dresser with the side of her head.

The king lunged up, pulled him down, and beat his face until the prince was bloody. Neffa touched her head, and her fingers came away with blood.

“Your Majesty? I need to seek my own medical assistance. You didn’t blow your stitches. I will send guards in.”

Pree-ath was sobbing over the prince and that explained a bit. She was angling to become the next queen.

The king said, “Neffa, stay where you are. I want you going home under guard.”

Guards burst in and looked at the room. Pree-ath screamed, “She did it! Arrest her!”

Neffa looked up, dazed. Duke Morro. Of course. He grabbed her by the arm and hauled her to her feet.