The bastard had no right. He—“had no right!”

The Eyrien stopped and turned his head just enough to indicate he knew someone was behind him. Had probably known all along.

The man was power and temper like he’d never felt before, but he would have his say.

“She’s our Queen!” Gray shouted. “Ours! You had no right to be scolding her or getting her wet.”

The Eyrien turned to look at him. “Your Queen,” he said quietly. “Why didn’t you stop her?”

His eyes filled with frustrated tears. “She wouldn’t let me. She ordered me to stay away, to leave her alone. And she got hurt.” His shoulders sagged. “She got hurt.”

The Eyrien took a step closer. “The first law is not obedience. The first law is to honor, cherish, and protect. The second is to serve. The third is to obey.”

“But if you don’t obey, you get punished.”

The Eyrien studied him. “Everything has a price. You take a chance of being punished, even killed, for challenging a Queen even if you’re doing it to protect her, but you accept that risk and do what you should. If the Queen is truly worthy of your loyalty, she’ll understand the reason for the challenge and back down. Doesn’t mean she’ll like it or be happy with the man, but she’ll back down.”

“She told everyone to leave her alone.” It had been so painful to watch her, to know she was hurting and not be able to stop her.

“Someone hurt her and—”

“Who?” Gray felt something in him stir. “Who hurt Cassie?”

“I don’t know, and that’s healthier for everyone,” the Eyrien said. “I do know she was hurting before she went out into the garden, and she was trying to sweat out some of the hurt and temper. Her First Escort should have given her an hour; then he should have used Protocol to stop her. And if that didn’t work, he should have fought her into the ground.”

Gray frowned. “Protocol? But those are just words.”

“Yeah. And one sentence that used the right words could have stopped this.”

He’d gotten a glimpse of Cassie’s hands. One sentence could have stopped that?

The Eyrien made a sound. Annoyance? Disgust? “This court is supposed to be learning the Old Ways. I know Lady Cassidy brought books of Protocol with her. Haven’t any of you looked at them?”

“Don’t know.” Gray rubbed his nose with the back of his hand. “If I had said the sentence, she would have stopped before she got hurt?”

It was the way the Eyrien looked at him that made Gray wonder what the man saw.

“A Queen doesn’t like having a man set his heels down and get ready to fight her about something, so if you use Protocol to stop her, she’ll probably swear at you. A lot.”