Kai held back his excitement with much difficulty as he hopped on the back of a black horse with elegant ease. Having this body surely kicked butt. He wondered just how good he was. Prince Sebastian was strong enough to kick a man the size of Conrad across the room and had ice lasers in his eyes, which, again, was pretty damned cool.

It served a lot that his body knew by itself what to do because he had never been on the back of a horse in his life. The troops were gathered on a large field, and Kai let the horse trot as he pretended that he knew what he was doing while looking over the armed men.

The horse also appeared to know when to stop and turn toward the troops. Hmm, was he supposed to hold a speech?

“Fellow men,” he started. Hmm, was that how it was done? Impassive eyes met him. “Tomorrow, we will slain some dragons.”

There was no reaction from the gathered men.

“This is all. Dismissed!” he shouted.

Nobody moved. The impassive eyes now seemed full of dismay.

Pepin hurried to him on the back of a smaller horse. “Your Majesty,” he whispered angrily, “you’re supposed to yell at them and tell them how bad they did on the last expedition.”

“How bad they did on the last expedition?” Kai whispered back.

Pepin seemed taken aback by his question. “They saved all the villages along the border and brought with them supplies for an entire year.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound so bad, right?”

Another discomfited reaction from Pepin confirmed that he had, actually, a tough time staying in character.

“All right.” He turned toward the troops again. “Last time, you sucked. Big time. I mean, come on, supplies for just one year?”

“It was all the villagers could spare.”

Kai turned toward Conrad, who was also on horseback and coming toward him. He wore a red coat that looked like it had been made to order and the same disgruntled expression on his face.

“What are you doing here?” Kai leaned slightly to one side and threw Conrad a questioning look.

“I am your royal concubine, whether I like it or not. You enlisted my services,” Conrad said through his teeth.

“Ah, okay.” It made perfect sense. Not really. “So the people couldn’t spare any more food. Is that it?”

“Yes.”

“Then it’s all ‘kay,” he said with a shrug. “Good job, people.” To emphasize that, he turned his thumbs up and grinned.

Panicked whispers were coming from the troops now.

“Seriously,” Kai said louder. “From now on, when we save a village or whatever, take only what the people can spare. All right? Are we good?”

There was no more movement, and all the eyes were on him, now filled with fear. Damn, he really was some sort of villain.

“Can I dismiss them now?” He turned toward Pepin.

“You’ll have to train the knights,” his servant reminded him.

“Of course. Everyone but the knights dismissed!” he shouted.

“The knights are waiting for you at the jousting grounds,” Pepin whispered.