The Royals

Chapter 10

Sisters spare him from smug young upstarts. These 'advisors' had been piloting the whole leaking boat for nearly two generations. Tom said nothing for a minute, watched the way even the old men took their cues from the prince. Uncomfortable as new fathers they were, but willing to stand back and let the kid risk a b****y knee. Tom swallowed bile. He spoke more formally than he had in a decade. 'Yes, I have.'

'We'd like to hear it,' Prince Henry said. It could have been an order, but it felt like a request.

'Well,' the mercenary began, 'I was astride Grosik-' 'His dragon,' Maarcus the Sixth explained. 'He travels with-'

The prince held up his hand for silence. 'I think it'll go more quickly if we let him say it his way.' Again, he seemed closer to asking a favor than stating a directive.

Okay, Tom thought, not just another smooth-skinned face. 'We were looking for my daughter Ginni. You might remember her.' He paused then said without a hint of venom, 'She tried to help you escape the elfwitch.'

'I remember.' His face and voice went blank with the effort to mask his feelings.

Tom lost track of the others in the room. Suddenly he was just a father addressing the man who'd spurned his daughter. He couldn't resist twisting the knife. 'She's not been herself since Roslin died. Last night, hours before we'd planned to bring her here, she disappeared.'

"With all due respect, Henry, what has this got to do with the trolls?'

'Patience, Maarcus. You're as bad as your grand father. He glanced toward the Shoreman and softened his words with a genuine smile.

His attention returned to Tom. 'kidn*pped?'

'Unlikely.'

'Then what?"

'I think she's gone to the Tower of the Forty-nine Mages.'.

'What can we do about it and why should we?' The question could have been harsh, but wasn't.

'She's alone in the worst winter anyone can remember on her way to a place she's never been with equal odds of being welcomed and destroyed.'

'I see.'

'No matter what, you can bet your boots she will not come out the same girl she went in.'

The prince sounded age-old. 'None of us do, Tom. None of us.' The last three words seemed to hang in the air. 'Tell me about the trolls.'

'That's it? No "we'll think about it, see what we can do."?" 'We'll do more than either, but first the trolls.'

Tom doubted they'd give him another chance to discuss Ginni, but he let it go. Years of turmoil didn't change much. When the king nods, subjects scurry to obey. Make that 'prince,' he thought. We were looking for my daughter, north and a touch east of The Cliffs, 'bout halfway between here and what's left of Three Falls. Weirdest sight I ever saw. Must've been a couple hun'erd of 'em, all stumbling this way like they had an appointment with the king.'

Henry frowned.

'Sorry about that.' The oddness of the scene had shaken him and he'd let his usual loose language slip in despite his best intentions.

'Not important."

'They just kept going. Nothing stopped them.'

'They'll rest at night,' the prince said, as if he'd seen them in action. 'But nothing will stop them by day if the elfwitch has set them a task.'

'I was still hoping to speak with Sir Maarcus and Master Abadan about Ginni,' he continued, 'so I was trying to talk Grosik into heading this way. After that, even he agreed we had to alert you.'

'We appreciate it. Any idea how fast they're mov ing?'

Tom considered the terrain. 'I'd say they'll be here within a couple seven-days, maybe less if the weather holds.' Henry turned to his sister.

They said as one voice, 'For them, it'll hold.'

Kate hummed to herself as she cinched her pack tight. She was getting out of this treacherous town and couldn't leave fast enough. She had just one task left to help put her mind at ease and only her twin could help her there.

She waited in the doorway of Henry's office while he gave his man instructions. 'Move the gentleman into the east wing. It's warmer. And be sure he has a view of the mountains if you can.'

'Very good, sire.' He nodded and left.

'Kind of you to find Tom a better room.'

'I don't imagine he likes it indoors any better than you do.'

'But not you?' Kate asked, wondering if there really were a dragon buried down inside him somewhere.

'I could use fresh air now and again, but I've got Maarcus Senior and his swordplay to keep my blood flowing.'

'Be honest, Henry. Aren't you aching to put a long day's hike between you and civilization?'

Henry smiled sadly. He glanced toward the shutter likely closed against yesterday's storm and back to his sister.

'Well one of us has to stay put and I seem the more candidate."

Kate went to stand by the fire. 'Why is that, do you suppose?'

She'd planned to gauge his reaction to the incident on the ridge and the other in the plaza. As the silence stretched she found herself wondering, Had he sent someone to kill her? Could he have known about the poison? He never touched the tainted food.

In the fireplace a log burned in two, falling with a loud c***k and sending flames high.

'I wish you'd told someone you were going out last night. I was up until all hours waiting for word. And when my man came back and said he couldn't find you…'

"Sorry to make you worry, Henry. I just needed

'Air,' he finished for her.

He still knew her mind, but should she presume the same? So much conversation about the very thing that bothered her made her feel more penned in. Was he merely showing he understood? Or did he hope to make his sister more eager to leave, by purposely reminding her of her aversion to cities with their ever-present buildings stuffed overfull with people?

'Well,' she said cheerfully, 'I'm ready to go. My room's so tidy the chambermaid will be hard-pressed to find anything left of mine.'

He brightened as if he hadn't heard such good news in weeks. That's splendid!'

'If I didn't know better, I'd say you're glad to be rid of me.' She hoped she sounded carefree behind her tense smile, but found herself thinking, Do I know better? It was less trouble to grasp his reasoning when he couldn't speak.

As if to prove her suspicions right, her twin gave her a look she couldn't read. 'You'll be safe,' he said. 'I'm not certain what makes me believe it, but you will be. Even if, Sisters forbid, you get caught, the elfwitch has different plans for you. Her primary goal with me was to demonstrate her power before her people.'

'But what about her-'

'Armies? Leading them would have been useful to her, but she never counted on it. She could dispense with me without a second thought.'

'Ah, Henry, don't say that.'

'You know it's true.'

Kate looked past him to the shuttered window. He was right the elfwitch had risked killing him in the - transformation. But what if you'd died in front of the crowd?'

'So, she hammers home her control over life and death. Kate, you are the daughter she couldn't raise and the mother she rejected all in one. She won't turn against you so easily.'

She folded her arms across her chest. 'Great. She'll simply t*****e me endlessly hoping I bow to her will. That's something to look forward to.'

"There's the old spirit.' His smile was genuine and infectious.

It blew away her suspicions like a spider-web in a strong wind. She responded with a grin of her own. They stood chuckling at each other for absolutely no reason at all, but she still couldn't bring herself to tell him about the night before.

'I'd like you to take something with you.' Henry crossed the room to the fireplace. He slid open the corner of the mantelpiece to reveal a small secret chamber. "I found this and the dagger within not long after I decided to use this room as an office. It was the only thing that lay inside it. I've come to think of it as my own good luck charm.'

He stepped over to her to hand her a hilted dagger wrought in sterling silver. It shone as if it would never tarnish. On the pommel's round tip was a deep engraving of the royal crest.

'It matches your dragon coin. It must have been our father's. King Tomar, that is.'

The princess nodded. Odd to hear the Great King referred to that way. Kate pulled her own smaller dagger from her boot. You remember this one. It's the blade Maarcus left behind when he hired us to guard the elfwitch. Take it.'

'But won't you need it?'

"Trolls won't appreciate the subtleties of a concealed knife and Alvaria no doubt already knows where I keep it. Besides I'll have Maarcus to watch my back.'

'Well, all right then.' Henry reluctantly accepted the gift. He examined the blade, balancing it in his hand. Suddenly he gripped the handle and threw the dagger. It whipped past Kate to bury itself in the mantel at the exact spot where the larger dagger had been hidden. The prince nodded. A fine knife. Thank you.'

She silently watched him as he retrieved the blade. Her heart pounded in her ears and her throat was tight 'You're welcome,' she managed. I'm being foolish, she told herself. I've just seen the wrong end of too many knives lately. But she couldn't fully convince herself he hadn't meant the dagger for her. Kate gave him weak smile. 'Maybe you shouldn't bother Sir Maarcus to further your sword-fighting. I think you've found your weapon.'

Maarcus the Sixth glanced at the two at his side. Abadan hurried along, stiff and serious. Walther, though much shorter, calmly kept pace. Nearly out of breath himself, the physician asked, 'Can't we do this in your rooms instead?'

Abadan glared at him. 'No.' His face was grim, grim mer than Maarcus expected.

The physician hated Abadan's magic chamber. The concentrated magicks seemed to press all around him here, though the sorcery could not influence him for good or ill. Just one in a lengthy family line of men who had no talent for deciphering any of the magician's work, Maarcus longed to prod and poke these as he would the tangible realm of his medicines. Barring that and try as he might to do otherwise, he could only fear it.

As always Abadan ignored the physician's reluctance. The wards in his chamber made it the safest place to go to address any matter of import. Maarcus let out a sigh, and the three proceeded down the hall without speaking.

Once inside with the door bolted shut, the physician did his best to dismiss his misgivings. The magicks were not intended to bedevil him. 'The elfwitch must be resting today,' he ventured in a light tone. 'I don't smell any rotting flesh.' 'Be quiet, fool. How can you suggest such a thing when the trolls even now are massing for attack?'

'Sorry.'

Abadan scolded the physician as if he were a child, but he didn't take offense. Since Zera's death, he seemed more and more unable to focus beyond his own small needs.

'I've never seen the phenomenon up close before,' Abadan was saying. 'It would have been interesting to…'

Maarcus stared at his friend. I'd think the girl's situation is rather more serious than hollow experiments, he said primly.

'Baah, pay attention, you old f-'Abadan leaned in to get a closer look at the physician's eyes. You need more sleep,' he said, but Maarcus was sure he was thinking something else. 'I'm not talking about idle curiosity,' he continued. This is critical. Roslin could have been a powerful ally and ultimately became a dreadful enemy. If her daughter knows even a portion of what she knew, we.

He let the sentence hang. Maarcus imagined the words struggling for an ending and vainly trailing into open space.