The Royals

Chapter 8

The man raised up at the insult and she instantly brought the knife to his throat. 'Go ahead,' she offered, 'test my skills. I've been looking for a good sparring partner.'

He collapsed back to the ground.

'Who sent you?'

No answer.

"Come now, don't make this difficult. Give me the proper information and you might not spend the rest of your days in a dank prison cell.'

More silence.

Kate shrugged. 'Have it your way. Get up.'

He looked in her eyes. 'We deserve a true prince.' He made no motion to rise.

'You know,' she said casually, comfortable in her old mercenary role, 'I like a challenge. Thing is, though, I never lose. Are you sure you want to die tonight?"

Slowly he began to get off the ground, looking for another chance - and found it. The wind whipped snow into her eyes. As she blinked, the man yanked her feet out from under her and fled into the storm.

Ceeley went back to sleep once she finished her soup. Secure in Mama-Lyda's care, she didn't stir again until deepnight. When she woke, her new Mama and Papa were sitting not far away and talking so low she couldn't make out the words. The dwarf lay on her pallet, content to wait until they noticed her. She tapped her fingers on her blanket for a while and silently played counting games with herself after that. Maybe they needed a polite hint.

She sat up. 'Good morning, Mama-Lyda and Papa Willam.' The two looked up in surprise and came to crouch next to her.

'Shh,' said Papa, with his finger to his lips. 'It's very early.'

I didn't know you were awake.' Mama's face had worry lines all over it. 'Only just now. Is it time to get up?'

'No, child. The sun hasn't yet.' even considered rising

Oh.' She thought a minute. "Then why are you up?'

'We had to talk."

Ceeley nodded. 'My other mama and papa used to do that sometimes too."

Mama-Lyda smiled. 'I imagine they did. Celia?'

Mama looked as if she had something serious to say. The girl sat very still with her hands in her lap and waited to let her say it in her own way.

'Celia,' she began, 'we couldn't find your Uncle Walther.'

'Oh.' Ceeley didn't know how to feel about that. He tried hard, but he didn't know how to be a full day papa. He was just too busy. 'I guess he's get ting ready to face the elfwitch. She's coming here, you know.'

'Shh, daughter of my heart. You're safe here.'

Mama-Lyda didn't understand how much Ceeley knew and the child didn't suppose this was the best time to explain it to her. The dwarf just smiled and said, 'I know.'

No one spoke for a long moment.

'Is there something else you wanted to tell me?' the girl finally asked. 'Celia, I've been asked to undergo a long journey. I'll need to leave before first light.'

Ceeley tried not to let her disappointment show. She only had her new mama for a few hours and she was already leaving.

Mama-Lyda wrapped her arms around her in a big hug that felt so good the child could almost forget this was goodbye. She let go and leaned back.

"Take me with you,' Ceeley was saying before she thought about it.

Mama-Lyda shook her head. It will be hard going. We couldn't ask it of you.' Her eyes filled with tears.

Beside her, Papa-Willam held her hand and looked at the floor.

'It'll be okay,' Ceeley promised. She pulled herself straight with pride. 'I am of the Sailclan. We are all travellers."

'But you've come so far already.'

'It was good practice.'

'Well…' Willam spoke softly without looking at Ceeley. 'Come now, Lyda. The child must belong to someone here.'

'Look at her, Willam. Could it be any plainer that the Sisters sent her to us?'

She jumped into the other's arms.

'Great! Where are we going?'

Mama-Lyda's eyes went big at the question. Something haunted lurked there. She spoke into the girl's hair. I don't quite know.'

The girl shrugged. 'It doesn't matter where. I've sur vived the elfwitch twice. I can do it again.'

'See, Willam?' Mama-Lyda pleaded. She was meant to be with us.'

'All right, all right. Who am I to deny the Sisters?'

Ceeley looked around the room of sleeping people. 'What about them, Mama-Lyda?'

Mama-Lyda squeezed the child tight. 'I wish I could protect every one of them,' she said, 'but I have been called elsewhere. I've sent word to the prince to watch over them in my absence. It's all I can do.' She stared beyond the child into the room. Her voice went distant and she seemed to be assuring herself as much as Ceeley.

'They will be defended here in the capital. The Cliffs are dangerous too, but it is of a different sort which won't likely affect the refugees.'

The prince is a nice man and so is the princess,' Ceeley assured her. You'd like them.' 'Yes, I'm sure you're right,' not sounding sure in the least. 'I hope I'll meet them again one day.'

'We'd best be off,' Willam reminded them. 'Don't want to be 'ere when they wake or we'll be 'ere all day.'

'Yes, yes.'

Together the three stood to pull on their coats and gather up their few belongings. They bolted the door against the rising wind as the dawn birds cracked the crisp air with song. With the King's Sea to the west and deserted country directly north and south, their one possible heading was east- toward the elfwitch.

Abadan stared at Walther's most recent attempt to master the fusing potions and shook his head. "This doesn't seem to be your talent.'

Walther tried not to feel shame. 'No, it doesn't.'

'Surely a mage is not equally proficient in all things.'

Kate's speech went stiff with formality as she rose to the dwarf's defense.

Walther looked into the basin of failed magic and wished she would let the magician's annoyance pass.

'Surely not,' Abadan mocked her. But one hopes a modest level of competence would not become over taxing.' He seemed to point at Kate's flaws rather than the dwarf's.

She flushed angrily.

Stay silent, Walther thought. Just be still.

She would not. 'I would say he has achieved a modest level.'

You would say. You who are more able to judge than I?' The volume rose with each word so that his voice boomed out and echoed off the walls by the time he paused. When he spoke again, he barely whispered. Princess, I allowed you to return to your lessons this morning because I promised someone long ago. But sometimes I wonder that you don't have more of your mother than your father in you. Zera told me to be wary, that one of her rare dreams warned of birthing both the deliverer and the destroyer of our people.' He stared hard at her. 'I am not so sure she was wrong.

Kate's expression warred between outrage and grief. Tears welled in her eyes. Without another sound, she unbarred the door and ran from the room.

When Sir Maarcus met Abadan in the great hall, the magi cian was still fuming over Kate's most recent offense. Instead of coming out with it, he swore at his tasteless food and at the new cook.

Maarcus wasn't fooled. He'd heard about yesterday's incident not an hour after it happened. 'What were you expecting? We both know she's got a stubborn streak at least as wide as her father's. And who knows what influence her mother had?"

Abadan frowned, but made no effort to pretend he didn't know of whom the physician spoke. Like Maarcus, he didn't name her for fear someone might be listening. "That's precisely the problem. If she can't learn to be more self-disciplined, she'll never stand a chance against the elfwitch.'

'She's withstood her more than once. You should stop looking for trouble three towns out when there is plenty under your nose.'

'Resisting her is not the same as overcoming her.

'Well, no…' Maarcus let it hang. Abadan always had a way of cutting to the heart of a matter and leaving the physician feeling utterly demoralized in the process. It seemed Abadan needed precisely this reaction to fuel his own thoughts into creative paths. Maarcus didn't enjoy his role, but he'd quit fighting it long ago. A man came into the hall, shaking snow from his cape before joining the food line where portions were carefully ladled from the communal pot. Maarcus pictured Alvaria somewhere beyond the Dunavs where deepsnows seldom reigned. He doubted she would wait until the spring thaws to plot her return.

'Her power to compel others to do her will means she can act any time,' said Abadan echoing the physician's own thoughts. 'She' meaning Kate '-must under stand the urgency.'

The click of a courier's footsteps echoed on the stone floor as he came to a stop behind them.

'Why don't they let me finish a meal once in a while?' muttered Abadan. He quickly began to spoon in the thin stew.

'Sirs, a man requests an audience at your earliest opportunity.'

The magician spoke with his mouth full. 'Tell him we're eating.' 'With your permission, sir. He says to tell you his name is Tom and he sometimes known as Wanton Tom the mercenary.

Abadan leaned toward Maarcus and whispered around his food, "His daughter is up to something. I know it.' He didn't wait for the physician's answer before telling the man, 'We'll meet him in the library.'

The messenger dipped a quick bow and left.

Abadan tossed his spoon into the empty bowl. 'Dread ful stew, but that Wanton Tom has always had annoying timing just the same.'

Henry sheathed his sword. 'Another session like that and I might as well exercise with the recently departed cook.'

Maarcus gave him a sour grin. 'There's an idea.'

The prince didn't excuse the Shoreman's performance as much as he would have liked to. The bleak certainty that the witch was drawing ever nearer meant none of them could afford the luxury of wasting a few hours. 'Maarcus, though we all have reason to be distracted, it's no cause to permit lesser problems to rule us.'

'Sorry,' he said, doing his best to sound contrite. 'My mind is elsewhere.'

'I know. Is it Ceeley?'