Changeling Illusion (Thirteen Realms Book 3) Page 13
“Luckily, they killed no one. But the palace is in an uproar. Queen Ceinwen has taken the princess and fled to Summer to seek shelter with her brother, insisting that she won’t return until Rothbold can guarantee their safety.”
“But who was their target?”
“Apparently, the princess herself. I don’t have many details. That was Raven; he came here to recall me to Whitehaven. The king is furious.”
“No wonder the queen is in a panic if they are targeting her daughter. Was it the Night Vipers again?”
He sat down on the bed beside me to pull on his boots. “No one knows.” He leaned close to press a hard kiss on my lips, followed by a soft one on each breast. My nipples tingled as he smiled ruefully at me. “I’m sorry, Allegra, I have to go. I’ll come back as soon as I can, or send word.”
“Of course,” I said. This was clearly an emergency; the king needed him.
He took my hand, looking down at our intertwined fingers. “I never had to protect anyone but the king before, and now I’m torn. I want to go and I want to stay, but I can’t do both.” He pressed a kiss into my palm and added softly, “I know it bothers you that I want to protect you, but that’s part of who I am. I’m afraid that’s one thing that will never change.”
“I know. So much for ‘life is change’, right?” I said, quoting Yriell from the night before.
“Well, she has a point. But not all change is bad. Remember that.” He stood up, releasing my hand. “I thank the Lady every day for the change that swept you into my life.”
He didn’t look back, his face already set towards his duty as he left the room and closed the door softly behind him.
What time was it? I still felt groggy, as if I’d only had a couple of hours’ sleep, and there was no sign of dawn yet outside the window. I lay down and tried to sleep again, but the moment had passed. My head was now too full of plots and assassins, of love and loss, and a great fear of what was to come.
After a few moments, I gave up the struggle, got up, and dressed. Then I went in search of company. Perhaps the others were still awake. I wouldn’t put it past Yriell to be still up drinking. I’d never met someone with such a capacity for alcohol.
I passed a couple of servants in the corridors, but the large hall where my friends had gathered was empty now. I hesitated, wondering what to do with myself. Perhaps a walk. It was a warm night and the exercise might help clear my head.
Inevitably, my footsteps turned towards the town. A curious drake swooped about my head as I passed the first house, then whizzed off to join a group of his friends who were perched on a nearby roof, watching the comings and goings in the town like spectators from a grandstand.
Seeing the drake’s easy flight, so playful and assured, tore at my heart unexpectedly. Squeak should be up there, not languishing in a sickroom, a shadow of his former self. I reached tentatively down our bond, but found nothing at the other end. Either he was asleep or he had shut me out, so I let my footsteps guide me toward the lake. I wandered along its shore for some time, listening to the chatter of the drakes and watching them dive and splash in the smooth, glassy waters beneath the setting moon.
Maybe we should bring Squeak out here, where he could see the sky and feel the wind on his face. It couldn’t be doing his mood any good to be cooped up inside. I’d suggest it to Morwenna. Perhaps it would help.
As the sky began to lighten in the east, I turned my steps back up the hill toward the castle. One day soon, I would have to spend a lot of time in this town, getting to know the inhabitants, the people of my Realm. But today was not that day. At the moment, I had nothing to offer anyone but fear and frustration.
A voice hailed me as I made my way up the hill. Turning, I saw Lirra hurrying toward me, so I stopped and waited for her.
“I thought that was you,” she said.
A dark foreboding filled me as I took in the downturned corners of her mouth and the shadows in her eyes.
“Is everything all right?” I asked sharply. “Is Squeak—?” I stopped, too choked with a sudden fear to complete the sentence.
“He’s sleeping. But when I went to change his dressing just now, I found these.” She opened her hand and showed me three glittering jewels.
I stared, uncomprehending. Even in dawn’s dim light, they sparkled against her skin like diamonds. “I don’t understand. Are these Squeak’s?”
She nodded. “He’s shed them.”
“But I thought adults didn’t moult.”
“He’s not moulting. This is different.” Her eyes filled with tears, and I drew in a sharp, frightened breath at the knowledge in her gaze. “Sometimes when they … when they near the end, they lose their jewels.”
“Near the end?” I choked. “How long has he got?”
She shrugged helplessly. “Three days, four days—maybe more. But not much more. Mama thinks you should come.”
I turned to go with her back to the town, but then I stopped, realisation dawning on me. There was nothing I could do for him there. There was nothing anyone could do. If I was going to save him, I had to try something different.
“No. She’s wrong. I have to go.” I spun on my heel and began striding toward the castle.
“Where?” she called after me. “Where are you going?”
“To Whitehaven. It’s his last chance.”
14
I burst back into the castle foyer, the heavy door slamming shut behind me. “Raven? Raven!”
Was he still here? Perhaps he’d gone back to Whitehaven with Kyrrim. I should have done that, too, though Kyrrim wouldn’t have been too happy about it. But now the clock was ticking, and Squeak was fast running out of time. The threat of assassins paled in comparison—not that they would have hung around the palace after their attempt on the princess failed.
I took the stairs two at a time and threw open the door of Raven’s usual bedroom after a hasty knock. No sign of him. A passing servant eyed me curiously as I left the room.
“Have you seen Raven?” I demanded.
The man frowned. “I think he went down to the town to see Morwenna.”
Great. I’d only just come from there. I must have missed him somewhere on the way. But at least he was still on the island. I muttered a thanks as I brushed past and hurried back down the stairs.
I’d just gained the tiled floor of the entry when the front door opened again, and the man himself walked in. Hallelujah.
“Raven! Thank the Lady.”
His eyebrows rose as he shut the door behind him, a lot more gently than I had done. “I don’t usually get such a fervent reception. I must admit, a man could grow to like it.”
“Get me off this island,” I said. “I need to get to Whitehaven.”
“Not a good idea at the moment. Whitehaven is like a kicked ant’s nest.”
“I know, I know, the assassination attempt. It doesn’t matter. I have to get there—right now.”
“Why? What’s wrong?”
“Have you just come from Morwenna’s?”
He nodded.
“Then you’ve seen Squeak. Lirra says he only has a few days left.”
His face took on a gentle sympathy that I’d never seen before. His default expression was two parts mocking, one part self-deprecation. It made him look younger, more real somehow, as if he wasn’t playing a role for once.
He stepped forward and took both my hands in his. “I’m sorry. Truly I am.”
I gazed up into his face as tears sprang to my eyes. “I have to help him.”
“But how will going to Whitehaven help him?”
“The Dragon said to talk to him if Squeak needed help.” Dread tore at my heart. Was I crazy for believing that anyone could do anything for Squeak now? Morwenna and Yriell, both fine healers, had said the damage was permanent. But a flicker of hope still persisted in the depths of my stubborn heart. “He said dragons were better at healing wing damage than anyone else.”
“But Morwenna said—”
“The Dragon? As far as I know. The king has sent a delegation headed by the Hawk to retrieve the queen and his daughter from Summer, but the rest of the knights are on high alert. As you can imagine, security at the palace has been tightened.”
I squeezed his hands. “Then help me, please. I can’t get off this island without you.”
“That’s probably something we need to fix.”
“Indeed.”
The wards had been loosened to allow Kyrrim to gate in and out with his magic sword, but there was still no direct access to the Wilds from Arlo for anyone. Not even for someone who was the nominal ruler of this place. I needed someone with wings to fly me down to the surface before I could use my own magic to navigate the Greenways to Whitehaven.
“But we’d have to call a council meeting and stuff around, and we just don’t have that kind of time right now.” Squeak didn’t have that kind of time. “And you already have form in toting me around.”
He grimaced. “You don’t have to rub it in. One little kidnapping and everyone keeps going on about it forever.”
“So you’ll do it?”
“The Hawk will probably have my balls for it, but yes.”
“Good.” I stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek, then raced away for the stairs. “Just hang on one minute while I grab something.”
I was back a moment later, the cloak of shadows scrunched into my back pocket. Hopefully this would be a very straightforward mission, and I wouldn’t need it, but the way my luck was running lately, it seemed like a good idea to bring it along. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
We stepped outside into a crisp early morning with not a hint of breeze. The air was so still it was as if the world was holding its breath. Raven looked up at the sky with the practised eye of a born flyer as we hurried across the courtyard and out through the gates. At the top of the hill, he swept me up into his arms as huge black wings burst from his back.
“Ready?” he asked.
I nodded, clutching him firmly around the neck. This certainly wasn’t my favourite way to get around, but I trusted him to take care of me. My stomach dropped like a stone as he launched us skyward, the thunder of his labouring wings filling my ears.
Once he’d cleared the trees, he slipped sideways, finding an invisible breeze, and we sailed smoothly over the edge of Arlo. It was the oddest feeling to see it disappear above us. It was so easy to forget, when you were standing on its surface, that it was floating in mid-air, buoyed up by magic. It felt so solid. Now I could look up and see the crumbling earth underneath it, the rocks and the deep roots of trees holding it all together. I shuddered and looked away. At least soon it would be back on the ground where it belonged.
The land below us was blanketed in forest—dark pines and huge spreading oaks. Here and there, a bald outcropping of rock shouldered its way through the trees, reaching for the sky above. It looked almost as wild as the Wilds themselves, and there wasn’t a hint of fae habitation anywhere. Not a rooftop, nor a curl of smoke, not a cultivated field, nothing. A thin ribbon of silver glinted here and there among the trees, showing the winding course of a river, and it was towards this that Raven soared.
“Welcome to my father’s Realm,” he said as he set me down with a grunt of effort.
We stood on a rocky shore by the river, which looked cold and deep, its waters rushing purposefully to some point further away. Behind us, one of the great bald outcroppings of rock towered, the size of a decent office block back in Sydney. Never had I felt further from that familiar world.
“Thanks. I have to say, though, this part doesn’t look all that inviting.”
“That’s why it made such a perfect place to hide Arlo,” Raven said. “No one in their right mind ever comes here unless they absolutely have to.” He gestured at the mammoth rock behind us, and I noticed a dark cave opening to one side. “Shall we?”
“In there? That looks like a really bad idea.” In fact, it looked like the kind of place you’d find a fairytale monster or two lurking in the dark, all teeth and claws, just waiting for an unwary traveller to take refuge from a storm.
“Don’t be such a chicken. I use this one all the time; it’s a nice handy threshold. Do you want to do the honours or shall I?”
“You can.” I was still gazing doubtfully at the looming mouth of the cave. “That way if you’re wrong and there is something in there, it gets to eat you first.”
“Nice. Glad to see you care.” But he strode towards the menacing cave mouth with such insouciance that I followed, reassured. After all, we weren’t actually going into the cave, just using the power of threshold magic inherent in its entry.
Sure enough, as I stepped through at Raven’s back, no dark cave closed in around me. Instead, a world of trees opened, with a shimmering path leading away into the green dimness ahead.
“Stay on the path,” Raven said.
“This isn’t my first rodeo, thanks.” My feet were glued to this sucker like you wouldn’t believe. I’d lost the path once in the Wilds, and once was plenty.
Raven cast a grin at me over his shoulder. “Just thought you might need a reminder. Thing One isn’t here today to lead us out of danger.”
“Where are your little henchmen?” I asked. “I haven’t seen them for a while.”
Things One and Two had been almost like pets to me for a while there. They had lived in Rowan’s backyard, keeping an eye on me in the mortal world. Every day, I’d fed them and talked to them, never once imagining that they were anything other than ordinary ravens.
“They’re keeping very busy. My little raven friends are my eyes and ears in many a Realm. How do you think I always have the best gossip?”
A branch snapped in the forest off to my right, and I jumped reflexively. Normally, I liked forests, having grown up in one. But the Wilds were no ordinary forest and they always made me ill at ease. Already, my shoulder blades were beginning to itch, insisting that something behind me was watching. I resisted the urge to look over my shoulder, knowing I would see nothing. It was just the inherent magic of the Wilds, hostile to everything and everyone except Yriell, who treated the place like her own backyard. For the rest of us, this was no ordinary stroll through the woods.
Determinedly, I banished thoughts of the hideous dharrigals that had attacked us last time and focused on putting one foot after the other, following Raven along the path.
“And what gossip have they collected for you from Summer?” I asked, desperately trying to distract myself from my growing unease. The Greenways were unpredictable. Sometimes a trip through the Wilds could take hours, sometimes only a few moments. It depended on the power of the person who was using them, the strength of their will, and probably half a dozen other random things that no one had any control over. It was an unpredictable place. If I let it get to me this early, I’d be a raving mess by the time we made it to Whitehaven.
I’d never missed Kyrrim and his marvellous sword more.
“My birds don’t fly to Summer anymore. I lost too many of them that way. Alas, Lord Kellith is not a trusting man.” There was a certain grimness to his tone. He really loved those birds of his.
“What about Night Vipers? Have you heard any whisperings about them?”
“That’s certainly a hot topic at the moment, especially since the attack on the palace. But there’s not a lot of talk. They’re old hands at flying under the radar. Not that we need spies to tell us who has paid them to come after you.”
“I guess not. Everyone knows Kellith has it in for me, and he’s fully capable of stooping that low, the bastard. But he wouldn’t have ordered an attack on the princess, so there must be more people in play than we realised.”
“I did hear some speculation that the attack might have been staged
.”
“What? You mean it wasn’t the Vipers?”
“No, it was the Vipers, just not a genuine attack. The theory I heard was that Kellith paid for it.”
I stopped walking, astonished. “Kellith paid the Vipers to pretend to attack the princess? Whose theory is that? Are they crazy?”
He grinned at me. “A gentleman never reveals his sources.”
I shook my head, still floored by the idea. “But why would Kellith do that?”
“Don’t you think it’s a little convenient that his sister and niece immediately fled to his protection? Having them under his roof gives him a nice bargaining tool when the talk turns again to betrothals, doesn’t it?”
“That’s got to be a new low, even for him. Using his own family as hostages?”
He laughed. “Welcome to the Realms, my dear, where everyone smiles to your face and then stabs you in the back. Betrayal is practically a national sport for us fairies, didn’t you know?”
He sounded bitter, as if he’d experienced betrayal up close and personal, but perhaps that was a story for another time. My hands were already full with what I was dealing with at the moment. And besides, he was the son of a Lord. He was capable of handling his own shit.
“Not all fairies are like that. Kyrrim isn’t. He’d rather die than betray someone.”
“Ah, well, we can’t all be as perfect as the mighty Hawk.”
I bristled a little. Just because he was helping me didn’t mean I would put up with him bad-mouthing Kyrrim.
But he continued, “Truly, the world would be a better place if there were more men like your Hawk in it.” He cast a sardonic grin over his shoulder. “Sadly, there are too many like me.”
“Oh, you’re full of it. You’ve been busy helping the Illusionists for years. There’s nothing wrong with you or your morals, whatever you like to pretend.”
“I didn’t realise psychotherapy was on the menu for our little stroll.”
“I’m just saying.”
“And here I was thinking that you didn’t trust me. I kidnapped you, remember? And burned down your house. I know your friend Rowan won’t forgive me any time soon for that.”