Deathcaster Read online

  Lila and Shadow looked at each other. “When is the meeting?”

  “It’s happening right now,” Ruby said. “In the library.”

  They were sweaty and dirty from hours at the foundry, but they followed Ruby across the close to the coachmen’s entrance of the palace.

  It was bedlam inside the library, with council members milling around, firing questions at two travel-worn newcomers they had backed up against the wall.

  Shadow leaned in close to Lila’s ear. “Finn sul’Mander and Hadley DeVilliers,” he whispered. “Both wizards. Finn fought with the Highlanders for several years. DeVilliers is commander of our navy. They were on the team that went to rescue the princess heir.”

  Sul’Mander was handsome in an ethereal sort of way. He looked like the next of kin at a wake, someone who intended to follow the deceased to the other side. DeVilliers resembled the chance child of a street busker and a pirate.

  Lady Mander was planted next to her son, practically showing her teeth in an attempt to drive away the wolves. Lady Barrett was on his other side, holding his hand. Lord Vega hovered, as if ready to step into the breach. DeVilliers stood to one side, unattended. Her expression said that she wished she could be anywhere else. She didn’t seem the sort who’d be easily flustered or intimidated, but she looked to be both of those things right now.

  Scummer, Lila thought. Couldn’t we get some good news for a change?

  Finally, Barrett interposed herself between the council and the besieged. “I would ask you to hold your questions until Queen Raisa arrives, so that they only have to tell this story once.”

  “Queen Raisa isn’t coming,” Greenholt said.

  That landed like a cannonball in the duck pond.

  “The queen’s not coming?” DeVilliers’s expression shifted from distressed to alarmed.

  Mellony looked as unhappy as the naval commander. “What do you mean? She has to be here.”

  That hit Lila’s ear wrong. It was as if Mellony had planned a party and Raisa stayed home.

  “Captain Byrne is afraid that bad news might undermine the progress Her Majesty has made over these weeks. He has asked me to take careful notes and report back to him.”

  “That is unacceptable,” Princess Mellony said. “Captain Byrne should not be making these decisions, excluding the queen’s family and chosen council. Raisa should not be going through this alone.”

  “Captain Byrne is bound to serve the queendom and the Line, Your Highness,” Speaker Jemson said. “He cannot do otherwise. If that is his decision, we can assume that it’s an honest one, and in the queen’s best interest.”

  Princess Mellony opened her mouth to respond, but Lady Barrett held up her hand. “Please, Mother. Everyone else is here. Could we sit down and hear what Finn and Hadley have to say?” She was usually pale, but right now she looked positively ashen.

  “Lady Barrett is right,” Micah Bayar said. “This is getting us nowhere.” He pulled out a chair and sat.

  Everyone else followed suit.

  “First, let me emphasize that anything said in this room must be kept confidential, for the good of the queendom and the safety of the Line,” Barrett said. “Some of you already know that Her Highness Alyssa Gray was in Chalk Cliffs when it fell to Empress Celestine. We have evidence that she may have been carried off to the Northern Islands as a prisoner of the empress. A small team was organized to attempt a rescue. Members included Captain DeVilliers, Finn sul’Mander, Captain Sasha Talbot, and Prince Adrian sul’Han.”

  This was met with a storm of consternation.

  “You sent Prince Adrian to Carthis?” Lord Fenwaeter said. “After he’d just come back from the dead?”

  “I didn’t send Prince Adrian anywhere,” Barrett said, a little testily. “This was Prince Adrian’s mission from the beginning. Everyone else volunteered.”

  “Why wasn’t the council consulted?” Lord Howard said. “It seems to me that in a matter this important, we should have been involved.”

  Because this council leaks like a sieve, Lila thought. Because someone on this council poisoned the queen.

  “It was critical that the operation be kept a secret,” Barrett said. “It’s very possible that the empress does not know Alyssa’s identity, and we wanted to keep it that way. The only people who knew were those who were directly involved.”

  And you, Lila guessed.

  Barrett paused, as if waiting for further argument, but there was none. “Now,” she said, “who wants to begin?”

  Finn shook his head, looking down at his hands.

  “I’ll tell you the short of it,” DeVilliers said. “We were sailing off Deepwater Court, when—”

  “Deepwater Court?” Lord Howard said. “Where is that?”

  “The northern coast of Carthis. We were on our way to the Northern Islands, where we thought Lyss was being held—”

  “But you didn’t know for sure?” Lord Bayar said, glancing at Finn sul’Mander. The young wizard avoided his uncle’s gaze.

  “No,” DeVilliers said. “We didn’t know for sure. We came under attack by a Carthian vessel, and took a direct hit to the stern.” DeVilliers stopped, cleared her throat. “Finn and I launched one of the jolly boats when it was clear we couldn’t save her. She went down in a matter of minutes.”

  “What about Adrian and Sasha?” Barrett looked from Finn to DeVilliers.

  DeVilliers shook her head. “Ash and Sasha were aft when Sea Wolf was hit. There was no sign of them after. As far as we know, we were the only survivors.”

  The princeling is gone? Lila thought, stunned. After I spent all that time nannying him? It hit her unexpectedly hard. As she looked around the table, expressions ranged from dismay to horror.

  “What about the pirates?” Fenwaeter said. “Didn’t they come after you?”

  “We’d already taken out their mainmast,” DeVilliers said. “We were pulling away under full canvas when we were hit. By the time we went down, they were nowhere in sight.”

  Lila didn’t know DeVilliers, not really, but the story seemed incomplete, somehow, or maybe skeletal, like she’d left out important details. She glanced over at Shadow, and he was gazing at the ship’s master, frowning, rubbing his chin.

  “How did you get back?” Barrett kept looking at Finn, as if she expected him to contribute, but he said nothing.

  “We swam to shore in a cove near Deepwater Court,” DeVilliers said. “We stole a fishing boat, a two-master that I figured wouldn’t draw too much attention. We hugged the coast nearly all the way to Endru before we turned west.” She paused. “We were lucky, if you can call any part of this lucky.”

  “And so—we are no closer to rescuing Princess Alyssa,” Bayar said, looking even gloomier than usual.

  DeVilliers shook her head. “We’d hoped that Sasha could help us locate her. Now Sasha’s gone, and we don’t know where she is, or if she’s even still alive.”

  “Captain Byrne says she’s still alive,” Shadow said. “He says that he would know if she were dead.”

  “It would be wonderful if Captain Byrne were here to speak for himself,” Lord Vega said. “We keep hearing about this mysterious bond between the Byrnes and the Gray Wolf line. I can’t help thinking that the nature of the bond is more of the flesh and less of the spirit.”

  It was as if some rogue demon gripped Lila by the scruff of her neck and dragged her to her feet. “It would be wonderful if you would shut up about things you know nothing about,” she said. “Not only wonderful, but wise.”

  Vega stared at Lila as if she were a gnat buzzing around his head that had suddenly drawn blood.

  Before he could respond, Barrett intervened. “Your comment was inappropriate, Lord Vega,” she said. “Tempers are running hot, but I’ll ask you to keep a civil tongue and leave rumor and innuendo outside this chamber.” She turned to Lila. “Sit down, please, Lady Byrne.”

  Not until he takes it back, Lila wanted to say, like it was a schoolyard squabble. But
she sat down, aware that Shadow was looking at her with mingled astonishment and awe.

  “My point is that we have a queen in very ill health, and a missing princess heir,” Vega said. “The queen’s other children are already dead.”

  “That is an incredible streak of bad luck,” Bayar said. “I can’t help but think of our neighbors to the south—the Montaignes. Poor Prince Gerard lost his brothers, one by one, until there was only him.”

  “Explain yourself, Bayar,” Vega said, bristling.

  “Merely an observation,” Bayar said. “You were saying?”

  “We need to do something quickly to secure the royal succession,” Vega said.

  “I agree,” Lady Mander said. “We are a heartbeat away from chaos, and we are fighting a war on two fronts.”

  “Shall we assume that you have a proposal?” Lord Fenwaeter said.

  “Princess Mellony is next in line for the throne, after Alyssa,” Lady Mander said. “Wouldn’t it make sense to name her officially as the successor to Alyssa, in the event that—that, heaven forbid, Alyssa is dead?”

  Mellony held up both hands, palms out. “I appreciate your confidence in me, but I’ve never been well suited for politics, especially as it’s practiced today. It’s premature to be moving forward with this as long as there is a possibility that Alyssa is alive. The succession is, understandably, a sensitive subject for Raisa.”

  What’s that supposed to mean? Lila thought.

  “Sensitive or not, it must be addressed,” Lady Mander said. “In the meantime, it would be sensible for you to step in as regent while our queen is incapacitated. I believe the queen is making decisions with her heart and not her head.”

  “The queen is not incapacitated!” Bayar practically shouted. “She was here, in this chamber, a scant few days ago. I have learned over the years to believe in our queen, and not to count her out too quickly.”

  “It’s not a matter of counting her out,” Lord Vega said. “It’s a matter of—”

  “I would also say that it’s too soon to count out Meadowlark,” Shadow said. “I have known the princess heir since we were children together. I have fought beside her on the battlefield, and I can tell you this—against all odds, she will find a way to win. If she is held captive, she will escape, and she will return to us if she has to swim across the Indio.”

  “Which will be supremely difficult if she’s dead,” Lady Mander said.

  Shadow ignored this. “If General Dunedain and Shilo Trailblazer and others were here instead of fighting for the queendom, they would say the same. I mean no disrespect to Princess Mellony, but Lyss is the queen we need right now.”

  “I would agree, if she were here,” Lady Mander said. “I move that we name Princess Mellony as regent for Queen Raisa until she is able to return to her regular duties, or until Princess Alyssa returns home.”

  “I second that motion,” Lord Vega said.

  Again, the council dissolved into an uproar.

  Lila had a nose for conspiracy, and she’d caught the scent of it now. How had they so quickly segued into a vote about appointing a regent?

  “That’s not our decision to make, while the queen still lives,” Barrett protested, “especially when the queen has made her position clear.” But when the vote was taken, she voted for it. The motion passed, six to four.

  Mellony shoved back her chair and stood. “I will serve as regent for Raisa in her absence,” she said, “since that is the decision of the council. But when it comes to the succession, my daughter, Julianna, would be a much better choice than me.”

  Now all eyes turned to Barrett, who flushed under the scrutiny.

  Vega nodded. “I see your point. One could argue that Julianna has broader experience than Princess Alyssa, given that she has been presiding over this council since the queen’s illness and has served this government in both intelligence and diplomatic roles. Princess Alyssa has demonstrated considerable talents as a military commander, but she has spent little time in any official capacity at court.”

  “That’s just wrong,” Barrett said. “It’s unfair to compare me with Alyssa. It’s not like we’re competing for the job. She is the heir to the Gray Wolf throne, not me. We have much more important issues to consider.”

  “We do have important issues to consider,” Lord Howard said, “which is why we need leadership. Lady Barrett has been leading us in the absence of those in the direct line. Why not make it official?”

  “It seems to me,” Lord Fenwaeter said, “that we should address the issue of the succession as well as the regency. If Princess Mellony wants to step aside for Princess Julianna, why not formalize that now, so that there is no confusion if the worst happens?”

  “In essence,” Bayar said, “Lady Barrett would be next in the succession after Princess Alyssa? Replacing Princess Mellony?”

  “Precisely,” Lady Mander said.

  “The queen should be involved in decisions about the succession,” Bayar said.

  “The queen appointed two representatives,” Vega said, gesturing toward Lila and Shadow. “Isn’t that why they’re here? Because she is not?”

  Everyone looked at Lila and Shadow.

  I knew this would happen, Lila thought.

  “I don’t see why we have to make a decision right now,” Shadow said. He turned to Jemson. “Speaker Jemson, does this even fit with canon law?”

  “Canon law does not speak to this specifically,” Jemson said. “However, bear in mind that Lady Barrett would also stand behind any blood issue of Queen Raisa or Alyssa ana’Raisa, heirs to the Gray Wolf line.”

  “So the only thing that changes is that Lady Barrett steps in front of Princess Mellony when it comes to the succession,” Vega said.

  “Is that a motion?” Lady Mander said. “If so, I second it.”

  That motion passed, six to four. Shadow, Lila, Bayar, and Jemson voted against it. Lila’s vote sprang less from principle and more because she didn’t like the smell of it.

  Lila caught Shadow’s eye. What is going on? It was like they were actors in a play, and everyone had a script but them.

  “In light of these decisions,” Lady Mander said, “I suggest that we move forward with the marriage between Princess Julianna and Finn as soon as possible. We had hoped that Princess Alyssa and Prince Adrian could attend, but it seems that cannot happen. In these uncertain times, I don’t believe it is wise to wait. Their children will strengthen and protect the succession.”

  Hang on, Lila thought. We’ve already added Finn and Julianna’s unborn children to the Line?

  Finn’s head came up, and he gazed at Julianna with a kind of mournful longing, as if she were a bauble on a high shelf that he could never reach. Meanwhile, Captain DeVilliers was staring at Finn as if he were a fortress, and she was trying to devise a plan of attack.

  “Lady Mander,” Princess Mellony said, “I, too, look forward to seeing our children married, but I think circumstances dictate that we wait until Raisa is well enough to attend the wedding. A lavish celebration at this time seems . . . inappropriate.”

  We need to talk, Lila thought, meeting Shadow’s eyes. We definitely need to talk. And the sooner the better.

  31

  UP FROM UNDER

  Dawn came early this time of year, but Hal was up long before the sun. He and his handpicked crew had been on the move for most of the night. Now they were hunkered down just south of the city walls of Ardenscourt. Just behind them, two companies of his most seasoned soldiers waited to be called forward. The rest of his little army was gathered at Brightstone Keep, awaiting marching orders.

  The sky to the east was brightening, so Hal could now make out the silhouettes of sentries on the walls. He could hear their voices, and the soft splatter onto leaves as somebody pissed off the wall. These moments before a battle always got his blood moving.

  Stop it, he thought. With any luck, this wouldn’t be a battle at all. His mentor, Jan Rives, used to say that the best battles are
the ones that never happen.

  Hal was glad Bellamy wasn’t there, both because they were friends and because Bellamy, with his soldier’s sixth sense, might have somehow detected their plan. He knew where Bellamy was—they’d just received word that Delphi had fallen to Jarat’s army. The thanes and their armies should be traveling south on the North Road, heading for the capital. Hal meant to have the city secured before they arrived.

  Marc DeJardin materialized out of the trees, more a ghost than a mage.

  “How’d it go?” Hal whispered, trying to hide his relief. In many ways, DeJardin’s mission was the riskiest of all—to seek out collared mages in the city and offer them freedom in exchange for betraying their masters.

  DeJardin smiled his crooked smile. “I never saw a more treasonous bunch in my life,” he said, holding up the collar key. “After everything the empire has done for them. Shameful.”

  “Did anyone say no?”

  “No,” DeJardin said. “They’ll make sure the gate is open, too. And here.” He pressed a folded paper into Hal’s hand. “Here’s an up-to-date map of the city, with key locations marked.”

  Hal grinned. “Have you ever considered a military career, DeJardin?”

  The mage shook his head. “Like I said, all I ever wanted was to be a farmer.”

  Hal called his dozen men together. He’d chosen those who already knew the city well. Some had been serving in the garrison here a scant few weeks ago. They went over the map, and Hal handed each man an assignment and a scarf in Matelon colors, some blazoned with the spreading tree. He hoped that would minimize confusion, since most of his men still wore the dirtback brown of the regular army. As soon as all of the gates were open, his two companies would pour in, followed by the rest of the army.

  “I’d like to keep bloodshed to a minimum,” Hal said. “Our mages will barricade the barracks and keep anyone who’s still in bed out of the fighting. If you need to lock anyone up, bring them to Newgate. Lock the blackbirds in separate cells, away from the civilians.” Based on the intelligence they’d had, the city was garrisoned primarily by the King’s Guard. Most regular army members had marched north with Bellamy.