by JA Andrews
“Lukas isn’t using the dragon everywhere,” Sini said to him, glad to speak to someone besides Madeleine. “I believe he’s traveling east. Toward the moors of Gringonn. He may be there already.”
He raised a skeptical eyebrow. “The moors? When we know his dragon is in the west? Can you prove this?”
Sini glanced at the queen, her earlier outrage fizzling out and leaving her feeling mostly awkward. “It’s just an impression I get from studying his movements. In the past few weeks, more incidents have been reported in areas adjacent to the moors.”
Madeleine didn’t wait for the queen before she answered in a cool voice. “Do you expect us to act on your ‘impression’, Keeper Sini?” The name was said without inflection, but Sini swore she heard some contempt. “Or is it that you don’t really want us to find him? I understand he was your foster brother for several years, but we are faced with a real threat from him and his dragon in the west. And you want us to turn our focus from there to a whole different part of the world?” Her grey eyes weighed Sini coldly. “Whose side are you on?”
Chapter Ten
Whose side was she on?
The room fell silent and every eye turned toward Sini. Will’s lips pressed together in indignation, but neither he nor Alaric answered for her.
For a moment, Sini had no answer. It wasn’t a question of sides. It was a question of…what?
Words from Chesavia’s journal came to mind.
“I’m on the side of truth and right and goodness.”
Her voice didn’t sound nearly as confident as Madeleine’s had, but Alaric gave a tight smile and an approving nod. Madeleine showed no sign of recognizing the quote.
The coldness in Madeleine’s face made Sini continue. “Lukas isn’t some evil creature filled with single-minded hatred. He’s a person, like you,”—Madeleine’s eyes flickered at the comparison—“and like me. If we forget that, we won’t truly understand what he’s doing. There’s no point discussing someone if you’re just going to put up a smoky shape of them and pretend you can blow them away. Surely he is more complex than that.”
Madeleine sat back in her chair, apparently unmoved. The slightest hints of a smile curled her lips, not adding any warmth. “You defend him passionately.”
Before Sini could gather herself enough to answer, Will cleared his throat and leaned over the map. “Sini, tell the queen what you told us about Lukas and the gold.”
Sini attempted to push down her irritation and turned to Queen Saren. “Lukas thinks of gold as something that enslaves people, not something to be desired.” She told her of Lukas’s disdain. The queen, the Keepers, and Roan spent some time discussing the situation. Madeleine watched silently, but didn't comment.
Sini expected scorn from Roan. But he merely discussed the idea coolly. “If Lukas only wanted to keep the gold from everyone else, he would have succeeded by blocking off the valley with the rock slides. There’d be no reason to murder so many and leave a dragon there to oversee more mining.”
“It’s possible,” Alaric agreed, “that years of living on his own has changed his feelings about money. It’s easy to see it as an unnecessary evil when you don’t need any of it yourself.”
“But then why the dead man with the shackles of gold?” Sini asked, glad the conversation had finally turned civil.
Will nodded. “That was a message of contempt.”
“Maybe it’s only about control.” Roan leaned forward and pulled a map toward himself. “Gold controls the merchants, and the merchants have a great deal of sway in the kingdoms of Coastal Baylon, Napon, and Queensland.” He turned to Sini. “Do the gold merchants travel to the Sweep?”
She nodded. “While the clans winter in the south.”
“Have you had any news from the Sweep recently?” Saren asked Will.
“I haven’t heard from Killien in six months.”
The queen looked at him narrowly. “Should we be worried?”
Will hesitated. “I’m not sure.”
“On one level it doesn’t matter whether Lukas plans to use the gold for something or just hoard it,” Alaric said. “The longer he holds the gold, the more he’ll destabilize the region, and we are powerless to do anything as long as the dragon is guarding it.”
“Do you mean to say,” Madeleine said, “that it’s a Keeper—or whatever the opposite of a Keeper is—who’s controlling a dragon, but the other Keepers have no way to fight him?”
“Historically,” Will pointed out, “the person controlling the dragon does have the upper hand.”
“I know how to make compulsion stones,” Sini added. At least in theory she did. “Which is how Lukas is controlling it. But unless you know of another dragon nearby that we could use, it won’t do us much good.”
Alaric shot them both quelling looks. “Lukas isn’t a Keeper. If he’d been raised in Queensland he probably would be. But the magic he learned on the Sweep is different than ours.”
“Stronger, obviously,” Madeleine continued, “since he can control a dragon and the rest of you cannot.” She turned back toward the queen. “It doesn’t matter that the rest of the Keepers haven’t come, your majesty. I’m not sure they are quite what they used to be.”
Alaric’s eyebrow rose and Will stiffened in his chair and Sini’s face reddened.
“One is married and starting a family.” Madeleine gestured to Alaric. “Another is enamored with a foreign woman.” She flicked a dismissive hand at Will. “One of them—Rett is his name, correct?— is so damaged he needs constant care.”
Sini’s fists clenched and she leaned forward, but Will put a hand on her shoulder.
“And then there’s the best one of all—Lukas should be a Keeper, but instead he’s come to hate them and has said, given the power, he’d destroy them all. And from what we’ve seen lately, he’d destroy Queensland with them.”
Sini bit back all the things she wanted to hurl at the woman. Will said nothing either, but his hand on her shoulder was tight.
“I believe,” Alaric said mildly, “you’ll find the Keepers less altered than you think.”
“The Keepers are quite as useful as they’ve ever been,” the queen admonished her. “While they do seem to be going through…” She glanced around the table. “A transition of sorts, it’s foolish to assume we don’t need them.”
Madeleine sat stiffly in her chair.
“What I need to know,” the queen continued, “is the level of military threat Lukas is posing. He has a dragon. Does he also have an army?”
“The ranger company thinks not,” Roan answered. “They’ve found no evidence of any open troop movement in Napon or Coastal Baylon, but by the time we see any, it will be too late to begin mobilization. We need to assume that Lukas is using the gold, and buying an army is the only thing I can think of that would need that much money.”
Queen Saren’s eyes ran over the map. “Have the garrisons at the three outposts in Marshwell and the two in Greentree tripled. How quickly can we raise a larger force?”
Sini found herself with little to add to the military conversation. She had no insight into troop movements or supply lines or the capacity of Marshwell versus Greentree for a large company.
Madeleine, raised in western Marshwell, had a great many opinions, as did Roan, who had helped his father defend the border between Queensland and Napon his entire life. Will and Alaric discussed the leadership of the different countries, calculating who would be more likely to work with Lukas. Madeleine debated them on every point. Only Sini had nothing to say.
Several servants, each better dressed than Sini, brought enough food to feed a dozen people and Sini picked at her plate of bread and fruit and roasted meat. The queen, Roan, and the Keepers turned to questioning Sini closely about Lukas, and she began to feel like she was contributing. At least when Madeleine wasn’t speaking.
The princess never warmed up. She found fault with any theory Sini mentioned about Lukas, and probed any hint of sympathy,
keeping Sini in an almost constant state of indignation. Neither Alaric nor Will seemed surprised by Madeleine’s attitude, but Will didn’t hide his annoyance quite as well as Alaric. Roan kept all his questions to the point, asking for details about Lukas in a commanding sort of tone, but leaving opinions to Madeleine. He paid special attention every time Sini spoke. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being examined. Queen Saren, too, showed a great deal of interest in Sini’s views, especially concerning Lukas.
The windows had grown dark before the queen drew the discussions to a close. “Tomorrow afternoon,” she said to Alaric, “I’d like to see a proposal from you and the battalion leaders for troop deployment for different scenarios.”
“We have one last matter to discuss,” Saren continued. “There have been some troubling incidents near the Keepers’ wing. A broken window in Will’s room and some items missing. Yesterday a maid saw a man breaking into Alaric’s room through the garden window while Evangeline was there alone.”
Sini’s gaze snapped to Alaric, his face was bleak.
“The man eluded capture,” Saren said.
Will ran his fingers through his beard, frowning. “That explains the extra guards around Evangeline.”
“Not just her,” Saren said. “All of you. I’ve stationed guards in the garden outside your rooms and more at your doors. We don’t know for sure that this is related to Lukas, but I don’t know of anyone else threatening to harm Keepers. You will be escorted, even inside the palace, until I feel that the threat is over.”
“That’s not necessary,” Will objected, but Saren fixed him with a stern gaze.
“The Keepers may be…in crisis, but you’re the only ones we have, and you will remain safe and at my disposal. Roan is in command of the unit of the city guard assigned to protect you. And he answers directly to me.”
Madeleine stood and smoothed her dress.
Roan rose and offered his arm, which she took.
“It would be better if all of the Keepers had come as her majesty commanded,” Madeline said. “We cannot protect them if they are not here.”
“I believe they’re quite safe in the Stronghold,” Alaric said.
Madeleine made a non-committal noise. After a curtsey to the queen and a cold nod to the Keepers, she left. Sini rubbed her hands across her face. The day had been the most exhausting one she’d had in years. She pushed her hands back into her hair, realizing it was still windswept from traveling. She felt a kick of defeat at her appearance compared to the queen and Madeleine.
Sini glanced over at Alaric, wondering how he stayed here and did this every day. The Keepers bowed and left as well, headed back to their own rooms. A guard detached himself from the wall and followed.
“That was a rough start for you Sini,” Alaric said.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s been a long time since someone talked to me like that, and I guess it struck a nerve. I’ll try to be more…civil.”
“Princess Madeleine’s not quite as bad as she seems right now,” Alaric said.
“Her Tightly Braided Highness is out of her depth,” Will agreed, pitching his voice low. Alaric snorted and Sini grinned. “It’s making her a bit combative.”
Alaric led them down the hall toward their rooms. “Until last spring she was fourth in line to the throne. But when the winter gripe went through Steepdale, six members of the duke’s family died. Anyone left is more distantly related than Madeleine. She discovered on her twentieth birthday that she was the heir apparent. And that she’d be wedding Roan of Greentree.”
“Roan has taken quite a step up,” Will continued. “His father, the duke of Greentree, a man who’s always had a shrewd sense of opportunism, had brokered the betrothal between Roan and Madeleine before most of the country figured out she was the new heir apparent. Madeleine had intended to marry someone else.”
Sini digested the information for a moment. All she knew about Madeleine had come from Alaric’s report last spring about the succession. She had honestly not given the woman another thought until tonight. She felt a begrudging sympathy for her. Being pulled from a comfortable home and thrust into court was decidedly unpleasant. Knowing it was permanent would be worse.
“That couldn’t have been easy,” Sini admitted.
Will grinned at her. “She’ll be queen someday. And I don’t see any way it won’t be you working with her.”
“Me? Alaric will be here for decades more. And then you’re up next, Will.”
Both Keepers laughed.
“I’m certain the entire realm would vote for you to come instead of me.” Will said, reaching the sitting area outside their rooms.
“He’s got one foot out the palace door already,” Alaric agreed. “Can’t you tell?”
“There’s too much arguing here, and too few stories.” Will shook his head. “Too many negative emotions all wrapped up in selfishness. How soon do you think I can find an excuse to leave?”
“Not until after tomorrow, at least,” Alaric said dryly. “There’ll surely be a feast to welcome Sini. We’ll need a good storyteller.”
Will spun the silver bead braided into his beard and nodded. “Performing in the great hall is a good reason to stay. Sound carries perfectly there.” He glanced out the window. The sky was almost dark. “I’m going down to The Broken Pint. Can I convince you two to come?
Alaric shook his head. “I’m going to find Evangeline.”
“She can come too. It’s just a quick ride down to the main square. She’s more fun than you anyway.”
“She’s really not keen on horseback riding in her condition.”
“Sini?”
“I would love—” Sini began.
“Actually, I need to talk to you, Sini,” Alaric cut in.
Will raised an eyebrow. “Sounds ominous.”
Alaric ignored him and faced Sini. “Gerone and I have been discussing the way you need paths to use your vitalle.”
Her heart sank a little.
Will’s eyes sharpen. “Don’t depress her, Alaric. It’s bad enough she had to come here.”
The other Keeper shot an annoyed look at him. “I have no intention of depressing her. In fact, Sini, I think you’ll be happy to hear what I have to say.”
“It can wait until tomorrow,” Will said. “Or until she and I get back.”
Alaric glanced at the guards watching them. “I think the sooner the better.”
“Have fun, Sin.” Will set his hand on her shoulder, not bothering to hide his grin. “The tavern is calling. See you two in the morning.”
As Will reached the hall heading back into the castle one of the guards followed. “You’ve picked the right Keeper to escort.” Will told him. “You like the Broken Pint?”
Alaric watched him leave, and with another quick glance at the remaining guards, motioned toward Sini’s door. “Let’s talk somewhere quieter.”
Sini led the way into her room, leaving the guards outside.
A fire burned cheerfully in the fireplace and Sini sank down into one of the chairs next to it. “Do you have any idea why I can’t make my own paths?” She didn’t bother to sound hopeful.
Alaric glanced into the fire. “I have some vague ideas. As soon as I have something more definitive, I’ll let you know.”
Sini’s head dropped back against the chair and closed her eyes.
“But just because we don’t understand it, doesn’t mean we can’t begin to work around it. Specifically…”
She cracked one eye open.
He smiled proudly. “Your trouble lighting candles.”
She opened her mouth to say that the candles were hardly the real problem, when he pulled a small, silver ring out of one of the pockets of his Keeper’s robe. A thin trail of auburn light trailed behind it.
Sini stared at it.
The plain silver band held a small garnet.
“This is a burning stone.” Sini looked up at him. “Where did you…?”
Alaric�
�s smile turned slightly guilty. “I made it from the information Will brought back from the Sweep. It doesn’t do much, but if you give it a little vitalle, it’ll heat something up. Light a candle, catch a slip of paper on fire. Things like that.”
The ring fit snugly on her first finger. Tiny bits of energy swirled in the little stone. But the best part was it was open to her. It wanted more energy. She held the ring next to the candle wick on the table beside her and pressed a little vitalle into the ring. The stone lapped it up greedily and a faint copper glow seeped out from it.
Sini’s heart sped up. It was nebulous and irregular, and not much like a path, but it was enough. She pushed more vitalle into the stone and the glow intensified to a bright copper until the energy encompassed the wick and the candle flamed to life.
Sini stared at the ring and the flame, a thrill running through her. “This is amazing!”
She blew out the candle, held her finger a little farther from the wick this time and pushed some vitalle into the ring again. The copper cloud formed, and the candle burst into flame.
She shoved herself out of the chair and held her hand up to a different candle on the mantle. She paused for a moment before lighting it, then put the tip of her finger near the wick instead. The coppery mist moved sluggishly up her finger, but she prodded it and in a breath it reached the tip. The wick of the candle burst into a flame so huge, Sini snatched her hand back.
Letting out a laugh that rang wildly through the room, she ran up to the side of Alaric’s chair, flinging her arms around him. “I can do it! It makes a path!”
He laughed too, patting her arm. “I’m glad.”
Sini sank back into her chair, tilting the ring to catch the candlelight in the little gem. “It’s brilliant.”
Alaric studied her. “How’d you know it was a burning stone?”
“It left a trail,” she said absently, spinning the ring around her finger.
Alaric made a discontented noise. “What color?”
She grinned at him. “Sort of auburn. When I put vitalle into it, the light turns copper.”