The black swan gave a strange sound almost like a chortle and glided over from where she had been floating on the far side of the lake—a dark patch almost lost in the still dim scene.
I hadn’t expected such an amenable response from her, and I felt an irritating moment of concern on Gabe’s behalf.
“And promptly,” I added in a warning squeak. “Don’t let him spend half the day wandering around the forest lost.”
Eagle trained one beady eye on me, and I could sense her disapproval. I didn’t need words to know that the task had lost its appeal for her if she was to be denied the right to make mischief.
Shadow gave a commanding honk from behind me, and Eagle ruffled her feathers, regarding us all with weary resignation from the edge of the water.
Gabe looked warily from the swan to me.
“She’s the one you want me to follow? Why do I feel like I just missed something?”
I shrugged and pointed toward the trees in the direction he should begin.
Eagle stared at him for a moment and then in one big movement, lifted her body from the water, her wings unfurling and holding her just above the surface as she ran along it for some way before breaking free and soaring into the sky. She disappeared above the level of the trees in the direction I had pointed.
I raised both eyebrows and indicated with my head that Gabe should go after her. He hesitated for only a moment before wishing me farewell and breaking into a jog. Within moments he had disappeared between the tree trunks.
All of the swans had now taken to the lake, searching for breakfast and calling to each other. When I didn’t move, Shadow looked back in my direction, honking at me. I couldn’t tell whether she meant it as inquiry or instruction, but I shook myself and returned to my shelter.
Digging out the food supplies I kept there—provisions from Cora combined with fresh berries from the clearing and surrounding forest—I ate quickly. I was already late leaving, and I needed to get going.
When I set out, I ignored the stretch of forest Eagle and Gabe had departed into and headed instead for the trees that had emitted Leander the night before. I moved quickly, almost as familiar with this path as I was with the one that led to Brylee. The stretch of forest looked much like all the others, and yet I could never shake a feeling of foreboding when I passed through it. Once again I tried to tell myself that it was entirely my own imaginings, and that the lingering shadows were no darker here than elsewhere, that the trees creaked no louder, and the undergrowth grew no thicker. But the feeling remained, grown stronger on this occasion when combined with the burden of my new worries about Gabe’s arrival.
I tried to draw strength from the knowledge that my wedge accompanied me—bar its black member. But they flew high above the treetops, out of sight for now. Still, I forced myself onward, toward the growing feeling of menace. I owed it to my friend.
The trees didn’t thin, as they did around Brylee. Instead I stepped directly from the thickness of the wild forest onto the fringes of a vast lake. Only the thinnest verge of clear land allowed me to walk beside the shoreline, skirting the short stretch of water between me and my target.
I kept my eyes on the ground, but all too soon, I had reached a stretch of jagged rocks that climbed steeply to the base of a broad wall. The ancient, rough stone soared into the air above me, a deserted battlement at the top. No gate broke the gray expanse—I had reached the rear of the curtain wall as intended.
I forced myself to look up and take in the whole of it, my eyes quickly scanning the surrounding area for any movement. In all the mornings I had come here, I had never seen any, however, and—true to form—nothing stirred around me now.
Instead, my eyes were drawn magnetically back to the stone structure. In vain I reminded myself that it was small compared to the home in which I had been raised—the vast palace at the heart of the Palinaran capital. It was even small compared to the heir’s castle where my mother had often taken my brother and me during the years of my childhood. But it made no difference—still the walls and tower seemed to loom above me.
Leander’s Keep.
Chapter 7
A splash drew my attention back to the water, as my six swans landed gracefully on the lake. They paddled over toward me, climbing free to press against my legs. I brushed my hand along their feathers, drawing courage from their presence. We were later than usual which meant we would have to work quickly.
“You know the drill,” I bugled. “Look for any change in routine, any way inside, and any sign of Audrey.”
We had been doing this for enough mornings that I no longer needed to describe my friend—the same age as me but distinctive thanks to her bright copper hair.
All six of them took off, their wings beating, and their legs pumping as they ran along the surface of the water before gaining altitude and wheeling toward the Keep. I watched them go with a swiftly beating heart, just as I always did. If Leander saw and recognized them, if a hunter from the Keep took note of their presence, if one of them swooped too low and put themselves within reach of one of the Keep’s large pack of hounds—
I cut off the thoughts. There was a reason we came only in the early hours of the morning and left once the full activity of the day began.
I strained my ears to hear any unusual sounds, but nothing stood out. Soon the beat of wings sounded, however, and Sunny came back into view. She flew in a direct line toward me, angling down to land in the water as near to me as possible.
Each of my swans had an individual role—something specific to observe. For Sunny it was the gate.
“Was the gate closed?” I bugled.
She thrust her beak down into the water once before raising it again and watching me, drops of water sliding down toward the surface of the lake. I waited hopefully for several seconds, but she made no extra movement.
I sighed. A single tap of the water meant yes. Two taps meant no. In all the mornings we had come here, she had never tapped the water twice for that question.
“How many guards?” I asked next.
This time when she bent her neck, she kept it near the water, thrusting it down six times in quick succession.
I sighed again. The opposite answer to what I hoped to hear. Six guards manning the only gate was an increase, not a decrease, on the usual number. Because of the crown prince’s arrival in town?
Not that the reason mattered. I had no more hope of sneaking past the usual four guards than I had of six.
On your own, at least, an insidious voice whispered in my mind. But you aren’t on your own anymore.
I thrust the thought away. Two people weren’t enough to force their way past six guards, and even if I had more forces, the whole point was to make a surreptitious entry. I couldn’t put Audrey at risk with an open assault even if it had been within my capacity.
More flapping presaged the arrival of two more of my swans. When I saw it was Snowy and Sweetie, my mood lifted slightly. If they were back already, they must have seen something.
“Did you see Audrey?” I bugled.
Snowy tapped the water once. Yes.
“Did she look well?” I asked.
This time Sweetie was the one to give a single tap.
I let out a small breath of relief. Audrey was rarely to be seen in any of the Keep’s courtyards at this time of the morning, so I didn’t get regular updates on her condition. I wished I could ask what she had been doing, but the spy system I had set up didn’t extend to that sort of detail. It had taken me long enough to get the swans to understand the simple questions I asked them.
The rest of the birds swooped in one by one, reporting nothing more out of the ordinary. According to Shadow, the guard patrols looked normal for that time of the morning, Sammy had detected no potential new avenue for breaching the Keep’s outer walls, and Stormy had seen no sign of Leander.
Like Audrey, the local lord was rarely to be seen out at this time. Stormy had occasionally spied him through a large window at t
he top of the Keep, however, and we had managed to determine that it was his study. But that information would do me no good if I couldn’t find a way inside the walls.
An angry hissing broke the stillness of the morning, and movement flashed across the corner of my eye. I swung around to see Eagle flapping toward me. As soon as she saw me looking in her direction, she bugled loudly, swinging around in a tight circle. She circled twice while I scrambled into motion and then took off in a direct line back the way she had come.
I raced after her, my heart pumping and my body shaking. Eagle had only one role—to look for threats and sound the alarm. But she wasn’t urging us away from the Keep—she was urging us toward it. Audrey. I ran faster.
We weren’t making a direct line for the front gate—rather re-entering the trees at an angle that would bring us close to it. And as I wove between the trunks, I remembered an important point. Eagle hadn’t been with us this morning. Eagle had been given a different task.
Gabe.
I let out a strangled groan of frustration but didn’t slow down my pace. Eagle wouldn’t have sounded such an alarm unless time was short.
The road from Brylee to the Keep appeared ahead of me, and I swung my head, my eyes searching it. There. I angled my run, bursting out onto the road and directly into the solid bulk of the prince.
His head was turned in my direction—no doubt due to the sound of my approach—but he was otherwise unprepared. He staggered backward, and I drove both of us off the road and into the trees on the far side.
For a moment, I thought we would fall, but Gabe managed to keep his feet under him and me upright as well. He continued to clasp me close, however, even after we had both steadied, blinking down at me in surprise.
“Idiot!” I cried, not caring that the word came out as a hiss that sounded almost identical to the ones Eagle had been making as she flew.
“Adelaide?” He seemed to realize suddenly that his arms still encircled me, and he let go abruptly, stepping back. “What are you doing here?”
I could ask you the same, I said in my head, putting my hands on my hips and giving him two raised eyebrows combined with a glare that I hoped conveyed the sentiment without words.
He had the grace to look guilty, at least. I followed his eyes upward to where a flash of black showed in the air above the road. Eagle must be flying large circles around our position.
“I suppose I know who is to blame for your arrival,” he said, a hint of humor in his voice.
I just narrowed my eyes and continued the glare.
He shook his head. “Don’t be angry with me. I found you, Adelaide! I actually found you! And you’re enchanted, unable to leave Brylee—something you don’t want me to tell your brother. Which means it’s up to me to free you. And I’m not going to do that by sitting around at the local inn.”
I opened my mouth, closed it again, and let out a grunt of frustration. I needed words.
Gabe gave me a smug look. “I did, however, have time to swing past the town and pick up certain essential supplies.” He rummaged through a small pack he carried on his back alongside his bow and quiver and produced a parchment and pen, complete with a small, stoppered inkwell.
I took them from him, but then hesitated, trying to think of the most efficient way to express myself.
“You can write, can’t you?” A shadow of concern crossed Gabe’s face. “The curse doesn’t prevent it? I did wonder since you didn’t seem to have any writing tools with you at the haven.”
I took several steps over toward a large rock with a small flat section that only required me to stoop a little. Placing the paper against the stone, I pressed the pen down.
“But you don’t?” Gabe frowned over my shoulder.
I hesitated again before scratching out a longer reply.
I bit my lip, annoyed with myself. Too much detail. This was the problem with writing. I wanted to say too much, and then it ended up taking forever to write. Usually the other person got impatient and had already moved on to say something else by the time I got my full reply out. It was impossible to have any sort of normal conversation.
Gabe, however, had remained silent while I took the time to write out the longer reply, turning to survey the forest, and only turning back when my pen stopped moving. He took in the lines I had written at a glance and nodded his head. His eyes fixed on me.
“But something tells me that’s not all. Let me guess. You don’t like to talk to people this way because they might ask questions you don’t want to answer.”
I flushed, surprise overtaking my anger. Was I that transparent?
His expression told me he disapproved of my secrecy, but I wasn’t wrong. I knew that for certain. Looking pointedly at him, I turned to look in the direction of the Keep, and then back at him before leaning to write again.
“All the more reason he needs to be stopped,” Gabe said. “But I don’t get the impression Cora is the type to go charging off, so I don’t think you would have any need to…” His voice trailed off as he examined my face.
I didn’t write anything, but I saw a question bloom across his features.
“That girl. The one at the castle—Cora’s sister. What was her name?”
Shame pulsed through me, and my hand shook slightly as I pressed my pen to the paper again.
“You told her what was going on, didn’t you?” Gabe asked. “And she ran off to the castle, to…what? Find some way to free you?”
I paused in my writing to fight back tears. I refused to cry in front of Gabe.
Gabe placed a gentle hand on my arm.
“You were lonely and trapped and given the opportunity to speak to your friend again. You didn’t do anything wrong, Addie.”
I shook my head. I had known Audrey’s impulsive nature—Gabe reminded me of her—and I should have known better. It was my moment of weakness, but Audrey had been paying for it for six months. Because there was no way she would have gone so long without communicating with Wren and Juniper. Not by choice.
Gabe gazed in the direction of the Keep. I could guess what he must be thinking, so I wrote again, having to flip the page over as I had filled it already.
Gabe looked at the words and then at me, brows raised.
“So that’s what you’re doing here.”
I worried at my lip, wondering how much to tell him.
“Addie.” He took my left hand in both of his. “I can understand how you feel given the situation with Audrey. But I’m not her. I’m the crown prince of this kingdom. I guarantee that I’m not going to walk up to that gate, disappear inside, and never be heard from again. And just to be sure, I took the precaution of letting the innkeeper know where I was going. Leander won’t harm me, and he won’t imprison me. He wouldn’t dare. We need to know what’s going on in there, and this is our best chance.”<
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“What sort of plan? As in, you’re willing to see what your brother can do to get you out of this enchantment?”
I stiffened at the suggestion and shook my head vehemently. For a brief second, Gabe looked a little too satisfied with my answer. I suspected he was already invested enough in his adventure to not like the idea of sitting back and waiting for others to arrive.
“In that case, we could talk for a week, and we’re not going to come up with a better plan than my walking up to the gate and demanding entry,” he said. “And if I’m going to do it, I might as well do it now.”
I frowned. I didn’t like the plan, but I couldn’t think of any arguments likely to sway him. After a reluctant moment, I sighed and put pen to paper again.
“Everything you’ve learned?” Gabe sounded surprised. “Just what have you been doing here? How often do you come?”
I kept my words as brief as possible, but he still had to retrieve another piece of paper before I had finished explaining my daily mission with my birds and what we had discovered—from the number of servants and guards, to their daily movements, and the rough layout of important rooms and buildings. It was an incomplete picture, but hopefully better than nothing.
When I finished, Gabe looked impressed.
“I would never have dreamed swans could be so useful,” he said.
He nodded, but his attention was already on the distant Keep. He glanced back my way and threw me a smile.
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. And don’t wait here—you should go to the haven, and I’ll come straight there once I’m finished. But don’t worry if that’s not anytime soon. This Lord Leander will no doubt feel obliged to host a meal and offer me a bed for the night.”
A Captive of Wing and Feather Page 6