by Lucia Ashta
When I urged Lila ahead, I recognized something there, in those brown eyes. What was it? She moved on too quickly for me to identify it, suddenly in a hurry to achieve Dolpheus’ transformation. Right away, she trained her eyes on the body of Lord Dingaling. When she spoke, it was in a whisper usually reserved for the dead or dying. “You are Lord Dolpheus. You’re a strong warrior. You’re brave, proven in battle. You are handsome, tall, and limber. Your hair is dark, almost black. Your eyes are as warm and comforting as a fine brandy, and similar in color. Your nose is straight and perfect. Your lips are wide and full.”
I think she would have continued like this, as if she were a girl gushing about her crush, if Kai hadn’t shifted uncomfortably behind her. I wouldn’t have interrupted her. Her admiration of my friend was amusing. I wondered for the umpteenth time what it was about my friend that made the ladies fall in love with him on first sight.
Lila didn’t blush as I thought she might at Kai’s reaction to her words. But she did change tactics. “Trace every part of your body in your mind. As if you were looking in a mirror, pause to examine each of your features, first from the front, then from the back. Think of what it feels like to be in your body. How it feels to know yourself strong and handsome. Study yourself in the mirror. Remember every part of yourself, free from clothing, starting at the top, through the middle, and then all the way down.” Given the sudden flush that appeared on her face, I had the feeling that Lila was imagining Dolpheus’ naked body much as she was directing him to do.
“Take your time. Rest upon every part of yourself until you feel exactly what it’s like to be you.” Then, Lila stopped talking.
All but the finest of slivers of the Suxle Sun had dipped beneath the horizon—the royal palace, behind us, appeared to be afire with purples, reds, and oranges, every piece of glass alight with saturated brilliance—when Lord Dingaling finally began to fade. Even for me, who’d watched Dolpheus’ body fade and reappear somewhere else thousands of time, the transformation was fascinating to watch. To my side, Kai’s mouth hung open, making him look younger than a royal guard. I kept my mouth shut, but my eyes were alert, trying to take in every single change to Lord Dingaling’s form all at once.
The first thing to change was the courtier’s nose. Bulbous and red like those of men who drank fermented alcohols to excess, it straightened and elongated as if it were a plant growing all too quickly. Next came the stomach. It began to shrink. But before it could flatten out, the high-heeled boots burst at their stitching as Dolpheus’ feet grew. After that came the hair. The dyed, thinning hair grew thick and full, remaining similarly dark, but of a much richer hue.
Then I lost track of what was happening where. It seemed to happen all at once, even though wherever I turned my gaze, I could see that it was happening in parts. Three sets of eyes trained on my friend, intent on not missing a thing, even though it was guaranteed that we would. Every part stretched and warped, shifting, proving that nothing was as it seemed. Instead, our impressions were merely the result of our interpretation. Life, every single part of it, was an illusion.
Lord Dingaling’s clothing, which conformed precisely to aristocratic style, chosen for its opulent appearance, never comfort, stretched and tore at nearly every seam. At length, when my friend was covered in tattered fabrics instead of clothing, the transformation began to slow. Details refined themselves even as my friend’s face retained its relaxed expression. This transformation was effortless to him. We’d trained ourselves to deny any sense of limitation since we were young boys, when the molding of the mind was easiest.
In the near dark, I took in my friend’s face. It was nearly his own again. I smiled, realizing how comforting it was to have my ally back. It was a very good thing to be able to trust a person as completely as I did Dolpheus.
Perhaps ten more minutes passed before I decided that nothing remained for Dolpheus to adjust. Still, he didn’t open his eyes until the night had cycled through complete darkness and the Plune Moon rose to offer its eerie purple glow until the Auxle Sun could take its place.
Dolpheus grinned and stretched before he turned to find me with those honey-colored eyes, perfect for wooing ladies. “Now. That’s considerably better.” He stood, jumped in place a little, swung his arms around, and laughed. “I feel like a new man. Let’s get Ilara back already.”
It was so good to see my friend back, even though I’d only lost him for a small fraction of the interminable, hellish day, that I didn’t even care much that he’d forgotten his normal composure and caution to force my hand with Kai.
Whether I liked it or not, it seemed to be a day for revealing secrets. I hoped it would also be a day for discovering them.
Sixteen
It had taken quite a bit of additional encouragement, but Dolpheus and I—mostly Dolpheus—had managed to convince Lila to get a move on and head back to the palace. We told her that she could be back within the hour, that everything would go smoothly; there was no reason that it shouldn’t. I hoped the day wouldn’t prove us liars.
Neither one of us men could accompany her, not even to the gate. I would be captured on sight, as would Dolpheus, if for nothing else than to be questioned about my escape and present whereabouts. And Kai would have to account for his presence outside of the palace when he was supposed to be on duty within it, searching for me. We had no better alternative than to allow Lila to approach the palace’s main entrance on her own.
“Do you think we can trust her to go through with it and not betray us?” I asked Dolpheus, who stood next to me, another silhouette beneath the purple Plune Moon.
“I was just wondering that myself. But I think so. I hope so. She and I developed a bit of rapport while you were in the palace. Maybe that will make a difference.”
“She seems to want to help,” Kai said from the other side of me. That was how it appeared, but Kai didn’t know how we’d come to meet Lila. Now, she was off on her own, holding Ilara’s fate and my own, as well as that of my two friends, all within her unpredictability and dubious sense of right and wrong.
“I hope you’re both right,” I said. Either way, there was nothing more we could do where she was concerned but hope, and wait, and I’d never been particularly good at waiting. “There’s something I was thinking we could do while we wait for her to return.”
“What’s that?” Dolpheus asked, leaving his gaze where it could do the most good, taking in the view of this purple-tinted nature, a slice of paradise amid the crazy and artificial royal realm.
“They took my sword when they took me prisoner.”
“We need to get it back then.” Dolpheus understood what a good sword meant to a soldier.
“And my knives too if we can.”
“You mean to go back into the palace, into the captain of the guard’s quarters?” Kai’s tone implied that we were crazy, or perhaps stupid, or both. Still, I think he admired us for considering it. He gawked at us.
“Do you have a better idea?” I asked.
“Yeah, and none of them involve going back inside the palace.”
“Is there any other way that we can retrieve my weapons?”
“Maybe you could get them,” Dolpheus suggested to Kai. “Aren’t you a royal guard?”
“I am. I mean, I was. I guess.”
“Would you be able to access the captain’s chambers where you said confiscated weapons are kept?” I asked.
“Maybe. But it’d be suspicious if anyone discovered me there. I’m a royal guard of the lowest rank. Anyone in the Captain of the Guard’s chambers is there upon his invitation, and the guards quartered near there, in that sector of the palace, are those with more time in the Guard than I have. They’re the favored guards.”
“It would put you in danger to do it then,” I said. I had no desire to take advantage of the nobility Kai had plastered across his face in anticipation of my request.
“It would, yes, but I could do it.”
“You’ve done enough al
ready, Kai. And the day isn’t yet over. I might still have to call upon your goodwill. But not for this.” I addressed my lifelong friend, the one I knew wouldn’t shirk from a challenge such as this. Still, “Do you think it’s too great of a risk to retrieve my sword?”
“Hmmm. Maybe. You could be killed, or worse, on sight. And we have no easy way in or out of the palace.”
“That’s all true.”
“However, it’s a very fine sword, one that’s been very good to you in battle. It would be a great shame to lose one that brings you such good luck, and if we don’t retrieve it today, who knows what they might do with it. It could be sold. Its engravings and jewel will fetch a handsome price. Or it could be traded for favor. Either way, it’ll change hands quickly. It might become much more difficult to recover later, depending on who ends up with it. I can think of more than a few people you’ve defeated in battle that would consider possession of your sword a victory.” Dolpheus took pause, still searching the silhouettes of trees ahead of us for the secret to their stoic beauty. “It’s one of the few things of significance Lord Brachius has ever given you.”
That reminded me, I had to tell him of my encounter with Aletox. I wanted to see what he thought of the man’s declaration of paternity. But later. “Do you think it’s possible?” I looked not just to Dolpheus, but also to Kai. “Could we reach the captain’s office mostly through the tunnels? Or would we have to cover too much of the palace, while exposed, to reach the captain of the guard’s quarters?”
“You could take the tunnels only up to the prison cells, near to where I found you. They go no farther on this side of the palace. There’s a vast network of tunnels that takes up on the other side of the palace, that connects to the kitchens, but you’d have to cross part of the palace to get to them, and they wouldn’t serve for this purpose anyway.”
“The tunnel that took us from the prison to here was long. It must have taken us more than half an hour to walk it. We might not be able to make it back before Lila does.” I was reluctant to abandon my sword, but I might have to. “Once we exit next to the prisons, what does the way to the captain of the guard’s office look like from there?”
“It’s not too far. But it’s down a long, enclosed hallway that has no exit other than its beginning and end. And this corridor is walked by the guards as part of their rounds when they come to check on the prisoners.”
Dolpheus nodded, thoughtful. I asked, “And after the long hallway? What then?”
“Then it’s a right turn, through a wider hall. Through the door at the end of it, through another closed hallway, then through the door at the end. That takes you into the guards’ quarters. The captain of the guards’ quarters are on the right. The living quarters of the favored guards to the left. At this time of night, the favored guards will be in the common area, likely drinking, or out if they have leave, or sleeping. Mostly, the night duty is undesirable, so the favored guards are spared from it.”
“And the captain of the guard? What will he be doing?” Dolpheus asked.
Kai shrugged. “I don’t know. He spends long hours in his office with the door closed. Maybe he reads, because I can see the light on through the door, but I really don’t know. Sometimes he joins the guards for a drink in the common area, leaving his office unoccupied, which would be the ideal situation, obviously.”
“What are the rounds scheduled like?” I asked.
“Guards are supposed to make their rounds every thirty minutes, unless they’re stationed in one place.”
“What’ll the traffic be like in the areas we have to go through?” Dolpheus asked.
“Now that we’re in a high alert emergency state, there are two guards always stationed at the upper level prisons where you were kept, Tanus. Then there are two more that make rounds of the prison every half hour. When they make their rounds, they will probably walk from the guards’ quarters across the path you’ll need to take, down the long, closed hallway that ends in the prisons. Once they see that everything is all right, they should turn back and walk the same path out of there.”
“Will there be any other roving guards in the area we’ll be in?” I asked.
“There shouldn’t be, not for that part of the palace. But you could run into any number of guards once you enter their quarters. And the captain of the guard might be in his office, and then I don’t know what you could do. The sword is likely in there with him.”
“Is there any other place it could be? That they might logically move it to?” Dolpheus asked.
Kai shrugged. “Sure, they could have moved it somewhere else. I can’t predict where though. They could’ve even moved it to the common areas if they wanted to pass around the sword of the King’s assassin. No offense,” he added, with a quick look at me.
“None taken,” I said, having only just realized that Kai never asked me whether I’d attacked the King. I could only presume that he didn’t believe me guilty of the offense, but why had he concluded that I was innocent? Was it that obvious that my capture and imprisonment were a ruse, a distraction from the real events that had led to the King’s incapacitation?
I studied Kai. He’d been eager to leave his duties in the royal guard behind to join me, a refuge from the State’s justice, on an uncertain and perilous journey. I’d assumed his rash decision was due to his upbringing in the palace as a kitchen boy turned subordinate royal guard, and to the allure of grand stories of my heroics unhampered by the experience necessary to understand that the reality of life-threatening danger and battle was much less glamorous than it sounded in the stories told over a pint of berry brew. I wondered if I might have missed something. I’d liked Kai almost from the start—once I disarmed him—had that clouded my judgment?
I took in the open face and eyes that didn’t hide a thing; there was no subterfuge there. No, I thought, he was just a good guy who wanted more from life than taking orders from others.
Settled, I followed Dolpheus’ gaze and allowed myself to enjoy the view. It would be easier just to remain here, waiting for Lila to return, hoping that she would prove true to her word. Was any sword worth such a risk, especially when we had no guarantee of recovering it even if we followed Kai’s directions exactly? I really wanted my sword back, but I was no fool. “Let’s just forget about it, Olph. It’s too risky, and the odds of recovering the sword aren’t high enough to warrant taking the risk. If we go in together and things don’t go right, then they would have not just me, but you, and I couldn’t live with that. If we decide to do it at all, better that I go in alone.”
“No way. You’re the one most at risk by returning to the palace. At least I don’t have an outstanding execution order. Besides, you’ll need my help if we run into any guards.”
“Of course I could use your help. But I’m not willing to take it at this price.”
“Then I suppose it’s a good thing that I’m not asking. If you go, I go. That’s the way it’s going to be. Now we just need to decide if we go.”
With the terrible feeling that not only was I going to be a fool after all, but that I was involving my best friend as my accomplice in foolery, I asked Kai to run through our projected itinerary once more, including any additional information he could offer us about the regular patterns of the guards, both those on and off duty.
When Kai finished, it was Dolpheus who first spoke. “We can do this, Tan. We might even be able to get through it without anyone sighting us. If we run into guards, the two of us can take them easily. We can knock any of them out for a bit, not much harm done.”
“And if we find the captain in his office? Then what? Knock him out too?”
“Maybe. We can decide then. If we have to, we can turn around and leave the way we came. But we may have an opening.”
I knew our ways too well. It was unlikely that we’d turn around after making it that far, even it were the wiser course. We could both be impulsive once we got moving. The momentum we built in this fashion was one of the reasons we�
��d accomplished many of the feats we had; it carried us past the point when most others gave up. It was also the reason we’d gotten ourselves into trouble more often than an ordinary person would like, even if it was also why we’d been able to extricate ourselves from it.
“The captain of the guard might not even be in his office,” Kai said, egging us on, his earlier dismay that we’d consider such a proposition apparently gone.
“But he might be,” I said. “And we might run into the entire force of royal guards. If one of them were to raise the alarm before we could get to him, all hell would break loose. We’d have to fight them off. It wouldn’t be good.”
“But we could also get in and out cleanly, no trouble. Come on. We’ve done crazier, Tan. You can’t just let your sword go like this, not when we have a real chance at recovering it. It’s a good sword, a really good one.”
It was a fine sword. “You’re sure?” I asked Dolpheus.
“I’m sure.”
I took in a sharp breath and let it out slowly. “All right. Let’s do this. And let’s be fast about it. I want to be back with my weapons in hand before Lila returns.”
Kai was to remain behind to inform Lila of what we’d done if she were to return before we did. He was also to keep watch over our location, to ensure that our meeting place stayed undiscovered. We’d need to be certain of the security of our location to undertake the mind merge. I would have liked to have left him his sword, but I couldn’t. I needed it more than he did right now. As much as I disliked leaving any man without his weapon, he, at least, wasn’t in any direct threat.
Unlike Lila, Dolpheus and I didn’t tarry. We had little time in which to perform this maneuver, and neither one of us enjoyed prolonging the inevitable. Once our minds were made up, we acted. We’d always been this way. I believed that our similarity in temperament was one of the reasons we got along so well. Our friendship had been an important part of the foundation upon which I’d built any understanding of myself. I knew that for him it had been the same.