Blanndynne caught up with him before he opened the door and peeked out. Both of the guards were right where they had left them, and Armannii tucked the parchment with the mind-wiping rune away before he accidentally showed it to his comrades.
“Any luck?” he asked as Diomedes locked the vault and put the key back on the guard’s belt.
“No, but I think I know another place to look.”
“Which is?” Blanndynne asked again as they took off down the hall. They continued to pause around corners until Armannii made sure the hallways were clear. But Diomedes couldn’t help but notice how less cautious they were being. He made sure to speak in a lowered voice just in case there were others nearby.
“That portrait—”
“What portrait?” Armannii cut in.
“There was a portrait of Raylee and her brothers in the vault. It was painted in one of the rooms on the royal floor.”
“There are a ton of rooms though. How do you know which one it is?” Armannii asked as Diomedes led them to a hidden staircase. They began to climb.
Diomedes took the steps two at a time. “There was a chunk of molding missing from the wall near the window in the painting. Raylee’s old room has to be Ellayne’s room.”
“Who’s Ellayne?” Blanndynne asked.
“My half sister.”
“And you think we’ll find something of Raylee’s in there?” Armannii asked. He had no trouble keeping pace with Diomedes as he sprinted out of the hidden staircase and headed toward the portrait hall.
“It’s worth a shot. The clothes will have been made just for Ellayne, but any books or pieces of art might be left over, or possibly some of the things on the shelves. We need to make sure she’s not in there though.”
Armannii stopped, and it took Diomedes a second to realize it. The elf had closed his eyes, and it was clear he was listening. After a second, he looked up. “It sounds like she’s downstairs being tutored.”
“Great.”
“But it also sounds like the lesson is wrapping up, so we’d better hurry,” Armannii added as they turned down the hallway that led to Ellayne’s room.
With a sideways glance at Armannii, who nodded, Diomedes turned the knob, and they entered his sister’s room. As soon as the door shut, Diomedes undid the lid on the canteen and dumped a handful into his hand before passing it to Blanndynne. The other two also took some of the powder, and they split off to search in different places.
Every time Diomedes sprinkled a bit of the magic dust over an item, there was a moment before it landed that his hopes would rise, only to come crashing down when the powder stayed red.
“How do we know this powder even works?” he asked after checking all of the books on the bookshelf.
“It would work if we could find something that belonged to Raylee.” Blanndynne shot him a glare from the small table where Ellayne kept her beauty items.
“How do you know? You—”
“Sh.” Armannii waved his hand, cutting Diomedes off. “Her lesson is over, and she’s coming up the stairs.”
“Hurry,” Diomedes whispered back.
Blanndynne bit her lip, glancing from the door to the canteen haphazardly placed on the floor. “I have an idea, but it’ll make a mess.”
“I don’t care. Do it,” Diomedes said, wiping his hands on his pants.
“All right.” She looped her hair back, tying it in a messy bun. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She dumped the powder into a pile on the floor, discarded the canteen to the side, and closed her eyes.
Moving her hands in a cyclical motion, Blanndynne manipulated the air. A breeze picked up in the room, and Diomedes covered his eyes with one hand as the red powder got caught in the current sweeping in a circle. A cloud of dust spread over the room, covering everything in its path, including Armannii and Diomedes. The room filled with a mixture of smells, copper being the most overpowering, though there was a hint of something nutty.
But the crimson cyclone lost Diomedes’s attention when something in a partially open drawer in Ellayne’s desk began to glow bright white even with all of the light flooding in from the window.
“There!” Diomedes said, squinting to keep the powder from going in his eyes. “I think that’s what we’re looking for.”
The wind slowed down as Blanndynne’s hand movements did, and Diomedes made his way across the room to the desk. Yanking the drawer open, he moved the items that weren’t glowing out of the way until he found what he was looking for. He held the pen up, letting Armannii and Blanndynne see.
Gold covered it from end to end, and a feathery pattern had been imprinted in the metal. Near the center was a smooth part with the initials R. M. engraved with two tiny diamonds as the periods between.
“What do you know? The spell worked,” Armannii said with a grin. But it faded almost instantly, and Diomedes knew why.
He could hear the footsteps too.
Before they could do anything, the door opened. Ellayne stopped in the doorway, her mouth gaping open.
“Dio? What are you doing? Who—”
Armannii wrapped his hand around her wrist and tugged her into the room, closing the door behind her.
“Let go of me,” she snapped, ripping her hand from his grasp. “Why are you here? What’s this red stuff, and why is it all over you and my room? What did you do in here?” Ellayne rubbed a finger over the surface of the nearest bookshelf, and it came back covered in the red dust.
“Give me a second to explain,” Diomedes said, tucking the still-glowing pen into a pocket inside his vest. His mind filled to the brim with excuses, but none of them could explain the full extent of their situation without sounding ridiculous. “I think I’ve found something, or at least I hope I have. Something that might help end the war.”
“Dio, I told you that you just need to wait until you’re king.”
“I’m tired of waiting, Ellayne,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. He glanced at Blanndynne and Armannii. “Kylian wasn’t who everyone believes he was. Something—well, something is being covered up, and we’re trying to bring it into the light. Magic isn’t as evil as the council would make it out to be.”
“You know I believe that, or I thought I did. Did you do all this with magic?” She gestured to the chaotic state of her room.
“Ellayne, you have to understand what’s at stake here.”
“What’s at stake?” Her voice went up an octave. “After your mad escape from prison, Father is furious! Your place as an heir is at stake, Dio.” Her words brought his fear back until he felt it choking him. He struggled to swallow as she kept talking. “You need to talk to him,” Ellayne said, her eyes locked on Diomedes. “You need to explain what happened, why . . . why you got out of the prison. Just explain it and—”
“And what? He’ll welcome me back with open arms? I highly doubt that. He doesn’t believe anything the council is doing is wrong.”
“That’s not true, and you know it.”
Diomedes took a deep breath, running his fingers across his chin. “All I know is that this war needs to end.”
“Then what? There is more to ending a war than just declaring it finished. The country needs to be able to move on and heal afterward.”
“It can’t begin to heal until the war is over.”
Ellayne sighed, bringing her hand up to rub the medallion with the royal crest around her neck. “Now what? You run away again? How does that help?”
“You don’t understand.” He turned his back on her, nodding for Blanndynne to join Armannii. “I may have a chance to save this country. I’m going to take it. And you’re not going to stop me.”
“I never said I was trying to—”
“We’re leaving. If you call the guards, I’ll consider it betrayal.”
“Betrayal?” Ellayne shrieked. “I saved your behind last time you left here with your hair on fire. How could you even begin to think—”
“Goodbye, Ellayne.” He stepped around her and left through the door with the other two.
Just before the door closed, she said, “You have ten minutes.”