| |
Ari woke in a pool of gold light. It was warm. Like being hugged. She sighed and curled into the feeling, trying to curve around it, but it slipped away and left her with a cold back. Also a stiff neck. And one inexplicably icy foot.
She opened her eyes.
The curtain's in Virgil's work room were partially pulled; the heavy tapestry affairs blocking out the light so thoroughly she might have thought it was still midnight if not for the single shaft of light that had found her. It shone on her shoulder and neck, barely missing her face. She stretched. That was a mistake.
"Ugh." The sound dragged out of her as she attempted to stretch the cramps out of her muscles. She never wanted to move again. Never. She would live on Virgil's couch forever. Her calves were knotted up like Christmas lights.
Last night was still a hazy edged thing. Like a doily. She turned it over in her mind as she tugged the blanket back up to her chin, tucking all important body parts beneath. Too late she realized that she hadn't had a blanket when she fell asleep. It must have come from Virgil. That was almost thoughtful.
A sniff of the fabric gave the slightly dusty scent of incense and beneath that the same ambiguously herbal smell of Virgil's robes. That had no business being as comforting as it was. She took another deep inhale of the blanket before she half tumbled, half stood from the couch. She only felt a slight urge to scream at the sharp pull of pain in each individual muscle.
This was more like it though. With the curtains drawn, the corners of Virgil's work room were heaped up with shadows. Dust motes danced through the solitary shaft of light. It finally looked magical. Especially with the stacks of books and supplies scattered across his work tables. It looked like he had been interrupted in the middle of something. He rarely left things laying around. It must have been urgent.
Ari wrapped the blanket around her and padded over for a good snoop, a thing which was impossible when he was around. Last time she'd tried to touch something without permission he'd slapped her hand like she was a naughty puppy. She didn't quite dare touch anything now, but she let her fingers hover the bits and bobs of magic craft that he'd left behind. A twist of some herb. Something that looked like gold leaf. A reddish powder in a corked jar. A golden bowl with charcoal in it. At least she recognized that one. She held a hand over the chunk of charcoal. Cold. Wherever he'd gone, he must have left a while ago.
A book—well, multiple books—had been left open to one side of the table, each open book stacked on top of another like paper pancakes. Ari glanced at the top pages. The writing looked like gibberish. She frowned, thwarted once more. She might speak the language, but Callarian script was about as readable as cuneiform to her. It was just a jumble of lines no matter which way she squinted at it and she'd never had time to try and rectify that.
She lifted the top book and looked at the one beneath. More scribbly writing, but this entry (a spell she suspected since it came with a list of equally scribbly ingredients) also included a picture. Of something that resembled a giant eel. Whoever had drawn it had put an awful lot of time into detailing every one of its very pointy teeth too.
Ari set the book on the opposite side of the table. It was giving her the creeps.
Two more books were nothing but text and even with the illuminations it only took a minute to lose interest in those. At the bottom of the stack sat a book with more pictures, including a very detailed diagram. She leaned closer, tracing a finger over the lines. Virgil had pinned a paper with notes to the page. His handwriting was just like the rest of him: precise and tall. Ari traced over the letters with a finger, wishing she knew what any of it said. Whatever it was, it must be important. A few of his notes had spilled over onto the page itself. He'd never struck her as a margins writer before.
The door clicked open. Ari jumped, shoving the book away before she realized it was only Celeste.
Ari reached for the book again.
"What are you still doing in your night dress?" Celeste asked in an amused tone. "It's midmorning."
"What are you doing walking into Virgil's rooms without knocking?" Ari teased.
Celeste turned red. "The others told me that His Excellence was elsewhere or I shouldn't have dared," she whispered. "I've been seeking you for an hour now. I didn't think to find you in here. And so... not dressed." She broke into a wide smile.
"Whatever you're thinking stop it."
"I would never," Celeste said, but her giggling ruined it. "But come. We've lost much time already."
Ari glared back. Then she brightened as a thought occurred to her. "Since you're here, can you tell me what this book says? I can't read it." Ari held up the book for Celeste.
Ari had never known what apoplectic meant until that moment. "You haven't time for that! You must dress."
"You don't like being in Virgil's room, do you?" She lowered the book.
"It would not be incorrect to say that I would prefer to be elsewhere. Especially today." Celeste took an obvious step back towards the door.
With a sigh, Ari replaced the book more and less where she'd found it on the table. When she began stacking more books on it Celeste waved at the door. "Please hurry. You'll be so late."
"What's the rush this time? It can't be Virgil. He already knows I'm here."
Celeste's face underwent another drastic transformation at the uttering of his name.
"More bad news?" Ari guessed.
"It would be best if you came presently."
***
REST WAS QUICKLY BECOMING nigh impossible.
Ari had contentedly snored away on his couch until first light when Virgil had been called away by Cercing to attend to the fixing of charms and enchantments needed for their journey. It was even more difficult when everything would have to survive being transported leagues to the sea port. Fragile filaments and glass. Crushable herbs. Everything had to be secured and packaged for travel. There would be no chance to return and collect anything that was forgotten.
He thought of the sea. Large and glassy and shivering like a living beast. He didn't trust it, was in fact quite happy not to have seen it in many years. Cylian had demanded a tour of the country by ship back at the beginning of his reign. Virgil had been more than content to let the King do that alone. Unfortunately his opinions on the matter had not been solicited, not that it mattered in the end. The tour had been quickly derailed by dangerous stirrings in the upper country, safely ensconced in the mountains and surrounded by days and days worth of land on all sides.
Virgil had no love for the sea. He preferred to keep both his feet on the ground. The odds of drowning on firm soil were surely slim. Or as irregular as to render them nil.
Still, in the current situation he regretted his lack of personal knowledge of the sea. It could have been useful for the venture. Without it, he pored over every book and report that might offer a morsel of information. This was another thing he'd been doing with the help of Cercing and two other of his most competent under apprentices. There was barely time to sleep.
Now a new interruption had come, drawing up over the horizon in a tide of well clad irritation. Virgil had turned away the first wave of pilgrims. That had given him some small hope of peace. Instead they returned in a form much worsened.
Nobles.
Where he'd simply rebuffed the commoners with a firm word and a suggestion to look elsewhere, trading mostly on his own imposing presence to bend them to his will, the nobility went nowhere without satisfaction. Either they would see Ari or they would find a fraud to embrace instead. The last one of those had been travesty enough. They wouldn't repeat that history.
The pilgrimage—that seemed the wrong word to describe such an extravagant collection of carriages and wagons full of jeweled inhabitants, but he could think of no other name to give it—drew to a halt in the courtyard, the sound of stamping horse hooves ringing against the stone walls like the clap of thunder.
Virgil flinched in pain. He should have tried harder to sleep. Actually he should have tried harder to do a great many things (including installing spiked gates to bar the castle roads), but it was too late now.
The head carriage was a frightening affair of gilt and ebony wood, at once staid and overdone. The spokes were woven with vines in a way that was artificially elegant. Virgil wondered how many spells they had wasted on the vines to hold them in place without falling apart on the trip here.
The carriage door sprang open, short steps lowering to make departure easier, and a man's slightly gleaming bald head appeared.
Lord Thiele.
Virgil had known it was him at the first sight of the carved fish that topped the carriage, the eyes set with chips of onyx if one went close enough to look, but he had dared to hope that it was perhaps the son Prit instead. He was only half as tiresome as his father. He was also known to be easily distracted. Virgil himself had coaxed him out of more than one sulk with nothing but a well timed smile and a few casual touches. Nothing too indiscreet. He had no need to start rumors about the two of them, especially when Pri offered few advantages besides a pair of stunningly black eyes and a nice ass. Hardly politically relevant. Lord Thiele held no such charms. The only good thing about him was his departure.
"Thiele, my dear," Virgil called, descending the steps into the courtyard to greet him. "To what do I owe this unexpected visit?" Virgil let his gaze drift over the other carriages, many of them already vomiting up aristocracy into his courtyard. "And with so many friends. Have I forgotten an anniversary? A ball? I do so love a ball."
Thiele made a pickled face, but he took Virgil's offered hand and bowed over it. "Excellency," he pronounced in his peculiarly reedy baritone which managed to make the title sound both complimentary and accusatory at the same time. "Surely you must have known the happy news would reach us in time. The gods have seen fit to return the Champion to our midst. It is truly a time for celebration and, of course, one must pay all due respect lest we offend the heavens themselves."
Oh no, they couldn't have that. Virgil wondered how many hours Thiele had spent rehearsing his first words to make them sound so stiff and lifeless. Well played though.
"What is it that you've heard? And from whom? I would very much like to have them in my employ if their speed in disseminating news is so impressive. We would never need another messenger again." Virgil smiled benignly.
Thiele nodded as he bent into a short bow. It wasn't full enough to be truly respectful, but close enough that it would pass without comment. "Your Excellency is too kind, but please don't trouble yourself with such trivialities. The kingdom already monopolizes so much of your time I'm sure. We have no wish to add to your uncountable duties. We only wish to see the Champion so that we might bask in her wonder. Then we will be on our way, ready to spread this excellent news. Perhaps with this glorious event we can finally put these rumors to rest once and for all."
Virgil's smile tightened.
"And I'm told Her Greatness, the King's Champion, is to depart on a grand voyage soon. How felicitous that we've gotten here in time to have audience before her departure."
"I'm sure you must be mistaken. We have no such thing planned."
Thiele gave him a look that was almost pitying. "No need to play coy now. We all know the truth. And who can fault the Champion for wanting to take in the sights before settling into her duty."
Thiele had brought a small army of witnesses to his play—his farce—some of them clearly employing expensive magic to cover the necessary distance from their estates so quickly. There were enough members of the Council among them to make Virgil a bit hesitant to throw them out without cause. Thiele had few actual friends to back him, but thanks to Cylian the castle might have even fewer. When separated the nobility were easy enough to master. But together? Nigh impossible. They would feed on each other's attention, growing ever stronger and more irksome in adversity.
"We are honored by your attention," Virgil said, "but I would hate to think that we are taking you away from your own important business." He raised an eyebrow at the gathering swarm behind Thiele. There was so much stiff silk that the rustling threatened to drown him out.
"This is certainly more important," Thiele said. Smugly. "We must insist on seeking an audience."
Virgil continued to smile, but inside he was fire. "Then we will gladly arrange it."
***
THE CASTLE HAD THE smothering air of a wool blanket thrown over it so Ari sought her usual refuge in the practice yard doing drills with sword and shield. If Virgil wanted her, he could find her there. Loren had enlisted the assistance of two other guards to give her some variety and now Ari's muscles ached in all new and interesting ways. Vard favored brute strength, trying to pummel her into submission with heavy swings that left Ari's arms as wobbly as gelatin whereas Trissa had an impressive manner of getting Ari to misstep and fall all on her own. It was almost mystical in its continued effectiveness. Ari knew the quick back and forth stabs were coming and yet she could never meet them with proper timing to deflect. Over and over she found herself disarmed and in the dust. It might have been annoying if she didn't enjoy the company so much.
"When you finally take a hit without landing on your ass, I'll buy you a round at the tavern," Trissa chortled as Ari picked herself up for approximately the three hundredth time that day.
"And if I never do?"
"Just be glad you don't owe me a drink for every loss. You'd be paying until you were eighty already."
"You're all heart."
"Don't let her talk fool you," Vard said, rejoining them after a brief errand away. "Our Trissa only hasn't asked it because she's hoping for something better than a drink." He smiled with big, square teeth, half hidden behind his impressive beard. He wasn't an especially large man, but his beard more than made up for that.
"Better?" Ari turned back to Trissa just in time to catch her look.
"Much better, I think." Trissa wiped the trickling sweat from her temple with a grin. Her eyes never left Ari's.
"Oh." If she wasn't already beet red from the exercise, she might have gone pink at the (not completely unwelcome) attention. Trissa had a nice smile and she was kind in unexpected ways. Ari enjoyed her company, but that wasn't the kind of interest Trissa was looking for and Ari knew it. "I don't really do... sex. I'm asexual. Do you have that word?" She blundered for a way to explain it if they didn't. This was always the trickiest part. Maybe she should have asked Virgil, but how was she to know it would come up at all? "But thank you."
Trissa's forehead crinkled in confusion. Vard tapped her shoulder, leaning over. In a half whisper, he said, "Like Tomas."
She nodded once. "I understand you. In that case, I'll still buy you the drink if you want it. Once you've earned it that is." Trissa's smile curved into a challenge that Ari was happy to meet.
"Bring it on."
She was finally getting somewhere, driving Trissa back while Loren stood to the side, calling out instructions, which led to Vard accusing him of cheating, when one of the castle servants scampered into view, soft shoes kicking up clouds of dust at his approach. His harried look immediately marked him as having come from Virgil. Honestly. She didn't know what he did to the servants, but most of them looked ready to sprout white hairs after five minutes of contact. It was a wonder they didn't all have heart attacks. Or quit. If they could quit. She would have to ask Celeste about that one.
"What is it?" Ari called, trying to focus on her footwork to save herself another fall.
"You're needed immediately, My Lady."
"Any chance I could bribe you to tell Virgil you couldn't find me?" Ari leapt away from Trissa's next swing and wobbled on her feet. If she wasn't careful she was going to lose this match in record time.
"The message was quite clear. You must come straight away. Please."
It was the "please" that caught her attention. It was also the "please" that knocked her forward onto her hands and knees when Trissa changed direction and swiped at her legs instead of going in for the shield thrust Ari had been expecting.
Ari glared at the servant, but it faded the instant she really looked at him. He couldn't have been more than seventeen or so and his face was as pale as oatmeal. Things must be worse than she thought.
Trissa offered a hand up and took her equipment without comment as Ari passed it off.
"Fine. Fine. Do you people have ice? I could really use an ice pack," she said as she followed him back into the blanket thickness of the castle's shadow.
She was led to yet another unfamiliar room full of even more unfamiliar things and left to her own devices when the servant fled. He hadn't even answered her question about the ice first.
Whatever room she'd been deposited in this time at least had a series of open windows for fresh air. She leaned on the sill, looking down on the sprawling town just beyond the castle walls. She'd seen a bit of it before, but it looked different from above. Most of the buildings were little more than fairy tale huts, slanted roofs and buildings trying to climb into the sky, but only making it two stories or so before they gave up. Everything here was so short. Except the castle. The castle was a giant among ants. Its shadow fell near constantly over the town, both literally and figuratively, though now at midday the shadow was shorter and the town sparkled with defiant light. After dark it would be transformed into a field of firefly twinkles.
Virgil cleared his throat and Ari jumped, hand to her chest. The door to the room had been on her left, visible out of the corner of her eye, but she hadn't heard or seen him come in. She realized why when she turned to yell at him for scaring her.
"Another secret passage? Are you kidding me?" The door had been completely invisible until he opened it. She never would have guessed that it existed. To even the not so casual observer it just looked like another wall with decorative paneling.
There had been a cloud of gloom, complete with little thunderbolts of warning, over his head, but at her words his face cracked into a small smile. "How else would I get around the castle without being stopped every step by complainants?"
"Okay, that's... actually kind of brilliant."
"Thank you." He gestured to the still open passage behind him. "Come along."
Ari pushed away from the window. "This is becoming a habit, you realize. Why don't we ever talk in the library or a regular sitting room like normal people?"
"For the same reason that I prefer not to walk the halls." He stepped into the passage and gestured again for her to follow. "And di you just call yourself normal?"
"Maybe it's a stretch for you since you have the magic hands and all that. But I am perfectly normal, thank you very much."
He chuckled but kept walking, leading her deeper into the narrow passage that apparently ran behind all the walls. Ari was going to have to start looking for portraits with moving eyes or candelabras that were hidden levers. There must be a hundred secret rooms in the castle and she bet Virgil knew the location of every single one by now. He'd been the one to discover these passages—to rediscover them maybe—years ago, helping them to sneak past the Iron King's clockwork guards as if it were nothing. "No, Ari. There's nothing perfectly normal about neither of us. You included. If there were, you wouldn't be here."
"I'm taking that as a compliment. Just so you know."
"Which is as it was intended." Another smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. This was becoming a regular thing with him. She didn't hate it.
They came out of the passage and back into the dusty room with all the funny maps and the globe. Ari headed straight for it. "Show me where we're going."
"In a moment. I need to speak with you first." His smile had faded, replaced with the facial equivalent of a sepulcher. She hoped that wasn't for her.
"Who died?"
"No one yet." From him that wasn't a joke. She was starting to see why all the servants looked ready to wet themselves today.
Ari leaned on a dusty shelf—this time it didn't matter since she was just as dusty as it was—and got comfortable. This was going to be a long talk. "Explain. From the beginning."
His words were slow, measured, and if she didn't know him so well she might have missed the undercurrent of anger that ran beneath the story of Lord Thiele and his merry band of hangers on. Harder to understand was what made it so dire.
"So... they just want to see me and what—make sure I'm the real deal?" It might be a pain in the ass with time so short, but not unthinkable. "I can do that. Probably. I might need some coaching or something so I don't start a war accidentally or something. I don't really know the culture and all that—"
"No," Virgil snapped. "You will stay as far away from them as you possibly can. I would have had you immediately sequestered in your rooms if I didn't know you would argue and make that exact face. These people are petty and pretty mannered and they will talk you into giving away your very soul if you aren't careful. There are a dozen tales of nobles descended from the ageless folk that bargained for just such a thing and as the years pass I find myself having less and less trouble believing the stories may be true."
"Wait. Are you talking about elves?"
Virgil went on as if he hadn't heard the question. "If Thiele is here it has nothing to do with respect or piety. He's here to win something, whether it be your favor or something far worse." Virgil paused to run a hand over his eyes. She hadn't realized before how weary he looked too.
"You look ready to fall over. Maybe you should sit down. Or take a nap or something. Did you even sleep last night?"
"I'm fine. I will sleep when things are in hand once more. This must be dealt with immediately. The sooner we're rid of of Thiele and the rest, the happier I will be. They mustn't find out about Cylian. He still has many enemies. He's tolerated because he carries the blood, but not beloved. His reputation would not protect him if the curse were to be discovered." He turned suddenly, looking around the room as if there were enemies stashed in the dust and cobwebs.
"I'll get what you need to save Cylian. We'll figure it out."
He nodded, but the tension didn't leave his stance. "I know and I trust you to do as you say. But still, stay away from them."
"You said they won't go away until they see me."
"I'll think of some way to avoid it. I've done it before."
Ari leaned her head back against the wall and looked up. The room was lit by a series of witchlights clustered into a sort of chandelier. It resembled a smaller version of the grand chandelier in the main hall. She wondered how much magic it took to power all the lights int he castle. Did they sustain themselves somehow or did they have magical lamplighters to come through and tend them all? There was still so much she didn't know about this place.
"I'll meet them before I have to go," she said without looking back at Virgil. She was probably going to regret the offer, but at least they could regret it together. Her stomach was already curling in on itself with anxiety. "Somewhere that we can do it quickly and they can't cause a scene. Then you can kick them out. They said they just wanted to see me, they didn't say for how long, right? Will that... work? Say something. I don't know what that face means."
"It means that you have given me an idea."
Somehow that scared her more than meeting a pack of rabid nobles.