“Why would he leave?” she demanded. “Why take this object away from here after all he has done to hide it and whatever he has been doing with it?”
“I don’t know,” Wynn answered honestly. “But if you want to help him—and stop all of this—you must get us through the front gates.”
At that the duchess turned halfway and looked to Nikolas right behind her. Perhaps she wondered what he had to do with all of this, though he wouldn’t have much to tell. It seemed to take effort for Nikolas to even meet Sherie’s eyes, and when he finally did so, he simply nodded to her.
“This way,” the duchess commanded, walking forward to take the lead.
Chane, thinking that he—and Osha—should take a chance and head for the stable, began to doubt his choice to wait.
“Chane?”
At that whisper, both he and Osha turned to find Wynn and Shade hurrying toward them, along with Nikolas, the elder sage, and the duchess in the lead.
“Why aren’t you out there?” Wynn asked. “Are the horses harnessed?”
Chane shook his head. “The guards outside are agitated by what has happened. I thought it best to wait for Lady Sherie.”
“Where is Aupsha?” Jausiff asked, pushing in closer.
“Gone,” Osha answered.
“Gone?” the elderly sage repeated in shock.
“Step aside,” the duchess ordered, advancing immediately.
Chane did so. She passed him without slowing and pulled open one of the front doors. She did not pause as she strode out in the courtyard and straight toward the gates.
“Get to the horses,” Wynn urged as she passed him in following the duchess. “Osha, go and help him.”
Neither of them hesitated as the others followed Wynn.
Chane quick-stepped with Osha on his heels as they aimed straight for the wagon. When they reached it, Osha jumped up before the bench, and, as Chane was about to go into the stable for the horses, he paused, looking up at the elf.
“If the duchess cannot convince the guards, can you put down the one atop the wall before we near the gate?” Chane asked.
Osha finished untying the reins from the brake lever and straightened. At his simple shrug, his strung bow dropped off his shoulder, and he caught it without even looking.
“Not one,” he answered. “All three.”
Chane, not interested in the elf’s bravado, rolled his eyes as he turned at a trot for the stable doors.
Wynn stayed close behind Nikolas as they followed Sherie, and Shade remained at her right, while Jausiff came along a little wide on her left.
“How does your device work?” she asked.
He glanced sidelong at her and then held up his hand, still gripping the small metal object.
“Simply hold it once it is active, as now,” he answered. “It produces a ... a pull in a general direction.”
Wynn couldn’t hold back one more question. “Was Aupsha the one who carried your messages to Calm Seatt?”
“This is hardly the time—”
“Did she?” Wynn insisted, for there might not be another time.
“Yes,” he admitted. “She possesses certain ... abilities and was able to escape the keep. No one knew she was gone, because she and I were believed to be locked away in a self-imposed quarantine.”
Wynn glanced ahead. Sherie had almost reached Captain Holland, who stood waiting, his troubled gaze on only her.
“Did Aupsha have the device with her?” Wynn rushed to ask.
“Certainly,” Jausiff answered. “How else would I have it now?”
Wynn ignored that, for this all told her something more, at a guess. The key piece, the device ... the “compass” was the only way anyone could have tracked the orb hidden away with the Stonewalkers. Both messenger and would-be thief were one and the same somehow, though this didn’t explain how Aupsha had traveled from Calm Seatt to the dwarven underworld in one night.
She must have been so confused, probably thinking the orb of Spirit had been moved to Dhredze Seatt on the peninsula. Only when a blank wall of rough stone had stopped her had she fled back here, realizing the orb she was after was still in the keep.
And yet she now knew where another orb lay hidden. Worse than this, that bit of severed, ruddy metal in Jausiff’s hand left Wynn wondering.
Could any key be used to track any of the orbs? And, again, how had the orb of Spirit been located among Aupsha’s people and then stolen?
“Captain Holland, open the gates,” the duchess ordered.
All of Wynn’s fearful speculations ended—and then shifted—when the captain didn’t move.
“My lady,” he said. “Do you know where the duke has gone?”
“My brother has run off with what is left of the treasury,” Sherie returned. “There isn’t even enough left to pay the guards or servants. I am in charge while my brother is absent, so why are you questioning me?”
Wynn wondered whether this was a ruse, or if the duke had also stolen money from the keep.
“The treasury?” Holland asked, incredulous. “Do you wish me to go after him?”
“No. I’m sending others instead.”
The duchess said nothing more and stood there staring at him.
The captain, a hardened soldier probably bent to the breaking point with all that had happened in the past day and night, merely stared back a moment longer. But it seemed he would still obey the duchess, for he looked to the other guard nearby and nodded. The two of them began sliding the heavy iron bolts out to separate the gates.
Wynn kept silent until she heard rolling wheels and clopping horses behind her. Chane and Osha had the wagon in motion.
“Give me the device,” Wynn whispered to Jausiff.
He glanced down in surprise. “No. I am coming with you.”
“So am I,” Nikolas added.
“You can’t, either of you,” Wynn countered. “Neither can Lady Sherie ... not for an assault on the duke! If this fails, someone will have to speak for us, so none of you can be involved.”
Before anyone could argue further, Wynn held out her hand to Jausiff.
The master sage scowled and slowly held out the device. “Do not lose hold of it,” he warned, “for once it has been activated, it must remain in contact with your skin, or it will cease to function until reactivated.”
That didn’t sit well with Wynn. There might come a moment when she would have to let go of it, if events took an even worse turn. As Jausiff placed the ruddy metal in her hand, she closed her fingers around it.
“I’m coming,” Nikolas then argued again. “Karl is my friend, and I’m going to help him. He’ll listen to me before any of you.”
Wynn shook her head. “Whatever the duke has been doing with that artifact, he isn’t the man you knew anymore. Look after your father and the duchess, and leave Karl to us. Do not leave the keep until you hear from me.”
Nikolas, almost looking at Sherie, barely turned his head and didn’t say another word.
Wynn knew he would stay, and judging by the silence behind her, she knew the wagon was close. She turned to find Chane up on the bench with his long dwarven-made sword unsheathed beside him. Osha stood in the back with his bow in hand and the quiver of black-feathered arrows rising above his right shoulder. Wynn was thankful that a show of force was unnecessary as she scrambled into the back with Osha, and Shade loped out ahead through the open gates.
Chane was about to flick the reins.
“Bring my brother back,” the duchess said, looking right at him.
No matter the role he had played in this place as bodyguard to Wynn, perhaps she recognized another noble when she saw one and tried to appeal to his honor.