“Probably because they didn’t know which; it was going to be a matter of opportunity,” the King said, face impassive. “But now?”
“As you must have expected, Your Highness, they are going to use the Kirball Festival, and the crowds and the confusion . . .”
Nikolas groaned. “There’s no hope for it. I can’t allow her to be used as a tool to manipulate me. We’ll have to find somewhere to send her—“
“Niko, where would that be, exactly?” the King interrupted sharply. “The first lot were bad enough, and one of them nearly murdered a stableful of Companions, but these—there doesn’t seem to be anything that will stop them. And it isn’t Amily that they’re after—not really—they have some broader agenda that begins with breaking you. And we don’t know what that agenda is. We don’t even know who they are or where they’re from!”
Mags was furious, a swirling, seething anger that washed over everything for the moment, since its real target was out of reach. It erupted into a torrent of pure emotion that left no room for the tiniest of thought, turning him into a fireball of rage and hate.
A fireball that burned out as quickly as it had erupted, as his chin hit the hard surface of the table and he came abruptly back to himself.
He was shaking, shaking with reaction and with weakness and, a little, with cold. His head felt fit to burst. Pain throbbed behind his eyes; his mouth was as dry as a handful of sand.
And he truly, deeply, wanted to kill someone.
::Mags?:: Dallen whispered.
::Aye. ’Tis all right.:: Well, now the mystery was solved. He knew why the Healing had been canceled. And he thought... maybe . . .
One of the images he’d gotten from the Agents was of a keystone pulled from an arch, and he thought he knew now what it was they were here to do. Amily was just the keystone. They had correctly identified the weakest—and yet, the strongest—spot in the grand construction that was the Kingdom of Valdemar.
The King’s Own.
Take the daughter of the King’s Own, and the King’s Own crumbles. The King is without his prime support, and confidence in the Heralds is eroded Kingdomwide—after all, if the Heralds couldn’t protect Amily, who could they protect?
Opportunistic outsiders take advantage of that uncertainty, and with the right strikes at the right time, the entire Kingdom falls apart.
He sensed Dallen’s shock.
::Well, that’s how it’d look t’outsider, ye ken,:: he said grimly. ::But they don’ know Heralds.::
With shaking hands, he pushed himself up and away from the table.
::I’m gonna go hev me a liddle talk wi’ King’s Own.::
Chapter 14
Mags was still shaking with fatigue when Nikolas entered his own rooms to find him, Amily, and Bear there, waiting. It had taken some strong potions from Bear and what seemed like a bucket of salted honey-water, but at least his head wasn’t splitting, and he could think clearly. Bear had asked to come along when he talked to Amily; he welcomed the support.
Nikolas already looked shaken as he entered his rooms; when he saw the three of them together, his face went white.
“We know,” Amily said, calmly. “We know everything. Mags told us about your meeting.”
Nikolas’s gaze flashed to Mags, and there was a moment of recognition on his face. So, interesting. Nikolas had sensed that Mags was in the room a few candlemarks ago—had the King?
Probably.
Nikolas cleared his throat carefully. “Then you know—”
“That I am not moving one inch from the Hill,” she interrupted. “I’m just the lever to overset you. They know if they kill you, someone else will be Chosen as King’s Own within a week. So what they want to do is weaken you—or better still, break you.“
“Of course,” Nikolas said harshly. “That’s obvious. And when the news got out that my own daughter had been—” He shook his head. “People would say, if the Heralds can’t keep one girl safe on the Hill, why should we trust their judgement, their ability, anywhere else? Pressure from within, pressure from without, the Heralds start to fall apart. From there it’s only a matter of time before the Kingdom falls apart, divides into little warring factions. That’s why I have to get you away from here, you have to go into hiding. Right out of the Kingdom if—”
“No,” Amily and Mags said together. He took her hand in his.
“Thet ain’t gonna do it,” he said. “I went huntin’ fer these critters t’night. Ye send ’er away, they’ll hev ’er afore she’s halfway t’next city. They’re more’n good, sir, there better’n anythin’ ye’ve ever seen at what they do. They jest don’ stop till they git what they want, an’ they don’ let nothin’ stand i’ their way.” He tried not to sound as if he were accusing Nikolas but he wasn’t sure if he managed it. “Admit it; ye knew th’ moment I tol’ ye ’bout the spies up here thet I was right.”
Nikolas flushed a little. “You were right. The Foreseers had already gotten that much the first time. I’m sorry, all of you, sorry I was not allowed to tell you.”
Mags nodded a brief acknowledgement of the apology. “So ye wanta send Amily away—well, there’s people spyin’ fer ’em, planted right up ’ere. So they’ll know yer sendin’ ’er away. Mebbe they won’t know when she leaves, mebbe they won’ even know tha’s what yer gonna do, but they’ll know soon’s she’s gone, an’ they’ll find ’er. It ain’t gonna work. They’ll track ’er down. Ain’t no way ye kin keep ’em from findin’ ’er.”
“You should have told us what was going on in the first place, Father,” Amily continued, as Nikolas looked as if he wanted to dig a hole right there and stuff his daughter into it to keep her safe. “It wasn’t right. And if you’d told us, we could have been thinking of ways to catch these men all this time.”
“ ’Idin’ ’er ’ere i’ th’ Palace, an’ startin’ a rumor she bin sent off ain’t gonna work, neither,” Mags pointed out, divining the next turn Nikolas’s thoughts would take. “ ’Ow’s thet gonna help Amily, by makin’ ’er a prisoner? ’Sides, s’pose ye kin keep ’er safe i’ dungeon, say, wi’ a mort’a Guards; these bastiches ain’t stupid, they’ll swap t’ some other target. An’ ye won’t know who ’tis.”
“I want some say in this,” Amily said, her voice shaking. “This is my life we’re talking about. I don’t want to spend it locked up like a prisoner, or watching over my shoulder in some strange place I’ve never heard of. In fact, I don’t want other people making decisions for me anymore. Not even you, Father. Not even you.”
Mags squeezed her hand. She squeezed back. Mind you, he hated this. But he couldn’t deny her this, either. Guarding her back was one thing. Protecting her like a child did no one any good.
“You said yourself that you know what all this is about. Well, the way to stop it is to stop them cold right at the beginning of their plan. Thanks to the Foreseers, we know what they’re going to do. So we let them. Or we let them try, anyway.” She raised her chin and looked her father square in the eye. “You are not the only one in this family that is willing to risk everything for Valdemar.”