"Where's Genevie?" shouted the king.
Everyone in the room came to a halt. The sudden appearance of a shouting king flustered them, and they tried with only varying degrees of success to follow courtly protocol. Several bowed. One man stumbled over a stool, seemingly blown backward by the sheer force of the king's words. But none of them answered his question.
"The princess's handmaiden!" shouted the king. "Have any of you seen her?"
Silence.
"Does anyone in this palace still have a tongue?" The king was growing more and more furious, his cheeks and forehead turning bright red. "Answer me." He took a menacing step toward the nearest palace guard.
"I… I haven't seen her, my lord." The guard dropped his eyes to the ground, cringing as if he might be struck.
"Has anyone seen her? Where is she?"
Everyone in the room shook their heads. No one knew.
The king flew back out into the hall to Genevie's bed chamber. Not bothering to stop, King Korox kicked the door in with the heel of his boot, drawing his sword as he crossed the threshold.
Quinn had never seen Korox pull his blade inside the palace. His heart pounding in his chest, the king's bodyguard quickly drew his own sword and bolted through the ruined door.
Unlike the princess's chamber, this room had no windows. There were no torches or candles lit, and the only light came in from the hallway. Leaping over a table, Quinn landed on the floor in front of the king, his blade out, ready for whatever it was that had caused the king to pull his sword.
But there was nothing. Genevie was not there, and the room appeared to have been unused for some time.
Chapter Ten
A full day had gone by, and no sign of the princess or her handmaiden. The king was beside himself. Mariko had never been missing for this long. She had spied on many of Erlkazar's most dangerous criminals, and the king knew of the potential danger when he sent her out. He worried about her each and every time he did so, but she was cautious, and every time before she had come back.
This time, however, he feared his daughter had been betrayed. The news from Vasser had been inconclusive, but with Mariko missing, he had nothing else to go on. For now there was little more he could do. He had teams scouring Llorbauth for his daughter. He had sent missives to his brother-in-law, Lord Purdun, and to each of the other barons, asking for their help in locating the missing princess and the handmaiden. He had even tripled the patrols around the palace. Outside of going to search for her himself, all he could do was wait for news.
In the meantime, he still had the Obsidian Ridge and a potential evacuation of Llorbauth to deal with.
"Lady Herrin to see King Korox Morkann," announced Whitman.
"As if I needed a reminder," he said under his breath. Lady Herrin, her clothing adorned with hundreds of tiny golden coins, jingled as she entered the audience chamber.
Her bodyguards, more heavily armed than Quinn, clanked along behind her.
Approaching the dais, she took one look at Whitman, smirked, then bowed to the king.
"Lady Herrin," said the king, "to what do we owe today's visit?
"My lord," replied the merchant, "I came as soon as I got word of your daughter's disappearance. Have you found her? Is she safely back in the palace?"
The king was caught off guard by the old woman's concern for his family. "That is very kind of you to ask, Lady Herrin." He smiled at her, feeling a sudden new warmth for someone who before today had been nothing but a pain in his side. "But I'm afraid the princess is still missing. I cannot tell you how difficult it has been for me-"
"Well what are you going to do about that black fortress floating over Llorbauth? Everyone is afraid to leave their homes. And all this talk of evacuating the city to Five Spears Hold is killing my business. If you cannot find your daughter, then how will you turn her over to this Magus Xeries?"
The king was stunned silent.
"Well?" the old merchant bellowed. "I expect an answer. You can't just sit here while the rest of us go broke. You have a responsibility-"
Lifting himself slowly to his feet, the king reached his full height before speaking. "Get out of my chambers, before I have you thrown in the dungeon!" He pointed to the doors, speaking this last word through gritted teeth. He came down two steps, drawing closer to Lady Herrin. "Your words and actions are a thinly veiled attempt to undermine me-and I will not tolerate it." He took another step, coming up to the merchant's face, looking her right in the eye. "I am the King of Erlkazar, and you will respect my authority, or you will face the consequences. Have I made myself clear?"
Lady Herrin stumbled back a step, and her bodyguards pulled their swords.
The entire room erupted in the sound of metal grinding on metal as Quinn and forty Magistrates drew steel and converged on the armed men. In moments Lady Herrin's men had been disarmed and slammed to the floor, held to the ground by their necks, surrounded by the points of more than three dozen blades.
King Korox continued, seemingly unfazed by the commotion. "How dare you come into my house and make demands of me during this time of crisis. How dare you weigh the loss of your profits on the same scale as the life of my daughter."
Lady Herrin stood before the king with a look of offended horror on her face. Korox scowled back at her.
"Get out," spat Korox, "or you will have much more than floating citadels and slumping sales to worry about.",
With that, the king turned, walked up the dais, and sat down on his throne.
"Good day, Lady Herrin." He nodded at Quinn. "Let them up."
Quinn pulled back and ordered the other men to step away from the downed bodyguards. The Magistrates gave the merchant and her entourage a wide berth, but they kept their swords drawn.
Lady Herrin, her lip curled up in disgust, continued to glare at the king. "You will not get away with speaking to me like that, Korox. This is not over. You will be sorry."
"Confiscate their weapons and escort them to the gate," ordered the king. "Inform the guards that they are not allowed back into the palace without a personal summons from me or Senator Divian." The king paused. "And be quick about it. We have real business to attend to."
Jingling as she spun, the old merchant and her bodyguards were physically removed from the audience chamber by a host of Magistrates.
Quinn placed his sword back in its scabbard and approached the throne.
"Are you all right, my lord?"
King Korox put his head in his hands and let out a large sigh. "No, Quinn," he said. "I do not think I am."
"Well, for what it's worth, the men have had a bet going for some time."
The king looked up. "A bet? What does that have to do with anything?"
Quinn smiled. "They've been wagering how long it would take you to have that old bag hauled out of here."
The king chuckled. "Who won?"
"No one," replied the bodyguard, his smile growing wider. "We all thought you'd have done it ages ago."
Just then the doors to the throne room burst open again, and Captain Kaden came marching in.
The king stood, unable to contain himself. "Captain, what news of the princess?"
Kaden approached the throne, dropped to one knee, and bowed his head. "I'm sorry, my king, I have not been able to locate her."
The king slumped back down. His wife had died only a few tendays after he had taken the throne. He would never get used to his life without her. The only comfort he had been able to find was that he still had his daughter. Mariko was all he had left, and now she too had been taken from him.
It wasn't fair. He was the king. There were so many things he could control. But the disease that had taken his wife was not one of them. And now the princess was missing, and he didn't know where to look or even for sure who to blame. What good was being the Warrior King if he didn't have an enemy to fight?