"Gently now. Just enough so he can drink." The king uncorked the vial and poured the liquid into the scribe's mouth.
Whitman choked on the thick potion at first, but it didn't take much coaxing to get him to swallow the rest of the healing magic.
The partially dried scabs on the beaten man's face faded, and he gagged a bit as he sputtered back to consciousness.
"No! No! Please stop!" Whitman flailed on the ground, startled, then he calmed himself as he seemed to find recognition in the faces of the king and Captain Kaden.
"What…? Where…?"
"Whitman, you're safe now."
The scribe let out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank the gods. Each and every one of them."
Captain Kaden laid Whitman back down on the grass, letting him recline.
"What happened?" demanded the king. "Who did this to you?"
"The-the Matron." He coughed hard between the words, spitting up phlegm laced with blood. "They took me from-from my bed. Her henchmen-they beat me."
"They took you from your bed? They abducted you from inside the palace? How could that happen?" Korox looked back at Kaden.
The captain shrugged. "We've tripled the patrols, and all the entrances are warded against intrusion."
Whitman nodded. "I don't know how-how they got in. The last thing I remember was being awakened from sleep. There were four men. They held me down. I was gagged and taken from the palace, down to the docks. They took me into a dark room. And they-they beat me. Told me to deliver a message to you."
The king handed his scribe the piece of vellum. "You mean this?"
Whitman looked at the scribbled words. "Yes-" His coughing fit this time was much longer, and he nearly choked.
The king and Captain Kaden tried to lift him back to sitting, but he waved them off, regaining his composure. "There's more."
"More?" said Kaden. "Did they tell you where the princess is?
"No. But they do have her." Whitman felt his bruised face, poking at his mostly closed-over right eye. "The Matron told me to tell the king that if he turns the Claw over to her, not only will Princess Mariko be returned, but the underworld will also summon all of its mages to help the king fight the Obsidian Ridge." He looked up at King Korox with his one good eye. "She said if you give her the Claw, then you will have your daughter and an alliance that will give you all the mages you need to fight Arch Magus Xeries."
Korox flinched and pulled away from Whitman. "So she knows of our plan to fight Xeries. How could she know about the convocation of mages?"
Whitman looked to the ground and shook his head. "I do not know. But she knew, and she wanted you to know that. That's why I was beaten." The scribe began to sob.
The king put his hand on the man's shoulder. He felt a pang of guilt. For Korox, this was the worst part of being the king-knowing that sometimes other people were hurt on his behalf.
"She's got Mariko." The king closed his eyes and shook his head. He hadn't thought it could get any worse. But it had. He turned to Kaden. "If the Matron can abduct a member of my court from his bed and knows of plans we've only just talked about, then surely she has more reach into the palace than we had thought."
Korox tried to wrap his brain around Whitman's story. The pieces just didn't add up. If four men could get into and out of the palace without getting spotted, then why didn't they just come for him? If the Matron had that much reach, then why abduct a junior member of the court? Only then to return the man at some time later, beaten to a pulp, with a ransom note and an offering to help?
"Does she want to scare me?" The king was thinking out loud. "Let me know she can get to me anytime she wants? If that's the case, then why offer an alliance?"
And how could she know about his plans to fight Xeries? Outside of himself, only Kaden, Quinn, and Senator Divian were aware of his thinking on the matter. The idea was Divian's, and he'd known her too long to think she was the one who would jeopardize the plan by revealing it to the underworld. Kaden and Quinn were the two men the king most trusted, leaving his own life in their hands on a daily basis. If either one of them turned out to be a spy for the underworld, then everyone in the entire palace was suspect. Was there no one he could trust?
Then it hit him. There was someone else who knew of that conversation, someone else who could have told the Matron their plans.
That someone was Whitman.
The king looked to the Magistrate who had brought him the healing potion. "Soldier, I want you to go to the front gate of the palace. Ask the guard there for an accounting of all persons who entered or left the palace last night and early this morning."
"Yes, my lord," replied the Magistrate, and he hurried off.
The king nodded to two other soldiers. "You two, take hold of this man."
Without hesitation the Magistrates grabbed hold of Whitman, pinning him down.
"What… what are you-?" stuttered the scribe.
Korox stood in front of Whitman, his shadow looming large over the prone man. "Anything you want to tell me before that solider returns?"
Whitman's eyes grew wide. "My lord, what… whatever do you mean?"
Korox could feel his anger rising. "Don't play me for the fool, Whitman."
"My lord, I would never-"
"When that Magistrate returns," continued the king, "I suspect he's going to have an accounting of you leaving the palace last night-not gagged and carried by four men, but under your own power."
Whitman looked up at the king, swallowing hard.
Korox reached for the hilt of his sword. It wasn't there, and he realized he'd taken it out while he was sparring with Kaden.
"If you're lying to me, Whitman," he growled, "if you're helping the underworld in any part of this, so help me, I'll beat you with my bare hands."
The doors on all the barracks burst open, and Magistrates poured out. Apparently alarmed by the sound of the king's raised voice, they arrived in various states of dress, all of them carrying weapons.
Seeing nearly a unit of the King's Magistrates appear as if from nowhere must have scared the scribe, because his eyes grew wide and he started to thrash around-a desperate, guilty man making one last attempt at freedom.
Korox leaned over, his face nearly touching Whitmans, his fists already in balls. "Did you tell the Matron about the mages' convocation?"
The beaten man burst into tears, and he curled up into a ball, defending himself against a coming blow. "It was me. Please don't hurt me. I can't take anymore. I admit it. I told the Matron about the plans to defeat Xeries. I've been working with her all along. Please. Please. Just don't hurt me."
King Korox Morkann spun around with his right fist, catching the scribe squarely on the jaw, knocking a pair of teeth out of the man's mouth with his powerful blow.
"Where-"
He swung again, his massive frame blocking out the morning sun, and burying Whitman in the king's shadow. The scribe's head flopped around on his neck like the chained ball of a flail.
"Is-"
Another blow.
"My-"
And then a fourth. "Daughter!"
With this final impact, Whitman's body began to convulse. Blood oozed from his nose and mouth. His eyes rolled around in his head, hardly able to focus.
Korox wound up for another strike, but Captain Kaden caught his arm.
"My lord!" pleaded the leader of the Magistrates. "Let him speak."
Whitman could hardly move his lips, so badly beaten was he. Drooling blood and mucus, his eyes now both swollen shut, the scribe ran his hand across his mouth, clearing out another broken tooth.
"She's… she's in the Cellar."
King Korox's heart froze, and his stomach knotted. "The Cellar."
Without a word, he turned and headed back to the palace.
"My lord!" shouted Captain Kaden. "What do you want us to do with Whitman?"